Walter Polovchak, Now 20, Writes Book : ‘Littlest Defector’ Has No Regrets About Staying in U.S.

When the kid next door runs away from home, he is likely to get in trouble with his folks. When Walter Polovchak ran away from home at age 12, he created an international incident as “the littlest defector.”

Eight years later, the Soviet-born Polovchak--now a U.S. citizen and still a celebrity of sorts--has written a book about his years-long fight for a future in America.

The struggle, fought in the glare of intense media scrutiny, pitted Polovchak against his Ukrainian parents, the United States against the Soviet Union and bleak memories of a faraway village against the enticements of the American dream.

No Doubts

“Everybody said it was Jell-O and bananas. Sure, that was a little part of it,” Polovchak said, recalling his child’s perspective when he decided to run away from his parents rather than return with them to the Soviet Ukraine.

“But there were a lot of other things--like freedoms of religion and the freedom of movement and freedom of speech.”

Polovchak has no doubts about the weighty decision he made as a child.

“It was terrifying, but now that I look back on it, I have no regrets or anything like that,” he said.

Help Pay for College

“Freedom’s Child,” written by Polovchak with Kevin Klose, deputy national editor at the Washington Post, and published by Random House, is intended to serve several purposes: provide on-the-job-training for a media career, help pay his college expenses--and offer a message.

“I’d like to get a point across to the American people that they should appreciate freedom and not take it for granted,” Polovchak said.

At age 20, he looks like many of his American peers: brown-haired, average build, casually clad and wearing a gold chain around his neck. He works in the mail room at a Chicago public relations firm.

He dates--nobody special, he said--and likes movies, cars and skiing.

Wants Job in TV

And, after years as a media subject, Polovchak wants to be a TV anchorman.

His story began in 1980, when his parents, Michael and Anna Polovchak, decided to return to the Ukraine after just six months in the United States.

Walter and his sister, Natalie, then 17, refused to go. In July, they moved in with a cousin, Walter Polowczak.

Polovchak’s book chronicles the hectic years that followed--the court hearings, the conflicts with his parents, the times he was guarded by special federal agents and the trauma of adjusting to a new country.

The fierce rebellion by a 12-year-old startled the family and many others. The Soviet Embassy insisted that young Walter had been kidnaped. Tass, the Soviet news agency, said he had been bribed with promises of a bike and a car.

But Polovchak said the groundwork for his revolt had been laid in the Ukrainian village of Sambir.

Family Wasn’t Close

“One of the problems was that my family was never close,” he said.

“My father was home twice a week, three times a week. My mother was working afternoons. My grandmother basically brought us up.”

A year after his grandmother’s death in 1979, the family moved to Chicago at the invitation of Walter’s aunt.

But Michael Polovchak wanted to go back home almost from the start, his son said.

Runaway Walter was granted asylum after the intervention of then-Deputy Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher--an action his parents challenged in court. Natalie’s decision to stay behind was uncontested, apparently because of her age.

The story of his years in the limelight is told in first-person segments by Polovchak, his sister, his cousin and numerous others with roles in the long drama--Julian Kulas, his Ukrainian attorney; the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented his parents; and reporters.

“I was brought up with reporters on an everyday basis,” Polovchak said. “After a while, it just became part of my life.”

Has Never Seen Sister

Missing are the recollections of his parents, who returned to the Soviet Union in 1981. They now live in the Ukrainian city of Lvov with two younger children. Walter has never seen his youngest sister, Julia, born in 1983.

His fight to stay began in juvenile court, after he was picked up as a runaway.

It ended in 1985 before a federal appeals court, which ruled that his parents’ rights had been violated by U.S. government action that barred Walter from leaving the country, and the court ordered a trial on the issues.

But, by the time the case reached that stage, Polovchak was nearly 18. He became a U.S. citizen on Oct. 8, 1985, five days after his birthday.

He receives little more than holiday greetings from his parents now.

“I’m not mad at them,” Walter said. “After all, they are my parents. I love them. I just had to do what was best for me.”

He won’t consider visiting them because he is afraid he would be forced to stay in the Soviet Union.

Kulas believes Polovchak’s cousin, Walter, a computer operator, and his now-married sister, Natalie, helped young Walter through adolescent crises.

“Even if he did go back, I think the parents realize he would not have been with them very long,” Kulas said.

“He was the youngest defector. We kept saying this really is a case about freedom.”

Political Actions Charged

The ACLU contends that many U.S. government actions in the case were strictly political.

“When all was said and done . . . we won every major legal decision” for Walter’s parents, the group’s Chicago director, Jay Miller, is quoted as saying in the book.

“Yet, Walter won, too. The only people who lost were the parents.”

Movie rights are being negotiated for Polovchak’s story. He remains a believer in the American dream.

“This is a country where, if you want to just get a job and barely survive, or open your own company and be a millionaire, you could be happy,” he said.

“I mean, if you’ve got your mind set on something, do it. That’s what I’m basically doing.”