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his master’s degree. However,
former Georgia Tech electrical
engineering professor John Wal
lace, who taught at the institute
at the time Chapovsky studied
there, questioned the inability of
a Georgia Tech graduate to find
a job.
“Even the worst students get at
least one job offer, and the good
students get several very lucra
tive job offers,” Wallace said in a
telephone interview.
Admitting that he did not spe
cifically remember Chapovsky
from his years at Georgia Tech,
Wallace added: “Georgia Tech is
a good school. They graduate
decent people and they don’t
pass out positions on the dean’s
list for nothing. ...It seems that
there’s more there than meets the
eye.”
A Jewish communal source,
on the other hand, speaking on
the condition of anonymity, said
that after obtaining his master’s
degree, Chapovsky worked at a
part-time job in some area of his
field in Atlanta, earning a fairly
good income.
The source said that after ob
taining his master’s degree, Cha
povsky also studied in France
toward his Ph.D. There, as in the
United States, according to the
source, Chapovsky was “unhappy
and dissatisfied.”
Chapovsky left France before
completing his doctoral degree,
the source said, and when he
came back to Atlanta “he was
pretty much determined that the
United States was not for him
either.”
The source said that Chapovsky
had problems adjusting to the
lifestyle in America and what
seemed to be “philosophical ques
tions” about the American eco
nomic and social structure.
“1 think this is the kind of
young man who cannot live in a
competitive world,” he added.
Thus the source continued,
Chapovsky contacted Soviet au
thorities while visiting Washing
ton recently. He reportedly is
planning to return to the Soviet
Union in early November.
According to Leonard Cohen,
JFS executive director, emigres
often have trouble adjusting to
life in America, having left part
of their roots in their native land.
“At best, even if we don’t see
that overtly...! don’t know if we
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would look internally at some of
the emigres; they’re having a hard
time adjusting culturally,” Cohen
said.
For the Soviet emigre, he con
tinued, the adjustment might be
especially difficult, as the U.S.
and Soviet systems are “radically
different.”
The immigrant from the
U.S.S.R., Cohen explained, is
coming from a society that is
strongly regimented, in which
each person is given a niche,
through which he finds security.
In the United States, with all its
freedoms, the individual must
make his own way through a
great deal of hard work in a
fiercely competitive society.
“Many will bridge the gap
because they like the freedom
and what they can achieve here,”
Cohen said.
But others don’t adapt, he cau
tioned, and they may sometimes
express the desire to return to the
Soviet Union. This is rare, Cohen
said, but even rarer is the Soviet
emigre who acts on it.
“Of the 600 Soviet refugees we
have resettled in Atlanta since
1973, this is the first overt situa
tion that I’m aware of in which
an individual has actually chosen
to go back to Russia,” Cohen
declared.
The source who spoke of Cha-
povsky’s studies in France specu
lated that his adjustment prob
lems may have started even before
he reached America’s shores.
“He was the most adamant
one in the family calling to leave
Russia,” the source said.
Other sources close to the fam
ily also said Yuri Chapovsky was
the driving force behind the fami
ly’s decision to emigrate from the
Soviet Union in the first place.
That this is the first incident of
a Soviet Jewish emigre from the
Atlanta area returning to the
Soviet Union may indicate that
the immigrant community here is
aware of the difficult situation
for Jews in the U.S.S.R., the
source said.
He added that the rest of Cha-
povsky’s family appears to have
adjusted quite well to life in the
United States.
According to HIAS (the He
brew Sheltering and Immigrant
Aid Society) in New York, which
is charged with helping Soviet
Jewish emigrants resettle in the
West, more than 90,000 have
settled in the United States since
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1966, most of them since the
early 1970s. I nail, other statistics
show, more than 260,000 Jews
have come out of the Soviet
Union in the past decade, and
almost none of them have re
turned.
No statistics have been found
to confirm whether Chapovsky
and Israel Glickman, the 61-
year-old laborer from Dallas, are
the first Soviet Jewish emigres in
the United States to go back
since the gates to the West were
opened in the late 1960s-early
1970s.
“There undoubtedly have been
some cases, but we don’t believe
it’s a widespread phenomenon,”
a State Department official said
by telephone from Washington.
“The Soviets would have us be
lieve it’s a large-scale problem,
but we don’t believe it is.”
Speaking on the condition that
her name would not be used, the
State Department official added,
referring to last week’s press con
ference at which the four return
ing emigres spoke, “This is a
scene that the Soviets used to
discourage people in the Soviet
Union who want to emigrate.”
According to the official, the
Soviets recently intensified this
campaign to convince people in
the U.S.S.R. that there are prob
lems with life in the West and
that a lot of former Soviet citi
zens living in the West are dissat
isfied.
The official did not know of
any effort by the U.S. govern
ment to contact the four return
ing Soviets to convince them to
stay in the United States.
“Anyone is free to leave our
country who wishes to,” the offi
cial said. “We challenge the
Soviets to make the same state
ments.”
Myrna Shinbaum, associate
director of the National Confer
ence on Soviet Jewry in New
York, agreed with the State De
partment’s assessment of the sit
uation.
She called the return of the
four an incident the Soviet au
thorities would play “for all it’s
worth.”
“It’s so isolated,” she said. “It
comes now because the Soviets
are reacting to several things.
They are reacting to the fact that
we presented to the (Soviet) ad
ministration more than 11,000
names of refusniks. They are
reacting to the publicity sur-
rounding(refusnik) David Gold-
farb’s flight out of the Soviet
Union. And, I think they need a
way to counteract. And this is
how they counteracted. So, they
found some disillusioned people
who can’t cut it.”
Ms. Shinbaum said she didn’t
think the emigres’ return would
affect the Reagan-Gorbachev
summit talks, which the United
States and the Soviet Union still
hope to conduct by the end of the
year.
However, she expressed con
cern for Chapovsky once he is
again on Russian soil.
“The sad part of it is that the
Soviet authorities will use it
initially, and then who knows
what they’ll do with him,” she
said.
“The reception will be terrific.
He will be a hero initially. They
will play up that he is someone
disillusioned with the corrupt
West. It’s what they’re always
saying. But, what happens when
the camera lights go off? 1 have
no idea.
“Will he be punished? Very
possibly.”
Richard Bono is a staff writer
for The Southern Israelite. Diane
Wolkow is the managing editor
of the Kansas City Jewish Chron
icle.
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