Soviet ballet dancer Valery Panov has been released from the hospital in Minsk where he had been receiving treatment for “food poisoning” since Saturday, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry reported today. Panov is now on his way to see his wife, Galina, who is under treatment for “female disorders” in a hospital in Vilnius. She is three months pregnant. according to the NCSJ.
Earlier this week, members of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry demonstrated at a performance of the Strings of the Bolshoi Ballet at Carnegie Hall to raise the issue of Panov, who besides his recent hospitalization, has been subject to constant persecution for seeking permission to leave for Israel. SSSJ members also sought information on the fates of Victor Polsky and Yuli Tartakovsky, who most likely soon will stand trial, and Alexander Feldman.
Feldman, recently transferred from a forced labor camp to a prison cell, was severely beaten by fellow inmates while on a hunger strike. He is Serving a three-and-one-half-year sentence for allegedly striking a woman.
In Los Angeles, the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews has called upon Sol Hurok Productions to cancel the up-coming tour of the Moiseyev Dance Company as an act of Solidarity with Valery and Galina Panov. The SSSJ said that “support of the performance would be, in effect, condoning the Soviet treatment of the Panovs.”
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