Thousands of other Soviet Jews whose names are not widely known in the West have endured suffering and grief because of their devotion to their faith and their desire to be free. Sadly. several other minority groups in addition to the Jews have endured violations of their basic human rights by the Soviet authorities. The nearly 2 million Soviet citizens of German origin. for example. have been subjected to officially sanctioned discrimination and to sharp restrictions on their right to emigrate. According to reports from West Germany. at least 100.000 Germans have applied to leave the Soviet Union and there may be as many as 300.000 who would like to do so. But most of them have been denied the right to depart. and the number allowed to leave is declining. Soviet German emigration peaked at 9.704 in 1976. By 1982 it had fallen to 2.080. Many of the Soviet Unions 4.2 million Armenians have also sought to emigrate. Their story is a sad and a familiar one. Relatively few have been allowed to leave. By 1982. the number had fallen to 330 from a peak of just over 6.100 in 1980. Soviet Pentacostal Christians. who are said to number between 100.000 and 200.000. have also tried to depart. The "Siberian Seven" group. consisting of the Vashchenko and Chmykhalova families. became a symbol of the Pentacostal desire to emigrate when it took refuge in the American Embassy in Moscow in 1978. The group was finally allowed to leave in 1983. but only a few other Pentacostal families have been permitted to emigrate. Perhaps the most prominent Soviet victim of official repression and harassment in recent years is Nobel Laureate Dr. Andrei Sakharov. a courageous champion of human rights and one of the worlds most eminent physicists.
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emigrate emigration