Looking for Work : Pennsylvania Couple Defect to Soviet Union

An American couple who turned their backs on life in the United States have been granted permission to live in the Soviet Union, a Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

At a press conference, they were identified as Theodore Branch, 43, and his wife, Cheryl Branch, 40, of the Erie, Pa., area, and were described as “mass media specialists.” Gennady I. Gerasimov, chief spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said the Branches came to the Soviet Union as tourists at the end of last year and did not want to go back to their home in Pennsylvania.

“They appealed to the authorities for permission to stay in the Soviet Union as permanent residents and political emigres,” the spokesman said.

“In a letter to the authorities, they said it was their conviction that more attention is paid to law and order in the Soviet Union, that socialism opens real possibilities for everyone in society and that it is a more satisfactory alternative to capitalism,” Gerasimov said.

Approved by Parliament

The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal Parliament, formally approved the Americans’ application for permanent residence as political emigrants.

Gerasimov said the couple “will be placed in work according to their specialty and provided with accommodation.” He provided no further details on the couple.

However, Theodore Branch’s father, Clarence Branch, 77, said by telephone from Erie, Pa., that his son apparently had been convinced by a visiting Soviet woman that life is better under socialism, wire services reported.

The elder Branch said he believes the couple, who lived with him until they left in November for a tour of the Soviet Union, have been married since the 1970s, adding that they have no children. He said his son had worked for a radio station in Mount Dora, Fla., where he was involved as a salesman and disc jockey.

One report said he later became station manager of the now-defunct operation. Cheryl Branch apparently also worked in sales at small radio stations in Florida.

‘Trying So Hard’

Clarence Branch told the wire services that his son “was trying so hard to get work (in Pennsylvania) because we’re not rich--we’re living on Social Security and he didn’t want to stay here with us. I was hoping that he would get a steady job that would support them.”

The father said that before the couple left, Theodore Branch had been visited by a Soviet woman “who just painted him a rosy picture” of life in the Soviet Union.

An official at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said he had no knowledge of the case and added that the couple apparently had not contacted the embassy before making their decision.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Charles Redman reacted by saying, “These people, like all Americans, are free to live wherever they want.”

The couple joined a relatively small number of Americans who apparently have chosen to live in the world’s first Communist state.

Army Pvt. Wade E. Roberts of San Bernardino fled from his unit in West Germany and came to the Soviet Union last spring, but he decided late last year to return to the West and face charges of desertion rather than live in the Soviet Union. He is being held in the Philadelphia Naval Yard brig pending court-martial proceedings set for next month.

Arnold Lockshin, a medical researcher, came to the Soviet Union with his wife and three children in 1986. He has said he faced persecution in the United States for his political beliefs.

Edward Lee Howard, a former CIA employee, disappeared from his home in Santa Fe, N.M., in 1985, when the FBI was about to arrest him on suspicion of spying. He appeared later on Soviet television, saying he had been granted political asylum.