The Dissident Life
Lazaris, Vladimir
THE DISSIDENT LIFE PART I THE MAKING OF A DISSIDENT VLADIMIR LAZARIS The problem of dissidence in the Soviet Union has become one of the most popular in the world in recent years. Almost daily...
...Moreover they speak about the forbidden...
...You know yourselves that there are laws and they must be observed...
...I resigned ten years ago from a classified institution...
...But after the army they will certainly refuse permission to emigrate," Tolia tries to argue...
...A trip to a scholarly symposium in Poland falls through at the very last moment and someone else is sent instead...
...We have plans for the creation of a National Jewish Theater, but your entire approach to the problem does not reflect the genuine interest of persons of Jewish nationality, but forces one to think that this is a challenge and a provocation...
...We are Russians," they say, "We are Georgians . . . Armenians," but would they say "We are Soviets...
...As we have already made acquaintance, come as you are now," he jokes in the end and closes the door of his office...
...Veniamin Fain, like Tolia Shcharansky before, took a change of underwear and a few books with him in case of arrest...
...This, comrades, is a special question and it is not for us to decide it here," answers Ivanov firmly and with assurance...
...Almost all of them were fired from their jobs long ago or were restricted to the greatest extent possible at work, have been deprived of access to a professional sphere of activity, and are eking out a living by doing odd jobs...
...But this was seven years ago," replies the physician, "and I was a doctor, I sat in my office and gave powders and pills to the sick...
...We have no connections with Israel...
...Wait," interrupts the Deputy Minister, "first of all your names," and he nods to his assistant...
...This is done not only within the framework of Soviet legislation, but with a direct observance of the order of bodies and subordination...
...The crowd remains downstairs, in the reception room...
...you are in the public eye...
...he doesn't attend meetings and political propaganda sessions...
...While keeping Soviet passports, these people have ceased to be Soviet citizens, not only from the point of view of the authorities, who publicly accuse them of anti-Soviet activity, but also, more importantly, from their own point of view...
...Under the hail of questions, the Deputy Minister is unwillingly drawn into the conversation and begins to talk about a "special commission," "classified instructions," "numbered enterprises...
...I look at the other four and I see that they are just as tense as I am...
...asks Tolia Shcharansky at once...
...Goodbye...
...We speak about the Jewish theater, which had been and which exists no longer and here Popov interrupts: "This was a wonderful theater, and the actors were wonderful too...
...they must change their Weltanschauung and life's habits...
...You freeze outside the courthouse while awaiting the sentence passed on your comrade...
...They must be active, in the first place, in order to accelerate their departure...
...asks Slepak...
...Your name appeared fleetingly in a Western newspaper...
...And all of world Jewry stands behind us...
...As before they continue to be loyal to their state and do not contemplate anything harmful toward it...
...This is a stronghold of militarism and of Zionism and if you have decided to do this, this is your own business...
...Yes, three," confirms the Deputy Minister "and I give you my word of honor that your case will then be re-examined...
...Besides today this language cannot be learned any longer...
...consequently they confide in you...
...Fain speaks about the true aims of the symposium, about the lectures presented, about the importance of historical books for the Jewish people in Russian, because "at present in the USSR only a small percentage of Jews speaks Yiddish...
...But he tries to retain his calm...
...and he doesn't participate in elections to the Soviets of Workers' Deputies...
...Another excerpt appeared in the December 1979 issue of moment...
...Having been selected by the state, the "refuseniks" are forced into action and the years of refusal, as a rule, change their personalities fundamentally and make new people of them: they have to endure not only trials of danger, but also trials of glory...
...I turn to Chausov: "You have just said that this is difficult and expensive...
...All the conditions for cultural development have been created...
...It is not by accident that mathematicians and physicists comprise a majority of the dissidents: accustomed to orderly systems of assertion and proof and setting before themselves lofty and suprapersonal goals, they strive to comprehend the structure and system of mutual relations of citizens and state and to defend their ideals and hopes from violence...
...As for the permission from parents, this concerns Comrade Obidin...
...Popov does not even try to hide his confusion: "I did not know this...
...The refuseniks try to make the conversation concrete, but the Deputy Minister interrupts them...
...There are all sorts of secrets...
...There is one more aspect...
...Overt dissidents can now be counted on one's fingers...
...But they have already demoted you in your job and failed you in the competition...
...When will they let us go...
...Talk about your cases, Let each one speak about himself...
...As soon as a person has revealed himself, his "differentness" has become obvious and no further compromise is possible between him and the state...
...I saw "King Lear" three times...
...Come with us...
...Reception in the office of the Deputy Minister of Culture of the USSR, Vladimir Popov...
...Wait, wait," says Ivanov, "You know about this more than I do...
...the Deputy Minister turns to another refusenik...
...Why must one present in the OVIR permission from one's parents...
...You and I speak of different things...
...He knows in advance almost everything about these people, whose files have been lying in the safes of the Ministry of the Interior Affairs for many years...
...You travel with an eighty-year old woman to Vladimir Prison for a meeting with her arrested dissident son...
...Yes," answers Volodia Slepak, who is experienced in talks in the Ministry of Interior Affairs, "but we shall not talk about personal cases...
...I don't even know how all this began...
...The conversation is over, but we are very pleased and Begun, who was waiting for us downstairs, is also pleased...
...For instance, you," he turns to a young bearded physician, "why was permission denied to you...
...The wardrobe attendant is politeness itself and, near us, are three escorts...
...The situation of the "refuseniks" illustrates this idea most understandably and convincingly...
...The very fact of being received is an achievement for a movement, which is taken into account...
...You sit without money and your wife curses you...
...But you are deprived of Soviet citizenship according to the law...
...But out of these 700 we pay 500 Rubles for renouncing Soviet citizenship," I say, looking straight into Ivanov's face, "and this is done automatically...
...And there you are, for the first time in your life, sitting at a table with a real foreign correspondent and trying to explain to him in your English what they've done to you...
...It is safer together...
...This is not possible for the dissidents, it is possible for the Jews...
...Popov does not like this conversation: "All right, we shall study this problem...
...Soviet Jews have become a foreign currency, a gold reserve of the State, its movable property, which can be profitably sold or not sold, kept until better times...
...March of 1976...
...You are up on their news and express your attitude toward searches, arrests, and sentences...
...for them it's opposition to the regime...
...But you know, Comrades, in the pre-war years it was no longer as well attended as before...
...No," says Obidin, "their consent is not obligatory...
...You speak about the contribution of Jews into Russian, Soviet culture, but we speak about the development of our own Jewish culture...
...However Popov points to him and says: "First of all, your names, please...
...Ivanov laughs and spreads his hands...
...journalist, poet, translator, lecturer, is a lawyer and former editor of the Samizdat (underground) magazine in the USSR...
...At this stage they do not regard their reflections as apostasy...
...These hundreds and thousands of people must, of course, be meeting somewhere, organizing demonstrations, and pointing their programs and appeals...
...On the outside everything seems logical and seemly: Those who, for unknown or incomprehensible reasons, are refused permission to go to Israel ask the Minister of Interior Affairs to receive them for a talk...
...I tell you that the consent is not obligatory...
...Oh yes, Gelman...
...Of great importance is also the fact that Jewish emigration from the USSR has become an element not only of political relations with the West, but also of trade relations...
...however, the guards were told about five people only and he, a sixth one, is not admitted...
...The Deputy Minister falls back with relief: "Ah, in aviation units...
...In some instances the authorities simply pretend that no dissidents exist and it would really be strange to suppose that anyone would talk with A. D. Sakharov in the Central Committee or in the Ministry of Interior on his initiative, and it would be even more strange to suppose that they would accept him as a representative of dissidents...
...These officials know precisely that we come in connection with our own, Jewish business...
...And what about the calls-up into the army...
...The familiar ritual begins: please give your names...
...And what about their consent, their consent to the emigration of their children...
...Well, you can make the task easier for yourselves and not organize a Jewish theater so far away, where there are almost no Jews, but open one here, in Moscow...
...He then informs us that there has now been a considerable change in the estimates for departure and that now the visa would cost us not 800, but 700 Rubles, in accordance with the Helsinki agreement...
...This means their business is state business...
...The Minister of Interior Affairs will examine your petitions and you will be informed of the results...
...We would like to know," again begins one of the refuseniks, "by what laws emigration from the USSR is regulated...
...But Ivanov looks at his watch and lets us understand that the audience is over...
...With Jews things are different...
...We know about your symposium and we have received your programs...
...The latter quickly runs up to the Jews and writes down their names one by one and then gives the list to his superior...
...One can remain a Jew even when using the Russian language...
...Others have been forced to do this precisely by the impossibility of compromise and the impossibility of choosing another path...
...They are far from even the thought of rebellion or protest...
...How do they appear...
...They are simply following the path of professional researchers...
...Having created an imposing group of "refuseniks," the state itself is establishing for them a defined status and approximately identical conditions of life...
...The Deputy Minister looks at the list for several minutes, then he takes off his glasses...
...Perhaps you will have to wait another year, and perhaps 10 years...
...The authorities feel this strength, and it is precisely strength that they are accustomed to respect...
...We are deprived of citizenship against the law, without our consent and they take from us 500 Rubles for this in addition...
...and, in the third place, the maintenance of spiritual and physical health is possible only with the help of sensible activity...
...A Deputy Minister is not an official, he is a government personage and his words are heavy and weighty...
...A wide marble staircase, corridors and a large room with a long table at which three persons are sitting...
...Two officers come up to the group of Jews and imperceptibly push them towards the doors, which are already open...
...After all, this seems absurd: a person wants to go to a state that according to you is hostile to the Soviet Union and, before this, he is called up to the Soviet Army and they make a soldier or an officer out of him...
...Fain looks at us triumphantly and puts on the table the trump he had saved up in his sleeve: "This is not correct...
...Before leaving Vitaly Rubin asks: "You said that you would examine our questions...
...This time they were late with this ritual...
...Service in the army is in our country obligatory for all...
...The Jews sit down in a row, along the wall...
...In this unexpected and unforeseen situation, their activeness is, in a certain sense, an answering reaction: at first unconscious, then conscious—at first personal, then social...
...The boldness and unusualness of these people strike you...
...Is it possible for the dissidents to obtain an ordinary reception in official institutions, to have their demands discussed, to meet with higher party officials...
...I think that we stand on different ideological positions and that there are radical contradictions between us...
...This is a duty of a Soviet citizen and, until you have received permission, you are Soviet citizens...
...One in the center, and two at his sides...
...And so it is...
...This compliment makes us shudder, but we keep quiet...
...Today we have reached the very top of the state pyramid not as petitioners, but as delegates of the Jewish movement...
...You sign your name to joint letters...
...The day and the time of the reception has been fixed and another fifty people accompany the six...
...By their very existence, they ease your conscience...
...I have little time...
...This oversimplification is the natural conclusion drawn from the Western media's black and white presentation of the present situation in the USSR...
...Consequently, it is profoundly mistaken to speak now of a dissident movement in the Soviet Union or about public protest...
...We have come in order . . ." begins one 16/Moment of the Jews...
...This is not an official talk...
...Why not...
...But what does this Gelman write about in Russian— about meetings of the Party committee...
...Popov looks through his papers', he does not agree, he says that there are books and many books at that...
...Well, comrades, after all you understand that you are going to a State that is hostile to us...
...The office of the Deputy Minister is guarded from outside and from inside and next to the Jews there stand two officers in uniform, watching their movements...
...You cannot find opponents...
...Is this a secret of some sort, or a crime...
...In this, they manifest not so much the activity of their political consciousness as the normal functioning of a trained and orderly mind...
...Consequently in Moscow (where about a third of all "refuseniks" are located) there has been in existence for many years a group of Jewish activists who are either not working or have found temporary work for themselves with an abundance of free time...
...As far as I understand," begins Ivanov, "we shall talk about emigration...
...in the second place, because their inclusion through inertia in common activity joins people together and makes these links indispensable for them...
...Your approach is contrary to the interests of the majority of citizens of Jewish nationality...
...Fired from work after submitting their applications for emigration to Israel, torn out of their working pattern of many years while, at the same time, cut off for an uncertain term from their own future, they must adopt a decision almost foisted upon them: to be active...
...And they are obliged to react...
...Obidin raises his head and explains to us that the OVIR needs a certificate to the effect that the parents have no material claims on the children who emigrate...
...We go to his house and there, from memory, we write down a stenogram of the talk in order to dictate it over the phone to Israel and to transmit to correspondents...
...We shall talk only about general problems...
...I think that very few have chosen for themselves the way of the "overts" and have decided that "dissent is a part of my life's task, just like scientific work...
...They do not strive for unity and do not seek benefits from collaboration with one another...
...At the general meeting, you try to speak out about how it really was...
...What do you need this for, Tolia...
...you have never held samizdat in your hands...
...There follow a few more stories, similar to the first...
...Western publications on Soviet dissent do not, as a rule, note the distinction between the overt and the covert dissident...
...Tell us your problems...
...Even though this does not enter the competence of the Ministry of Culture, but I am doing my personal duty and telling you: both the ideological concept and the character of your actions convince us that it is a matter of actions of a provocative character...
...In connection with this I wish to tell you the following...
...May we come back for an answer in this case...
...And did you tell him that I was dismissed from my job...
...he notes down your words...
...The assistant whispers about this in the ear of the Deputy Minister and the latter stops at once: "Why are you taking notes...
...After aviation units we don't let anyone go for 10 years...
...No, no," Obidin mumbles rapidly, "this is wrong...
...We also sit down at the end of the table furthest away from him and he is the first to speak...
...For him it is not important that the "for" is almost unformulated since the well known "against" is so very clear: dissidents are against the authorities, against the regime in the USSR and against the foreign and domestic policy of the Soviet Union...
...In the Jewish Autonomous Region children in schools use this language...
...You are proud of the friendship of these people, but you do not tell all this to your wife...
...I am Deputy Minister of Culture of the USSR, Popov...
...The group is introduced into the Minister's office and there, somewhere from afar, behind a huge desk, a heavy and slow moving man examines six Jews...
...The crowd of acquaintances falls upon us and drags us outside, touching us, asking for details on the way, feeling our undamaged arms and hands...
...They do not rush to join them...
...We go down the stairs trying to remember all the words of the party official, in order to write them down word for word, all his reasonings, promises and expressions...
...You don't know—they know...
...The Jews are a conductor that connects the Soviet Authorities with the West and, when there are no direct contacts (or when they are undesirable), an indirect contact is ensured with the help of the Jews...
...Give me time to write down your questions, to think, to consult specialists and then I promise to answer to all your questions...
...An army is an army, it has its own secrets...
...Here you have it—he is a Jew but he is concerned with problems of Soviet reality...
...But now you speak aloud about that which earlier you feared even to think...
...Tell the correspondents about it all," they advise...
...All of these engineers, scientists and scholars of the humanities begin by reading and reflecting on the country and system of which they are called upon to be a part...
...Two weeks before the start of the intended Symposium on Jewish Culture in the USSR, which it is intended to conduct for the first time openly in Moscow, with the participation of representatives of Soviet government organizations and institutions...
...Jews leave the Soviet Union and they stay there...
...One of the six—Tolia Shcharansky—carries a small, old briefcase with him...
...The Authorities know that every official meeting with the Jews will immediately have publicity in the Western press, but they still agree to do it...
...But they do this openly...
...Ivanov exchanges a look with Obidin and agrees with a smile: "All right, if you want general, then let it be general...
...If there is a Soviet regime, there must therefore be an opposition to this regime...
...Obidin...
...He looks at us attentively and once more tries to smile: "I see that you are intellectual people and you speak Russian very well...
...You have worded your question wrongly," replies Ivanov dryly...
...The one in the center, a youngish, portly and lordly-looking man, rises slightly, as if greeting us, and immediately sits down...
...Does Comrade Ivanov know about the period of time in which scientific-technical information becomes outdated...
...Ivanov writes them down himself, then he says who he is and introduces to us one more person, the head of the OVIR of the Interior Affairs, Col...
...All the appearances of the dissidents in the KGB, the Procurator's Office or the Militia are under duress: the Authorities reason with them, rein them in and put them in prison...
...A torrent of letters, applications, complaints and requests for reception falls upon various government departments and engulfs scores of officials...
...The authorities receive us in their offices and talk to us...
...Tomorrow it will get into newspapers and this will be good publicity for the symposium...
...I had specially asked for a list of literature from the Lenin library...
...A reception in the office of Deputy Director of Administrative Sections of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Albert Ivanov...
...To paraphrase the Greeks, this idea can be worded as follows: "Tell me how Jews are treated in this state and I shall tell you what will happen to this state...
...Overt dissidents begin to think aloud, formulating their thoughts on paper, and signing them with their full names...
...And what about you...
...These official meetings are precisely one of the methods for creating an image for the Soviet authorities...
...asks Shcharansky...
...Ivanov still tries to smile: "You should not be formalists, comrades...
...Therefore, dissidents often do not appear so much as they are selected...
...Ivanov spreads his hands: "Comrade, I don't know your case...
...Of course," Ivanov is again in a good mood...
...The physician shudders: "Another three years...
...All in all, he has quite a pleasant face and manners and he behaves with absolute calmness...
...Another three years will pass and then you will go...
...Your dissertation is ready, but they don't let you defend it...
...Whatever they may think about their attitude toward the state and government, however peaceably they may be disposed, lists of dissidents are compiled above in that place where an uttered thought sets in motion the complicated machine of orders and instructions...
...He gets up from his desk, a smiling, big and strong man...
...It transpires that one of the men sitting next to Popov is the Head of Theaters Administration, Chausov, and he joins the conversation: "There is a Jewish theater in Birobidjan and, in addition, we support two Jewish dramatic ensembles with donations, even though this is difficult and expensive...
...You frequent their homes and listen to them...
...The six of us are asked to go upstairs, to Ivanov's office...
...Their leaders represent the Jewish National Movement and in its name announce to the Soviet Government its urgent demands and problems...
...This is just in case...
...he doesn't participate in public life...
...Your comrades become fewer and fewer, and you feel more and more keenly your defenselessness before the regime...
...He knows exactly why permission had not been granted to them and he knows when they will be able to leave, but he does not tell them this...
...There was almost no audience there...
...You have been revealed...
...In their apartments they also read what is forbidden: Russian books and journals published in the West...
...Jewish emigration has become not so much a problem as an element of government life...
...For thousands of years the rulers of various countries, when they determined their policies, began with the Jews...
...asks the Deputy Minister, "by our Soviet laws...
...Incidentally, here is a young playwright from Leningrad . . . what is his name...
...replies the physician...
...December 6, 1976...
...These people are longstanding acquaintances...
...They hurry us: "Please, the Deputy Minister is waiting for you...
...There then enters into play the "logic" of the usual associations...
...Then the reaction of the authorities follows...
...Just look in what language these books are written," I tell him...
...At the entry to the Ministry we are met by Yosif Begun who decides to go with us...
...You want to explain, but they interrupt you...
...The last word sounds like a verdict...
...Even the study of Hebrew and the systematic reading of books on Jewish subjects maintains self-respect and simultaneously awakens interest in other forms of activity within the movement...
...So they write open letters and declarations protesting against censorship and discrimination, sentences and arrests...
...But you have been selected for such a fate and there is no retreat...
...Now it is for us to speak and Fain hurries to reply...
...We tell him that in addition to the pre-revolutionary edition there is no single book in Russian on Jewish history, that ancient Jewish history has totally disappeared from school textbooks...
...The covert dissident chooses passive behavior for himself: he doesn't read newspapers...
...Such a group appeared before the Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs of the USSR, Boris Shumilin, several times during 1973 and 1978 (and in October 1976 Minister Shchelokov himself received the "refuseniks...
...You say to yourself: "I could never be on their level...
...What for...
...Tolia Shcharansky swings his small briefcase and winks at me: "It will be useful next time...
...Vladimir Lazaris...
...The Deputy Minister frowns: "I don't know what kinds of pills you used to give, but according to regulations, after service . . . incidentally, in what units did you serve...
...In aviation units...
...There are five of us...
...you work hard and successfully, you have never signed any declarations, and, in fact, you have always considered this whole "struggle for the rights of man" to be madness, but you are acquainted with two or three dissidents...
...The refuseniks attentively listen to every word and two of them make notes...
...A lava of questions and problems: what specialists enter into the "special commission" of the OVIR...
...Respected employees of scientific institutes write also...
...There are thousands of such "dissidents...
...Why are young Jews, who have been refused permission to go to Israel, called up into the army...
...You are ignoring this in your program and you come to this problem not from national positions but from nationalistic ones...
...Who decides what is a secret and when it ceases to be one...
...For me this had always been a true passion: I knew the actors of the Habima and of the State Jewish Theater, I read about their shows, I heard their stories about the past...
...We are not arrested either before meeting them or after...
...He is well dressed and is in a liberal mood...
...In this first stage, they are satisfying their interest: can Russia be computed in coordinates of time and space...
...Your old friends have already passed through this and have ceased to be silent...
...You are not hired and you are a marked man wherever you go...
...This work is excerpted from his work-in-progress on dissidents and Jews in the USSR...
...They are chosen to be "refuseniks," but they become activists...
...Popov quickly objects: "Why...
...And what about state secrets...
...Popov gets up and, simultaneously, as if at a command, his subordinates also rise...
...I smile at Popov, but my smile comes out crooked...
...Behind this word "opposition" dimly appear hundreds or else thousands of people, and the thought carries beyond this to the open and active character of their opposition...
...The entire emigration is dealt with by the Ministry of Interior Affairs, in which the chief department of Visas and Registrations is located...
...I served in the army as a physician...
...How long would they have to wait, how long, how long, how long...
...The very change in the emigration quota is interpreted now in the West as a barometer of the climate of the Big Politics of the Soviet Union...
...I ask...
...Do you think that this is just...
...Slepak sits down again and, remembering their agreement, says: "And I don't even want to talk about my case here...
...You are no longer permitted into the closed computer center, and you are not allowed to work with the computer at all...
...Having become an overt dissident, a person has no choice: he must be one, sometimes against his own will...
...You still believe in ideals preserved from childhood...
...There is one more thing which distinguishes overt dissidents: they live under the constant observation of the authorities...
...But the OVIRs demand it and without this paper they do not accept documents"—this is Yulik Kosharovsky...
...Their every step, word and movement is recorded, registered and Filed...
...so why don't you say so...
...The latter nods to us and becomes absorbed in his notes...
...Now, for the first time, you are asking some practical questions...
...Then they call you to the First Department for a conversation and say: "We know everything .. . You are acquainted with them . . ." You try to argue, but they don't listen to you...
...The militiamen look at this crowd with astonishment and confusion...
...What law...
...The Deputy Minister speaks with authority and firmly and it seems that he has no intention to listen to us and that he only wants us to hear his speech, prepared in advance...
...What kind of a discrimination is this...
...These former engineers, mathematicians, physicists, and scholars of the humanities might have left like other mortals, after two or three months, but they did not leave...
...Despite the optimistic forecasts of Western Sovietologists (for whom, naturally enough, it is difficult to evaluate the real situation in the USSR) protest has become static and has ceased to be a spark or impulse for the new generation of dissidents...
...Friends advise you to complain and to try to get justice and you go first to the local trade union committee and then to the procurator...
...We are already citizens of Israel and our small State stands behind us...
...But are there many who desire to travel this path...
...After all, from here they can take us directly to the Preliminary Detention Cell...
...By what laws...
...Why frighten her...
...Their friends and acquaintances turn their backs on them out of fear of being put on the list of suspects, while they themselves are doomed to being shadowed and to depression, constant tension and loneliness...
...they spoke about you on the radio and read bits of that protocol of the meeting...
...And did he say when, did he say when...
...We have a document, signed by the person in charge of the district department of education of Birobidjan to the effect that from 1948 there are no schools in Yiddish in the region and for this reason there are no textbooks and study aids...
...Moreover, for the man in the street, the ordinary reader who lacks a proper background, the whole problem reduces itself neatly to the confines of a struggle "for" and "against...
...He looks: "Yes, really, only in Yiddish...
...But anyway many Jewish playwrights work here— Zorin, Volodin, Alioshin, Shtok...
...Such reflections lead them to the natural conclusion that if they have freedom of thought, they should also enjoy freedom of expression...
...Six years...
...But what does he know about the Jewish theater...
...But all of them keep their distance from the "overt" ones...
...The Deputy Minister turns to look at his assistant and the latter informs the Jews: "The reception is over...
...Slepak jumps up: "But I've already been waiting for six years...
...I never go to such receptions without a change of warm underwear and a toothbrush," he laughs—a short man with full lips...
...Near the exit of the Ministry of Interior a crowd of people who had been waiting rushes up to the envoys and showers questions upon them: "Well, what did he say...
...The six delegates had been chosen in advance and a list with their names was handed in to the reception room of the Central Committee...
...Lionia Volvovsky writes down everything that is said and Popov looks at him with displeasure...
...And an open dialogue with official personages on the fate of Jewish emigration and culture not only pours new strength into the Jewish National Movement, but it also makes it possible to believe that the last word in this dialogue will be said by us...
...sometimes you take interesting books to read and share your thoughts with them...
...they must learn to be outspoken and to be silent...
...However, he may disseminate a manuscript in samizdat (or among a small circle of friends) but necessarily anonymously or pseudony-mously, because otherwise the danger exists that he may cease to be "covert" and pass over into the category of the "overts...
...Register for a reception in a month or two and we shall have another talk...
...There even arises the strange situation in which professional writers who continue to be members of the Union of Soviet Writers, and who send to press good Soviet literature, simultaneously write for samizdat...
...You show him the protocol of the general meeting and tell him how difficult it has become to pay for your cooperative apartment...
...And why should others serve in the army and you should not...
...Is this only because they realize the strength of the world public opinion in favor of the Jews...
...Five years after the army, ten years after a "secret institution," fifteen years . . . the parents do not give their permission for emigration, even though their son is 35 years old and has his own family . . . nobody says anything about the time when the refusal will expire...
...It is not a matter of one person (besides, one person does not get so high), but of a group of "refuseniks," who represent the Jewish movement...
...The actors and the audience are here...
...We asked you to receive us, at present this is a working day for you and we are talking in your office...
...Almost daily in the newspapers and magazines of various countries, articles and reviews appear reporting activity of dissidents and their struggle for democracy against the Soviet regime...
...Copyright @ 1979 Vladimir Lazaris PART II JEWS AND OFFICIALS Is a direct dialogue between dissidents and government officials possible, can there be a constructive talk, an exchange of opinions...
...Well, what do you want," interrupts the Deputy Minister...
...The society continues to live its own life while, on its periphery, a dozen or so dissidents remain who genuinely and openly protest...
...What are they talking about, these officials, about Jewish ensembles...
...While saying the word "program," he puts his hand on some kind of papers lying on his desk before him...
...But now your boss looks askance at you...
...For you it's just defense against injustice...
...But the resolution of the general meeting has already been prepared in advance: the collective does not want to work with you...
...The Deputy Minister himself had talked to them...
Vol. 5 • March 1980 • No. 3
