Exit Visas Would Cost $330,000 for Ten Prominent Soviet Jewish Scholars

Ten prominent Soviet Jewish scientists, scholars and academicians seeking to emigrate to Israel will have to raise a combined total of over $330,000 to pay for exit visas for themselves and their families under the new scale of fees levied by Soviet authorities, Jewish sources in the Soviet Union said today. The total was tallied by Jewish circles in Russia on the basis of the fees demanded to compensate the State for the fee higher education enjoyed by those who want to leave.

The sources observed that most educated Russian Jews who have gone to Israel, and almost all who have applied for visas have already made valuable contributions to Soviet science, scholarship, medicine, technology and the arts. Thus they have already repaid the State many times for its investment in their education, the sources said. They added that while this argument may appeal to the bureaucratic imagination the real issue is the principle that no civilized society can demand ransom for its citizens who want to leave.

The Jewish circles estimated that Roman Rutman would have to pay about $31,850 for his exit visa and his wife another $19,600 for hers; Victor Polsky would have to lay out approximately $49,000 for himself, his wife and his father-in-law; Benjamin Levich would have to pay over $100,000 for himself, his wife, his son Yevgeny. Yevgeny’s wife and his son Alexander and his wife.

The exit visas of Boris Orlov, his wife and his father would cost $24,300 and Lev Liubov would have to pay over $31,000 for his and his wife’s visas, it was estimated. The visa sought by Viktor Yakhout carries a $9800 price tag and Vladimir Prestin would have to pay $19,600 for himself and his wife to leave Russia. Vladimir Raginsky and his wife would pay over $31,000.