Former Prisoner of Conscience Alexander Silnitsky has been granted an exit visa and told to leave the Soviet Union by the end of the month, according to information received by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Silnitsky was released from prison a year ago, having completed a three-year sentence for refusing induction into the Soviet army.
The entire Silnitsky family, Alexander’s father, mother and brother, applied for an exit permit in August 1974 and were refused that November. At that time they were told by local emigration authorities that they “could not leave with a youth of military age,” the Conference reported. Silnitsky was a student at the Technological Institute in Krasnodar where his father was an economics professor. When the family applied for emigration, Alexander was expelled and his father was fired. After being expelled the authorities began their attempts to draft him, which resulted in his refusal and subsequent three-year prison term.
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.
