Today. I rise to remind my colleagues of the plight of several courageous individuals in a country where free expression is almost unheard of. the Soviet Union. These individuals. in expressing themselves. hardly set the stage to topple the repressive Soviet regime. but simply requested visas to emigrate. an action considered by Russian authorities to be a contravention of official policy. The Breilovsky family. Irina. Viktor. and their two children have been trying to leave the Soviet Union for several CXXVI587.-Part 7 years. I have been monitoring their efforts for 4 years as part of the congressional effort on behalf of refuseniks and am sad to report that they are no closer to a visa now than when I first became interested in their situation. Irina Breilovsky has been repeatedly refused a visa on the basis of the Soviet catch22 regulation of "knowledge of state secrets." Before application for her visa. she was a mathematician working in an area that had little or no relevance to state security. The Breilovskys son. Leonid. now approaching draft age. will be barred from leaving the U.S.S.R. forever once he is inducted into the armed services. Anyone in the military in the Soviet Union. even the lowest ranking infantryman is considered privy to "state secrets." Should Leonid be drafted. he would suffer the same fate as his mother. When the Breilovskys applied for exit visas. both were fired from their jobs the following day. This tragic turn of events did not deter the Breilovskys courage. As a physicist.
Keywords matched
emigrate visas visa