Campaign Against Soviet Jews

In a series of moves against Jewish prisoners, detainees and activists, Soviet authorities have launched a new campaign ranging over the entire USSR, the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry reported.

The actions included the leveling of new charges against a Jewish Prisoner of Conscience an attempted arrest, stepping up of interrogations, new apartment searches, and the simultaneous firing of four refusniks from their jobs. The actions seem to bear out the words of Jewish activists a few weeks ago who expressed fear of an impending campaign of anti-Jewish hatred throughout the Soviet Union, the Conference said.

In Moscow, the Conference learned that the home of Anatoly Sharansky’s parents was searched for seven hours by KGB agents who claimed they were looking for foreign currency but eventually confiscated the Jewish activist’s driver’s license and military discharge papers. Sharansky, a leading press spokesman for Soviet Jewry, is being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison where he is being questioned on charges of treason and espionage. If tried and convicted, he would face the death penalty.

In Central Asia, the Conference reported, the newest Jewish Prisoner of Conscience may be facing additional charges even as he begins his three-year sentence. Amner Zavurov, a 26-year-old watch repairman from the Uzbek city of Shakhriyazb, told his father in a prison visit that he may well be charged with assaulting and beating an Uzbek individual several months prior to his imprisonment. This incident is alleged by Soviet authorities to have occurred in March, 1976. Zavurov flatly denied any validity to the charges.

TRY TO ARREST GENDIN

In Moscow, the Soviets tried to arrest a long-term refusnik on charges of parasitism. Lev Gendin, a young engineer whose wife has waited for him in Israel for several years, was away from his home when a policeman confronted his parents looking for the activist. He has since gone into hiding, according to the Conference.

Gendin was fired from his engineering job when he first applied to emigrate five years ago. He has since held odd jobs and most recently worked for a grocery store until the JGB pressured its management into firing him. He is now sought for the Soviet crime of being unemployed.

In Kharkov, Victor Lender was given an exit visa only to have it revoked a few days later without apparent cause. Lender is in a precarious situation as those in receipt of permission to emigrate generally sell their possessions, resign from their jobs (if they have not already been dismissed), and give up their apartments.

In Moscow, the Conference reported, four prominent activist-refusniks were fired from their jobs at roughly the same time. Pavel Abramovich, Iosif Beilin, Vladimir Prestin and Lev Ulanovsky–all without employment now–fear that they were fired as a pretext to charging all of them with parasitism.