Chronology of events
of the Zionist movement in the Soviet Union

Compiled by Yuli Kosharovsky and Enid Wurtman



1975-1976


Date Event
10-01-1975 USSR repudiates 1972 trade agreement with the United States. A Novosti  commentary, "Soul Hunters" cites official data showing that 98.4% of Soviet Jews applying to leave have been granted permission (11, p. 129).
10-01-1975 Andrei Sakharov is awarded the Nobel Prize.
27-01-1975 Over 100 Soviet Jews sign a letter to the West that Russian rejection of  1972 trade agreement is due to US Export-Import Bank credit limitations (Stevenson Amendment),  not  Jackson-Vanik Amendment (DM) (11, p. 129).
29-01-1975 Six leading Soviet Jewish activists defend Senator Henry Jackson against charge by dissident historian Roy Medvedev that he sought “pretentious publicity” in pushing for policy of freer emigration (11, p. 129).
04-02-1975 A group of the British MPs table parliamentary motion calling on Soviet authorities to commute M. Leviev’s death sentence (11, p. 130).
11-02-1975 100 members of Belgian scientific community  appeal to the Soviet authorities to release Dr. Mikhail Stern. (11, p. 130).
12-02-1975 200 French political leaders, university professors, and physicians including Jean-Paul Sartre appeal to the Soviet authorities to release Dr. Mikhail Stern. (11, p. 130).
24-02-1975 Soviet Jews demonstrate outside the Lenin Library in Moscow calling for the release of Jewish prisoners in the USSR and freer emigration to Israel are detained by police. 10 refuseniks participated in the demonstration including Mark Nashpits, Boris Tsitlenok, Joseph Beilin, Anatoly Sharansky. Six were arrested for 15 days and Nashpits, Tsitlenok were brought to criminal court, and Tsipin and Sharansky were released (11, p. 130; 22, Natan Sharansky).
03-03-1975 Famous dissident, Viktor Krasin is given permission to emigrate to Canada.  (11, p. 118)
04-03-1975 The sculptor Ernest Neizvestny is expelled from the Union of Soviet Artists after applying to emigrate to Israel. (11, p.118)
05-03-1975 Sender Levinzon is arrested in Bendery on charges of having committed economic crimes (11, p. 118).
12-03-1975 120 activists sign letter of protest against impending trial of Mark Nashpits and Boris Tsitlionok who demonstrated outside the Lenin Library with other Refuseniks. (DM) (11, p. 118).
29-03-1975 Uniformed police are reported to have stopped Passover service at Moscow synagogue and to have ordered worshippers to leave (DM) (11, p.118) 
31-03-1975 Mark Nashpits and Boris Tsitlionok are sentenced to five years’ internal exile.  (11, p. 118).
31-03-1975 98 activists from major cities begin a three day hunger strike to protest against the verdict of Nashpits and Tsitlonok. (DM) (11, p. 118). 
01-04-1975 Alexander and Yevgeny Levich, sons of a famous Jewish scientist Benjamin Levich, leave Moscow for Israel after a three year struggle for exit visas. (11, p. 118). 
05-04-1975 The physicists Dr. Grigory and Isai Goldstein from Tbilisi are threatened with prosecution unless they cease demanding permission to emigrate to Israel. On April 4th Jewish scientists who wish to leave the USSR participate in Moscow seminar dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (11, p.118)
07-04-1975 Mikhail Agursky, son of Samuel Agursky, who was the founder of Yevsektsiya (Jewish Section in the USSR) and the American Communist Party, leaves the Soviet Union to Israel (11, p. 118-119).
12-04-1975 280 Jewish activists from 19 Soviet cities sign appeal to Jewish organizations abroad demanding setting up a special international commission to investigate violations of human rights in the USSR over Jewish emigration.  (11, p. 119).
13-04-1975 Day of Solidarity with Soviet Jews; Israel President Katzir appeals to Kremlin leaders to end harassment of Jews who wish to emigrate. 200 Jewish activists from various parts of the USSR declare one day hunger strike. (11, p. 119). 
13-04-1975 An estimated 125,000 people participate in New York demonstration. marking Solidarity Day with Soviet Jewry. (11, p. 119).
18-04-1975 Hunger strikes take place in 45 cities in Europe and America in  solidarity with the fasting Jewish activists Maria and Vladimir Slepak and their son Alexander to protest against their prolonged deprivation of exit visas to Israel (11, p. 119).
19-04-1975 Arrest of Andrew Tverdokhlebov, Secretary of the Moscow’s Amnesty International group. (11, p. 119)
25-04-1975 Dr. W.J. McGill, President of the Columbia University, said that he will not “receive or deal with any visitors from the Soviet Union” and will not carry out joint projects with Soviet scientists until Vitaly Rubin, the Jewish sinologist, is permitted to accept a teaching post at Columbia University (11, p. 119).
25-04-1975 RSFSR Supreme Court rejects appeals by Mark Nashpits and Boris Tsitlionok (11, p. 119).
05-05-1975 A group of Riga Jews gathered in Rumbula on the site of mass executions of Jews for the commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust  (DM). (11, p. 119)
14-05-1975 Speaking at the site of the Minsk ghetto, Colonel Yefim Davidovich has condemned anti-Semitic poet and writer Maxim Luzhanin and anti-Semitic writer Vladimir Begun. Several hundred Jews attended the rally (11, p. 119).
16-05-1975 Colonel Yefim Davidovich, Minsk, stripped of military rank and deprived of officer’s pension (11, p. 119).
19-05-1975 Mark Nashpitz is exiled to Chita; Boris Tsitlonock to Krasnoyarsk. (11,p.120)
27-05-1975 Arrest of Anatoly Malkin for "evasion of military service”; previously Malkin was expelled from an institute as a result of filing for emigration to Israel (22, Dina Beilin).
01-06-1975 Sender Levinson of Bendery, Moldavia, is sentenced to six years in a labor camp for “speculation” (DM). (11, p.120)
06-06-1975 100 activists sent an appeal in defense of Malkin to U.S. Senate and Congress.
06-06-1975 USSR Supreme Soviet adopts decree imposing a new tax of 30%  on money sent to Soviet citizens from abroad (11, p. 120, DM).
14-06-1975 Lev Yagman, David Chernoglaz and Lassal Kaminsky, convicted in the 1971 Leningrad trial, are freed following completion of their five year sentences. ( 11, p. 120).
14-06-1975 In England the film "Calculated Risk” was shown; filmed  in Moscow with the participation of Anatoly Sharansky and Vladmir Slepak.
15-06-1975 Activists in several cities held a hunger strike to protest the sixth anniversary of the beginning of mass arrests in 1970 (25).
16-06-1975 38 Soviet Jewish activists, including Vitaly Rubin, Vladimir Slepak, Victor Brailovsky and Mark Azbel appeal  to the International Pen Club and five prominent Western authors to act in defense of the samizdat magazine "Jews in the USSR" (11, p. 120).
17-06-1975 Interrogation of Ida Nudel on documents relating to Prisoners of Zion (25).
29-06-1975 Two groups of refuseniks meet with 10 senators, led by Hubert Humphrey, in Jacob Javits’ room at the Hotel Russiya (25).
29-06-1975 Visit to Moscow of fourteen senators led by Hubert Humphrey. The visit lasted from June 29 to July 5, 1975 (25).
02-07-1975 A provocation was staged against activist Lev Roitburd at the Odessa airport aimed at preventing his departure to Moscow, and subsequently on the basis of this provocation Roitburd will be sentenced to two years imprisonment (22, Dina Beilin).
05-07-1975 A 57 page new edition of the dissident "Chronicle of Current Events” begins to circulate in Moscow. Dated May 31st, the latest edition is the 36th to appear since 1968. (DM) (11, p. 121).
14-07-1975 Intourist announces that "tourist-Zionists will be regarded as “interfering in Russia’s internal affairs”. The announcement follows a similar warning in the Soviet weekly Nedelya. (11, p. 121). 
22-07-1975 The Presidents Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations  and National Conference on Soviet Jewry issue a joint statement opposing changes in the Jackson-Vanik Amendment without parallel improvement in the USSR’s restrictions on emigration. (DM) (11, p. 121).
The Speaker of the Netherlands Parliament Edward van Thijn, returning from a visit to Moscow, confirms the use of conscription in the Soviet campaign against Jewish emigration. (DM)  (11, p. 121)
01-08-1975 The “Final Helsinki Act" was signed in Helsinki at the summit of 35 nations of Europe, USA and Canada (13, p. 183-189).
03-08-1975 Prisoner of Zion Vladimir Markman arrives in Israel after serving three years imprisonment in the USSR (11, p. 121).
11-08-1975 Prisoner of Zion David Chernoglaz receives exit visa to Israel (11, p. 121).
15-08-1975 Yakov Vinarov, a 21 year old engineering student who refused conscription into the army, is sentenced in Kiev to three years' imprisonment for "evading military service". (DM) (11, p. 121
26-08-1975 Odessa activist Lev Roitburd receives a two year sentence of imprisonment "for resisting arrest" during visit to USSR of US Senate delegation (11, p. 122). 
21-08-1975 Isaac Yulitin, a 35 year old Doctor of Mathematics, is sentenced to one year imprisonment on charges of attempted smuggling, having been arrested at Leningrad airport enroute to Israel (11, p. 122).
25-08-1975 Anatoly Malkin, a 20 year old Jewish student of metallurgy, charged  in Moscow with evading military service after applying for an exit visa to Israel, is sentenced to three years’ imprisonment (11, p. 122). 
29-08-1975 Colonels Lev Ovsischer and Yefim Davidovich and other Zionist activists protest imminent screening in Minsk of new anti-Zionist documentary film, "The Secret and the Obvious". (d.or.) (11, p.  122).
02-09-1975 Jewish leaders agree in Paris to hold a Second World Conference on Soviet Jewry in Brussels in February 1976.    (11, p. 95).
05-09-1975 During New Year’s eve service Jews clash with militia outside Moscow synagogue. (11 p. 95)
09-09-1975 Professor Aryeh Dvoretsky of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and President of the Israel Science Academy, lectures at Jewish scientific seminar of Alexander Voronel in Moscow. (DM) (11, p. 95).
09-09-1975 British 35’s Women’s Committee launch a global campaign to collect 12 million signatures in 42 countries on behalf of persecuted Soviet Jewish women (11, p. 95).
13-09-1975 Pravda and Izvestia  publish complete text of Helsinki Final Act.(11, p. 95).
18-09-1975 The Soviet Union ratified the Helsinki Accords (26, p.93).
19-09-1975 Alexander Slepak, 23, elder son of Moscow activist Vladimir Slepak, is sent to prison on charges of “loitering”. (DM) (11, p. 95).
19-09-1975 French Jewry holds week of solidarity with Jews in the USSR from September 19th to 29th.  (11, p. 95).
21-09-1975 Soviet authorities intervene in Succot picnic held in the woods near Moscow by Russian Jews and visiting Israeli athletes; tearing down Israeli flag; (11, p. 95). 
24-09-1975 20,000 participate in march of solidarity with Soviet Jewry in Paris (11, p. 95).
24-09-1975 RSFSR rejects appeal by Mark Nashpits, sentenced in May to 5 years’ exile. (DM) (11, p. 95).
28-09-1975 Jewish activists in Kiev were not allowed to attend the Babi Yar commemoration ceremony on the 34th anniversary of the Nazi massacre of Jews (25, 11, p. 95).
30-09-1975 Two Jewish cemeteries in Kiev are reported to have been desecrated by vandals. (11, p. 95).
01-10-1975 Sylva Zalmanson begins the second week of her hunger strike outside the UN building in New York in support of her husband Edward Kuznetsov and her brothers Israel and Wolf Zalmanson who are still imprisoned in the USSR.  (11, p. 95, DM).
02-10-1975 Dr. Mikhail Stern’s son Viktor arrives in London to launch a world-wide campaign for the release of his father from a Soviet prison camp. (11, p. 95) 
08-10-1975 Newspaper Sovetskaya Belorussia "accused" Refuseniks Naum Olshansky and Yefim Davidovich that they "sold out to Zionism."
09-10-1975 Andrei Sakharov awarded  Nobel Prize.
10-10-1975 Parliamentarians from 12 Western European countries form a committee in support of Soviet Jewish emigration. (11, p. 95).
16-10-1975 The call-up of Anatoly Malkin, who refused to serve in the Soviet army, because the authorities are using it as a deterrent against those who want to leave, was reported in the West.  (25). 
21-10-1975 The USSR permanent mission at the UN protests demonstrations by the "Zionist hooligan groups" held October 8th-9th. (11, p. 96).
28-10-1975 52 British MPS sign motion condemning Soviet treatment of Professor Levich and urging the Soviet government to honor the Helsinki agreement. (DM)  (11, p.96)
30-10-1975 The 37th issue of the samizdat “Chronicle of Current Events” is circulated in the USSR.  (11. p. 96)
31-10-1975 119 Soviet Jews sign protest against the UN Third Committee draft resolution equating Zionism with racism claiming it is “essentially anti-Semitic”. (DM)  (11,p.96)
31-10-1975 Boris Penson, sentenced to 10 years imprisonment at the first Leningrad trial, declares a hunger strike to “mark political prisoner day” in the USSR.  (DM)  (11,p.96)
10-11-1975 A women's Amnesty International conference in London adopts a resolution urging the Soviet Union to cease its antisemitic policies (11, p. 96).
10-11-1975 UN Resolution number 3379 equated Zionism with racism (13, p. 85).
18-11-1975 Alexander Silnitsky, a 23 year old student from Krasnodar, is sentenced to three years imprisonment on charges of draft evasion (11, p. 96, DM).
20-11-1975 The arrest of Boris Zaturensky, 33, in Minsk is reported. Zaturensky was arrested  on charges of buying and selling gold coins, not long after his application to emigrate to Israel. (11, p. 96).
20-11-1975 A fortnightly scientific seminar, similar to the one in Moscow, is begun  in Kiev with the participation of 15 Jewish scientists, most of whom were refused exit visas to Israel (11, p. 96),
23-11-1975 Dr. Mikhail Stern is reported to be seriously ill in prison (11, p. 96).
31/11/1975 119 Soviet Jews have protested against the UN resolution that equated Zionism with racism. (11, p. 96).
01-12-1975 Petya Pinkhasov, 39, of Derbent, is released after serving two years of a five year sentence. (DM) (11, p. 96).
01-12-1975 Felix Dektor, co-editor of samizdat magazine "The Jews in the USSR", is expelled from the Writers' Union. (11, p. 96)
01-12-1975 Over 300 British doctors appeal for release Dr. M. Stern who was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. (11, p. 96).
13-12-1975 The French Communist Party challenges the Soviet authorities to deny the existence of forced labor camps for political prisoners in the USSR. (DM) (11, p. 96).
14-12-1975 A National Council on Soviet Jewry is established at the conclusion of the first National Conference on Soviet Jewry held in Great Britain. (11, p. 96).
15-12-1975 The Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth Dr. Immanuel Jakobovitz visits the USSR at the invitation of the Soviet authorities. The visit will last until December 24 (11, p. 97).
24-12-1975 On Vladimir Prestin’s initiative, a "Day of Solidarity with Prisoners of Zion" is held in Moscow. (22, Vladimir Prestin).
24-12-1975 In Moscow, a demonstration of solidarity with Prisoners of Zion is organized. Sharansky, Luntz, Azbel, Kosharovsky, Brailovsky, Lazaris and others are arrested (25).
31-12-1975 Emigration in 1975 was 13,216 people, representing 38% of the number of emigrants in 1973.
00-01-1976 In Leningrad, under the leadership of Evgeny Abezgauz an unauthorized exhibition of paintings by Jewish artists is held.
00-01-1976 The need to receive a reference from your employer to apply for an exit visa was eliminated.
00-01-1976 Authorities demand that Vladimir Kislik, head of a scientists-refuseniks seminar in Kiev, stop activities of the seminar; otherwise they threatened serious repercussions. (25) 
05-01-1976 President Ford (USA) claims that the Jackson Amendment, which became law a year ago, has led to reduced emigration of Soviet Jews. (11, p. 97).
16-01-1976 Lydia Nisanova, 32, of Derbent, receives 18 months imprisonment  on charges of speculation. In the summer of 1975 Mrs. Nisanova applied for an emigration permit to Israel. (11, p. 97).
29-01-1976 The Council of Europe in Strasbourg approves unanimously a recommendation that member states be required to intervene with Moscow on the situation of Jews in the USSR. (11, p. 97).
16-02-1976 Delegation of refuseniks is accepted by senior officials of the Moscow Ministry of Internal Affairs for the first time in four years (11, p. 97).
16-02-1976 A meeting with a group of refuseniks was held In the CPSU Central Committee by a Department head of administrative bodies Albert Ivanov.
17-02-1976 The Second World Conference on Soviet Jewry takes place in Brussels until November 19th.  (11, p. 97).
24-02-1976 The mathematician, Professor Alexander Luntz, a principal Moscow Jewish activist, arrives in Israel (11, p. 97).
27-02-1976 Iosif Meshiner, 41, a teacher from Bendery, is released after serving a six-year prison term. (DM) (11, p. 97).
29-02-1976 Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry" (SSSJ) held a protest rally outside the Soviet embassy in the USA (25).
29-02-1976 In Washington, the "Conference on Soviet Jewry” began. The Conference will complete its work on March 2.
15-03-1976 A Purimshpiel is performed in a small Yiddish amateur theater in Kishinev. (11, p. 130, DM). 
25-03-1976 50 Nobel laureates appeal to Soviet authorities for the release of Dr. Shtern. (11, p. 130.)
04-04-1976 National Conference on Soviet Jewry in the United States proclaims National Solidarity Month on behalf of Soviet Jewry. (11, p. 130).
24-04-1976 Former Red Army Colonel Yefim Davidovich, an activist fighting for repatriation of Soviet Jewry to Israel and against anti-Semitism, has died of a heart attack in Minsk at the age of 54. (11, p. 130).
02-05-1976 100,000 participate in New York in a march of solidarity with Soviet Jewry.  (11, p. 130).
09-05-1976 3000 Jews attend meeting addressed by Colonel Lev Ovsishcher in Minsk on the anniversary of Soviet victory in World War II.  (11, p. 130).
12-05-1976 The Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Agreements in the USSR is formed in Moscow.  The Helsinki Monitoring Group is led by dissident Yuri Orlov. (11, p. 130).
19-05-1976 77 activists from 13 cities made a statement about the need to revive Jewish culture in the USSR (25).
23-05-1976 A tax 30% is levied on money transferred to Soviet citizens from abroad. (11, p. 130 – p. 131).
00-06-1976 Representatives of the SSSJ organization report that seminars operate in Moscow under the direction of Alexander Lerner, Mark Azbel, Benjamin Levich, Yuli Kosharovsky, Arkady Mai, and Grigory Rosenstein (25).
00-06-1976 Vladimir Slepak replaces Vitaly Rubin in the "Moscow Helsinki Group” due to Vitaly’s departure to Israel (22, Vladimir Slepak).
11-06-1976 Soviet Jews celebrate the 100th session of the Moscow scientists’ seminar.  (11, p.131)
15-06-1976 USSR adopts new regulations raising duty on parcels sent to Soviet citizens from abroad.  (11, p.131)
15-06-1976 Demonstrations and protest rallies were held in Israel on the sixth anniversary of the arrests of the Leningrad processes (25). 
18-06-1976 Inna and Vitaly Rubin arrive in Israel (25).
22-06-1976 Death sentence on Mikhail Leviev is commuted to 15 years in a labor camp.
01-07-1976 A memorial erected at Babi Yar, contains no Jewish reference (11, p. 130).
06-07-1976 Arkady and Leonid Weinman, 24 year old twins from Kharkov, receive exit visas for Israel after serving a four-year prison term of imprisonment for “hooliganism”. (DM)  (11, p. 130, DM).
07-07-1976 An all-party group of British women MPs in England has created a committee in support of activist Ida Nudel” (11, p. 131).
09-07-1976 A seminar of Refuseniks under the leadership of Colonel Lev Ovsischer begins  to operate in Minsk (11, p. 131). 
16-07-1976 Jewish activist Lazar Lubarsky (Kharkov) is freed after serving a four year sentence for allegedly giving away state secrets. (11, p. 131).
30-07-1976 Yuri Vudka, of Ryazan, is released from labor camp after serving a seven year sentence for “anti-Soviet activities”. (11, p. 131).
07-08-1976 Parliamentary delegation of Denmark called the Soviet authorities to carry out liberal emigration policies (11, p. 131).
12-09-1976 June Jacobs was elected Chairman of the British National Council for  Soviet Jewry (11, p. 124).
13-09-1976 A week of activities on behalf of Moscow activist Ida Nudel begins in Great Britain. (11, p. 103)
18-09-1976 A group of twenty activists, including Vladimir Slepak, Boris Chernobilsky, Yosef Ahs and other Jewish activists, submitted to the Supreme Soviet a letter of protest against unsubstantiated refusals. The letter sets out requirements for written refusals of exit visas and the possibilitiy to appeal in the presence of a refusenik (22, Dina Beilin).
20-09-1976 The widow and daughter of Colonel Yefim Davidovich arrive in Israel on December 27. (11, p. 103)
27-09-1976 Yefim Davidovich’s remains were delivered to Israel and buried in Jerusalem. (11, p. 103)
24-09-1976 Jews celebrate the New Year outsider the Moscow Choral Synagogue without police interference. (11, p. 103).
16-10-1976 Enid Wurtman, co-chairman of the Union of Council for Soviet Jewry, and Connie Smukler arrive on a visit to Moscow (22, Enid Wurtman).
18-10-1976 Sit-in demonstration of refuseniks in the Supreme Soviet, demanding an answer to a letter filed by Refuseniks a month earlier. The demonstration was attended by twelve people. In the evening, participants were detained, taken into the woods and released (22, Dina Beilin, Enid Wurtman).
19-10-1976 The New York Times published an article about the demonstration on October 17 in the Supreme Soviet (22 , Enid Wurtman).
19-10-1976 13 activists held a demonstration at the Supreme Soviet. At the end of the day participants were detained, taken into the woods, and some Refuseniks were beaten up by the police. Zahar Tesker’s nose was broken. (aa.).
19-10-1976 Press-conference was organized by Natan Sharansky at Vladimir Slepak’s apartment in connection with beating of activists in the forest near Moscow, following the demonstration at the Supreme Soviet, Moscow (22, Dina Beilin).
19-10-1976 A joint Israeli-American committee meeting in New York agrees  in principle to restrict aid to “drop-outs” in Vienna (11, p. 103).
20-10-1976 Demonstration of twenty-eight activists in the Supreme Soviet with a demand to punish those who were guilty of beating of Jewish activists the previous day as well as to respond to the letter filed by Refuseniks a month earlier. They attain a promise to be received by Shchelokov the next day (22, Dina Beilin).
20-10-1976 David Shipler article in The New York Times about the beating of activists after the demonstration (22, Enid Wurtman).
21-10-1976 Demonstration of fifty-two activists at the reception room of the MIA; reception of representatives of the demonstrators include Vladimir Slepak, Anatoly Sharansky, Boris Chernobylsky by Minister Shchelokov. After reception the demonstrators with yellow stars on the chest passed through the center of Moscow to the reception room of the Central Committee, where they were detained and taken outside of Moscow. Four - Victor Elistratov, Mikhail Kremen, Arkady Polishchuk and Boris Chernobilsky were separated from the others and taken away. (22, Dina Beilin).
22-10-1976 Demonstration of forty activists in the Supreme Soviet, march out of the Supreme Soviet building to the reception room of the Central Committee with yellow stars on their clothes. Albert Ivanov received Vladimir Slepak, Yosef Ahs and Anatoly Sharansky. At the end of the day they were detained and taken to a drunkards facility, all were registered, a report was written down, and they were forewarned. (22, Dina Beilin).
23-10-1976 Information was received that Victor Elistratov, Mikhail Kremen and Arkady Polishchuk were detained for 15 days, and Boris Chernobilsky was placed in Butyrskaya prison (22, Dina Beilin).
25-10-1976 Demonstration at the Central Committee with yellow stars. Most of the protesters were arrested on their way to the Central Committee, at home or near home. All in all 17 people were arrested and sentenced to 15 days of detention: Vladimir Slepak, Anatoly Sharansky, Yuli Kosharovsky, Yosef Beilin, Felix Kandel, etc. Six women were fined 20 rubles each. Criminal cases on hooliganism charges were opened against Yoseph Ahs and Boris Chernobilsky. A month later they will be released for lack of evidence. (22, Dina Beilin).
28-10-1976 Appeal of Maria Slepak to Senator Edward Kennedy in defense of Boris Chernobilsky and Joseph Ahs; during this time her own husband was serving 15 days of detention (Letter of Mary Sepak).
00/11/1976 A book "The Long Road to Freedom" was issued by samizdat.
02-11-1976 Presidential elections in the U.S. were won by the Democratic party candidate Jimmy Carter.
10-11-1976 Prisoners of Zion Yuri Vudka and Lazar Lubarsky receive exit visas to Israel.  (11, p. 103).
18-11-1976 Arrest in Shahrizyabe, Uzbekistan, of brothers Zavurov for refusing to take back their international passports. (22, Dina Beilin). 
18-11-1976 The first trial in Shahrizyabe, Uzbekistan of the brothers Zavurov; they were sentenced to 15 days of detention (22, Dina Beilin).
19-11-1976 Mark Lutsker, Kiev, who recently completed two year sentence for draft evasion, receives an exit visa to Israel. (DM) (11, p. 104).
22-11-1976 An article in Izvestia – “Formula of betrayal: propagandist 'of the  Zionist paradise’ in the mantle of the scientist" (27, p. 253).
23-11-1976 Searches in apartments of the organizers of the symposium on Jewish culture, including Fain, Prestin, Abramovich, Lazaris, Begun and Essas (27, p. 254).
24-11-1976 Appeal of 92 refuseniks to world Jewry protesting searches of the organizers of the symposium on Jewish culture. (8, p.151).
24-11-1976 Yevgeny Abezgauz, a leading Leningrad refusenik, receives permission to emigrate to Israel. (DM) (11, p.104)
26-11-1976 The Organizing Committee of the symposium on Jewish culture appealed to a number of international organizations and public figures with a call for support (27, p. 257).
08-12-1976 Deputy Minister of Culture Popov warns organizers of the symposium on Jewish culture of the unacceptibilty of the symposium (27, p. 262).
10-12-1976 KGB increases the pressure on the organizers of the symposium and starts questioning main activists (27, p. 269).
14-12-1976 A new wave of searches and interrogations of members of the organizing committee of the symposium on Jewish culture in Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad, Gorky, Minsk, Tbilisi and other cities, which lasted until December 20th (27, p. 270-276).
14-12-1976 Meeting of organizers of the symposium on Jewish culture with Aaron Vergelis, editor in chief of the newspaper "Sovetishe Heimland” (27, p. 273).
21-12-1976 Scheduled unofficial symposium on Jewish culture in the USSR is prevented from taking place by the authorities.

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.