I dont have to tell anyone In this room the foreboding that we all felt upon hearing first news of the hard liners apparently successful coup in the early hours of August 19. All the progress that we had made. working together with the reformminded Gorbachev government. to reduce superpower tensions. return from the brink of nuclear war. and build confidence between our two nations was threatened with reversal. One of my Immediate conrnems was the fate of Soviet Jews. who for so long persecuted and held hostage In their own country. had benefited from liberalized emigration policies. Would the apparatchiks who had seized control slow or reverse this emigration? Instead. from the depths of Soviet society. the people made their voices heard. Manning the barricades to a man. they risked their lives to protect and defend the freedom they had only begun to taste. Three of them. tragically. lost their lives In their attempt to halt a Red army tank. One. a Soviet Jew named Ilay KrIchevsky. had already procured an exit visa to Israel. but nonetheless fought alongside his countrymen for freedom. Thankfully. they did not die In vain. Three days after it had begun. the nightmare had receded. the putsch was defeated. and democracy and freedom were triumphant.
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emigration visa