Vows to Continue Rights Fight : Begun Returns From Prison to Hero’s Welcome in Moscow

Josef Begun, the Jewish dissident released Friday from Chistopol prison, received a hero’s welcome Monday in Moscow and promised to continue fighting for human rights.

Begun, whose release had been delayed for a week after it was announced by a Soviet official, said he was “madly happy.” Fellow Jews shouted “Shalom!” (peace), sang Hebrew songs and danced in the Kazan railroad station as Begun’s train pulled in.

When he emerged from the train, a group of friends hoisted him onto their shoulders and carried him the length of the platform. Others pressed flowers into his hands.

Hopes to Emigrate

Still wearing the black overalls he had worn in prison, Begun, 54, said he has hopes--but no promises--that he and his family will be allowed to emigrate to Israel. Since 1971, he has been denied permission to leave the country.

“It’s my dream to be with my people in Israel,” he said in English.

Soviet officials had indicated earlier that Begun would not be included in the release of 140 prisoners convicted of “anti-Soviet agitation” because he had refused to promise that he would not break the law in the future.

Begun said he still has given no such guarantee. He said he wrote a letter to the Supreme Soviet insisting that he was not guilty of the charge on which he was imprisoned.

‘Never Committed Any Crime’

He said he told the Supreme Soviet, the nominal Soviet parliament, that “I do not seek a pardon . . . I never committed any crime and was never guilty of anything.”

His release, he said, is “a certain sign that all political prisoners will be free in the nearest future,” and he said he “will devote all my strength to see that this happens as soon as possible.”

Despite his release, and that of the others, he said, “we shouldn’t undertake any obligation to stop our activities; on the contrary, we will continue to fight for civil rights.”

Begun, a mathematician and a teacher of Hebrew, was sentenced in October, 1983, to seven years in prison and five years in internal exile for distributing literature that was adjudged anti-Soviet. Earlier, in 1977 and 1979, he had been sent into exile on lesser charges.

Protests Broken Up

Before he was released, Begun’s wife, Inna, and his son, Boris, took part in a series of demonstrations on his behalf on the Arbat, a busy Moscow pedestrian mall. Police ignored the demonstrators on the first day, but on subsequent days plainclothes police agents moved in and ripped up their signs, punched and shoved several protesters and arrested a number of them.

On Feb. 15, Georgy A. Arbatov, a member of the Central Committee, announced on an American television program that Begun had been freed. Nevertheless, Begun was not released from prison until last Friday, five days later.

Begun, looking gaunt and exhausted, said conditions in the prison were inhuman. He said that he started a hunger strike Feb. 9 in support of the demands in Moscow for his freedom and that as a result he was sent to a punishment cell. Prison food was very bad, consisting mostly of bread and soup, he said.