Moscow Police Allow Protest by ‘Refuseniks’

About 30 people, carrying signs demanding the right to emigrate, were allowed to demonstrate here Friday with no interference from Soviet police.

The protesters, mostly Jewish citizens known as “refuseniks” because they have been unable to get permission to leave the Soviet Union, were observed by an equal number of Western correspondents and plainclothes security police.

The 40-minute demonstration ended peacefully, in sharp contrast to similar gatherings last month, when demonstrators on a busy Moscow pedestrian mall known as the Arbat were shoved and beaten by men believed to be undercover police.

A dispatch by Tass, the official Soviet news agency, indicated that the authorities had decided to take a hands-off approach to this protest, which came on the eve of a visit by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

No Police ‘Repressions’

Tass said the event was a failure because there were no “repressions” by the police, and it added that Western correspondents went away disappointed at the lack of violence.

Josef Begun, a leading Jewish activist recently released from Chistopol Prison, joined the demonstrators, who held signs asking officials to allow them to emigrate to Israel.

Begun said Thatcher, who arrives today for a four-day visit, has invited him to breakfast next Wednesday at the British Embassy after her two scheduled days of talks with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“It is our great hope that Western contacts with the Soviet government will help in solving our problem,” said Begun, who is seeking permission to leave the Soviet Union and go to Israel.

Emigration Increases

A recent increase in Jewish emigration, he said, is a good sign but only a beginning. Western diplomats have said about 500 Jews received exit visas in March--the highest total in six years, but still far short of the record set in 1979, when 51,000 Jews were allowed to leave the Soviet Union.

Several of the demonstrators said they were hoping that Thatcher would intervene with Gorbachev on behalf of those who have been denied the right to emigrate.

The Tass report depicted the demonstration as a Jewish show intended for foreign audiences. It said Soviet citizens who passed the demonstration, held near the office that issues exit visas, “shrugged shoulders and went along without even looking back.” This was not strictly accurate, since many passers-by stopped to argue with the demonstrators about their intentions to leave the country.