Freedom Flight

After five years, an exit visa

At the time, many saw it as a desperate, probably futile gamble. Seven Pentecostals from Siberia raced past startled Soviet guards and into the U.S. embassy in Moscow. Their aim: to win permission to leave a country that, they said, persecuted members of their religious minority (estimated size: at least 150,000). The fugitives were given a single 12-ft.-by-20-ft. room in the embassy basement and later took over the barbershop next door. Last week, after nearly five years in their refuge, the Siberian Seven, as they have become known, finally moved a little closer to freedom when Soviet authorities allowed one of them, Lidiya Vashchenko, 32, to board an Austrian Airlines flight to Vienna.

Vashchenko's family has been at odds with the Soviet government for 20 years. Then particular Pentecostal practices forbid them to serve in the army, while their devoutness prompted them to withdraw their children from atheistic state schooling. Moreover, ever since Lidiya, her four relatives and two neighbors dashed into the U.S. embassy, the conflict has become more complicated. The Soviets promised to consider their visa applications only if all seven returned to their native city of Chernogorsk in southern Siberia and applied through normal channels. Fearing reprisals, the seven had steadfastly refused to leave the embassy.

In January 1982, however, Vashchenko and her more robust mother Augustina, 53, began a hunger strike. After a month Lidiya, whose weight had dropped to 84 Ibs., became so weak that she agreed to be taken to Moscow's Botkin Hospital and nursed back to health. Two weeks later, she returned to Chernogorsk. There, determined to test the government's promise, she applied to the local authorities for permission to leave.

Last month the government abruptly granted her request, stipulating only that she move either to Israel or West Germany. "We have always believed God was calling us to go to Israel," said a smiling Vashchenko upon arriving in Vienna, before flying from there to Israel.

U.S. diplomats were not sure last week if the Soviet move signaled any change in government attitudes. For their part, the Vashchenkos stubbornly demanded that eleven relatives back in Siberia also be allowed to emigrate. Meanwhile, the U.S. embassy has reassured the six that it will extend its hospitality indefinitely. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.