The National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ) said today it learned that Iosif Begun, a Jewish emigration activist from Moscow, who last month was sentenced to two years in exile for alleged “parasitism,” was ordered to serve his term in the remote town of Magadon, in outer Siberia. Magadon is located on the sea of Okhotsk, in an area which contains a number of prison labor camps. It is considered part of the broad area known as the “Gulag Archipelago.”
Because of the distance it will be virtually impossible for his family to visit him from Moscow, “without a lot of time and a lot of money which,” according to Jerry Goodman, NCSJ executive director, “are commodities lacking among Soviet Jewish activist families. Since the trip is long and expansive, the sentence will be especially harsh for Begun’s 12-year-old son, Boris, who may not be able to see his father for the next two years.”
The NCSJ pointed out that the isolation appears to be designed to keep Begun from the minimum contacts allowed even under Soviet law, while he serves his sentence. Exile in that remote corner of Siberia is considered especially “hard and cruel punishment” and unusual in such instances.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
