Petrov was then barred from leaving on grounds he had access to state secrets. In the summer of 1982. Petrov undertook a 51day hunger strike. in which he lost 52 pounds. in a futile effort to get an exit visa. Several other Soviet hunger strikers were allowed to emigrate to the United States and France that summer. Imagine. if you will. the kind of Soviet dictatorship we are negotiating with where a young man. simply trying to leave to be with his wife. simply trying to leave to see someone that he has not been allowed to see for 4 years. not trying to undermine the Soviet state. simply trying to find human happiness. the romanticism that we in the West take for granted. He writes a letter to the President of the United States. a President. who aifter all. is going to meet with his dictator.
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