CONS - reasons against our emigration from the USSR (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics = the Soviet Union = Mature Socialist Country = The Country of practically built Communism)
This story is a continuation of story The First Thoughts about Emigration from the USSR.
First priority, without question, was family safety, the safest way to the future for my family and myself. At that time I did not know a person, who applied for emigration from the USSR. I heard on foreign radio stations some rumors about several people, who tried to emigrate. As soon as any one of them applied, he and his family were announced as traitors of their Motherland. Adults were thrown out of work and children out of school and colleges. I knew that all men, living in Moscow, must work. If a man did not work in Moscow more than several months, the law required that all his family loses right for “propiska” (residence permit) in Moscow and should be sent to Siberia, where were always a lot of possibilities to keep people “employed”. Later, when we applied for emigration, I was called to KGB office and was informed that my family has right to be in Moscow without my employment not more, than 4 months and after that, in spite of the fact that my wife and our children have been born in Moscow and we lived in Moscow 40 years, whole family will be moved to Siberia. It did not sound as a very good future to me and my family.
Second reason was family financial and social status. My family lived in Moscow, the capital of the USSR, which at that time for many reasons was one of the most, if not the most, attractive place for living in the USSR, and we were in relatively better economic conditions, than many of our friends and relatives. At that time I had an academic degree of “Candidate of Science” and title and position of Senior Scientist and a Head of a department in Central Research Center in Moscow for at least seven years. I was also finishing my work on the book that was the thesis of my next advanced academic degree of “Doctor of Science in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics”. My wife worked as a Senior Economist in Central Research Institute of Housing in Moscow for few years. Our older son was about 10 years old and was in 5th grade. At the age of 10 years, children in the USSR should be in 3rd grade since they start in the first grade at age of 7 years. Our son was well prepared for school and the teacher of his first grade and the Director of the school recommended to move him in upper grade in few weeks after beginning of school year. First, they moved him to the second grade and in a few more weeks they moved him to the third grade. Since schools in the USSR had 10 grades, our son graduated from school, when he was 15 years old. Our younger son was about 4 years old. We could also afford buying fruits for our children on open market. Not many families, even in Moscow, could support the life our family had in the USSR. So, at that time our family including our children was in reasonably good shape.
Third were family living conditions. We lived in Moscow and we had propiska (permission to live) in Moscow. Nobody could spend a night in any place, home, street, town, which has not been indicated in his passport as his propiska without militia (police) permission. Militia could stop anybody, anywhere and ask about passport anytime of a day and especially at night. To get propiska in Moscow for any person, living outside of Moscow, was practically almost impossible. Only people who could pay huge bribes to appropriate city government employees and militia had a chance. My understanding was that propiska was one of the main source of income of many city socialist/communist autocrats – apparatchiks. We lived in a government apartment as all people in the cities – there were no such thing as private ownership of an apartment or a house in the Moscow. Our apartment was on the second level of brick multi-family house. It consisted of three rooms and small kitchen with central water heating, which could support at least 48OF during cold winter days, running water, gas stove, shower and toilet. Total area of the apartment was 390 sq ft. Apartment like ours was the lifelong dream of the most people living in Moscow and, for that matter, of the most people in whole “socialist/communist paradise”. The majority people in the USSR did not have anything like that.
Fourth, we had a family car, which we bought in 1970 after staying in line for 4 or 5 years. It does not tell much to people, living in a Western country, but Russians, who remember that time, know it was an extreme luxury in Russia to have a car. The reader, who would like to know how much fun is buying and owning a car in matured socialist/communist country, is referred to our two short “funny” stories about family car – Buying a car in Moscow the USSR and Our first car in Moscow the USSR.
Fifth, we had a relatively large, by Soviet standards, family library which included technical and fiction books I assembled during our last 20 years in the USSR. A good book was always a “deficit” in the USSR. In spite of it we assembled good library consisting of several thousand books. When four of us emigrated, the socialist/communist government permitted us to take with us $96 per person, cloth, which we had on us at the time, several small suitcases with soap and other small stuff and all our books, 4000 our books and 1000 books of our friends Dr. Vladimir Minuhin and Yuri Druzhnikov, writer, who wanted to emigrate after us.
All reasons, mentioned above, were kind of objective reasons. But there also was my parent’s objection. My mother lived through very difficult life in the USSR. When she was 14 years old she became a member of The Jewish Labor Bund party (one of the most important left wing, against government, Jewish political organizations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries ) in 1920. At that time my mother’s older brother, Josef, was 17 years old and a member of The Jewish Labor Bund Central Committee; he involved his younger sister in the revolution. Russian wing of the Bund Party has been destroyed later by Bolsheviks and my mother was arrested twice and spent two terms in Soviet political jails and two exiles in Siberia. We will talk about it in more details later but in time, I am writing about, I did not know anything about my mother’s past political life. When I mentioned to my parents about my emigration plans the first time, my mother reacted with one phrase, which she repeated later many times to me and my wife. She said to me “If there would be an opportunity to leave the Soviet Union, you should be the last man to do it. You have everything what other people do not have.” All those conversations affected my wife thoughts and for about five years from 1970 to 1975 she did not want to hear anything about emigration. In other words I did not have any support for the idea of our emigration in my family. Otherwise, I think I would start working on emigration from the USSR several years earlier.
B.V. March 2016
This story is a continuation of story The First Thoughts about Emigration from the USSR.
First priority, without question, was family safety, the safest way to the future for my family and myself. At that time I did not know a person, who applied for emigration from the USSR. I heard on foreign radio stations some rumors about several people, who tried to emigrate. As soon as any one of them applied, he and his family were announced as traitors of their Motherland. Adults were thrown out of work and children out of school and colleges. I knew that all men, living in Moscow, must work. If a man did not work in Moscow more than several months, the law required that all his family loses right for “propiska” (residence permit) in Moscow and should be sent to Siberia, where were always a lot of possibilities to keep people “employed”. Later, when we applied for emigration, I was called to KGB office and was informed that my family has right to be in Moscow without my employment not more, than 4 months and after that, in spite of the fact that my wife and our children have been born in Moscow and we lived in Moscow 40 years, whole family will be moved to Siberia. It did not sound as a very good future to me and my family.
Second reason was family financial and social status. My family lived in Moscow, the capital of the USSR, which at that time for many reasons was one of the most, if not the most, attractive place for living in the USSR, and we were in relatively better economic conditions, than many of our friends and relatives. At that time I had an academic degree of “Candidate of Science” and title and position of Senior Scientist and a Head of a department in Central Research Center in Moscow for at least seven years. I was also finishing my work on the book that was the thesis of my next advanced academic degree of “Doctor of Science in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics”. My wife worked as a Senior Economist in Central Research Institute of Housing in Moscow for few years. Our older son was about 10 years old and was in 5th grade. At the age of 10 years, children in the USSR should be in 3rd grade since they start in the first grade at age of 7 years. Our son was well prepared for school and the teacher of his first grade and the Director of the school recommended to move him in upper grade in few weeks after beginning of school year. First, they moved him to the second grade and in a few more weeks they moved him to the third grade. Since schools in the USSR had 10 grades, our son graduated from school, when he was 15 years old. Our younger son was about 4 years old. We could also afford buying fruits for our children on open market. Not many families, even in Moscow, could support the life our family had in the USSR. So, at that time our family including our children was in reasonably good shape.
Third were family living conditions. We lived in Moscow and we had propiska (permission to live) in Moscow. Nobody could spend a night in any place, home, street, town, which has not been indicated in his passport as his propiska without militia (police) permission. Militia could stop anybody, anywhere and ask about passport anytime of a day and especially at night. To get propiska in Moscow for any person, living outside of Moscow, was practically almost impossible. Only people who could pay huge bribes to appropriate city government employees and militia had a chance. My understanding was that propiska was one of the main source of income of many city socialist/communist autocrats – apparatchiks. We lived in a government apartment as all people in the cities – there were no such thing as private ownership of an apartment or a house in the Moscow. Our apartment was on the second level of brick multi-family house. It consisted of three rooms and small kitchen with central water heating, which could support at least 48OF during cold winter days, running water, gas stove, shower and toilet. Total area of the apartment was 390 sq ft. Apartment like ours was the lifelong dream of the most people living in Moscow and, for that matter, of the most people in whole “socialist/communist paradise”. The majority people in the USSR did not have anything like that.
Fourth, we had a family car, which we bought in 1970 after staying in line for 4 or 5 years. It does not tell much to people, living in a Western country, but Russians, who remember that time, know it was an extreme luxury in Russia to have a car. The reader, who would like to know how much fun is buying and owning a car in matured socialist/communist country, is referred to our two short “funny” stories about family car – Buying a car in Moscow the USSR and Our first car in Moscow the USSR.
Fifth, we had a relatively large, by Soviet standards, family library which included technical and fiction books I assembled during our last 20 years in the USSR. A good book was always a “deficit” in the USSR. In spite of it we assembled good library consisting of several thousand books. When four of us emigrated, the socialist/communist government permitted us to take with us $96 per person, cloth, which we had on us at the time, several small suitcases with soap and other small stuff and all our books, 4000 our books and 1000 books of our friends Dr. Vladimir Minuhin and Yuri Druzhnikov, writer, who wanted to emigrate after us.
All reasons, mentioned above, were kind of objective reasons. But there also was my parent’s objection. My mother lived through very difficult life in the USSR. When she was 14 years old she became a member of The Jewish Labor Bund party (one of the most important left wing, against government, Jewish political organizations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries ) in 1920. At that time my mother’s older brother, Josef, was 17 years old and a member of The Jewish Labor Bund Central Committee; he involved his younger sister in the revolution. Russian wing of the Bund Party has been destroyed later by Bolsheviks and my mother was arrested twice and spent two terms in Soviet political jails and two exiles in Siberia. We will talk about it in more details later but in time, I am writing about, I did not know anything about my mother’s past political life. When I mentioned to my parents about my emigration plans the first time, my mother reacted with one phrase, which she repeated later many times to me and my wife. She said to me “If there would be an opportunity to leave the Soviet Union, you should be the last man to do it. You have everything what other people do not have.” All those conversations affected my wife thoughts and for about five years from 1970 to 1975 she did not want to hear anything about emigration. In other words I did not have any support for the idea of our emigration in my family. Otherwise, I think I would start working on emigration from the USSR several years earlier.
B.V. March 2016
