Some 200 sponsors in this country have signed assurances (vyzova)
(Appendix I - Statistics & Appendix II - Dean Dexter's letter) for
approximately 900 Orthodox Christians, Baptists and Pentecostals in
the Soviet Union who applied for immigration to the United States, but
whose applications have been rejected by the Soviet authorities.

An estimated additional number of 1,000 sponsors are ready to come forward for some seven thousand believers in the Soviet Union Baptists, Pentecostals and a few hundred of Orthodox Christians whose names are known in this country.

Soviet Refusal.

The Soviet refusal to issue exit permits to believers (Appendix III Embassy cable) is based on the very same reason for emigration of these people which is religious persecution, a fact denied by the Soviets. According to the information in the appeals for help received in this country, Soviet refusals are followed, by harassment from the local authorities children of applicants are sent to unattached children's homes for re-education, heads of families and young men are sent to forced labor camps and women, left behind, are penalized with nuisance tactics and lecturing for clinging to their religious beliefs. Participants i. prayer meetings in private homes (Appendix IV - Plotnikoff revocation) have been sentenced to pay 50-ruble fines. Soviet officials allow emigration from the USSR only for family reunion or for the return to one's homeland. Most of the people in our case are ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians and Lithuanians, all nationals of the 16 Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union.

A brief history of the Pentecostal movement in the Soviet Union is attr.ched (Appendix V).

TOLSTOY FOUNDATION CENTER VALLEY COTTAGE, N. Y. 10989 • Telephone (14) CO 8-6140
Contributions are deductible to the full extent provided by law and will be acknowledged

-2

Appeals and Applications.

Lists of applicants for immigration to the United States with appeals for support have been received by the American Embassy in Moscow, the Consulate in Leningrad and the Advance Party of the U.S. Consulate in Kiev, and forwarded to whom the appeal is addressed: President Jimmy Carter, as a "brother Christian and Baptist," Rev. Potter, Chairman of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, and Kurt Waldheim, Secretary General of the United Nations. Several appeals were forwarded in the original form to the Tolstoy Foundation. One appeal was addressed to Alexandra Tolstoy, the daughter of the Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, the founder and now chairman emeritus of the Tolstoy Foundation (Appendix VI). To the best of our knowledge, except for the last one, none of the appeals have yet been acknowledged by their addressees.

Role and Position of the Tolstoy Foundation.

The Tolstoy Foundation is not directly involved in the sponsorship of this group. It limits its role to good services in the preparation of sponsorships in the United States (vyzova) and to the assistance in resettlement after the people will have left the USSR.

The Tolstoy Foundation has presented documentation about the plight of the Baptist, Pentecostal and other Christian applicants to the National Security Council at the White House and to the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs of the State Department. Encouragement has been received from the Soviet Desk of the State Department and the names added to the large waiting list of applicants whose exit visas have been refused for years by the Soviets. The position of the Tolstoy Foundation in similar cases has always been to examine them as individual family cases requiring emigration to change the environment and thus eliminate unwarranted hardship. The course of action recommended by the Tolstoy Foundation is not of a confrontation with anyone on a Human Rights issue, but rather of practical steps taken with the approval of the local authorities and cooperation in compassionate understanding (Appendix VII - March 1, 1978 & January 25, 1978 Reports).

Some Reasons for and Reactions to the Soviet Refusal.

Since the arrival of the first list and the sending of the first affidavit by an American sponsor, two years have passed. Patience is getting thinner and tension is growing amongst sponsors in the United States. the same time, the Christian applicants in the USSR are becoming more intransigent in their stand. Notwithstanding increased pressure from officialdom, they refuse to register their congregations and to withdraw their applications for emigration.

The Vastchenko Incident.

One Pentecostal family(with a U.S. sponsorship through the good services of the Tolstoy Foundation) forced its way into the American Embassy and iss squatting there since June 1978, raising problems of its own (Appendix VIII N.Y. Times, November 9, 1978). The escalation of the conflict between the Soviet authorities and the above-mentioned groups of conservative Christians

-3

is the consequence of three separate, but recent events.

One is the publication in the Soviet press, two years
ago, of the full text of the Helsinki Agreement offer-
ing freedom of movement among other promises.

Another was the introduction of the new Soviet consti-
tution of 1978 which mentions the negative position of
the Communist party on religion. (Appendix IX Soviet
Constitution, old and new),

and, finally, the election of Jimmy Carter a Baptist
as President of the United States.

A number of Christian communities in the USSR concluded that loyalty to their faith is incompatible with an allegiance to the Soviet order and felt that their conscience compells them to follow precedents in similar situations in the Bible and directs them to leave the USSR. They also believe that the President of the United States will understand their position better. Need for Review of the Present Standstill.

It would be illusory to discard this growing situation as an internal Soviet problem. The United States is unavoidably affected.

Two hundred American families, supported by a
much larger constituency of Baptists, Pente-
costals and Orthodox Christians in the United
States have sent affidavits, spent money, pre-
pared housing and secured jobs, and have committed
themselves and their churches to help their breth-
ren in the USSR.

Despite the internal pressure or maybe because of
it, the number of applications in the Soviet Union
has grown to 7,000 people. with a corresponding
increase of American sponsors. The cost of pro-
cessing these cases (registrations, translations,
certifications fees, and administrative costs)
comes to an average of $100 per case and a tet-l
of $20,000 so far, without taking into account the
price of frustration of American sponsors and the
hardship of applicants in the USSR.

Consideration of Possible Action.

The Tolstoy Foundation seeks clarification, guidance and support in order to decide if its efforts must continue or should this operation be terminated and sponsors and applicants informed accordingly.

There are two options open for consideration.

The U.S. Government (the White House, Departments
of State and Justice) will undertake the initiative
of special separate negotiations for an agreement
with the USSR for the release of a number of Christian
individual cases for immigration to the United States
on the following grounds: the applicants are people
"difficult to integrate in the USSR who would be happier
in the United States. They share the beliefs which were
brought by American missionaries to Russia." Another
suggested line of thought which might be acceptable
to the Soviets would be for them to consider these
Baptist, Pentecostal and other applicants in a cate-
gory of "a marginal ethnic oddity too stubborn to
change its religious persuasions." The Soviet Union
might decide that they are "unfit to be wart of the
culturally advanced Soviet society." The teasier they
generate by their attitude will be de used by their
emigration from the USSR. Their emigration will also
improve the relationship between the USA and the USSR,
which is now aggravated by the growing hostility on
both sides generated by this situation.

One can sympathize with the reluctance of any American official or private citizen to declare that nothing more than lip service, except for special cases, can be given to Human Rights cases in the Soviet Union.

One can also understand the fear of an escalation in the numbers of applicants if a token number of people is released. Experience shows that movements of people decline with time and that refugee groups are not a burden to the receiving country.

Need of Meeting for a Consensus.

The failure to achieve during the period of two years a release of the groups of conservative Christians to rejoin their sponsors in the United States requires some special action. A meeting of all those concerned and familiar with the situation should be called at an early date, to gather together all information, and to devise a consensus on the action to take. It would be most desirable that it be held with the participation of representatives of the Administration, Congress, NGOs, American Pentecostals, Baptists and other sponsors. This will contribute to an honest appraisal of the situation and, in general, to the successful outcome of such a meeting.

Attachments

Respectfully submitted,

Т.К. Выића

Teymuraz K. Bagration
Executive Secretary

TOLSTOY FOUNDATION, INC.