Refusenik Refusenik ( , otkaznik , from " отказ " , " otkaz " " refusal " ) was an unofficial term for individuals , typically but not exclusively Soviet Jews , who were denied permission to emigrate abroad by the authorities of the former Soviet Union and other countries of the Eastern bloc . The term " refusenik " is derived from the " refusal " handed down to a prospective emigrant from the Soviet authorities . Over time , " refusenik " has entered colloquial English for person who refuses to do something , especially by way of protest . History . A large number of Soviet Jews applied for exit visa s to leave the Soviet Union , especially in the period following the 1967 Six - Day War . While some were allowed to leave , many were refused permission to emigrate , either immediately or after their cases would languish for years in the " OVIR " ( ОВиР , " Отдел Виз и Регистрации " , " Otdel Viz i Registratsii " , English : Office of Visas and Registration ) , the MVD ( Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs ) department responsible for exit visas . In many instances , the reason given for denial was that these persons had been given access , at some point in their careers , to information vital to Soviet national security and could not now be allowed to leave . During the Cold War , Soviet Jews were thought to be a security liability or possible traitors . To apply for an exit visa , the applicants ( and often their entire families ) would have to quit their jobs , which in turn would make them vulnerable to charges of social parasitism , a criminal offense . Many Jews encountered systematic , institutional antisemitism which blocked their opportunities for advancement . Some government sectors were almost entirely off - limits to Jews . In addition , Soviet restrictions on religious education and expression prevented Jews from engaging in Jewish cultural and religious life . While these restrictions led many Jews to seek emigration , requesting an exit visa was itself seen as an act of betrayal by Soviet authorities . Thus , prospective emigrants requested permission to emigrate at great personal risk , knowing that an official refusal would often be accompanied by dismissal from work and other forms of social ostracism and economic pressure . At the same time , strong international condemnations caused the Soviet authorities to significantly increase the emigration quota . In the years 1960 through 1970 , only 4 , 000 people ( legally ) emigrated from the USSR . In the following decade , the number rose to 250 , 000 , to fall again by 1980 . Incident . In 1970 , a group of sixteen refuseniks ( two of whom were non - Jewish ) , organized by dissident Eduard Kuznetsov ( who already served a seven - year term in Soviet prisons ) , plotted to buy all the seats for the local flight Leningrad - Priozersk , under the guise of a trip to a wedding , on a small 12 - seater aircraft Antonov An - 2 ( colloquially known as " кукурузник " , " kukuruznik " ) , throw out the pilots before takeoff from an intermediate stop , and fly it to Sweden , knowing they faced a huge risk of being captured or shot down . One of the participants , Mark Dymshits , was a former military pilot . On 15 June 1970 , after arriving at Smolnoye ( later Rzhevka ) Airport near Leningrad , the entire group of the " wedding guests " was arrested by the MVD . Aftermath . The accused were charged for high treason , punishable by the death sentence under Article 64 of the Penal code of the RSFSR . Mark Dymshits and Eduard Kuznetsov were sentenced to capital punishment but after international protests it was appealed and replaced with 15 years of incarceration , Yosef Mendelevitch and Yuri Fedorov - 15 years , Aleksey Murzhenko - 14 , Sylva Zalmanson ( Kuznetsov ' s wife then , and the only woman on trial ) - 10 , Arieh - Leib Khanokh - 13 , Anatoli Altmann - 12 , Boris Penson - 10 , Israel Zalmanson - 8 years , Wolf Zalmanson ( brother of Sylva and Israel ) - 10 , Mendel Bodnya - 4 years . The affair was followed by a crackdown on the Jewish and dissident movement throughout the USSR . Activists were arrested , makeshift centers for studying the Hebrew language and Torah were closed , and more trials followed . At the same time , strong international condemnations caused the Soviet authorities to significantly increase the emigration quota . In the years 1960 through 1970 , only 4 , 000 people ( legally ) emigrated from the USSR . In the 1970s alone ( right after the First Leningrad Trial ) 163 , 000 Jews were liberated , for a total in subsequent decades of over million . A leading proponent and spokesman of the refusenik movement during the mid - 1970s was Natan Sharansky . Sharansky ' s involvement with the Moscow Helsinki Monitoring Group helped to establish the struggle for emigration rights within the greater context of the human rights movement in the USSR . His arrest on charges of espionage and treason and subsequent trial contributed to international support for the refusenik cause . Refuseniks included Jews who desired to emigrate on religious grounds , Jews seeking to immigrate to Israel for Zionist aspirations , and relatively secular Jews desiring to escape continuous state - sponsored antisemitism . Also , large numbers of other ethnic groups tried to escape persecutions or desired to seek a better life , including Volga German s attempting to leave for Germany and Armenians wanting to join their diaspora . The coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union in the mid - 1980s , and his policies of glasnost and perestroika , as well as a desire for better relations with the West , led to major changes , and most refuseniks were allowed to emigrate . With the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s , the term " otkaznik " largely passed into history .