To Brave People I Have Known

To Brave People I Have Known



Bravery doesn't only come on the battlefields with guns and tanks. I

saw it with my own two eyes in Russia, Poland, and Czechoslavakia back

in the late 80's. I saw people stand up to their government who

didn't allow religious freedom to their own citizens. Those who chose

to go to Christian or Jewish congregations had to face having their

pictures taken by the KGB and inside informants but even worse they

faced their children not getting into the better universities; their

files would be marked and the schools knew not to admit the children

of 'religious' people.



If you couldn't take it any longer in the 1980's and early 1990's you

would apply to emigrate to Israel. This entailed quitting your job,

filing papers for emigration, and PAYING the government a fine for

leaving. Then you sat and waited for your 'permit' to come up. If you

had worked in certain government agencies or were known to be a

'dissident' you would be refused exit permits,though they might allow

some of your family to leave which was very painful. Some people

began speaking out as early as the 70's and ended up being put in

prisons. They were treated like spies for demanding freedom.



In 1989 I became active with a group called the National Council For

Soviet Jewry based in Washington DC. This group was a voice for the

'refuseniks (those refused exit visas)' and worked on the political

process to keep the pressure on Russia to let their people be free.

What I found was amazing; there were volunteers risking their own

freedom to smuggle in medicine and money and hope to those trapped in

Russia. I took a Rabbi friend of mine, Rabbi Maynard Bell, and we

flew to Poland where we saw the concentration camps of WWII which was

a sobering event. We went to Czechoslavakia and there also saw a camp

that was used with children; a very sad thing. We also met with a

person who was working on behalf of freedom for Jews there;

mysteriously he was killed in a 1 car accident 2 weeks after we had a

secret meeting with him. We went to Kiev,Ukraine and met with a young

man Mark Kotler and his family. He had stood up against the

government and spent years waiting to get out. He refused to be beaten

down and even helped those around him. We videotaped his story and

promised to help. When we went to the airport to leave Kiev we

checked in for a flight and were told to wait in a room. They wanted

us out of Kiev so bad that they stopped a very large Illushkin jet

(like a 767) and had it land. They took us out to the end of runway

and we walked up through the belly of the plane and all of a sudden

saw 300 curious Russians as we boarded and sat down.



When we got to Moscow we met numerous families who had been fighting

for their freedom for years and were refused exit visas. One man had

been driven literally crazy and when we videotaped his story you could

hardly see him in the video; it was like his soul had been taken by

the Soviet govt. Once we were going to see a famous math professor

and when we got on the train we realized the KGB was following us so

we jumped on and off the train a few times with big men in hats and

coats jumping in unison with us. Somehow we lost them and ended up at

our new friends house. We heard his story; he was blind,unable to earn

a living, but they felt sorry for us as we hadn't been able to get

much food and they fed us. The Soviet people had big hearts. We were

even given a ride back to our hotel in a private person's car and the

police stopped us for a minor traffic infraction. They gave a lecture

in Russian,not knowing that 2 of us in the car were Americans, and if

they had known we would have been arrested. It wasn't allowed for

Soviet citizens to be with Americans privately because obviously we

were spies. We were lucky.



We met Leonid and Natasha Stonov and their son Sasha. Sasha

represented the 3rd generation of Stonov's who had been punished by

the Soviet govt. for speaking up against oppression; Sasha's

grandfather had been in one of the gulags in Stalins' times. Leonid

was being kept in the Soviet Union because he knew that the Soviet

agricultural programs were a farce and he helped many other people

gain their freedom. They were a brave family. They valued freedom and

truth more than their own safety. Without Alphagraphics knowing it,

their joint venture in Moscow ended up being the 'communications' hub

for a while via fax for information we needed to get out of who needed

medicine,etc.; Leonid Stoniv and my American Express credit card

fueled it but their high speed secure line via Finland pulled off what

had taken along time in the past using secret couriers to hand carry

the info out of Russia to the free world.



When we got back to the US I had the opportunity with concentration

camp survivor Si Frumkin of helping rescue several thousand Soviet

Pentecostal Christians who had sold all of their possessions,moved to

Moscow to emigrate, and then were told that the US govt. had no more

entry permits. Through a Rabbi I knew, contact was made with

evangelist Pat Robertson and he told the original President Bush he

intended to release a story on his show that 3000 Soviet Christians

were being held against their will due to the US govt. President Bush

ordered the people airlifted out and those people were resettled in

the US,not knowing that Si, a retired carpet sales company owner, and

myself, an eggman, had been involved.



But all of these opportunities to meet people taught me a lesson. It

taught me that freedom is a precious thing and that there are people

in the world who don't have it. Today we see murders and oppression

going on in the Middle East and in Africa and few speak out about it

or do anything. It is a shame that we don't have soldiers in Africa

helping rescue starving children and families being murdered everyday.

It is also a shame that more countries aren't emulating Israel and

helping rescue people out of starving countries like they did in

Ethiopia where they had to pay bribes to get people out.



I write this paper with the intention of bringing up that as a world,

we owe it to help others gain their freedom. I don't know how we do it

all of the time but in the past it has been done often by volunteers.

You don't know their names but little old ladies in coats carried

hidden medicine and food to Russian families acting like tourists. A

brave 16 year old girl named Allyson Gannon did many missions like

that herself and helped save families at great personal risk; her

parents were amazing in their support of this project. Even today

there are still people fighting for people's freedoms. Brave folks

like former refusenik Leonid Stonov continue to go to the former

Soviet Union and help. People like Si Frumkin continue to speak out in

several languages about the issues. I salute these brave person;

they taught me that standing up can make a difference. The fight

isn't over. There are still people lacking freedom.



Dean Hughson, tel 480-836-2314 deanhughson@gmail.com