I rise in support of House Concurrent Resolution 100 and to express my admiration and support for the heroic Chmykhalov and Vashchenko families as they struggle to escape religious persecution. The story of these families efforts to win religious freedom. and of the Soviet authorities efforts to deny that freedom. is now 20 years old. It was 1962 when Peter Vashchenko. on behalf of his family and the Chmykhalovs. became convinced that the Soviets would never allow the free exercise of his Pentecostal faith and traveled to Moscow from his home in Siberia to look into proper emigration procedures. He was rewarded for his effort with a 2year prison sentence. followed by repeated harassments including a second imprisonment. several months in a psychiatric hospital. 2 years in a labor camp. and similar treatment for his family. It was June 1978 when the two families finally. and against the opposition of the KGB. gained entrance to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. For almost 4 years since then. denied permission to emigrate to the United States and denied freedom to practice their religion in the Soviet Union. the Chmykhalovs and the Vashchenkos have stayed in the basement of the American Embassy. I want to commend the gentleman from Massachusetts for his leadership in introducing this resolution. There is nothing more basic to the American experience than the issue of religious freedom and religious pluralism.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration