The World - News from April 18, 1986

Two brothers, prominent Jewish dissidents in the Soviet Union, flew to Vienna, ending a 15-year battle for permission to leave their homeland. Grigory and Isai Goldstein, of Tbilisi, the capital of Soviet Georgia, were accompanied by four family members, including their 78-year-old mother and Isai’s wife and son. The brothers, who first applied for exit visas in 1971, had founded a group in 1977 to monitor Soviet compliance with its international commitments on human rights. The group was later disbanded and most of its members were sent to prison, Isai Goldstein said.