His release should be heralded as a wonderful accomplishment of all who have worked so hard to bring it about. particularly his wife Avital. However. we must not forget over 14.000 other refuseniks and prisoners of conscience currently in the Soviet Union. Immigration of Soviet Jews has slowed to a mere trickle since 1980. Although Soviet leaders have sought to explain this decline by suggesting that few Jews now seek to leave. the Israeli Government has over 375.000 requests from Soviet Jews for vyzov (affadavits) as the first step in the emigration process. As many as 14.000 refuseniks. that is people whose exit applications have been denied. currently live as internal refugees within the Soviet Union some for as many as 20 years. such as Beniamin Bogonolny who has the dubious distinction of being the worlds longest standing refusenik. Many of these prisoners of conscience remain in Soviet labor camps and prisons where they are often subject to especially harsh treatment. Vladikmir Lifshits. a Leningrad refusenik. was arrested shortly after the November Geneva summit meeting for the crime of writing about the Soviet Jewish situation to people in the West.
Keywords matched
Immigration emigration refugees