Page 245 - ISRAEL'S CRADLE

Two generations in Aliya and Absorption. On the left: Baroukh Douvdevani, Director-General of the Aliya Department in the Fifties and the Sixties, and his son, Avraham Duvdevani (Duvdev), Chairman of the World Zionist Organization. On the right: former Prisoner of Zion Yuli Edelstein as Speaker of the Israeli Knesset
The Second Period of Michael Gorbachev's Rule
Researchers of the Soviet Jewry distinguish between two periods in Michael Gorbachev's attitude towards the Jews. The first period, in the years 1985-1986 and then the second period, in the years 1987-1991. The second period begins – allegedly – in February 1986, when Gorbachev declared the Soviet Union's new policy, which would be based upon two terms: "Glasnost," i.e. openness, and "Perestroika," i.e. restructuring of the economy. However, over a year had passed between the declaration and its realization and more importantly, between the declaration and implementation of its ramification in the Jewish context. In 1986, there were still 23 "Prisoners of Zion" in the Soviet prisons and gulags, but by autumn of 1987, all the prisoners, to the last of them, were released from their incarceration. Moreover: In the summer and autumn of 1987, the Russians began issuing thousands of exit visas to Israel, including for Jews who were symbols of the Jewish struggle for freedom, including Yuli Edelstein, Iosif Begun, Victor Brailovsky and others.
Yoel-Yuli Edelstein, who was born in Chernivtsi (1958), sought after his high school studies to be accepted to language school – only to be rejected due to his Judaism. He therefore decided to study in a collage for training teachers and simultaneously learning and teaching Hebrew. In 1979, he requested an exit visa for Israel – but was refused. He moved to Moscow, joined the other Hebrew teachers and became a key part in the group of young Zionist activists.
The KGB personnel surveilled and harassed him on more than one occasion. In 1984, they planted drugs in his house and arrested him on the charge of teaching Hebrew and drug possession. He
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