Leib Khnokh was 1 of 11 defendants in what has become known as the First Leningrad Trial of December 1970. Khnokh was charged with "antiSoviet agitation and propaganda. participation in an antiSoviet organization. and betrayal of the fatherland." It would seem. however. that Leib Khnokhs real crime was his desire to leave the U.S.S.R. After his repeated applications for an exit visa were denied. Khnokh began to appeal in writing to both Soviet and Western officials protesting what he justly believed to be violations of his basic human rights. Those appeals to the West and Khnokhs refusal to submit to the will of the Soviet authorities helped to bring on his arrest and subsequent imprisonment.