Page 229 - ISRAEL'S CRADLE

"I am a Jew and as a Jew I believe that the State of Israel is my homeland"
A poster in an exhibit titled "Let my People Go!" – Israel Museum, the Sixties
Prior to the Six-Day War, most of the struggles of the Soviet Jews for their right to make Aliya – were not publicized. Only a handful enjoyed headlines and many had hoped that they would crack the Soviet unreceptiveness. One of these was the struggle of young Russian named Yasha Kazakov, born in 1947, who in February 1967 barged into the Israeli embassy in Moscow and demanded that they help him make Aliya. Initially, the embassy staff were hesitant but eventually they gave him a visa to enter Israel. The permit did not convince the Russians, who did not allow him to leave their country, claiming that he had no relatives in Israel. Yasha Kazakov did not give up: He announced that he was renouncing his Soviet citizenship and was, apparently, the first citizen who demanded that his citizenship be revoked while still inside Soviet territory. Moreover, in a letter he successfully sent to the UN Human Right's Council, he declared:
I am Jewish. I was born Jewish and wish to live my life as a Jew. With all the respect I feel towards the Russian people I do not view my people as inferior in any way in relation with the Russian people. Since the conditions in the Soviet Union are detrimental to the Jewish people, I wish to leave it. I am a Jew and as a Jew I believe that the State of Israel is my homeland, the homeland of my people, and the only place on earth where there is an independent Jewish state [...] and I like any Jew am fully within my rights to live in that country.
Kazakov's letter was published in the "Washington Post" in December 1968. The publication generated broad scale international waves and hurt the image of the Soviet authorities. After several months, Kazakov was given an exit visa.
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