Soviet Wife of U.S. Teacher Off to U.S. at Last

After waiting more than 11 years for official permission to join her American husband, Irina McClellan left the Soviet Union on Wednesday for the United States.

McClellan is the last of eight Soviet spouses to leave as a result of a gesture made by the Soviet authorities before last November’s Geneva summit between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. For years Washington had pressured the Soviets on behalf of the divided families.

According to U.S. diplomats here, about 15 Soviet citizens married to Americans are still being refused exit visas after years of waiting. Many of them say they have been given no reason for the refusal.

Baltimore Reunion

McClellan, 47, and her daughter, Elena, 26, said they expect to rejoin her husband, Woodford McClellan, today in Baltimore.

He is a professor of history at the University of Virginia. They were married on May 4, 1974, but his Soviet visa expired the following autumn, and he has since been unable to get permission to return to Moscow.

Irina McClellan’s farewell to Moscow was a bittersweet experience.

“I am both sad and happy,” she told reporters at Sheremetyevo Airport before boarding a West German airliner for Frankfurt. “I am sad because I had to say goodby to my mother, my friends and my street. I am happy because finally I am going to join my husband and start a new life.”

McClellan, dressed in a white fur hat and brown boots, said she would like to return to the Soviet Union for a visit but was not sure whether it would be allowed. Asked if she had changed her mind about leaving, she turned with raised eyebrows and demanded of her questioner, “What are you talking about?”

At times during the separation, the McClellans almost gave up hope of seeing each other again. Their cause was argued without results by U.S. officials ranging up to the secretary of state.

Turned to Religion

In 1978, McClellan chained herself to a fence outside the U.S. Embassy to protest the refusal to grant her an exit visa. On another occasion she hung a banner outside her apartment window to plead her case--a daring act in Moscow. Then she waited quietly, without abandoning her quest. Friends said she turned to religion for comfort.

Then, on the eve of Reagan’s meeting with Gorbachev last fall, Irina McClellan’s name was included on a list of eight Soviet spouses who would be allowed to leave.

She had an additional dispute with the Soviet authorities over whether her daughter by a previous marriage, Elena Kotchekova, 26, would be permitted to accompany her. Finally, after her mother appealed to Gorbachev, the daughter too was granted an exit visa.

A few friends gathered to bid her farewell at the airport, among them Elena Kaplan, 27, who has been waiting for more than seven years for permission to join her American husband.

Customs inspectors went through McClellan’s luggage with great care, taking more than an hour to inspect her five suitcases and three shoulder bags. She also took with her a French poodle, “Manya,” and a cat, “Ben.”

An American diplomat came to her rescue when airport authorities insisted that she pay excess baggage charges in hard currency, not Soviet rubles. A loan of $235 was quickly arranged and Irina McClellan, after 11 years of waiting, boarded her westbound flight.