Vladimir Slepak’s Vigil

Seven years ago this spring, Vladimir Slepak, a radio and television engineer, applied for permission to leave the Soviet Union and move to Israel. Now, a hundred days in jail and countless incidents of KGB harassment later, he and his family still live on Moscow’s Gorky Street, in an eighth-floor flat where he has spent 35 of his 48 years.

Last April Slepak embarked on a three-week hunger strike to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his application for an exit visa. A year later and Slepak is still waiting—waiting, his 16-year-old son Leonid said, “for who knows what.”

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David Shribman

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Seven years ago this spring, Vladimir Slepak, a radio and television engineer, applied for permission to leave the Soviet Union and move to Israel. Now, a hundred days in jail and countless incidents of KGB harassment later, he and his family still live on Moscow’s Gorky Street, in an eighth-floor flat where he has spent 35 of his 48 years.

Last April Slepak embarked on a three-week hunger strike to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his application for an exit visa. A year later and Slepak is still waiting—waiting, his 16-year-old son Leonid said, “for who knows what.”