13 More Soviet Immigrants Plan to Return Home

Thirteen homesick Soviet immigrants, mostly elderly and some in tears, announced Tuesday that they will return to their homeland because “we don’t fit” in America.

“If I had the talent to write I would write a book titled ‘Immigration is the Name of Death,’ ” said a weeping Rauza Timergalev, in her late 60s, who left her home in Kiev in 1979 eventually to live in Washington.

“The minute I left the Soviet Union I wanted to return home,” she said.

The Soviet Embassy held a news conference for 12 of 13 Soviets who plan to go back in the next few days. It was the second such publicized return of Soviet immigrants in two weeks.

Eight of the 13 returning to the Soviet Union are Jewish, and at least one came to the United States from Israel because she could not adjust to life there.

“I was treated well. I would be a liar if I said that I wasn’t,” said David Gonta, 19, who lived in Jersey City, N.J., with his mother, grandmother and brother.

‘Cultural Atmosphere’

“We are leaving because we miss a certain cultural atmosphere,” Gonta said. “We just don’t fit in here.”

Liza Kilimnik, Gonta’s grandmother, found adjustment difficult in Israel as well as the United States.