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RL 426/86

-3

November 10, 1986

"You will leave, but we don't know when."

"You cannot leave because of the bad international situation." "You will never be able to leave."

"Of course you will be able to leave eventually."

"Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union are bad at the moment.

"

"You yourself know the reason for the refusal."

"You don't have to know why you have been refused, it is
enough that we know."

"The reason for the refusal is a state secret."

"No matter whom you ask, no one will tell you why you have
been refused."

"You should forget your husband, and your son should forget his father."

"No one has ever been able to leave the Soviet Union easily or quickly."

"For you no laws exist in this country."

"If it were up to us, we would gladly have given you a passport for foreign travel."

"Your wife (husband) knows the reason for the refusal."

Now we

"If you had come to us (OVIR) before you got married, we would
have told you how many years you would have to wait.
cannot tell you."

"You may leave only by special order."

"Your case may be resolved more quickly in the event of the birth of a child or a serious accident."

With regard to the last formulation, the compilers of the "Phraseological Dictionary of Refusals" point out that many of the divided families have children, ranging in age from four months to thirty years. In no single case, however, has this led to them being reunited more quickly. With regard to a serious accident, the OVIR official has in one case proved to have been telling the truth. In 1985, Lidiya Agapova, a Soviet citizen, married a Swede, Kim Botvalde. In April of this year, Botvalde committed suicide. Agapova was promptly granted an exit visa to go to Sweden to attend her husband's funeral.7

7. AS 5802, p. 2 (footnote).

FOOTNOTES

(1) The Washington Post ( TWP ), May 29, 1987, p. A1; The New York Times ( NYT ), May 29, 1987, p. A1; The Washington Times (TWTi ), May 29, 1987, p. 1A; See also notes for press release on General del Piño's interview with Radio Marti, made available by Radio Marti on June 30, 1987, 7pp. in English.

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

TWP, August 10, 1987, p. A11; NYT, August 10, 1987; TWT1,
August 10, 1987 and also, Summary of comments by Major
Florentino Aspillaga made in his interview with Radio Marti,
Radio Marti, 5 pp. in English.

TWTi, August 28, 1987, p. A6.

SUNA in Arabic, August 23, 1987 as reported in FBIS, Near
East and South Asia, August 25, 1987, ( Sudan ), p. G2.
TWP, Feb. 9, 1987, p. A19; TWTi, Feb. 9, 1987, p. 7A; NYT,
Feb. 9, 1987, p. A1 (picture) & article, p. A5 and TWP,
Feb. 11, 1987, p. A23.

(6) Four Iranian weightlifters who took part in the Asian Games (Sept. 20 - Oct. 5, 1986) in Seoul, South Korea, defected to the Iraqi embassy. They requested and obtained political asylum from Iraq. See: TWTi, October 3, 1986, p. 6A; TWT1, October 9, 1986, p. A33; TWTi, Oct. 14, 1986, p. 6A.

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(11)

(12)

(13)

(14)

(15)

SAPA in English, August 3, 1987 as reported in FBIS, Soviet
Union-Daily Report, August 4, 1987, p. F3.

NYT, August 8, 1987, p. 8.

NYT, August 8, 1986, p. A1; The Chicago Tribune, August 8, 1986, section 1, p. 1; TWP, August 8, 1986, p. A1; TWT1, August 8, 1986, p.1A; The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 8, 1986, p. 1-A; The Baltimore Sun, August 8, 1986, p. 1A. TWTi, November 26, 1986, p.6A.

TWTi, April 28, 1987; La Libre Belgique (Brussels), April 3, 1987, p.8.

Vladislav Krasnov, Soviet Defectors, The KGB Wanted List,
Stanford, California, Hoover Institution Press, 1986, p.8.
"Three In Truck Ram Through Berlin Wall", TWP, August 30,
1986, p. A1.

Gordon & Rosenfield, Immigration Law and Procedure,
Vol. 3 (Nationality ), New York, Matthew Bender, April
1986, p. 11-7 (sec. 11.3a ).

For examples of feudal oaths see "Great Issues in Wes-
tern Civilization", edited by Brian Tierney, Donald
Kagan & L. Pearce Williams (Cornell University ), Vol.
I, New York, Random House, 1967, p. 257-258.

(16)

(17)

The pledge of allegiance to the Flag reads as follows:
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States
of America and the republic for which it stands, one
nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and jus-
tice for all".

The generally prescribed form of the oath taken by
applicants for naturalization, as set forth in 8 CFR
337.1, goes as follows:

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and
entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and
fidelity to any foreign foreign prince, potentate,
state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have hereto-
fore been a subject or citizen; that I will support
and defend the Constitution and laws of the United
States of America against all enemies, foreign and
domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance
to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the
United States when required by law; that I will per-
form noncombatant service in the armed forces of the
United States when required by law; that I will per-
form work of national importance under civilian
direction when required by the law; and that I take
this obligation freely without any mental reservation
or purpose of evasion; so help me God ".

(18) The distinction between the words "state" and "country" are of great importance for Soviet bloc citizens in general and for Soviet bloc defectors in particular. As can be seen from the quote of Aleksei Myagkov at the beginning of this paper, the defectors break with the regime, the government, the state. They do not want to break with the country, which they consider the victim of the communist state. They do not consider themselves traitors towards their country. Quite the contrary, many defectors continue the struggle against the Communist state and regime with the hope that their efforts will bring about better days for their country and fellow citizens.

(19) Many European and American intellectuals were attracted by Communism ever since its appearance in the Soviet Union. Arthur Koestler, Ignazio Silone, Richard Wright and so many others believed that Communism would solve the problems of their own time and societies and bring universal relief. Koestler, Silone and Wright were all members of the Communist party (respectively the German, Italian and American one). Others were not members of a Communist party but were strong supporters of Communism as a doctrine. One among many was French writer André Gide who until his travel in the Soviet Union in June 1936 was greatly impressed with the achievements of Communism. After his return he was utterly disillusioned.

Koestler's, Silone's, Wright's and Gide's experiences with
Communism (party and/or doctrine) are described in "The God
That Failed", A Confession, edited by Richard Crossman, Harper
and brothers, New York, 1949, 273 pp.

(20) American Journal of International Law, vol. 23, Special
number, April 1929, p. 23 ( draft conventions and com-
ments on nationality, ..., prepared by the Research in
International Law of the Harvard Law School ).

(21) idem as (9), p.23.

(22) The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 1973, p, 345.

(23) Expatriation has been defined as the voluntary surrender
or abandonment of nationality or allegiance:

Gordon and Rosenfield, Vol. 3 (Nationality ), p. 20-40
( sec. 20.7a );

Black's Law Dictionary, 1968 ( 4th rev. ed. ), p. 685;
Expatriation relates to any citizen (born with US
citizenship or acquired through naturalization ). It
presupposes that he acquired his citizenship properly.
It entails no judicial process, but rather a finding
that loss of citizenship occurred as the result of
the citizen's voluncary action.

Denaturalization relates only to naturalized citizens
and entails a judicial process premised on impropriety
in the naturalization.

Gordon & Rosenfield, Vol. 3 (Nationality ), p. 20-4
(sec. 20.1 ).

(24) The Miami Herald, August 8, 1986, p. 1A and 10A.
(25) The New York Times further: NYT ), January 10,1984
and the NYT, July 12, 1986, p.27. The latter article
announced the death of Dean Reed under suspicious cir-
cumstances. According to his manager, however, ( and
some Western diplomats stationed in East Berlin) Mr.
Reed would have died with a little help from the
security apparatus because of a fear that he would
turn on his socialist masters and "defect".

(26)

The Washington Post (further: TWP ), October 9, 1986, p. A29.

(27) TWTI, October 9, 1986, p. 6A.

(28) NYT, October 9, 1986, p. A6 and NYT, October 10, 1986.

(29) NYT, October 9, 1986, p. A6; TWTi, October 9, 1986, p. 6A;

TWP, October 9, 1986, p. A29.

(30) Chapman Pincher, "Too Secret, Too Long", St Martin's Press, New York, 1984, p. 120;

(31)

(32)

(33)

(34)

(35)

136)

(37)

(38)

(39)

(40)

(41)

(42)

John Ranelagh, "The Agency, The Rise And Decline Of The CIA,
From Wild Bill Donovan to William Casey", New York, Simon &
Schuster, 1986, p. 163n.

Gordon Brook-Shepherd, "The Storm Petrels, The Flight Of The
First Soviet Defectors", New York & London, Harcourt, Brace &
Jovanovich, 1977, p. 141-142.

Zolnierz Wolnosci (Daily of Polish Armed Forces ), April 20,
1984.

Trybuna Ludu, Daily of the Polish United Workers Party, in
Polish, July 4 - 5, 1987, p.2 as reported in FBIS, EEU-DR,
July 10, 1987, p. P13-P14.

Zigmas Butkus, "Major Crimes Against the Soviet State", Law
Library of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 1985,
P. 15.

Idem as (34), p.16.

For a short description of section 213 of the East German
Criminal Code, see: Friederich-Christian Schroeder, "Das
Strafrecht des Realen Sozialismus, Eine Einführung am Bei-
spiel der DDR, Opladen, Westdeutscher Verlag, 1983, p. 90;
For the original text of section 213 CC, see: Gesetz zur An-
derung und Ergänzung straf- und strafverfahrensrechtlicher
Bestimmungen und des Gesetzes zur Bekämpfung von Ordnungswid-
rigkeiten ( 3. Strafrechtsänderungsgesetz ), June 28, 1979
in: Gesetzblatt der DDR of July 2, 1979 (Teil I, no. 17 ),
P. 143-144.

For the text of the order-to-shoot stipulations, see: Gesetz
über die Staatsgrenze der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik
( Grensgesetz ) of March 25, 1982, par. 27 in Gesetzblatt der
DDR, March 29, 1982, ( Teil I, no. 11 ) p. 197 and following.
Fr-Chr. Schroeder, "Das Strafrecht..." as in footnote (36).
Idem as (12), p.5.

Idem as (12), p.35.

William R. Corson and Robert T. Crowley, "The New KGB, Engine of Soviet Power", New York, William Morrow and Company, 1985, p. 283-286;

Gordon Brook-Shepherd, "The Storm Petrels ..", as in (31), p. 80-82.

See further in this paper, p. 22 and following.

(43) For the distinction between "country" and "state", see (18). (44) Henry S.A. Becket, "The Dictionary of Espionage, Spookspeak into English", New York, Stein & Day, 1986, p. 52.

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