Soviets Refuse to Let Them Leave : Visa Rule Torments ‘Secrecy’ Refuseniks

Despite a sharp increase in Jewish emigration recently, some longtime refuseniks have expressed concern that they will never get exit visas for “secrecy” reasons that they regard as phony.

Senior Soviet officials, in a significant change, have said that thousands of Jewish families long denied permission to leave the country will be allowed to go this year if they have not been involved with state secrets.

Emigration figures seem to reflect a new policy. Last month, for example, 470 Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union, or almost half the number that was allowed to leave during all of 1986. The heavy flow apparently is continuing this month.

At the same time, Soviet officials have named about two dozen persons who they say will not be allowed to leave because they supposedly are privy to secret information.

Lev Elbert, a 38-year-old civil engineer from Kiev, said that he has been told that he and his family were denied exit visas for 11 years because of his army service in 1973-74.

Yet Elbert insisted in an interview that he was a private in a construction battalion that built a swimming pool and an officers’ club near the city of Penza during his time in the army.

He produced a letter from his commanding officer, a Maj. Lomotko, saying there is no security reason to keep Elbert in the Soviet Union.

Yet Elbert, his wife, Hannah Mizruchina and their son, Carmi, remain refuseniks. In 1983, Elbert was recalled by the army for “reserve training,” which normally is not required of anyone but officers and noncommissioned officers. He asked for reserve duty that would not expose him to secrets, but that request was refused. As a result, he spent a year in a labor camp for avoiding duty.

His case drew the attention of Carl Albert, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, who sought the help of Anatoly F. Dobrynin, then Soviet ambassador to the United States and now a high-ranking Kremlin official.

During the interview, Elbert recalled that Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) telephoned him and that Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) visited his family in Kiev.

Still, the secrecy issue blocked his exit visa.

In desperation, Elbert and his wife began a hunger strike to dramatize their appeal. Weak and pale, they start their 40th day of fasting today.

Vladimir Slepak, who first applied to emigrate in 1970, also has been refused permission to leave the country on grounds that he knows important secrets.

Slepak, who also started a hunger strike recently to support his request for an exit visa, notes that he lost his job as a radio electronics specialist 17 years ago.

“It’s ridiculous to say that in the fast-changing field of electronics there are any secrets that last so long,” Slepak asserted.

Naum Meiman, a mathematician, has been refused an exit visa on grounds that he once did secret work more than 30 years ago.

Valery Soyfer, a geneticist who says that he never was involved in secret work, also was on the list of persons who would not be allowed to emigrate because of their knowledge of state secrets.

Soyfer said that he and others in his position are demanding to know the exact time and nature of any secret work that was the basis of their being refused.