Offshoot of New Soviet Policy : Glasnost: Refuseniks Apparently Benefiting

As an apparent offshoot of the new Soviet policy of glasnost, or openness, Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union has risen sharply and, at the current rate, more than 6,000 Jews are expected to emigrate this year--six times the number who left last year.

And beyond the rising number of Jews who are leaving each month there are signs that glasnost is being extended to Jews who remain in the Soviet Union.

However, the Jewish emigration rate is still far short of the high-water mark of 1979, when more than 51,000 emigrated. New rules that took effect last Jan. 1 may prevent emigration from reaching that mark again any time soon.

“Don’t applaud yet,” Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev cautioned Secretary of State George P. Shultz last April after outlining his plans to enhance human rights in the Soviet Union.

Americans are not applauding. “We’re entitled to a certain skepticism,” said Frank C. Carlucci, President Reagan’s national security adviser.

Seeking to Change Image

Nonetheless, one Israeli official who asked not to be identified said the increased rate of Jewish emigration suggests that Gorbachev is seeking to dispel the world’s image of the Soviet Union as a country behind bars.

There are many signs that Gorbachev’s new emigration policies are making their mark:

--Among those getting exit visas this year are refuseniks of long standing whose existence had been unknown in the West. They were not on a list of 11,000 refuseniks--those refused exit visas-- given to the Soviets by Shultz last December. Freeing those individuals is considered especially significant because their cases could have been covered up by the Soviets if they chose.

-- All but one of the so-called “prisoners of conscience”--two dozen Jews jailed on pretexts after applying to emigrate--have been released from prison. The last one, Alexei Magarik, is due to be freed in September.

-- The Soviet press can now deal extensively with emigration and with Jewish culture and folklore.

-- Soviet citizens will be able to visit abroad more easily, with former Soviet Jews who now live in Israel or the United States allowed to invite their relatives for a visit. U.S. officials are seeking to learn if this change will lead to de facto emigration.

More Than Passing Interest

-- Other national and ethnic groups also have more freedom to leave the Soviet Union. Emigration of ethnic Germans has jumped to an annual rate of more than 7,800, more than 10 times last year’s figure and close to the peak of 9,704 in 1976.

Gorbachev’s pursuit of these liberalizing measures is of more than passing interest to the West, for a nation’s performance on human rights is a measure of that nation in other respects.

Human rights and security issues, Shultz has said, are “part and parcel of the same thing. . . . You can’t imagine genuinely meaningful arms control or security relationships with a country unless there is some measure of freedom and openness in that country, including a record of living up to undertaking about human rights.”

The Soviets’ modern-day restrictions on emigration have deep historical roots. In earlier centuries, said University of Notre Dame Prof. Alan Dowty, nations commonly prohibited emigration. Freedom of movement was the broadest in modern history during the 19th Century and until World War I, he told a conference at the Kennan Institute for Soviet Studies earlier this year.

Pre-Soviet Russia allowed unhampered emigration, Dowty said. But the Bolsheviks closed the doors two months after taking power in 1917. Other Communist states later did the same, and of the 21 nations that now pursue such a policy, 18 are Marxist-Leninist systems that follow the Soviet model.

The primary reason for restricting emigration, Dowty said, is the same as the reason for building the Berlin Wall: Communist regimes would otherwise lose large parts of their professional classes to capitalist societies, where the rewards are far greater.

At various times, the Soviets have made exceptions to their restrictive policy, mainly for the purpose of family reunification when emigres had a “historic homeland” to return to. Thus, Volga Germans could go to Germany and Greeks, Poles, Armenians and other nationalities could join relatives in their homelands. And starting in 1967, Jews could leave in significant numbers for Israel.

Jewish emigration fell off precipitously after 1979. Gorbachev’s new policy, which is coupled with a drive to make the Soviet Union more attractive to Jews and other minorities, strives not only to make minorities inside the country more content but also to woo back some who have already left.

Yuri V. Dubinin, the Soviet ambassador to the United States, said during a recent breakfast interview at The Times’ Washington Bureau that more than 100 Jews who were granted exit visas this year changed their minds about leaving. And some who had emigrated returned earlier this year in a much-publicized airlift from New York City.

Signs of Declining Emigration

Already there are signs that the number of Jewish emigrants will start declining again soon. Rules that took effect on Jan. 1 restrict those who may apply to leave for purposes of family reunification to parents and children; previously reunification might have been considered even for distant cousins.

At the same time, the new rules hold the potential for greater emigration if the Soviet Union and Israel complete their current efforts to re-establish diplomatic relations. The final clause in the new regulations states that the restrictions may be waived through nation-to-nation agreements.

Some U.S. and foreign diplomats distinguish between Gorbachev’s emigration policy, which is based mainly on winning respect for the Soviet Union in the international community, and his glasnost efforts, which include greater political and economic freedom within the Soviet Union. Glasnost is focused on internal Soviet audiences.

But there is much overlap between the two. Both are motivated far more by Gorbachev’s political goals than by a sudden conversion to humanism.

His new policy on Jewish emigration, for example, seeks to eliminate a significant problem in U.S.-Soviet relations with an eye to political and economic gains--arms control agreements and broader trade with the United States, for example.

Mobilize the Intelligentsia

Glasnost is a slogan that has been used at various times since the Crimean War of the 1850s. Gorbachev’s aim, said Peter Reddaway of the Kennan Institute, is to “mobilize the creative Soviet intelligentsia” to help reform the Soviet economic and political system.

That means greater freedom for expression and criticism among Jews within the Soviet Union. For example, according to a survey by Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty:

-- More writers with Jewish names are appearing in publications without having to adopt pen names.

-- Jewish folklore is being translated and published, and a primer on learning Yiddish will be published.

-- Soviet authorities for the first time have acknowledged the “isolation” caused by the requirement that internal Soviet passports record the holders’ nationality and identify those who are Jewish. That could be a first step toward abandoning the practice.