Chronology of events
of the Zionist movement in the Soviet Union

Compiled by Yuli Kosharovsky and Enid Wurtman



1974


Date Event
00-00-1974 Alexander Slinin (Lozovaya), applied for exit visa, was arrested for refusing military service. Later sentenced to three years in prison.
04-01-1974 43 Moscow Jews, in an open letter to Western political leaders, artists and scientists who intend to visit in the near future, ask them to bear in mind that these visits are now traditionally accompanied by house arrests and detentions of many Jewish residents in Moscow and other towns in order to prevent them from meeting with foreigners (11, p. 126).
11-01-1974 Tour of the Leningrad Kirov Ballet Theatre in the United States canceled in part because of protests in connection with the refusal of the Panov family to emigrate (11, p. 126).
16-01-1974 Mark Lutsker, a 25 year old mathematics student expelled in 1972 from Voronezh University for wanting to emigrate to Israel, was arrested at Kiev OVIR when enquiring about his emigration permit, sentenced to two years in prison for alleged evasion of military service and sent to camp near Kutaisi, Georgia (11, p. 127,).
18-01-1974 Soviet Jewish activists, Vladimir Slepak and Victor Polsky, repeatedly refused permission to emigrate, present their cases in an appeal to the UN Human Rights Commission. (V.Slepak initially applied for emigration in April, 1970 and V.Polsky in November 1970) (11, p. 127).
21-01-1974 The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly deplores arbitrary arrests, police harassment and persecution of Soviet Jews wishing to emigrate. The Council calls on the USSR to improve East-West  detente by granting more exit visas to Jews wishing to leave for Israel and permit those choosing to remain in Russia to practice freely their own culture and religious customs (11, p. 127).
23-01-1974 Professor David Azbel announced his intention to hold a hunger strike in support of Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn (11 , p. 127).
25-01-1974 KGB stops Moscow UPI correspondent G.P. Joseloff on a Moscow street after his interview with a group of Jewish activists and seizes written replies to questions he posed them. Soviet Foreign Ministry’s Press Department warns him of inadmissibility of such actions (11, p. 127,).
00-02-1974 Split among refuseniks community begins after information about the visits of Alexander Lunts to the KGB is known (aa).
12-02-1974 Solzhenitsyn's arrest in Moscow; his deportation the next day to West Germany from the USSR after being stripped of Soviet citizenship. Campaign in the press begins (11, p. 128).
14-02-1974 Hunger strike of Vitaly Rubin, Vladimir Galatzky, and David Azbel. (11, p. 129, 22, Inna Rubin).
18-02-1974 Valery Panov is threatened with tough measures, unless he leaves the USSR  immediately without his wife (11, p. 129).
21-02-1974 Vitaly Rubin, Vladimir Galatzky and David Azbel completed a hunger strike (22, Inna Rubin) 
22-02-1974 Jewish activists Mark Abramovich and Yakov Schwartzman (Kishinev), Leonid Bendersky (Tiraspol) and Sender Levinson (Bendery) were arrested in Kishinev after staging a hunger strike near the Central Post Office (11, p. 129).
01-03-1974 Seventy Jews from Moscow and other Soviet cities were detained to prevent the transmission of a petition to the Central Committee of the CPSU with 200 signatures (11, p. 106).
01-03-1974 Radio Moscow reports demonstration by Zionist elements during the wreath laying ceremony at the monument to the heroes of Plevna in Moscow (11, p. 106).
04-03-1974 Kiev Jewish activists Alexander Tsatskis and Saul Raslin beaten by police outside the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow: and subsequently were transferred to Kiev, arrested and interrogated. (11, p. 106).
07-03-1974 David Rockefeller, Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, criticizes the Jackson Amendment: concern for Jewish emigration and human rights must not jeopardize US-Soviet trade relations (11, p. 106).
07-03-1974 Jewish activists Miron Dorfman, Mark Abramovich, Yakov Schwartzman (Kishinev), Leonid Bendersky (Tiraspol) and Sender Levinson (Bendery), serving 15 day sentences for staging a hunger strike outside the Central Post office in Kishinev, celebrated Purim by declaring a 48 hour hunger strike (11, p. 106).
07-03-1974 Yankel Hantsis was released from prison and in April he will leave for Israel (11, p. 107).
08-03-1974 Henry Kissinger warned Congress of a presidential veto if the trade bill will be linked to Soviet emigration (11, p. 107).
13-03-1974  Eight US Congressmen appeal to Brezhnev on behalf of the Panovs.
 (11, p. 107).
15-03-1974  President Nixon states the rise in the number of Jews permitted to leave the USSR is due to his personal contacts with Soviet leaders; passage of trade bill necessary for continuing dialogue with Russians and further emigration (11, p. 107).
15-03-1974 Senators Henry Jackson and Abraham Ribicoff tell Dr. Kissinger that Soviet assurance of more than 35 thousand Jewish emigration permits annually are the condition for considering compromise on the Jackson Amendment. (11, p. 107).
17-03-1974 The Ford Foundation has allocated $250,000 – to help resettle Soviet émigré scholars and writers in America (11, p. 107). 
21-03-1974 Samizdat anthology Solzhenitsyn's "Live Not by the Lie” begins circulating in Moscow (11, p. 107).
21-03-1974 Jewish activist Valery Kukui (Sverdlovsk); sentenced in June 1971 to three years in labor camp, released; in early April he will leave USSR for Israel (11, p. 107).
21-03-1974 Nahum Olshansky (Minsk) renounces Soviet citizenship and turns in his medals to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (11, p. 107).
24-03-1974 Before his departure to Moscow, Dr. Kissinger is urged to obtain Moscow’s pledge to permit to emigrate about 1,600 Jews repeatedly refused exit visas. At the same time Pravda warns US to keep Jewish emigration out of Kissinger’s talks in Moscow and accuses international Zionism of stepping up activities aimed at disrupting East-West accord (11, p. 107).
24-03-1974 Henry Kissinger in Moscow - March 24th-28th (11, p. 107). 
28-03-1974 Isaac Poltinikov, Novosibirsk, retired military ophthalmologist, deprived of pension and rank following application for exit visa for Israel two years ago, threatened by KGB with a trial for parasitism (11, p. 108,).
28-03-1974 Four MPs of All-Party Parliamentary Committee for the Relief of Soviet Jewry (England) refused visas to Russia (11, p. 108, DM).
04-04-1974 132 Soviet Jews appealed to the U.S. Senate in behalf of Alexander Feldman who is confined to a punishment cell. His detention was repeatedly extended (11, p. 108).
12-04-1974 Over 100 Soviet Jews sent letter of condolence to people of Israel in connection with the massacre in Kiryat Shmona (11, p. 108).
12-04-1974 Yuri Berkovsky, former Soviet naval officer and his wife Anna, former philosophy lecturer, both unemployed since applying for emigration in June 1972, arrested in Novosibirsk on trumped up charges of speculation (11, p. 108).
12-04-1974 39 Moscow activists appeal to the Central Committee of the CPSU in behalf of astrophysicist Evgeny Levich, punitively drafted to the army, May 16th 1973, and despite ill health, sent to serve in Yakutia. The activists demand cessation of repressions of Jews wishing to leave for Israel (11, p. 108)
14-04-1974 Andrei Sakharov in friendly criticism of Solzhenitsyn’s "Letter to the Soviet leaders" urges freedom of movement across borders for all citizens of the USSR (11, p. 108).
14-04-1974 Many Kiev Jews lay wreaths and flowers in Babi Yar, the site of the Nazi  massacre of Jews, in memory of the Kiryat Shmona victims and Warsaw ghetto heroes (11, p. 108).
15-04-1974 Fifty prisoners, including eleven Jews in Perm camps 35 and 36 begin hunger strike demanding improved conditions of detention, changes in starvation diet of prisoners in punishment cells and transfer to  hospital of Russian dissident, Vladimir Bukovsky. They end strike after 14 days (11, p. 108).
17-04-1974 Professor David Azbel and his family granted permission to immigrate to Israel (11, p. 108).
17-04-1974 The newspaper Trud and Soviet Culture have published articles against an international symposium planned to be organized by refusenik-scientists. The symposium was cited as a "provocation" and "guest session of Tel-Aviv University."
23-04-1974 Senator Kennedy arrived in Moscow as a guest of the Supreme Soviet; meets Brezhnev; among topics reviewed: Middle East, trade and emigration.  (11, p. 109).
23-04-1974 Leonid Zabelyshensky (Sverdlovsk) was released from prison (11, p. 109).
24-04-1974 Refusenik and war hero Yefim Davidovich suffers heart attack (Minsk, Belarus ).
25-04-1974 A meeting of Senator Kennedy with the leading activists in the apartment of Professor Alexander Lerner (11, p. 109).
26-04-1974 Jewish cameraman Mikhail Suslov and screenwriter Felix Kamov-Kandel have their names removed from film credit. (Both applied to emigrate to Israel in 1973) (11, p. 109, DM).
28-04-1974 100,000 Jews demonstrate solidarity with Soviet Jewry in New York (11, p. 109).
29-04-1974 Alexander Feldman (Kiev) again was placed in a punishment cell for 15 days (11, p. 109).
29-04-1974 E. Felzenshtein, from Kharkov, denied permission to emigrate to Israel, renounces title of Hero of the Soviet Union in a statement to USSR Supreme Soviet (11, p. 109).
03-05-1974 Plan announced by international committee of academics to hold unofficial seminar in Professor Alexander Voronel’s apartment in Moscow, July 1, to draw attention to the plight of Jewish scientists refused permission to leave USSR. 19 Jewish scientists dismissed after applying to emigrate to Israel associate themselves with this plan (11, p. 109).
05-05-1974 World Jewish leaders meeting in London issue declaration in support of Soviet Jewry. Hundreds of Soviet Jews sign message of good will to the conference (11, p. 109).
05-05-1974 Two new anti-Zionist books were recently published in USSR: "The Secret Front” by KGB First Deputy Chairman Semyon K. Tsvigun, and "Against Zionism and Israeli Aggression"- a collection of Israeli Communist "Rakah" Party documents and articles by African and Latin American Communists (11, p. 109, DM). d.o.r.
07-05-1974 Moscow Jewish activist Victor Polsky was charged with violation of  traffic regulations and safety in driving; faces prison sentence of 3 years (11, p. 110).
08-05-1974 Equity, British actors trade union, appeals to employment secretary to ban forthcoming Bolshoi Ballet season in London because of Soviet refusal to allow Panovs to emigrate. The union appeals to Prime-Minister Wilson on May 17th (11, p. 109).
10-05-1974 Miron Dorfman and family were permitted to emigrate to Israel after 8 years of arrests, hunger strikes, petitions and protests (11, p. 109).
17-05-1974 Fifty activists demonstrated at the Lebanese Embassy in Moscow in protest against actions of Lebanese terrorists in Maalot, Israel, which led to the deaths of twenty three children. Twenty seven demonstrators were detained until the evening. Refuseniks from Moscow, Minsk and Tbilisi sent protests to Brezhnev and UN Secretary-General. Many Soviet Jews sent messages of condolence to President Katzir and the people of Israel. (04/15/1974, DM). d.o.r.
17-05-1974 State Committee on Science and Technology and The Presidency of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR condemned in the newspapers Trud and Soviet Culture the International Seminar organized by scientists-refuseniks as a provocative idea. The next day, scientists-refuseniks sent a protest to these papers (11, p. 110).
19-05-1974 26 members of the British Parliament sign House of Commons motion to ban Bolshoi Ballet’s visit to Britain as long as Panovs not  allowed to leave USSR(11, p. 110).
19-05-1974 Police did not allow the Jews of Kiev to lay a wreath at Babi Yar in memory of children killed in Maalot, Israel (11, p. 110).
23-05-1974 Five Moscow Jews sent a letter to the 17th Congress of the World Postal Union (Lausanne) against the practice of Soviet authorities of eavesdropping and disconnecting international calls. (11, p. 110).
23-05-1974 117 Moscow Jews in open letter to Soviet government protest against  biased coverage of Maalot massacre in Soviet media. (d.o.r.) (11, p. 110, DM).
24-05-1974 Evgeny Levich demobilized from the Soviet army.
28-05-1974 More than 30 Moscow Jews launch one day hunger strike in solidarity with Alexander Feldman, on hunger strike since his release May 14th from his 4th term of solitary confinement (11, p. 111).
29-05-1974 Michael Stern, a doctor from Vinnitsa, was arrested. Officially - in exchange for bribes. Actually - because he did not condemn the desire of his children to leave for Israel.
00-06-1974 The trial of refusenik Alexander Slinin (Kharkov). The sentence - three years in prison for refusing military service.
01-06-1974 An international symposium on the basis of scientific seminar of physics of scientist-refusenik Voronel was supposed to be held from July 1st to 5th. Symposium was foiled by the authorities.
01-06-1974 17 Jewish activists staged 3 weekend demonstrations outside Moscow Intourist Hotel. Among participants: Joseph Beilin, Anatoly Novikov, Lev Gendin and others. Four arrested for 15 days. Four sent back to Odessa where they reside (11, p. 111).
03-06-1974 Albert Isakovich Koltunov, lottery worker from Chernovtsy, sentenced to five years strict regime prison on trumped-up charge of bribery. He applied for exit visa to Israel mid-February 1974 and was arrested on March 14th. (11, p. 111).
05-06-1974 President Nixon, in major policy address at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, blasted those who want use detente to extract policy changes in USSR (11, p. 111).
05-06-1974 Dr. Kissinger tells Senators Jackson, Javits and Ribicoff of Soviet readiness to guarantee in writing emigration of 45,000 Jews per year and to deal with problems of harassment of emigration applicants (11, p. 111).
06-06-1974 In anticipation of President Nixon’s visit, telephones of Moscow Jewish activists are cut off; many receive conscription orders particularly those organizing scientific seminar (11, p. 111).
07-06-1974 317 Jews from many cities protest new wave of repressions in a letter June 2nd to National Conference for Soviet Jewry in America (11, p. 111).
07-06-1974 Valery and Galina Panov obtain exit visas. They will arrive in Israel on June 15th (11, p. 111).
08-06-1974 KGB detain Professor A. Voronel for several hours and threaten him with imprisonment and exile in Siberia unless he ceases to sponsor a scientific seminar for refuseniks (11, p. 111).
12-06-1974 Bolshoi Theater arrives in Britain accompanied by Jewish demonstrations. The Soviet government expressed strong diplomatic protest (11, p. 111).
15-06-1974 34 Leningrad activists on hunger strike in support of Jewish Prisoners of Conscience on the 4th anniversary of the Leningrad hijack attempt. Jewish prisoners in camps in Potma and Perm also stage hunger strike on this anniversary (11 , p. 111).
17-06-1974 Jewish songwriter Alexander Galich granted exit visa valid until June 25th (11, p. 112).
18-06-1974 Hunger strike by Goldstein brothers in protest against wave of oppression prior to President Nixon’s visit (11, p. 112).
18-06-1974 Approval of 10 Soviet Jews to train as Rabbis at Budapest Theological Seminary (11, p. 112).
19-06-1974 Professor Lunts, other scientists involved in organizing seminar and many other Jewish activists arrested by Soviet police in move to silence Jewish protests during forthcoming Nixon visit. Preventive arrests of Jewish activists began in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa, Kishinev and other cities on the eve of Nixon’s visit (11, p. 112). The activists were taken forcefully from their homes, sometimes militia even breaking down their doors. Among those arrested were Vladimir Slepak, Anatoly Sharansky, Lev Kogan, Alexander Lunts, Yuli Kosharovsky, Zahar Tesker and many others. Many other activists confined to their homes under militia guard (22, Dina Beilin).
21-06-1974 100 Moscow Jewish activists including Benjamin Levich, Alexander Lerner, Mikhail Agursky and Vitali Rubin wrote to President Nixon urging him not to permit his partners in Moscow negotiations to worsen situation of Soviet Jews. d.o.r. (11, p. 112).
23-06-1974 34 Soviet Jews including Vitali Rubin and Mikhail Agursky appeal to US Senators Jackson, Javits and Ribicoff in connection with intensification of repressions and urge them to obtain firm Soviet guarantees on emigration before passing trade bill (11, p. 112).
24-06-1974 Soviet police arrest Professor Alexander Voronel, principal organizer of refusenik scientists seminar following unsuccessful attempt to induce him to cancel the seminar. (11, p. 112).
24-06-1974 Andrei Sakharov urges President Nixon and Brezhnev to give more emphasis to human rights during their Moscow talks, including the release of Soviet political prisoners and free emigration (11, p. 112).
25-06-1974 Trial in Novosibirsk of Yuri and Anna Berkovsky (June 25th-26th,) on fabricated charges of speculation and unauthorized possession of fire arms. Both receive 2 year prisoner terms. (11, p. 112).
26-06-1974 Police arrest cyberneticist Mikhail Agursky in Moscow (11, p. 112).
27-06-1974 Professor Benjamin Levich’s sons Evgeny (released from the army on May 24th) and Alexander informed that they will be allowed to leave for Israel within six weeks (11, p. 112).
27-06-1974 40 American and 6 British scientists were denied entry visas to participate in refusenik scientists seminar. (11, p. 112).
27-06-1974 Vitali Rubin placed under house arrest by KGB (11, p. 112).
27-06-1974 37 Vilnius Jews protest to Communist Party Central Committee against arbitrary arrests of Jewish activists on eve of President Nixon’s visit. (d.o.r.) (11, p. 112).
27-06-1974 15 Kishinev Jewish activists who demonstrated against delays in granting of exit visas arrested and sentenced to 10-15 days in prison. (d.o.r.) (11, p. 112).
27-06-1974 9 Minsk Jews including 4 former Red Army officers and 4 Jews in Odessa begin hunger strike in support of emigration (11, p. 112).
27-06-1974 Andrei Sakharov’s first hunger strike to draw world attention to the plight of political prisoners in the USSR.
27-06-1974 Third Nixon-Brezhnev summit in Moscow. The meetings lasted from June 27th to July 3rd.   
29-06-1974 David Chernoglaz, sentenced in Kishinev trial in June 1971 to five years labor camp, is to be transferred from Perm camp to Vladimir prison for participating in hunger strike before President Nixon’s visit (11, p. 113).
01-07-1974 International scientific symposium at Professor Voronel’s apartment in Moscow thwarted by KGB. 3 scientists removed by police and Western correspondents asked to leave (11, p. 113).
03-07-1974 Jewish activists held in prison during Nixon’s visit begin to be released. Estimates of number of Jews detained in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa and Kiev and other cities vary from 50 to 100. (11, p. 113).
04-07-1974 Avital Sharansky (Natasha Stiglitz) emigrated from Moscow to Israel (22, Anatoly Sharansky).
07-07-1974 US Senator Fulbright says that Senator Jackson undermines detente with the USSR (11, p. 113).
15-07-1974 Over 150 Belgian academics hand petition to Soviet Ambassador Sobelev expressing concern at the fate of their colleagues who seek to emigrate from the USSR (11, p. 113).
17-07-1974 Hillel Butman, convicted in 2nd Leningrad Trial May 1971, serving 10 year sentence in a Perm labor camp, gets 5 months solitary confinement for going on hunger strike on eve of President Nixon’s visit (11, p. 113).
17-07-1974 5 children of Soviet Jewish activists end 3 week campaign for the release of their parents. (11, p. 113).
09-08-1974 U.S. President Richard Nixon resigns. Vice-President Gerald Ford becomes the 38th U.S. President.
14-08-1974 Valery and Galina Panov, on a visit to Britain, demonstrate outside Soviet Embassy in London on behalf of Victor Polsky, the Soviet Jewish activist accused of “dangerous driving” (11, p. 114).
20-08-1974 40 British radiologists protest Soviet treatment of radiologist Victoria Poltinikova in Novosibirsk who with her parents applied for emigration to Israel in 1972 (11, p. 114).
22-08-1974 Sylva Zalmanson released from labor camp after 4 years (11, p. 114).
01-09-1974 80 leading Soviet Jewish activists from Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad and other cities issue statement advising caution in negotiations on the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.
01-09-1974 Yuri Vudka, of Ryazan, is released from labor camp after serving seven year sentence for “anti-Soviet activities”.
02-09-1974 Monument of Jewish sculptor Ernst Neizvestny was installed on the grave of Nikita Khrushchev.
03-09-1974 Shimon Grillius and Oleg Frolov released from Perm camp 36 after serving five year sentences (d.o.r.) ( 11, p. 126).
04-09-1974 Jewish activist Vitali Rubin, specialist in Chinese philosophy, suffers heart attack when arrested by police for “parasitism" (11, p. 126).
11-09-1974 Sylva Zalmanson, freed August 22nd after serving 4 years of 10 year sentence imposed in 1970 Leningrad trial, arrives in Israel (11, p. 126).
11-09-1974 Two demonstrations held in Moscow by Jewish activists demanding exit visas on September 11th-12th. All 10 participants were arrested for 15 days (11, p. 126).
13-09-1974 Michael Kheifetz, a history teacher and writer sentenced in Leningrad to 4 years strict regime in labor camp plus two years internal exile "for anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation" (11, p. 126).
18-09-1974 Sovietskaya Rossiya reports general decline in immigration to Israel because of the country’s high taxation to support the arms industry.
18-09-1974 Mendel Bodnya, one of the defendants in the 1970 Leningrad trial, arrived in Israel. (DM)
27-09-1974 100,000th Soviet Jewish immigrant since Six Day War arrives in Israel (11, p. 127). 
29-09-1974 About 800 Soviet Jews are forcibly prevented by the authorities from reciting Kaddish and other prayers at Babi Yar  to mark the 33rd anniversary of Nazi massacre of Jews (d.o.r.)(11, p. 127, DM).
30-09-1974 Analytical note of the Propaganda Division of the Central Committee of the CPSU consultant L. Onnikov "On the exit of part of the Jewish population from the USSR."
06-10-1974 Group of 90 Jews allowed by Soviet authorities to hold picnic in the woods outside Moscow in celebration of the festival of Succot (11, p. 127).
16-10-1974 Felix Kamov-Kandel and Mikhail Suslov, leading film workers, begin hunger strike in Moscow to obtain permission for emigration (11, p. 127).
16-10-1974 Soviet Jewish activist Victor Polsky was found guilty in Moscow of dangerous driving and fined 100 rubles (11, p. 127).
18-10-1974 The Jackson-Vanik Amendment was passed by the Senate.
25-10-1974 Stepan Chervonenko, Soviet ambassador in Paris, denies that USSR agreed to permit emigration of 60,000 Jews per year in return for U.S. trade concessions (11, p. 127).
25-10-1974 Moshe Leshem, the Israeli ambassador to Denmark, protests to the Danish Foreign Ministry against Soviet distribution of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel pamphlets (11, p. 127).
00-11-1974 Alexander Luntz sent Congress and U.S. Senate an analysis of the situation of Soviet Jewry on the eve of a vote on the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. Conclusion of the analysis - to vote for the Amendment (22, A. Lunts).  
04-11-1974 100 Soviet Jews in letter to Senator Henry Jackson accuses Soviet authorities of using military draft as punitive measure against young Jewish applicants for emigration to Israel (11, p. 127).
06-11-1974 Meeting of refuseniks with Senator Buckley. The Senator promised support and campaign in the press.
08-11-1974 Professor Perelman, a Jewish scientist, killed by a fire by unknown elements at his apartment in Minsk, is the fifth victim of apparent anti-Semitic episodes in the city in the last three years (d.o.r) (11, p. 127, DM).
09-11-1974 Anatoly Shcharansky and Anatoly Malkin were detained in Minsk. During the search materials about the persecution of Jews in Minsk, letters of the Jews to various state institutions, and notebooks were confiscated (36).  
09-11-1974 Vladimir Davidov was detained in Sverdlovsk. During a search records about situation of Jews in Novosibirsk and notebooks were taken. On November 11th he was taken to the airport and sent to Moscow (36).
10-11-1974 Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov urges inclusion of all Soviet nationals in U.S.-Soviet agreement on emigration (11, p. 128).
14-11-1974 Leading Jewish activist Victor Polsky receives an exit visa (11, p. 128).
18-11-1974 An analytical report compiled by refuseniks M. Agursky, A. Luntz, V. Davidov, V. Rubin, D. Beilin, A. Voronel, A. Sharansky, V. Slepak, A. Lerner was transferred to the West. The report was submitted to the administration of President Ford on the eve of the summit between Ford and Brezhnev in Vladivostok (23/11/1974) (Analytical Report).
23-11-1974 At a meeting in Vladivostok, USSR, U.S. President Ford and Soviet leader Brezhnev negotiated arms control (November 25).
25-11-1974 Appeal in behalf of Soviet Jewish prisoners, signed by over 600 politicians, academics, musicians, writers, stage and film actors published in The Times in London. (11, p. 128).
25-11-1974 About 200 Riga Jews organize pilgrimage to Rumbuli on the anniversary of liquidation of the Riga ghetto; several arrested (11, p. 128).
00-12-1974 Stevenson amendment to Trade Bill was adopted by the Senate.
02-12-1974 Almost 1,000 British doctors sign petition to Soviet authorities, protesting the trial of Dr. Mikhail Stern (Vinnitsa) (11, p. 128).
02-12-1974 Arrest and deportation from the Soviet Unionof Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
08-12-1974 After 11-week trial, Mikhail Leviev, former Moscow store manager, was sentenced to death penalty by Moscow Municipal Court on charges of bribe-taking. Leviev was arrested in June 1972 after receiving permission to go to Israel(11, p. 128).
10-12-1974 8 Moscow Jewish women on 26th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights held fast in protest against Soviet refusal to grant them exit visas to Israel (11, p. 128).
11-12-1974 The trial in Vinnitsa, Ukraine of Dr. Mikhail Stern, December 11-13. (11, p. 128).
11-12-1974 28 year old Kopel Spector sentenced in Chernovtsy to 2 years corrective labor on charges of parasitism.
13-12-1974 Senate adopts the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the Law on Trade.
16-12-1974 The President of the World Jewish Congress, Nahum Goldmann appealed on December 16 to Nikolai Podgorny to commute the sentence to Michael Leviev, sentenced to death after the application for exit visa for allegedly "taking bribes" (11, p. 128).
20-12-1974 Both houses of U.S. Congress pass the Trade Reform Bill linking trade concessions with easing emigration restrictions (11, p. 128).
24-12-1974 Demonstration of Leningrad (organizer Israel Varnavitsky) and Moscow (organizer Alexander Luntz) of about 45 refuseniks in the waiting room of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the 4th anniversary of the 1st Leningrad Trial. About 300 people signed a letter of protest against the unjust sentences meted out at the trial and present petition to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet for the release of 40 Prisoners of Zion. After the sit-in a small group of Leningrad and Moscow refuseniks participated in a press conference at the apartment of A. Lunts (22, Aba Taratuta).
24-12-1974 Victor and Elena Polsky arrived in Israel (11, p. 128). 
24-12-1974 On Prisoner of Zion Day activists came to the Central Committee of the CPSU demanding release of all 40 prisoners of Zion.
27-12-1974 Sergei Kovalev, human rights activist, was arrested.
29-12-1974 Soviet Jewish physicist and activist Alexander Voronel arrives in Israel (11, p. 129).
31-12-1974 Court in Vinnitsa sentenced Dr. Michael Stern to eight years in prison for alleged bribe-taking and extortion. 

List of sources 
to the chronology of events


Employed abbreviations: a.a. - the archive of the author; DM - date of a message (not of an event); t.m.- a telephone message from Moscow in real time.
Other sources of information are listed below. Their numbers are given in the chronology in parentheses.

  1. Boris Morozov, "Jewish Emigration in the light of new documents," Cummings Center, Tel Aviv University "," TSHSD, 1998.
  2. Ann Shenkar, Newsletter "Actions Committee," (English).
  3. "Wikipedia", http://ru.wikipedia.org .
  4. "Jewish electronic encyclopedia" http://www.eleven.co.il.
  5. Concise Jewish Encyclopedia, tom.8, "Society for the Exploration of the Jewish community", Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 1996.
  6. Jewish Encyclopedia, CD-Rom Edition
  7. Friedman, Murray and Chernin, Albert, Editors, "A Second Exodus, The American Movement to Free Soviet Jews", Hanover, Brandeis University Press, 1999.
  8. Gilbert, Martin, "Shcharansky, Hero of Our Time", London, Macmillan London Limited, 1986.
  9. Levin, Nora, "The Jews in the Soviet Union since 1917, Paradox of Survival", Volume I, Volume II, New York and London, New York University Press, 1988.
  10. Prital David, "Jews of the FSU in Israel and Diaspora".
  11. Soviet Jewish Affairs, Chronicle of Events, Sources are Western Press reports, unless specifically stated.
  12. Rosenfeld Nancy "Unfinished Journey".
  13. Interview.
  14. Washington Post.
  15. Wurtman Enid, Articles in "Jerusalem Post" and audiocassettes of telephone talks with refuseniks in Russia.
  16. Schroeter, Leonard, "The Last Exodus", Jerusalem, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Jerusalem, 1974.
  17. Insight, 70 Years of Soviet Union.
  18. Nehemia Levanon, Code Nativ, Am Oved, 1995, Hebrew.
  19. Yuli Kosharovsky, "We are once again the Jews", Volume 1, 2007.
  20. "Anti-Jewish processes in the Soviet Union 1969-1971 years", edition of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Centre for Research of East European Jewry in 1979.
  21. Pinkus, Benjamin, National Revival, Heritage Center, Ben-Gurion, 1993, Hebrew.
  22. Interview of the author.
  23. "A collection of letters, petitions and appeals", Center for the Study of East European Jewry. 
  24. Shindler, Colin, "Exit Visa, Détente, Human Rights and the Jewish Emigration Movement in the USSR", London, Bachman and Turner, 1978.
  25. Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. Newsletter.
  26. Gilbert, Martin, "The Jews of Hope, The Plight of Soviet Jewry Today", London, Macmillan London Limited, 1984.
  27. Fain, Benjamin, "Faith and Reason", Mahanaim, Jerusalem 2007.
  28. Bulletin UCSJ "Alert".
  29. Lerner, Alexander, "Change of Heart", Minneapolis, Lerner Publication Company, Rehovot, Balaban Publishers, 1992.
  30. Lein, Evgeny "Lest we forget".
  31. Israel Public Council for Soviet Jewry, Israel, Profile.
  32. Gilbert, Martin, "The Jews of Hope, The Plight of Soviet Jewry Today" London, Macmillian London Limited, 1984.
  33. Joel L. Lebowitz, James S. Langer, William I. Glaberson, Editors, "Fourth International conference on collective fenomena", Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences, Published by The New York Academy of Science, ANYAA9 337, 1-223, 1980.
  34. Joel L. Lebowitz, Editor, "Fourth International conference on collective fenomena", Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences, Published by The New York Academy of Science, ANYAA9 373, 1-233, 1981.
  35. David Zilberman, "Hunger-strike and demonstration of Soviet Jews in Moscow on March 10-11, 1971", Diary of a demonstrator, The Legend of the exodus from Russia, Nazareth Elit, Israel, 1971.
  36. Inna Axelrod-Rubin "Life is like life”, memories, Jerusalem 2006.