Prof. Benjamin Levich, the highest ranking Soviet scientist to apply for an exit visa, left the USSR with his wife Tanya and arrived in Vienna today, the Committee of Concerned Scientists (CCS) reported. Levich’s departure capped a seven-year campaign by the international scientific community, which was coordinated by the CCS. Greeting him in Vienna were CCS co-chairman Dr. Robert S. Adelstein and the Leviches two sons, Alexander and Evgeny who emigrated in 1975.
At a press conference held after arriving in Vienna, Levich and Adelstein joined in urging scientists world-wide to continue their efforts on behalf of oppressed Soviet scientists. Adelstein noted that "although we are delighted that Prof. Levich has at last been permitted to emigrate and will now be able to continue his research, we cannot forget that hundreds of his former colleagues are still denied fundamental scientific and human rights, including the right to emigrate."
Adelstein also recalled that during this past summer alone, Soviet scientists Anatoly Shcharansky, Yuri Orlov, losif Begun and Grigory Goldstein were sentenced to harsh terms of imprisonment and exile. Levich added, "My emigration does not mean an end to persecution of scores of other refusnik scientists."
"Benjamin and Tanya Levich’s presence here today demonstrates clearly that the international scientific community can be effective in securing human rights for colleagues denied them," Adelstein said. Only a few years ago, he noted, Levich had been told by Soviet officials that he would "never" be permitted to leave. According to Adelstein, "the efforts of scientists and political leaders around the world have rendered that statement ‘inoperative.’"
Levich, a Corresponding Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, first applied for an exit visa together with his family in 1972. Permission to leave was denied and Levich was stripped of his academic and research posts. Levich’s name was on a list of people seeking visas presented in Moscow to Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D. Mass) in September.
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