View source for Refusenik

{{short description|Soviet citizens denied permission to emigrate}}
{{Other uses}}{{More citations needed|date=November 2025}}
{{Lead extra info|date=November 2025}}<!-- Lede requires a lot of work. Things may be doubled, not verfied in body and parts of the body may not be adequately summarised in the lede-->
[[File:19730110 Soviet refuseniks demonstrate at MVD.jpg|thumb|January 10, 1973. Soviet Jewish refusenik demonstration in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the right to emigrate to Israel, before being broken up by Soviet authorities.]]
[[File:Soviet Exit Visa Forever.jpg|thumb|A rare type 2 USSR [[exit visa]]. This type of visa was issued to those who received permission to leave the USSR permanently and lost their Soviet citizenship. Many people who wanted to emigrate were unable to receive this kind of exit visa.]]
[[File:Ответ МВД СССР Дубровскому об отказе в выпуске из СССР 30 мая 1991 года.jpg|thumb|Letter from the [[Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs|MVD]] to a 76-year-old man from [[Yekaterinburg|Sverdlovsk]] refusing him permission to move to Israel due to "knowledge of state secrets", May 1991.]]
'''Refusenik'''  ({{langx|ru|отказник|otkaznik}}, {{ety||''отказ'' (otkaz)|refusal}}; alternatively spelled '''refusnik''') was an unofficial term for individuals—typically, but not exclusively, [[History of the Jews in the Soviet Union|Soviet Jews]]—who were [[Travel visa|denied permission to emigrate]], primarily to [[Israel]], by the authorities of the [[Soviet Union]] and other countries of the [[Eastern Bloc|Soviet Bloc]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Azbelʹ |first=Mark I︠A︡kovlevich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kGSAAAAAIAAJ&q=refusenik |title=Refusenik, Trapped in the Soviet Union |date=1981 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |isbn=978-0-395-30226-2 |language=en}}</ref> The term ''refusenik'' is derived from the "refusal" handed down to a prospective emigrant from the Soviet authorities.

Under Joseph Stalin's regime, the Soviet Union adopted an isolationist policy that, in part, blocked emigration to non-Communist or non-allied countries for nearly all citizens.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Garbuzov |first=Leonid |url=https://www.bu.edu/law/journals-archive/international/volume23n1/documents/159-176.pdf |title=A Struggle to Preserve Ethnic Identity: The Suppression of Jewish Culture by the Soviet Union’s Emigration Policy Between 1945-1985 |page=166}}</ref> <!-- temporarily hidden: Jews were among a small number of minorities that enjoyed an exception to this rule. {{citation needed}} -->

In addition to the Jews, broader categories included:
*Other ethnicities, such as [[Volga Germans]] attempting to leave for [[Germany]], [[Armenians]] wanting to join their [[diaspora]], and [[Greeks in Russia and the Soviet Union|Greeks]] [[Deportation of the Soviet Greeks|forcibly removed]] by Stalin from [[Crimea]] and other southern lands to Siberia.
*Members of [[Religion in the Soviet Union|persecuted religious groups]], such as the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the Soviet Union|Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church]], [[Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Russia|Baptists and other Protestant groups]], [[Jehovah's Witnesses]], and [[Russian Mennonites]].

A typical basis to deny emigration was the alleged association with Soviet [[state secrets]]. Some individuals were labelled as foreign [[spy|spies]] or potential [[seditionist]]s who purportedly wanted to abuse Israeli ''[[aliyah]]'' and [[Law of Return]] ([[right to return]]) as a means of escaping punishment for [[high treason]] or sedition from abroad.

Applying for an exit visa was a step noted by the [[KGB]], so that future career prospects could be impaired.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Brezhnev and the Decline of the Soviet Union|last=Crump|first=Thomas|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-66922-6|series=Routledge Studies in the History of Russia and Eastern Europe|pages=153}}</ref> As a rule, [[Soviet dissidents]] and refuseniks were fired from their workplaces and denied employment according to their major specialty. As a result, they had to find a [[menial job]], such as a street sweeper, or face imprisonment on charges of [[parasitism (social offense)|social parasitism]].<!-- original ref: [http://www.mhg.ru/history/14DA65B "Злоупотребления законодательством о труде"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502043018/http://www.mhg.ru/history/14DA65B|date=2015-05-02}}, a document of the [[Moscow Helsinki Group]].  before converting automatically (note difference in dates)--><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date= |title=<!--not certain, but this is what the original ref I replaced said--> [ "Злоупотребления законодательством о труде"] |script-title= |trans-title=<!--placeholder--> |url=http://www.mhg.ru:80/history/14DA65B |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20170914005704/http://www.mhg.ru:80/history/14DA65B |archive-date=2017-09-14 |access-date= |website=www.mhg.ru |publisher=Московская Хельсинкская Группа,  [[Moscow Helsinki Group]] |language=ru}}</ref>

Jews were given a special exception by the Soviet government to immigrate to Israel in 1971,{{not in body}} leading to the [[1970s Soviet Union aliyah]]. The coming to power of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] in the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, and his policies of [[glasnost]] and [[perestroika]], as well as a desire for better relations with the West, allowed most emigrants to emigrate.

== History of the Jewish refuseniks ==
{{See also|Antisemitism in the Soviet Union#Under Brezhnev}}

<!--temporarily hidden pending talk page discussion: Emigration from the Soviet Union to a non-Communist, non-ally country was largely forbidden for all Soviet citizens regardless of ethnicity, nationality or religion.<ref name=":0" />-->

Emigration from the Soviet Union was severely restricted outside of familial or ethnic reunification. Between 1948 and 1982, the only ethnicities that were allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union were Germans, Armenians and Jews.<ref>{{Cite book |title=People on the move: new migration flows in Europe |date=1993 |publisher=Council of Europe Press |isbn=978-92-871-2021-2 |editor-last=Europarat |edition=Repr |series=European issues |location=Strasbourg}}</ref>{{Verification failed|date=November 2025|reason=No dates found, no definite legal info, contradictory info concerning ethnicities found on pg 18.}} Not all Jews had their exit visas accepted.{{Citation needed|date=November 2025}}

A large number of Soviet Jews applied for [[exit visa]]s to leave the Soviet Union, especially in the period following the 1967 [[Six-Day War]]. While many were allowed to leave, some were refused permission to emigrate by the OVIR ({{langx|ru|label=none|ОВиР, Отдел Виз и Регистрации|translit=Otdel Viz i Registratsii}}) or Office of Visas and Registration, the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union)|MVD]] (Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs) department responsible for exit visas. In many instances, the reason given for denial was that these persons had been given access to information vital to Soviet [[national security]] and could not now be allowed to leave.<ref name="BTP2">{{cite web |title=Beyond the Pale: The Right to Emigrate II |url=http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/66.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018160638/http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/66.html |archive-date=18 October 2021 |website=www.friends-partners.org}}</ref>

Despite being given special exception for exit visas by the Soviet government,{{verify source|date=November 2025}} many Jews faced obstacles in their personal and professional lives—including, for instance, unofficial [[Jewish quota#Russia|Jewish quotas]] which limited or prevented their employment.<ref>{{Citation |last=Dunner |first=Joseph |title=Anti-Jewish Discrimination Since the End of World War II |date=1975-01-01 |work=Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms |pages=65–110 |url=https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004638020_005 |access-date=2025-11-07 |publisher=Brill {{!}} Nijhoff |isbn=978-90-04-63802-0}}</ref><ref name="Joseph Dunner 1975. pages 69-82">{{Cite book |last=Stichting Plurale Samenlevingen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wh3ZUWExDEcC&dq=discrimination+against+jews+in+the+soviet+union&pg=PA75 |title=Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: A World Survey |last3= |first3= |date=1975 |publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]] |isbn=978-90-247-1780-4 |editor-last=Veenhoven |editor-first=Willem A. |volume=1 |location= |publication-place=The Hague |language=en |editor-last2=Ewing |editor-first2=Winifred Crum}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pinkus |first=Benjamin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=52Ew77pZsNUC&dq=discrimination+against+jews+in+the+soviet+union&pg=PA229 |title=The Jews of the Soviet Union: The History of a National Minority |date=1988 <!-- original ref said january 1990?--> |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-38926-6 |pages=229-230 |language=en}}</ref>{{Pages needed|date=November 2025|reason=while converting, I removed some context. the original ref said  ISBN 90-247-1779-5,  ISBN 90-247-1780-9; pages 69-82}} While these restrictions led many Jews to seek emigration,<ref>Boris Morozov (Editor). ''Documents on Soviet Jewish Emigration.'' [[Taylor & Francis]], 1999. {{ISBN|978-0-7146-4911-5}}</ref> requesting an exit visa was itself seen as a link to Israel. At the same time, strong pressure from the United States caused the Soviet authorities to significantly increase emigration. 

In the years 1960 through 1970, only 4,000 people (legally) emigrated from the USSR. In the following decade, the number rose to 250,000,<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.memo.ru/history/diss/books/ALEXEEWA/alexeeva_toc.htm|last=Alexeyeva|first=Lyudmila|publisher=Vest'|year=1992|location=Vilnius|language=ru|script-title=ru:История инакомыслия в СССР|oclc=489831449|author-link=Lyudmila Alexeyeva|trans-title=The History of Dissident Movement in the USSR|access-date=2013-04-28|archive-date=2017-02-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222231247/http://www.memo.ru/history/diss/books/ALEXEEWA/alexeeva_toc.htm|url-status=dead}}<!-- invalid ISBN 5-89942-250-3 is as used for 1992 edition by multiple libraries on worldcat (eg British Library in UK and Brown and Cornell University libraries in US) --></ref> to fall again by 1980.{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}

=== Hijacking incident ===
{{Main|Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair}}

In 1970, a group of 16 refuseniks (two of whom were not Jewish), organized by dissident [[Eduard Kuznetsov (dissident)|Eduard Kuznetsov]] (who already served a seven-year term in Soviet prisons), plotted to buy all the seats for the local flight [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]]-[[Priozersk]], under the guise of a trip to a wedding, on a small 12-seater aircraft [[Antonov An-2]] (colloquially known as {{langx|ru|label=none|кукурузник|translit=kukuruznik}}), throw out the pilots before takeoff from an intermediate stop, and fly it to Sweden, knowing they faced a huge risk of being captured or shot down. One of the participants, Mark Dymshits, was a former military pilot.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

On 15 June 1970, after arriving at [[Rzhevka Airport|Smolnoye (later Rzhevka) Airport]] near Leningrad, the entire group of the "wedding guests" was arrested by the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union)|MVD]].{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The accused were charged with [[high treason]], punishable by the [[death sentence]] under Article 64 of the Penal code of the RSFSR. Dymshits and Kuznetsov were sentenced to [[capital punishment]], but after international protests, it was appealed and replaced with 15 years in prison; [[Yosef Mendelevitch]] and Yuri Fedorov: 15 years; Aleksey Murzhenko: 14 years; Sylva Zalmanson (Kuznetsov's wife and the only woman on trial): 10 years; Arie (Leib) Knokh: 13 years; Anatoli Altmann: 12 years; Boris Penson: 10 years; Israel Zalmanson: 8 years; Wolf Zalmanson (brother of Sylva and Israel): 10 years; Mendel Bodnya: 4 years.<ref name="Mozorov-1999">Mozorov, Boris (Ed.) (1999). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=6yduxAcR7PgC&pg=PA90 Documents on Soviet Jewish Emigration].'' London; Portland, OR: Frank Cass. p. 90, note 3.</ref>  

=== Crackdown on the refusenik activism and its growth ===
[[File:Jewish emigration from USSR Leningrad trial operation wedding.png|thumb|Jewish emigration from USSR, before and after the First Leningrad Trial]]
The affair was followed by a crackdown on the Jewish and dissident movement throughout the USSR.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} Activists were arrested, makeshift centers for studying the [[Hebrew language]] and [[Torah]] were closed, and more trials followed.<ref>{{cite web |last1=The Refusenik Project staff |title=Historical Overview |url=https://www.refusenikproject.org/history/#historical-overview |website=The Refusenik Project |access-date=30 December 2018}}</ref> At the same time, strong international condemnations caused the Soviet authorities to significantly increase the emigration quota. In the years 1960 through 1970, only about 3,000 Soviet Jews had (legally) emigrated from the USSR; after the trial, in the period from 1971 to 1980 347,100 people received a visa to leave the USSR, 245,951 of them were Jews.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

A leading proponent and spokesman for the refusenik rights during the mid-1970s was [[Natan Sharansky]].  Sharansky's involvement with the [[Moscow Helsinki Group]] helped to establish the struggle for emigration rights within the greater context of the [[human rights]] movement in the USSR.  His arrest on charges of espionage and treason and subsequent trial contributed to international support for the refusenik cause.{{Citation needed|date=November 2012}}

=== International pressure ===
[[File:Yuli_Edelstein.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Yuli Edelstein]], one of the Soviet Union's most prominent refuseniks, who served as [[Speaker of the Knesset]] (Israel's parliament) from 2013 to 2020]]

On 18 October 1976, 13 Jewish refuseniks came to the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet]] to petition for explanations of denials of their right to emigrate from the USSR, as affirmed under the Helsinki Final Act. Failing to receive any answer, they assembled in the reception room of the Presidium on the following day. After a few hours of waiting, they were seized by the [[Militsiya|police]], taken outside of the city limits and beaten. Two of them were kept in police custody.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

In the next week, following an unsuccessful meeting between the activists' leaders and the Soviet Minister of Internal Affairs, General [[Nikolay Shchelokov]], these abuses of law inspired several demonstrations in the Soviet capital. On Monday, 25 October 1976, 22 activists, including [[Mark Azbel]], [[Felix Kandel]], [[Alexander Lerner]], [[Ida Nudel]], [[Anatoly Shcharansky]], [[Vladimir Slepak]], and [[Michael Zeleny]], were arrested in Moscow on their way to the next demonstration. They were convicted of [[hooliganism]] and incarcerated in the detention center Beryozka and other penitentiaries in and around Moscow. An unrelated party, artist [[Victor Motko]], arrested in [[Dzerzhinsky Square]], was detained along with the protesters in recognition of his prior attempts to emigrate from the USSR. These events were covered by several British and American journalists including [[David K. Shipler]], [[Craig R. Whitney]], and [[Christopher S. Wren]]. The October demonstrations and arrests coincided with the end of the [[1976 United States presidential election]]. On October 25, U.S. presidential candidate [[Jimmy Carter]] expressed his support of the protesters in a telegram sent to Scharansky, and urged the Soviet authorities to release them. (See Léopold Unger, Christian Jelen, ''Le grand retour'', A. Michel 1977; Феликс Кандель, ''Зона отдыха, или Пятнадцать суток на размышление'', Типография Ольшанский Лтд, Иерусалим, 1979; Феликс Кандель, ''Врата исхода нашего: Девять страниц истории'', Effect Publications, Tel-Aviv, 1980.) On 9 November 1976, a week after Carter won the presidential election, the Soviet authorities released all but two of the previously arrested protesters. Several more were subsequently rearrested and incarcerated or exiled to Siberia.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

On 1 June 1978, ''refuseniks'' Vladimir and Maria Slepak stood on the eighth story balcony of their apartment building. By then they had been denied permission to emigrate for over 8 years. Vladimir displayed a banner that read "Let us go to our son in [[Israel]]". His wife Maria held a banner that read "Visa for my son". Fellow ''refusenik'' and Helsinki activist Ida Nudel held a similar display on the balcony of her own apartment. They were all arrested and charged with malicious hooliganism in violation of Article 206.2 of the [[Penal Code]] of the [[Soviet Union]]. The [[Moscow Helsinki Group]] protested their arrests in circulars dated 5 and 15 June of that year.<ref name=":1" /> Vladimir Slepak and Ida Nudel were convicted of all charges. They served 5 and 4 years in Siberian exile.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://eleven.co.il/jews-of-russia/history-in-ussr/15420/|title=Советский Союз. Евреи в Советском Союзе в 1967–85 гг.|first=Редакция|last=энциклопедии|date=4 October 2018|website=Электронная еврейская энциклопедия ОРТ}}</ref>

Various Western activist organizations constituted the [[Soviet Jewry Movement]]. Human rights organizations included the [[Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism]] (1963), [[Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry]] (1964),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ)|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/student-struggle-for-soviet-jewry-sssj|access-date=2021-10-20|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=June 2022}} [[Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews]] (1967), the [[Union of Councils for Soviet Jews]] (1970),<ref>{{cite news|last=Ghert-Z|first=Renee|title=Once heroes of US Jewry, Soviet Refuseniks are largely forgotten. Not for long|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/once-heroes-of-us-jewry-soviet-refuseniks-are-largely-forgotten-not-for-long/|access-date=2021-10-20|website=[[The Times of Israel]]|language=en-US |issn=0040-7909}}</ref> and the [[National Coalition Supporting Soviet Jewry]] (1971).

Another major source of pressure in favor of the rights of refuseniks was the [[Jackson–Vanik amendment]] to the [[Trade Act of 1974|1974 Trade Act]]. Jackson–Vanik affected U.S. trade relations with countries with non-market economies (originally, countries of the Communist bloc) that restricted freedom of <!-- Jewish [temporarily hidden, clarify from source]-->   emigration and other human rights. As such, it was applied to the USSR. According to [[Mark E. Talisman]], those who benefited included Jewish refuseniks from the Soviet Union, as well as Hungarians, Romanians, and other citizens that sought to emigrate from their nations.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pomeranz|first=William E.|title=The Legacy and Consequences of Jackson-Vanik: Reassessing Human Rights in 21st Century Russia|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-legacy-and-consequences-jackson-vanik-reassessing-human-rights-21st-century-russia-0|access-date=2021-10-21|website=www.wilsoncenter.org|language=en}}</ref>

== Refusenik as a word ==
Although 'refusenik' originally had a precise meaning{{snd}} those denied exit from the Soviet Union{{snd}} its meaning has sometimes diverged away from this sense. It began to be used to mean "outsider" for groups other than [[Russian Jews]] and later to mean "those who refuse" rather than its original sense of "those who are refused". Over time, "refusenik" has entered colloquial English for a person who refuses to do something, especially by way of protest.<ref>Oxford English Dictionary (online). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2012-06-08.</ref>{{nonspecific|date=February 2025}}

In 1992, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] referred to himself as the first political "refusenik of Russia", after buildings of the [[The Gorbachev Foundation|Gorbachev Foundation]] were taken by the Russian government and the country's [[Constitutional Court of Russia|high court]] asked the government to prevent Gorbachev leaving the country.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Erlanger|first=Steven|date=1992-10-08|title=Yeltsin Transfers Gorbachev Foundation Property|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/08/world/yeltsin-transfers-gorbachev-foundation-property.html|access-date=2021-12-13|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

It is occasionally used in the UK to mean "ones who refuse to comply",<ref>{{cite web|title=Refusenik|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refusenik|work=Merriam Webster Dictionary}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Refusenik|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/refusenik|work=Collins Dictionary}}</ref> and in the U.S.,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/sports/tennis/novak-djokovic-french-open-21.html | title=A Saga Between Tries, Novak Djokovic Again Aims for His 21st Slam | newspaper=The New York Times | date=23 May 2022 | last1=Streeter | first1=Kurt }}</ref> with many people who use it being unaware of the word's origins. However, the original meaning is preserved and used in parallel, particularly in Israeli and Jewish articles about the historical events from which it emerged.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/russian-refusenik-and-her-filmmaker-daughter-recount-operation-wedding/ | title=Soviet refusenik and her filmmaker daughter recount 'Operation Wedding' | work= Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle | first=Adam |last=Reinherz| date=26 June 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/once-heroes-of-us-jewry-soviet-refuseniks-are-largely-forgotten-not-for-long/ | title=Once heroes of US Jewry, Soviet Refuseniks are largely forgotten. Not for long | work=The Times of Israel | first=Renee |last=Ghert-Zand}}</ref>

[[Refusal to serve in the Israel Defense Forces|Israeli citizens who refuse to serve in the Israel Defense Forces]], called ''sarvanim'' or ''mishtamtim'' in Hebrew, have been referred to disparagingly as 'refuseniks' in English for their 'refusal to serve.'<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Livio |first=Oren |date=2012 |title=Avoidance of Military Service in Israel: Exploring the Role of Discourse |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41804787 |journal=Israel Studies Review |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=78–97 |jstor=41804787 |issn=2159-0370}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Misgav |first=Uri |title=Israel should embrace IDF refusenik Natan Blanc like it did Gilad Shalit |url=https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2013-05-23/ty-article/.premium/uri-misgav-a-tale-of-two-beds/0000017f-df06-df7c-a5ff-df7ebb1c0000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241219191540/https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2013-05-23/ty-article/.premium/uri-misgav-a-tale-of-two-beds/0000017f-df06-df7c-a5ff-df7ebb1c0000 |archive-date=2024-12-19 |access-date=2025-07-10 |work=Haaretz.com |language=en |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gazit |first=Yahel |date=July 9, 2025 |title=IDF Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Gaza: 'This War Had Crossed Every Moral, Security and Ethical Boundary' |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-07-09/ty-article-magazine/.premium/meet-the-israelis-who-refuse-to-fight-in-gaza-this-war-had-crossed-every-moral-boundary/00000197-ee9a-d0a0-a1df-eeff013c0000 |access-date=July 10, 2025 |website=[[Haaretz.com]]}}</ref>

== Documentary films ==
* In 2008 filmmaker [[Laura Bialis]] released a documentary film, ''[[Refusenik (2008 film)|Refusenik]]'', chronicling the human rights struggle of the Soviet refuseniks.<ref>[http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20080627_The_struggle_behind_the_Iron_Curtain.html "The struggle behind the Iron Curtain"]. ''[[Philadelphia Daily News]]''. June 27, 2008. Accessed June 28, 2008. {{Dead link|date=May 2018}}</ref>
* ''[[Operation Wedding]]'': a 2016 documentary film by filmmaker Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov, about her parents story [[Sylva Zalmanson]] and [[Eduard Kuznetsov (dissident)|Eduard Kuznetsov]], leading characters in the [[Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair]]—a daring escape attempt from the USSR in 1970 that kickstarted the Soviet Jewry movement.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.operation-wedding-documentary.com/|title=Operation Wedding, documentary - Official website|website=OperationWeddingDoc|access-date=2018-06-23|archive-date=2018-06-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623222329/https://www.operation-wedding-documentary.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-04-08|title=The Refusenik Exodus From Slavery to Freedom United the Jewish World and Brought Down the Soviet Union|url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/refusenik-exodus-passover-soviet-union|access-date=2021-10-20|website=Tablet Magazine|language=en}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[:de:Ausreiseantrag|Ausreiseantrag]]
* [[Aliyah]]
* [[Balseros]], Cuban citizens who are not legally allowed to migrate and who cross to Florida in improvised boats
* [[Emigration from the Eastern Bloc|Eastern Bloc emigration and defection]]
* [[Herman Branover]]
* [[Iosif Begun]]
* [[Jackson–Vanik amendment]]
* [[Lishkat Hakesher]]
* [[Migration diplomacy]]
* [[Movement to Free Soviet Jewry]]
* [[Pidyon shvuyim]]
* [[Prisoner of Zion]]

== Footnotes ==
{{reflist|2}}

== Further reading ==

=== Books and articles ===
* Pauline Peretz, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ojwrDwAAQBAJ&q=Let+My+People+Go:+The+Transnational+Politics+of+Soviet+Jewish Let My People Go: The Transnational Politics of Soviet Jewish Emigration During the Cold War].'' Ethan Rundell, trans. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2015.
* {{cite journal|title=Soviet repression of refusenik scientists unabated. The arrest of chemist Yuri Tarnopolsky points up the continuing plight of refusenik scientists in the Soviet Union under its new leadership|journal=[[Chemical & Engineering News]]|date=15 May 1983|volume=61|issue=20|pages=45–47|doi=10.1021/cen-v061n020.p045}}
* Galina Nizhnikov, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=QbBVjwEACAAJ Against the Kremlin Wall]''.  A participant's account of the Soviet Jewish women movement of the 1970s and the events surrounding the arrest and imprisonment of Ida Nudel.
* Aba Taratuta, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=stdVwgEACAAJ Cheerful Memories/Troubled Years: A Story of a Refusenik’s Family in Leningrad and its Struggle for Immigration to Israel]''.

=== Memoirs ===
* Natan Sharansky, ''[[Fear No Evil (book)|Fear No Evil]]: The Classic Memoir of One Man's Triumph over a Police State''. {{ISBN|1-891620-02-9}}.
* [[Chaim Potok]], ''Gates of November: Chronicles of the Slepak Family''. {{ISBN|0-394-58867-3}}.
* Yuri Tarnopolsky, ''Memoirs of 1984''. {{ISBN| 0-8191-9198-1}}, {{ISBN| 0-8191-9197-3}}.

=== Fiction ===
* [[David Shrayer-Petrov]] ({{langx|ru|[[:ru:Шраер-Петров, Давид|Шраер-Петров, Давид]]}}), ''Herbert and Nelly'' (a novel, in Russian, abridged 1986; complete 1992, 2006). A saga of a refusenik family set in Moscow in the 1980s.

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|refusenik}}
* {{commons category-inline|Refuseniks}}
* [https://en.nativ-education.org.il/history-timeline Timeline: 30 Major events the Soviet Jewry Struggle]
* {{Cite web|url = https://samizdatcollections.library.utoronto.ca/content/timeline-jewish-movement-soviet-union|title = Timeline of the Jewish Movement in the Soviet Union|website = Project for the Study of Dissidence and Samizdat|publisher = University of Toronto}}
* [https://en.nativ-education.org.il/home * Let My People Go] – A free educational resource in English and Hebrew
*{{cite web|url=https://pikabu.ru/story/evreyskie_khodoki_7249816|title=Еврейские ходоки⁠⁠|accessdate=2025-11-05|lang=ru}}
{{Jews in the Soviet Union}}

[[Category:Refuseniks| ]]
[[Category:Aliyah]]
[[Category:Cold War terminology]]
[[Category:Anti-Zionism in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Eastern Bloc]]
[[Category:Israel–Soviet Union relations]]
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Soviet Jews]]
[[Category:Soviet phraseology]]
[[Category:Soviet Union–United States relations]]
[[Category:Emigration policy]]