Soviets Free Begun, Focus of Protests : Release Delayed by Demonstrations, Kremlin Aide Asserts

Josef Begun, a Jewish dissident who was the focal point of protests that were violently broken up by police last week, has been freed from prison, a senior Soviet official said Sunday.

The release of Begun, 54, was announced by Georgy A. Arbatov, director of the Institute for the U.S.A. and Canada, in an interview via satellite on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

“He’s free now. I made a telephone call just now and I got the news that his case was resolved,” said Arbatov, an adviser to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

Wife Not Informed

Begun’s wife, Inna, told reporters that she had no official word about any release but did not believe Arbatov would lie to the American people. Speaking of her husband, she said: “I will really believe it when I see him or hear from him.”

Arbatov said Begun would have been freed even earlier except that authorities wanted to avoid the appearance of caving in to pressure once the public protests began.

Begun, once mentioned by President Reagan as an example of Soviet human rights violations, first tried to emigrate to Israel in 1971. He was refused permission and then was dismissed from his job with the Economic Research Institute of the State Planning Agency.

He tried, without success, to get state recognition as a teacher of Hebrew. After twice being sentenced to Siberian exile for “parasitism” and violating residence regulations, he was convicted of anti-Soviet agitation in 1983 and sentenced to seven years in prison and another five years in internal exile.

Warning on Hebrew Teaching

The severity of his punishment was regarded by his fellow Jews as a warning against unofficial teaching of Hebrew, which is not illegal but is discouraged.

Arbatov’s statement followed an extraordinary series of events involving efforts by friends and supporters of Begun to call publicly for his freedom.

He was the only person convicted of anti-Soviet agitation still in Chistopol prison, 500 miles east of Moscow, after 140 others were pardoned by the government.

Last Monday, led by his wife and son, Boris, a small group of citizens were allowed by police to unfurl “Free Begun” banners and stand in a silent vigil in a Moscow mall for 90 minutes. It was highly unusual, since unauthorized public demonstrations are not permitted to take place here.

On Tuesday, a group of plainclothes police herded the demonstrators off the Arbat, a busy mall about a mile north of the Kremlin in the center of Moscow.

140 Prisoners Released

That same day, Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov announced that 140 jailed dissidents had been released and that applications for clemency of nearly 140 others were being considered.

But Gerasimov said Begun had not been freed because he refused to sign a statement promising not to take part in anti-Soviet activities in the future.

When the demonstrators assembled the next day, plainclothes police used rougher tactics, punching some Western correspondents and photographers who were at the scene. Five demonstrators were detained and released.

On Thursday, the demonstration was broken up, and correspondents protested to Gerasimov that they were assaulted by heavy-set men in business suits. Gerasimov, however, suggested they might be “home-grown vigilantes.”

On Friday, violence increased. A young woman was thrown on the ground, dragged by the hair and kicked repeatedly by plainclothes police while uniformed police looked the other way. Three Western journalists were detained for nearly three hours, and three of the demonstrators were sentenced to 15-day jail terms.

Awkward Time for Kremlin

The disruption of the demonstrations and the accompanying violence came at an awkward time for the Kremlin, since more than 900 foreign visitors were in the city to conduct an international “peace forum.” Reports of the beatings and arrests for staging a peaceful demonstration also seemed at odds with recent Kremlin efforts to present a better image of its human rights policies.

On Sunday, however, police broke up still another demonstration, this one by members of a group promoting trust between the East and the West.

A few members of the group gathered on the steps of an exhibition hall across from the Kremlin and tried to unfurl banners promoting their cause. Police pushed them into the hall, however, as soon as the demonstration began.