PROS - reasons supporting the idea of 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.
On PROS side of the page, there were number of reasons, which supported the idea of our family emigration from the USSR.
The first reason was soviet government policies slow changing. 1969-1970 years was already time more liberal than “good old” Stalin’s time or even Khrushchev’s time, when for only talking about emigration one was considered a traitor, and could be executed or sent to Gulag for 20 or 25 years. In such cases relatives and friends, who knew nothing about emigration talks, have been also punished. I thought that time becomes more liberal although there were no official statements about the government changing policies. Official propaganda in newspapers, magazines, TV and radio practically has not changed at all from “good old” times. But one could hear rumors, that the such-and-such man (name of the person has been attached) said so-and-so in presence of several people and he has not been arrested yet. That was unusual. Every adult in the USSR understood, that anything, told in presence of several people, reported to KGB the same day. It looked at that time KGB did not arrest everybody saying wrong things, and they started to arrest selectively. It was more a feeling, intuitive understanding, rather than knowledge that the government changes policies.
The second reason was uncertain future of our two sons. There were several factors to be considered. On one hand, there was horrible phenomenon of “Pavlik Morozov” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlik_Morozov , which has been created by communist government propaganda in 1920th. When Russia was in the throes of Joseph Stalin’s campaign for the forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture, a young boy named Pavlik Morozov exposed his father as an “enemy of the People.” He informed the OGPU (as the KGB, or Soviet secret police, was then called) that his father was helping the kulaks, successful peasants who refused to relinquish their land, grain and livestock to the State as was required by the Collectivization Plan, and was therefore branded as an enemy of Socialism. Pavlik's father was arrested, tried, and sent to a concentration camp, never to be seen again. Soon after his father's trial, Pavlik was murdered by “enemies of the State.” After his death, he was hailed as a hero of the people, and every child in the Soviet Union was required to learn his story and be prepared to follow his example. Pavlik Morozov’s glory surpassed the fame of many Russian heroes. Hundreds of works have been published about the boy in various genres; his portrait has graced galleries, postcards, and postage stamps; ships and libraries have been dedicated in his honor. The campaign to keep Morozov a hero was directed by communist government. Informer hero number 001 (see book Informer 001 by Yuri Druzhnikov) remained a fearful reminder to all those who may become the victims of denunciations. By the way, I graduated from Moscow school #270, which has been dedicated in Pavlik Morozov honor and for many years it was kind of saint name for me. I think it was a reason why my parents never talked about politics and even about my mother’s past in my presence till I married in 1956. I remember that after our first son was born and I became better informed person I started to hate name Pavlik Morozov.
On another hand, rampant alcoholism among adults and even children of all ages and rampant anti-Semitism in an office, on a street, in a bus, in any public place, openly supported by socialist/communist governments of each level, did not promise our children good future. Though our children were young at that time - our older son was ten years old and young one was four years old – older son has already been beaten many times on a street outside of our apartment, in his school (he was two years younger than other children) and he already knew very well what word “jed” means. For a reader, who does not know this Russian word, it means about the same as the slur word Kike in New York; the only difference is that in the USA there are many slur words of different “strength” for Jews and in the USSR there was one very “strong” word “jed”, used by people on a street and by writers in their books. When I brought from one of my trips abroad a nice looking boy’s hat for our older son and he put it on before he went ouside, he has been beaten, and the hat has been robbed from him by other boys; when we bought him a new bicycle it was robbed from him in the first couple of days right on a street in his presence in front of our apartment building; etc, etc. I started worrying that future of our children may be dominated by never ending alcoholism, anti-Semitism, insults, fighting and crime. At that time I knew about Jewish people history a little bit from few books, published in the USSR, such as “Jew Süss” and “Judean war” by Lion Feuchtwanger, short paragraphs from books of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Aleksandr Kuprin, Nikolai Gogol. One thing was obvious to me – in the USSR of the time serious problems have come - economical, political, religious, etc. Socialist/communist leaders of the country started looking for scapegoats and, as always happens in history, they have found Jews. Anti-Semitism drastically increased and there was no chance that situation will improve. Those thoughts pushed me to conclusion that the sooner we go from the communist “paradise”, we lived in, the better. I also started thinking that we may start losing control of the children and therefore the younger are our children the easier for us will be go out of the soviet union and to adjust to new life in any other country of the world.
The third reason was economy based on “deficit”. To buy any food or any product in the country of real Matured Socialism, such as the USSR, was not as simple as in a capitalist country. In 1914, before WWI, Russia was ‘the food basket of Europe”. Few years after 1917 revolution, in 1921, there was no food in Socialist Soviet Russia and people died from starvation in many areas of the Soviet Union. Situation with food practically did not change in the USSR during all time of socialism/communism existence up to revolution of 1991. Anything, except vodka, was “deficit” (read more in short story “Crime and Gun control in the USSR”) for most citizens of the USSR except small number (less than 0.1% of total population) of Communist Party elite. Food stores in all country, except some special stores in Moscow inaccessible for majority of people and called raspredelitel-distributors, had nothing on shelves except vodka and sometimes potatoes. In many areas of the Soviet Union people stayed for several days, sometime weeks, to buy a loaf of bread. Many people traveled to Moscow from all ends of the USSR to buy food, cloth and other products.
One time our older son has been very sick and a doctor prescribed him lemons to eat. It was the middle of the winter and there were no lemons not only in government stores but even in Central Market of Moscow (at Trubny Street), which was the most expensive fruit market in Moscow. One of my friends, co-worker in the Research Center, after I told him about my problem promised to help me and the next day brought me fifteen fresh large lemons from raspredelitel. He told me that each lemon cost 5 kopecks that was at least 10 times less than official government store price for much smaller size lemons, if I would be able to find lemons in any government store in Moscow even in summer time. I remember this favor from my good friend made 50 years ago as if it happened yesterday.
System of socialist “deficit” creates society with “black” market for anything, where people need to have “blat” to buy anything. Word “blat” in Russian means, that you should know somebody in food store, who will save specifically for you some bread, meat, fish, fruits, juice, etc. It means that this somebody makes you a favor and this somebody expects favor from you. People, who cannot offer a favor to somebody, were practically out of the market and were on the lowest level of Matured Socialism society. That is how average family existed and exist today in all Socialist and Communist countries such as the USSR, China, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and others. Most of those countries returned to private property and capitalism after trying socialist economic and political systems for many years.
We, as the absolute majority of people in the country, did not know where the distributors are located, since we did not have permission to buy in those distributors. We spend a lot of efforts to buy good food and cloth for our children but my wife and I did not have time, connections and sometime, money, to buy for ourselves. I have emigrated with two pairs of pants, one for daily use and one for going to a theater. Almost the same situation was true for my wife.
The fourth reason was single provider of medical care service. In the USSR and Europe medical care service is called medicine. Medicine in the Country of Matured Socialism was provided by the same single entity – the socialist/communist government. It was Medicine of a single provider and they called it “free” although a patient had to pay for all medications, prescribed or not, and many other things. We had several physicians in our family – my sister and her husband, my wife’s cousin, etc. - and therefore we heard and knew about “free medicine” a little bit more than a common person. The reader, who would like to know how good service has been provided by "free" single provider of medical care in matured socialist/communist country, is referred to our short “funny” story “Free single provider of medical care service in the USSR”.
The fifth reason was the rampant sea of crimes, small and large, and alcoholism on all territory of the USSR. One exception was downtown of Moscow around the Kremlin, where police managed to slightly decrease crime. However, since we lived and worked on outskirts of Moscow ceaseless crimes, drunkards, fighting on streets around our apartment building, beating of our children on streets and at the school, stealing from children at the school were inseparable parts of our daily life. The reader, who would like to know more about crime and gun control in the country of matured socialism, we refer to our short funny story “Crime and Gun control in the USSR”.
The sixth reason was family living conditions, which I also mentioned in CONS column on my “decision” page. Yes, we had relatively large apartment by Moscow standard (see description of our family apartment above in CONS) but after my few travels abroad and visiting some private apartments and houses I understood that my family has the smaller apartment than the smallest one I have seen even in eastern European socialist countries.
The seventh reason, last but not the least and, in reality, the most important event for any would be emigrant in the USSR of that time, was Title IV of the Trade Act of 1974 passed by the United States Congress. The Jackson–Vanik amendment to the Trade Act was a provision in United States federal law, intended to affect U.S. trade relations with countries with non-market economies (originally, countries of the Communist bloc) that restrict freedom of emigration and other human rights. The amendment, named after its major co-sponsors Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson of Washington in the Senate and Charles Vanik of Ohio in the House of Representatives is contained in Title IV of the Trade Act of 1974. The Trade Act of 1974 passed both houses of the United States Congress unanimously, and President Gerald Ford signed the bill into law with the adopted amendment on January 3, 1975.*)
Richard Perle, Jackson's staffer, who drafted the amendment, in an interview said that the idea belongs to Jackson, who believed that the right to emigrate is the most powerful among the human rights in certain respects: "if people could vote with their feet, governments would have to acknowledge that and governments would have to make for their citizens a life that would keep them there".
It is believed that item 3 addressed the "diploma tax" imposed in 1972 onto would-be emigrants with higher education received in the Soviet Union. Nothing about this US federal law has been published in the USSR at that time. But underground started distribute information about it. General theme in publications was that the USA will not sell grain to the USSR if the USSR does not start releasing emigrants. Those publications also indicated how many tons of grain will be sold by the USA to the USSR for one emigrant. In other words we have been informed about the price of permission to emigrate for each of us in tons of grain.
But those events (“diploma tax” and Trade Act) will happen later in 1972 and 1974. In 1969 and 1970 status of emigration from the USSR was not defined at all; dreams of emigration and any activity at that direction were very risky business.
****
*) In 2011, U.S. Vice President Democrat Joe Biden urged a repeal of the law.
B.V. March 2016
This story is a continuation of story The First Thoughts about Emigration from the USSR.
On PROS side of the page, there were number of reasons, which supported the idea of our family emigration from the USSR.
The first reason was soviet government policies slow changing. 1969-1970 years was already time more liberal than “good old” Stalin’s time or even Khrushchev’s time, when for only talking about emigration one was considered a traitor, and could be executed or sent to Gulag for 20 or 25 years. In such cases relatives and friends, who knew nothing about emigration talks, have been also punished. I thought that time becomes more liberal although there were no official statements about the government changing policies. Official propaganda in newspapers, magazines, TV and radio practically has not changed at all from “good old” times. But one could hear rumors, that the such-and-such man (name of the person has been attached) said so-and-so in presence of several people and he has not been arrested yet. That was unusual. Every adult in the USSR understood, that anything, told in presence of several people, reported to KGB the same day. It looked at that time KGB did not arrest everybody saying wrong things, and they started to arrest selectively. It was more a feeling, intuitive understanding, rather than knowledge that the government changes policies.
The second reason was uncertain future of our two sons. There were several factors to be considered. On one hand, there was horrible phenomenon of “Pavlik Morozov” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlik_Morozov , which has been created by communist government propaganda in 1920th. When Russia was in the throes of Joseph Stalin’s campaign for the forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture, a young boy named Pavlik Morozov exposed his father as an “enemy of the People.” He informed the OGPU (as the KGB, or Soviet secret police, was then called) that his father was helping the kulaks, successful peasants who refused to relinquish their land, grain and livestock to the State as was required by the Collectivization Plan, and was therefore branded as an enemy of Socialism. Pavlik's father was arrested, tried, and sent to a concentration camp, never to be seen again. Soon after his father's trial, Pavlik was murdered by “enemies of the State.” After his death, he was hailed as a hero of the people, and every child in the Soviet Union was required to learn his story and be prepared to follow his example. Pavlik Morozov’s glory surpassed the fame of many Russian heroes. Hundreds of works have been published about the boy in various genres; his portrait has graced galleries, postcards, and postage stamps; ships and libraries have been dedicated in his honor. The campaign to keep Morozov a hero was directed by communist government. Informer hero number 001 (see book Informer 001 by Yuri Druzhnikov) remained a fearful reminder to all those who may become the victims of denunciations. By the way, I graduated from Moscow school #270, which has been dedicated in Pavlik Morozov honor and for many years it was kind of saint name for me. I think it was a reason why my parents never talked about politics and even about my mother’s past in my presence till I married in 1956. I remember that after our first son was born and I became better informed person I started to hate name Pavlik Morozov.
On another hand, rampant alcoholism among adults and even children of all ages and rampant anti-Semitism in an office, on a street, in a bus, in any public place, openly supported by socialist/communist governments of each level, did not promise our children good future. Though our children were young at that time - our older son was ten years old and young one was four years old – older son has already been beaten many times on a street outside of our apartment, in his school (he was two years younger than other children) and he already knew very well what word “jed” means. For a reader, who does not know this Russian word, it means about the same as the slur word Kike in New York; the only difference is that in the USA there are many slur words of different “strength” for Jews and in the USSR there was one very “strong” word “jed”, used by people on a street and by writers in their books. When I brought from one of my trips abroad a nice looking boy’s hat for our older son and he put it on before he went ouside, he has been beaten, and the hat has been robbed from him by other boys; when we bought him a new bicycle it was robbed from him in the first couple of days right on a street in his presence in front of our apartment building; etc, etc. I started worrying that future of our children may be dominated by never ending alcoholism, anti-Semitism, insults, fighting and crime. At that time I knew about Jewish people history a little bit from few books, published in the USSR, such as “Jew Süss” and “Judean war” by Lion Feuchtwanger, short paragraphs from books of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Aleksandr Kuprin, Nikolai Gogol. One thing was obvious to me – in the USSR of the time serious problems have come - economical, political, religious, etc. Socialist/communist leaders of the country started looking for scapegoats and, as always happens in history, they have found Jews. Anti-Semitism drastically increased and there was no chance that situation will improve. Those thoughts pushed me to conclusion that the sooner we go from the communist “paradise”, we lived in, the better. I also started thinking that we may start losing control of the children and therefore the younger are our children the easier for us will be go out of the soviet union and to adjust to new life in any other country of the world.
The third reason was economy based on “deficit”. To buy any food or any product in the country of real Matured Socialism, such as the USSR, was not as simple as in a capitalist country. In 1914, before WWI, Russia was ‘the food basket of Europe”. Few years after 1917 revolution, in 1921, there was no food in Socialist Soviet Russia and people died from starvation in many areas of the Soviet Union. Situation with food practically did not change in the USSR during all time of socialism/communism existence up to revolution of 1991. Anything, except vodka, was “deficit” (read more in short story “Crime and Gun control in the USSR”) for most citizens of the USSR except small number (less than 0.1% of total population) of Communist Party elite. Food stores in all country, except some special stores in Moscow inaccessible for majority of people and called raspredelitel-distributors, had nothing on shelves except vodka and sometimes potatoes. In many areas of the Soviet Union people stayed for several days, sometime weeks, to buy a loaf of bread. Many people traveled to Moscow from all ends of the USSR to buy food, cloth and other products.
One time our older son has been very sick and a doctor prescribed him lemons to eat. It was the middle of the winter and there were no lemons not only in government stores but even in Central Market of Moscow (at Trubny Street), which was the most expensive fruit market in Moscow. One of my friends, co-worker in the Research Center, after I told him about my problem promised to help me and the next day brought me fifteen fresh large lemons from raspredelitel. He told me that each lemon cost 5 kopecks that was at least 10 times less than official government store price for much smaller size lemons, if I would be able to find lemons in any government store in Moscow even in summer time. I remember this favor from my good friend made 50 years ago as if it happened yesterday.
System of socialist “deficit” creates society with “black” market for anything, where people need to have “blat” to buy anything. Word “blat” in Russian means, that you should know somebody in food store, who will save specifically for you some bread, meat, fish, fruits, juice, etc. It means that this somebody makes you a favor and this somebody expects favor from you. People, who cannot offer a favor to somebody, were practically out of the market and were on the lowest level of Matured Socialism society. That is how average family existed and exist today in all Socialist and Communist countries such as the USSR, China, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and others. Most of those countries returned to private property and capitalism after trying socialist economic and political systems for many years.
We, as the absolute majority of people in the country, did not know where the distributors are located, since we did not have permission to buy in those distributors. We spend a lot of efforts to buy good food and cloth for our children but my wife and I did not have time, connections and sometime, money, to buy for ourselves. I have emigrated with two pairs of pants, one for daily use and one for going to a theater. Almost the same situation was true for my wife.
The fourth reason was single provider of medical care service. In the USSR and Europe medical care service is called medicine. Medicine in the Country of Matured Socialism was provided by the same single entity – the socialist/communist government. It was Medicine of a single provider and they called it “free” although a patient had to pay for all medications, prescribed or not, and many other things. We had several physicians in our family – my sister and her husband, my wife’s cousin, etc. - and therefore we heard and knew about “free medicine” a little bit more than a common person. The reader, who would like to know how good service has been provided by "free" single provider of medical care in matured socialist/communist country, is referred to our short “funny” story “Free single provider of medical care service in the USSR”.
The fifth reason was the rampant sea of crimes, small and large, and alcoholism on all territory of the USSR. One exception was downtown of Moscow around the Kremlin, where police managed to slightly decrease crime. However, since we lived and worked on outskirts of Moscow ceaseless crimes, drunkards, fighting on streets around our apartment building, beating of our children on streets and at the school, stealing from children at the school were inseparable parts of our daily life. The reader, who would like to know more about crime and gun control in the country of matured socialism, we refer to our short funny story “Crime and Gun control in the USSR”.
The sixth reason was family living conditions, which I also mentioned in CONS column on my “decision” page. Yes, we had relatively large apartment by Moscow standard (see description of our family apartment above in CONS) but after my few travels abroad and visiting some private apartments and houses I understood that my family has the smaller apartment than the smallest one I have seen even in eastern European socialist countries.
The seventh reason, last but not the least and, in reality, the most important event for any would be emigrant in the USSR of that time, was Title IV of the Trade Act of 1974 passed by the United States Congress. The Jackson–Vanik amendment to the Trade Act was a provision in United States federal law, intended to affect U.S. trade relations with countries with non-market economies (originally, countries of the Communist bloc) that restrict freedom of emigration and other human rights. The amendment, named after its major co-sponsors Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson of Washington in the Senate and Charles Vanik of Ohio in the House of Representatives is contained in Title IV of the Trade Act of 1974. The Trade Act of 1974 passed both houses of the United States Congress unanimously, and President Gerald Ford signed the bill into law with the adopted amendment on January 3, 1975.*)
Richard Perle, Jackson's staffer, who drafted the amendment, in an interview said that the idea belongs to Jackson, who believed that the right to emigrate is the most powerful among the human rights in certain respects: "if people could vote with their feet, governments would have to acknowledge that and governments would have to make for their citizens a life that would keep them there".
It is believed that item 3 addressed the "diploma tax" imposed in 1972 onto would-be emigrants with higher education received in the Soviet Union. Nothing about this US federal law has been published in the USSR at that time. But underground started distribute information about it. General theme in publications was that the USA will not sell grain to the USSR if the USSR does not start releasing emigrants. Those publications also indicated how many tons of grain will be sold by the USA to the USSR for one emigrant. In other words we have been informed about the price of permission to emigrate for each of us in tons of grain.
But those events (“diploma tax” and Trade Act) will happen later in 1972 and 1974. In 1969 and 1970 status of emigration from the USSR was not defined at all; dreams of emigration and any activity at that direction were very risky business.
****
*) In 2011, U.S. Vice President Democrat Joe Biden urged a repeal of the law.
B.V. March 2016
