Refusenik (Soviet Union)
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Refusenik (he: מסורבים, me-su-rav-im), or Otkaznik (ru: "отказник", from "отказ" (refusal, rejection), en equivalent) was an unofficial term for individuals, usually but not exclusively Soviet Jews, who were denied permission to emigrate abroad by the authorities of the former Soviet Union. The term refusenik has entered colloquial English usage for any type of protestor.
A large number of Soviet Jews applied for exit visas to leave the Soviet Union, especially in the period following the 1967 Six-Day War. While some were allowed to leave, many were refused permission, either instantly or their case could languish for years in the OVIR (ОВиР, "Отдел Виз и Регистрации", "Otdel Viz i Registratsii"), the MVD department responsible for provisioning of exit visas. In many instances, the excuse was given that these persons had been given access at some point in their careers to information vital to Soviet national security and could not now be allowed to leave.
During the Cold War, Soviet Jews were presumed a security liability or possible traitors. Some were arrested or otherwise punished for daring to express a desire to leave the country for the West, thus confirming suspicions of disloyalty. To apply for exit visa, the entire family had to quit their jobs, which in turn would make them vulnerable to charges of social parasitism, a criminal offence.
One of the founders (in 1976) and the spokesman of the refusenik movement in Moscow Helsinki Watch Group was Natan Sharansky.
Both ultra-Orthodox Jews who were desiring to emigrate on religious grounds and relatively secular Jews desired to escape an undercurrent of the state-sponsored anti-Semitism. Also, large numbers of Volga Germans attempted to leave for Germany, Armenians to join their diaspora, Evangelical Christians, Roman Catholics, and other ethnic and religious groups tried to escape persecutions or desired to seek a better life.
The coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s and his policies of glasnost and perestroika, as well as a desire for better relations with the West led to major changes. Most refuseniks were then allowed to emigrate. With the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the decade, the term "otkaznik" largely passed into history.