American Says He’s Due to Get Soviet Exit Visa

Abe Stolar, an American who emigrated from his native Chicago to the Soviet Union 57 years ago, said Friday that he has finally won Kremlin permission to leave for Israel with his entire family.

Stolar, 77, said that he believes President Reagan played a key role in the decision allowing him to leave along with his family, including his Soviet-born daughter-in-law.

He met Reagan during the summit in Moscow earlier this year between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“Reagan told me that he had just met with Gorbachev and that they had had an understanding,” he said. “I personally think he did it. The U.S. State Department also fought tooth and nail for me.”

Stolar came to the Soviet Union during the Great Depression in 1931 at the age of 19, became a Soviet citizen, married and fought with Soviet forces against Nazi Germany.

Disillusioned with the Soviet system, he secured exit visas in 1975 for himself, his wife and son, Michael, but all were forcibly removed from a plane leaving the country, and the visas were rescinded. Stolar refused an offer three years ago to leave without the woman his son married in 1983.

Stolar said that he was advised of the approval last Monday and was told to await the arrival of papers and further instructions at the end of the month.

He said the lengthy final processing of the papers and the fact that international flights of the Soviet airline Aeroflot are booked solid for three months make it impossible to say exactly when the family can leave.

“I can’t think anything about what it will be like in Israel and I don’t really care,” he said. “The important thing is that I will be in a country where I will be an alien no more. I believe I will be satisfied.”