Victory for Soviet Jew Seeking to Join Family in U.S.

Efforts by Sen. Henry M. Jackson (D.Wash.) have succeeded in obtaining a waiver of an exit fee of nearly $10,000 which Soviet authorities had imposed on a Jewish citizen, Alexander Malchik, who sought to join his American wife and two-year-old daughter in the U.S. A letter from Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, delivered by hand to the Senator’s office today, assured him of Malchik’s release.

Malchik’s American wife, the former Laulette Hanson, sought the help of Jackson in obtaining the release of her husband after months of diplomatic effort failed. Repeated pleas by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow were ignored by the Soviet authorities. Mrs. Malchik is a Russian-language specialist at the University of Washington.

Jackson responded to a letter written by Mrs. Malchik from Leningrad by writing himself to Dobrynin on Dec. 28. In his letter, Jackson urged the Soviet Ambassador to make representations to his government on behalf of the Malchik family. Responding to Jackson, Dobrynin wrote in his letter delivered today: “I would like to inform you that Alexander Malchik may leave the Soviet Union without repaying the State its expenses for the education he received.”

A spokesman for Jackson described Malchik as a 27-year-old university graduate. The Malchiks were married in a private ceremony in the USSR in June, 1970. Mrs. Malchik subsequently returned to Seattle where their daughter was born. The spokesman said Soviet authorities initially refused to recognize the marriage but finally did last July. Mrs. Malchik is presently in Helsinki, Finland, waiting for her husband to leave Russia. The Senator’s office did not know when they would return to the U.S.