24 April 1979, Pb 150/129 [3.2] – POLITBURO DECISION. Deprivation of citizenship for Eduard KUZNETSOV, Mark DYMSHITS, Valentyn MOROZ, Georgy VINS and Alexander GINZBURG, and their exchange for two US spies [R: 24 April 1979, Pb 150-129]. 10 pp.

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SUMMARY

In late April members of the Politburo approved the draft decrees of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet (pp. 2-6), depriving five prisoners of their citizenship and expelling them from the Soviet Union. This implemented a decision reached in mid-November the previous year (p. 7).

A later KGB overview (pp. 8-10) stated that the expulsion of these “anti-Soviet elements” was assessed outside and in the USSR as a blow to plans to “unsettle socialism from within”. The simultaneous departure of five “Jewish nationalists” would improve conditions in the USSR as it prepared to host the 1980 summer Olympic Games.

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The account of these departures and expulsions in the Chronicle (CCE 53.1) stressed that neither group was aware that such preparations were under way.

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