Digital Exhibits

Congressional form letters on Chernobelsky case

Two form letters addressing the case of Naum Chernobelsky. The first letter is a "dear colleague" letter from November 1987, requesting that members of congress sign the second letter, which asks Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union, to begin the emigration process for Naum Chernobelsky. The Chernobelskys were a Ukrainian Jewish family of "refuseniks," an unofficial term for individuals, most commonly Soviet Jews, whose requests to emigrate from the Soviet Union were denied by officials. In the case of the Chernobelsky family, Naum's parents and sister were able to emigrate to Portland, Oregon in 1979, but he, his wife, and his children were not permitted to leave the Soviet Union. In February 1986, Naum's sister Raisa requested help from Representative AuCoin, who spent the next 2 years lobbying the Soviet Union for Naum Chernobelsky's release. Naum and his family were eventually allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union to the United States in late 1988. This is one of a collection of digitized objects from the Les AuCoin Papers (MS.147) at the Pacific University Archives. See also PUA_MS147_111 through PUA_MS147_113 for other materials related to the Chernobelsky family.

AuCoin, Les

1987

Refuseniks

Soviet Union--Emigration and immigration

Jews--Soviet Union

Legislators--United States

United States--Foreign relations--Soviet Union

Form letters

Washington, D.C.

Soviet Union

Russia

PUA_MS147_113

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-CR/1.0/

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