Soviet Defector Tells of Dream to Become Actress in America

A 24-year-old Soviet actress who defected to the United States said Wednesday she hopes the freedoms of her adopted country will enable her to realize her dream of becoming an actress in America.

“It’s very beautiful in the Soviet Union, but I must stay here. I must have this opportunity to live my dream,” Larisa Firsova, of the Central Children’s Theatre of Moscow, told a news conference Wednesday.

Speaking in broken English, and at times through an interpreter, Firsova described having thought for many years about leaving her homeland.

“It kind of happened unexpectedly,” Firsova said of her defection Monday.

She and several dozen Soviet actors performed this week as part of an exchange with the Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis. Firsova left the group shortly before it was to return to the Soviet Union.

She declined to provide specific details of the “dream” that led her to seek political asylum, except to say that it includes a desire to become an American actress.

A Minnesota family is hosting Firsova as she seeks to remain in the United States. She said she is impressed with the friendliness of Americans.

“Here absolute strangers are so kind to you, as if you are a member of their family,” she said.

The blond, blue-eyed actress, whose clothing ensemble for the news conference included a Minnesota Vikings “Purple Power” sweat shirt, said she has been told that her application for political asylum is close to being approved by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the State Department. INS officials, citing privacy laws, declined to discuss her case.

Firsova’s husband, mother and other family members remain in the Soviet Union. She said she hopes to help her husband, also an actor, immigrate to the United States. For now, she said, she has no intention of going back.

“If I had to return, it would mean a complete crush of my dream,” she said.