Translated material
"Gang" aircraft
Half a century ago, the KGB conducted one of the most successful operations: all passengers who intended to hide the plane to Sweden were arrested. What was it?
On the morning of June 15, 1970, all passengers were arrested at the Smolny airfield at the Smolny airfield at the Leningrad -Priozersk flight. Four more people - earlier, at night in the forest belt of Priozersk. An attempt to capture a passenger aircraft is reported. On the same day, nine more people in Leningrad were detained, searches are underway in other cities of the country.
Behind the six -day war in the Middle East and the gap of diplomatic relations of the USSR - Israel. A secret appeal was written to the Central Committee of Andropov - Gromyko with an appeal "along with other measures to resume this year the departure of Soviet citizens to permanent residence in Israel ...". Emigration from the USSR is possible - to reunite divided families. Many Soviet Jews have relatives in Israel.
After the death of Stalin and the recognition of the falsification of the “case of doctors” it seems that “for Jewry” in the USSR is no longer planted. In fact, from 1955 to the end of 1969, he was arrested whether several dozen people were sitting or already spent. Among the accusations are “anti -Soviet agitation”: for example, appeals to official instances and private letters with complaints of an unmotivated refusal of a visiting visa (Lilia Ontman, Chernivtsi). Even “Zionist propaganda” - the study of Hebrew, the spread of literature, the declaration of the desire to leave. In addition to her, the so -called Zion prisoners are charged with ties with the Embassy of Israel - seven such cases from 1955 to 1961. Contacts with relatives in Israel are also criminal. In 1957, Joseph Schneider was arrested for “trying to abduct the cruiser“ Molotov ”to escape it to the state of Israel, as well as for an attempt to kill the Egyptian president G.A. Nasser ". In 1968, David Butsalel was charged with ties with the American charitable Jewish organization "Joint", which in the 1920-1930s equipped Jewish agricultural settlements in southern Ukraine and Crimea.
In addition, the anti -religious campaign of 1959, according to many, caused Judaism much more other religions. The campaign to combat the theft of socialist property and shadow entrepreneurship is also perceived as anti -Semitic. And the publication in 1963 by the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences of the frankly anti -Semitic brochure of Trofim Kichko “Judaism without embellishment” caused a wave of protest in different countries of the world. Even the leader of the US Communist Party, the HES Hall, was indignant. In 1964, the newspaper Pravda said that certain provisions of Kichko’s work can be interpreted in the spirit of anti-Semitism, and the work itself was recognized as erroneous.
From the second half of the 1960s, the Jewish movement in the USSR has been growing. Some are aimed at the opportunity to maintain roots - to study the language and know traditions, to confess religion, to be in a cultural context. Others want to leave. Both are not easy for both.
The victory of Israel in the six -day war becomes the subject of exceptional pride for Soviet Jews, bringing some to the underground Ulpan (Hebrew study courses), and others to OVIR for departure documents.
By 1970, the departure is becoming quite problematic. Turning to the visa, people are spinning in the bureaucratic wheel to infinity. The rules can change at any time in each case. A refusal can happen at any stage of the procedure. It is useless to appeal him. Both the applicants themselves and their relatives, who did not even plan to leave, are subjected to various pressing methods.
A group of arrested at the airport and consists of desperate to leave legally.
From the appeal of hijackers.
Written a few days before the arrest
“We ... make an attempt to leave the territory of this state, without asking for permission from the authorities. We, among those tens of thousands of Jews, who for many years declare the relevant authorities about their desire to repatriate to Israel ... The authorities refuse us the right to leave. We are brazenly declared that we are in a murmur here, but we will never see our homeland ... Jews who want to become citizens of Israel are subjected to all kinds of persecution in the USSR, up to arrests ... "
In short, the situation looks like this. Pilot Mark Dymshitz, not even hoping to get an exit visa, decides to organize a group of refuseniks, buy all the tickets for the Leningrad-Murmansk flight and capture the Tu-124 passenger aircraft. Land in Sweden, give a press conference on anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and then achieve the promised land.
According to many reviews, it is impossible to call the secret training of this operation in any way - even classmates of the children of future aircraft know about it.
The operation receives the name "Wedding" (legend that everyone is flying to the wedding). The second activist of the upcoming operation is Eduard Kuznetsov, who had spent seven years in an anti -Soviet article by that time. The first problems begin - it is quite difficult to find about 50 participants. Dymshits does not have the experience of piloting such an airplane as TU. There are fears that the remaining Jews later threaten repressions. The decision is made to send a request to Israel. The answer is unequivocal and categorically rejects the idea of capturing the aircraft. Then the smoke and Kuznetsov are accepted to act separately from others already involved in history. At some point, it seems that nothing will come of it. But here a new flight is launched along the Leningrad - Priozersk route with a capacity of only 12 seats. Since the KGB has an operation “Wedding” from the very beginning, there is nothing surprising in this. Subsequently, Eduard Kuznetsov will say that their goal was not necessarily the success of the operation. The arrest and a loud process over the "plane" were to attract the attention of the world community to the problems of Soviet Jewry.
16 people participate in the final scenario: Dymshits with his wife and two daughters, Kuznetsov, Silva Zalmanson, her brothers Israel and Wulf, Iosif Mendelevich, Alexei Murzhenko, Yuri Fedorov, Anatoly Altman, Mendel Bodya, Boris Panson, Leib Khnoch, Mary Mendelevich.
Knowing that they are “grazing”, Kuznetsov offers non -Jews Murzhenko and Fedorov, whom he attracted, turn back: why substitute himself for the problem of emigration to Israel? They confirm their participation.
The plan is such. After landing, having tied the pilots, put them in sleeping bags for an awning, take four waiting in Priozersk and - the course on the Swedish Buden. Try to avoid violence.
The KGB had all the possibilities of preventing the promotion in advance, but preferred to take the hijackers with red -handed.
The court will be in December. Kuznetsova and Dymshitsa will be sentenced to death. The rest will receive from 4 to 15 years in prison. Protests will be held all over the world. As a result, death sentences will be replaced by 15 years, the rest of the participants will slightly reduce the deadlines. In subsequent years, several more trials against Jewish activists will be held.
Since 1974, "plane workers" will begin to be released. Basically - in the order of exchange for those arrested in different countries of Soviet intelligence officers. The latter will be released Fedorov and Murzhenko in 1984. All "aircraft" will leave the USSR. Most will leave for Israel.
Subsequently, the country's leadership will nevertheless increase the number of exit visas. But the regulation of emigration will remain the prerogative of power, many Jews have to sit “in refusal” for years.