Two Jews in the Urals city of Sverdlovsk were arrested by Soviet authorities recently after they sent letters to Premier Alexei Kosygin and Communist Party General Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev protesting the impending trials of Jews in Leningrad and Riga, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned from reliable sources today. The arrests took place on March 17. The men were identified as Valery Kukui and Yuli Kosharovski. The latter was sentenced to 15 days in the workhouse on charges of “hooliganism.” Kukui was also sentenced to a jail term of unknown duration. Both men reportedly were leaders of a group of nine Jews in Sverdlovsk who have been protesting the Leningrad trial. The sources said that the homes of each member of the group were searched by Soviet police. According to the same sources, Jews from Riga and from Vilna and Kovno, Lithuania have been barred from coming to Moscow and possibly other Soviet cities. The sources said the ban was imposed to prevent Jewish activists from staging demonstrations in the Soviet capital during the Communist Party Congress which opens there tomorrow.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
