Refuseniks Demand ‘Action, Not Words’

While his initiatives on conventional weapons will doubtlessly affect the arms control talks with the West, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s comments on human rights Wednesday struck home even more strongly here among an attentive community of Soviet refuseniks--people who have applied to emigrate and have been turned down.

In his U.N. speech, Gorbachev said he will make an administrative change that “removes from the agenda the problem of the so-called refuseniks.”

Judith Lurie, who has been refused permission to leave the Soviet Union since applying for a visa in 1979, said “it’s good that Gorbachev said all these things, but we are waiting for actions, not words.”

Yuri Koshorovsky, who has been refused an exit visa for the past 18 years, said that Soviet officials “have been saying for some time now that the refusenik problem will be solved. Well, we are still waiting.”