Soviet Union Letting Their People Go

Letting Their People Go A wave of emigration swamps the U.S. and buoys Israel

Every morning for months a ragtag line of Soviet citizens has formed outside the American embassy in Moscow, jamming the guarded main entrance and snaking 100 yards down Tchaikovsky Street. The crowds push and break into noisy arguments. On particularly rowdy days some desperate applicants offer Soviet policemen as much as 700 rubles ($1,120) to sneak them to the front of the queue. Soviet emigration, for so long a trickle, has turned into an avalanche. Each year for three years the number of emigres has doubled, and so far in 1989 some 80,000 Soviets have applied to leave. More than 90%...

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