Yevgeny Zirlin, a Soviet Jewish activist who has been attempting to leave the Soviet Union since 1977, has arrived in Israel after Soviet authorities unexpectedly agreed to give him an exit visa. Zirlin, a physicist, was fired from his academic position shortly after he applied for permission to leave the Soviet Union.
Upon his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport he was met by liana Friedman, sister of Ida Nudel, the Jewish activist who is in exile in Siberia. Zirlin, who made a feature film about Nudel, which was later smuggled to the West and shown worldwide, said that he last saw Nudel last November. Although she is sick, he said her spirit is strong He added that she lives under harsh climatic conditions where the temperature is 30 to 40 degrees centigrade below zero. “She has to gather firewood all by herself,” Zirlin said.
He said that he telephoned Andrei Sakharov in the city of Gorky and then applied for permission to visit the noted Soviet scientist and dissident. Instead of permission to visit Sakharov, Zirlin said, he was visited by KGB agents who informed him he was granted an exit visa to Israel.
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