Of some 140 political prisoners pardoned last month by Soviet Party Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the best known was Mathematician Iosif Begun, a 54-year-old refusenik. He was freed after serving 3 1/2 years of a seven-year term for anti-Soviet activity that consisted mainly of teaching Hebrew and campaigning for Jewish cultural rights. After being reunited with his family and friends on a Moscow train platform last week, Begun relaxed in his apartment and spoke with TIME Moscow Bureau Chief James O. Jackson of how he passed his time in prison. A compact man with cheerful blue eyes and a velvet yarmulke covering...
Soviet Union A Day in the Depths of the Gulag
The place where rain falls, but sun never shines
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