A few days remained until the begining of the year 1982. the year when. as we hoped. all of our wishes would come true. Alas. this time too a happy end proved to be no more than a mirage. During the first days of the new year we payed a visit to the OVIR in order to find out for certain just how facile emigration was in Tbilisi. But there the inspector informed us with a rueful smile that everything had changed for the worse now. that since the beginning of the new year emigration was to proceed from here just as it did from Kievwith the stipulation that the most stringent ban on emigration be applied to those applicants who had just moved in from other citieslest others take it as a precedent. As the old Russian ballad goes. "Our song is fine. start all over." All over the petition for emigration. all over the refusal. all over innumerable complaints and applications. and repeated refusals. Now the second stage of our attack is taking placethe Battle of the Caucasus. so to speak. For the time being we are losing. but we are not retreating.
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emigration