David Shrayer-Petrov is a Russian American novelist, poet, memoirist, translator and medical scientist best known for his novel about refuseniks, Doctor Levitin, his poetry and fiction about Russian Jewish identity and his memoirs about the Soviet literary scene in the late 1950s-1970s.
David Shrayer-Petrov
Refusenik was an unofficial term for individuals—typically, but not exclusively, Soviet Jews—who were denied permission to emigrate, primarily to Israel, by the authorities of the Soviet Union and other countries of the Soviet Bloc. The term refusenik is derived from the "refusal" handed down to a prospective emigrant from the Soviet authorities.
January 10, 1973. Soviet Jewish refusenik demonstration in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the right to emigrate to Israel, before being broken up by Soviet authorities.
A rare type 2 USSR exit visa. This type of visa was issued to those who received permission to leave the USSR permanently and lost their Soviet citizenship. Many people who wanted to emigrate were unable to receive this kind of exit visa.
Letter from the MVD to a 76-year-old man from Sverdlovsk saying he has been refused permission to move to Israel due to "knowledge of state secrets", May 1991.
Yuli Edelstein, one of the Soviet Union's most prominent refuseniks, who served as Speaker of the Knesset (Israel's parliament) from 2013 to 2020
