The First Thoughts about Emigration from the USSR (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics = the Soviet Union = Mature Socialist Country = The Country of practically built Communism)
I do not remember exactly when a serious thought about emigration from the Soviet Union visited my mind the first time. It was 1969, maybe 1970. Word serious is important since all people, whom I ever met in Soviet Union before that time, dreamed to look, even by one eye, at what is going in other countries and places on planet Earth. Socialist/communist propaganda on TV and radio, in newspapers and magazines, etc., created thick impenetrable blanket, completely covering life of all people in the country from birth day to death day. The best definition of life in the Soviet Union is given by Winston Churchill as life behind of “iron curtain”.
Before that time most people, including myself, believed that life in Soviet Union is a paradise in comparison with any other country of the world. However, it was already more than 15 years after Josef Stalin’s death in 1953. It was against the law, but some people started listening foreign radios in Russian, such as Voice of America, Freedom, BBC and others, read pages and books, printed by underground activists on typewriters, and secretly discussed forbidden information with close relatives and friends. Punishment for breaking the law has been severe but some people have done it. Some scientists in Central Research Center, where I worked from early 1960, has been invited to present their research results to conferences and symposiums in Poland, Romania and even East Germany. Though some of those people were not Communist Party Members, they had to get permissions of all appropriate Communist Party organizations. Getting permission to travel was a long process usually taking several months. At the end of clearing process not many people get permission to travel abroad. After their documents were cleared by Special Department (which was parallel to Human Resources Department and reported to Director of the Research Center and separately to KGB, Communist Party Bureau of the Center, District Committee of Communist Party, GOSSTROI, that the Center was subordinate to, and some other unknown entities (I am sure that KGB was one of it), scientists could travel outside of the country in a group only. Each traveling group had a manager, who was assigned by KGB. Members of a group, being outside of country, could not do anything without permission (see comedy-drama movie “Moscow on the Hudson” 1984 - when Soviet immigrants watched this "comedy" in the USA, many of them cried) of the group manager – no walking on the street, no visiting a restaurant or a store, etc. In short, everybody could do only what was specifically permitted. After travel each participant had to write detailed report and present it to Special Department in the Center. Never the less the most of people, travelled abroad, were very proud and told close relatives and friends, what they saw in other countries. Even such Soviet Union satellite countries as Poland, Romania and especially East Germany had much more food, cloth and other products in stores and restaurants than we had in the Soviet Union.
My scientific papers have been published outside of the Soviet Union and I have been invited to present my research results to various international symposiums. I was not a member of the Party but I was lucky one, who, after several months, has received permission to travel abroad. I got permission to travel outside of Russia but only to socialist satellite countries. My conclusion was that even those countries had much more freedom, than what we had in the Soviet Union. After presenting my papers abroad several times I started to think about emigration. I understood that emigration to any other socialist country is impossible. So, the only option was emigration outside of sphere of socialist influence.
I understood, that books of Western authors, that communist censorship permitted to publish in the Soviet Union, should create a very negative general picture in minds of soviet readers. For some reasons, in my mind books of Charles Dickens, John Galsworthy, William Thackeray, Theodore Dreiser, Lion Feuchtwanger and other foreigner authors created the picture of Western world capitalism, where free people have opportunities to do what they want and reach as far as they can. True, there is no guarantee, that a person can reach any height. In spite of all negative soviet propaganda, capitalistic world looked to me very attractive. At the same time I understood that real life in a real capitalist country may not be as attractive as I understood it from books, I have read. Only after living several years in the USA and many conversations with engineers, scientists and other Americans about life in the USA I started to understand that a lot of westerners, including Americans, consider their life in the USA as not good. Therefore authors of books wanted to show life in their countries as negative, but people, as I in the USSR and all around the world, perceived it as very positive. Later I understood, that reaction of a reader depends on origin of the coordinate system in which the reader has been born and lived his life. In other words, when the reader is born in a communist system and believes in himself, all “negative” descriptions of capitalistic societies in books look to him very attractive.
For many years Soviet newspapers and magazines wrote that in the USA, when one goes along the streets in a large city, one can see black people (all soviet newspapers called them Negro) hanging on each light pole and each tree. I did not believe it hundred percent but I did not want to take my family to the USA. Actually I did not think much about what country I would like to take my family to. My only thoughts were about how to go out of the USSR “Socialist paradise” as soviet propaganda called it. But I could not talk about our emigration to my family till I made decision about it for myself.
As long as I remember myself, when I come to “crossroad” point in my life, where I should choose one of two roads to move forward, I take a piece of paper, divide it by vertical line in two halves and put all pros, I can come with, on one side of a page and all cons on another side. After that I analyze each reason, put weight on it and make decision according of total weight on each side. After the decision has been made I start moving forward and never look back. So, in this case I was on crossroad, where one way was to forget about emigration and continue living as we lived all our lives and another way was to start working on emigration from “paradise”.
On Pros, for emigration, side of the page, several reasons were: soviet government policies slow changing, uncertain future of our children, economy based on “deficit”, single provider of medical care services, the rampant sea of crimes and alcoholism everywhere in the country, family living conditions, and Title IV of the Trade Act of 1974 passed by the United States Congress.
On Cons, against emigration, side of the page there were also several reasons: family safety, family financial and social status, family living conditions, family car, family library, our parents objections to our emigration.
I started from short story CONS - number of reasons against our emigration from the USSR and then I wrote the story about PROS - number of reasons, which supported the idea of our family emigration from the USSR.
B.V. December 2015
I do not remember exactly when a serious thought about emigration from the Soviet Union visited my mind the first time. It was 1969, maybe 1970. Word serious is important since all people, whom I ever met in Soviet Union before that time, dreamed to look, even by one eye, at what is going in other countries and places on planet Earth. Socialist/communist propaganda on TV and radio, in newspapers and magazines, etc., created thick impenetrable blanket, completely covering life of all people in the country from birth day to death day. The best definition of life in the Soviet Union is given by Winston Churchill as life behind of “iron curtain”.
Before that time most people, including myself, believed that life in Soviet Union is a paradise in comparison with any other country of the world. However, it was already more than 15 years after Josef Stalin’s death in 1953. It was against the law, but some people started listening foreign radios in Russian, such as Voice of America, Freedom, BBC and others, read pages and books, printed by underground activists on typewriters, and secretly discussed forbidden information with close relatives and friends. Punishment for breaking the law has been severe but some people have done it. Some scientists in Central Research Center, where I worked from early 1960, has been invited to present their research results to conferences and symposiums in Poland, Romania and even East Germany. Though some of those people were not Communist Party Members, they had to get permissions of all appropriate Communist Party organizations. Getting permission to travel was a long process usually taking several months. At the end of clearing process not many people get permission to travel abroad. After their documents were cleared by Special Department (which was parallel to Human Resources Department and reported to Director of the Research Center and separately to KGB, Communist Party Bureau of the Center, District Committee of Communist Party, GOSSTROI, that the Center was subordinate to, and some other unknown entities (I am sure that KGB was one of it), scientists could travel outside of the country in a group only. Each traveling group had a manager, who was assigned by KGB. Members of a group, being outside of country, could not do anything without permission (see comedy-drama movie “Moscow on the Hudson” 1984 - when Soviet immigrants watched this "comedy" in the USA, many of them cried) of the group manager – no walking on the street, no visiting a restaurant or a store, etc. In short, everybody could do only what was specifically permitted. After travel each participant had to write detailed report and present it to Special Department in the Center. Never the less the most of people, travelled abroad, were very proud and told close relatives and friends, what they saw in other countries. Even such Soviet Union satellite countries as Poland, Romania and especially East Germany had much more food, cloth and other products in stores and restaurants than we had in the Soviet Union.
My scientific papers have been published outside of the Soviet Union and I have been invited to present my research results to various international symposiums. I was not a member of the Party but I was lucky one, who, after several months, has received permission to travel abroad. I got permission to travel outside of Russia but only to socialist satellite countries. My conclusion was that even those countries had much more freedom, than what we had in the Soviet Union. After presenting my papers abroad several times I started to think about emigration. I understood that emigration to any other socialist country is impossible. So, the only option was emigration outside of sphere of socialist influence.
I understood, that books of Western authors, that communist censorship permitted to publish in the Soviet Union, should create a very negative general picture in minds of soviet readers. For some reasons, in my mind books of Charles Dickens, John Galsworthy, William Thackeray, Theodore Dreiser, Lion Feuchtwanger and other foreigner authors created the picture of Western world capitalism, where free people have opportunities to do what they want and reach as far as they can. True, there is no guarantee, that a person can reach any height. In spite of all negative soviet propaganda, capitalistic world looked to me very attractive. At the same time I understood that real life in a real capitalist country may not be as attractive as I understood it from books, I have read. Only after living several years in the USA and many conversations with engineers, scientists and other Americans about life in the USA I started to understand that a lot of westerners, including Americans, consider their life in the USA as not good. Therefore authors of books wanted to show life in their countries as negative, but people, as I in the USSR and all around the world, perceived it as very positive. Later I understood, that reaction of a reader depends on origin of the coordinate system in which the reader has been born and lived his life. In other words, when the reader is born in a communist system and believes in himself, all “negative” descriptions of capitalistic societies in books look to him very attractive.
For many years Soviet newspapers and magazines wrote that in the USA, when one goes along the streets in a large city, one can see black people (all soviet newspapers called them Negro) hanging on each light pole and each tree. I did not believe it hundred percent but I did not want to take my family to the USA. Actually I did not think much about what country I would like to take my family to. My only thoughts were about how to go out of the USSR “Socialist paradise” as soviet propaganda called it. But I could not talk about our emigration to my family till I made decision about it for myself.
As long as I remember myself, when I come to “crossroad” point in my life, where I should choose one of two roads to move forward, I take a piece of paper, divide it by vertical line in two halves and put all pros, I can come with, on one side of a page and all cons on another side. After that I analyze each reason, put weight on it and make decision according of total weight on each side. After the decision has been made I start moving forward and never look back. So, in this case I was on crossroad, where one way was to forget about emigration and continue living as we lived all our lives and another way was to start working on emigration from “paradise”.
On Pros, for emigration, side of the page, several reasons were: soviet government policies slow changing, uncertain future of our children, economy based on “deficit”, single provider of medical care services, the rampant sea of crimes and alcoholism everywhere in the country, family living conditions, and Title IV of the Trade Act of 1974 passed by the United States Congress.
On Cons, against emigration, side of the page there were also several reasons: family safety, family financial and social status, family living conditions, family car, family library, our parents objections to our emigration.
I started from short story CONS - number of reasons against our emigration from the USSR and then I wrote the story about PROS - number of reasons, which supported the idea of our family emigration from the USSR.
B.V. December 2015
