Iosif Begun
Encyclopedia
Iosif Ziselovich Begun, sometimes spelled Yosef (born July 9, 1932 in Moscow
, Russia
) is a former Soviet refusenik
, prisoner of conscience
, human rights activist, author and translator.
Over the course of 17 years, Begun was imprisoned three times and spent over eight years in prisons and labor camps
as a political prisoner
. He was pardon
ed and freed in 1987 after political pressure from Jewish political organizations and the US Government.
. He graduated from Radio Technology Department
of Moscow Power Engineering Institute
in 1957, and Department of Mathematics at Moscow State University
in 1962 (in the extension school). He received Candidate of Technical Sciences degree and worked as an electronics engineer and a statistician
.
From 1971 to 1988, Begun was repeatedly arrested for his political activities, and imprisoned under social parasitism
charge. One of his early arrests, in 1972, was during a 10 day Moscow visit by President
Richard Nixon
. After his first two labor camp terms, he was forced to live on 101st kilometre
, in Strunino Village, Vladimir Oblast
. In 1982, he received a seven year sentence for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." His actual crime was teaching Hebrew and protesting for free emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel
. His struggles led to wide protests in the West, by NCSJ
and other Jewish organizations, and US diplomatic protestations. His case was covered by a number of media outlets, which referred to Begun as a "leader of the Jewish emigration movement."
Begun's release from prison was announced on February 16, 1987, by Georgy Arbatov
, a member of the Central Committee
, in a Face the Nation
interview on CBS
.
In January 1988, a year after he was freed, Begun and his family was permitted to immigrate to Israel
. In May 1988, President
Ronald Reagan
invited and honored Iosif Begun at the White House
.
Begun's arrest, trial and imprisonment was followed and recorded by Amnesty International
. He was fully rehabilitated
in 1992, and got back his Russian citizenship in 2001. Haifa University awarded Begun an honorary doctorate "in recognition of his continued struggle to make an Aliah". He now lives in Jerusalem and runs a publishing house translating Jewish books into Russian.
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
) is a former Soviet refusenik
Refusenik
Refusenik originally referred to citizens of the former Soviet Union who were refused permission to emigrate.Refusenik or refusnik may also refer to:*An Israeli conscientious objector, see Refusal to serve in the Israeli military...
, prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience is a term defined in Peter Benenson's 1961 article "The Forgotten Prisoners" often used by the human rights group Amnesty International. It can refer to anyone imprisoned because of their race, religion, or political views...
, human rights activist, author and translator.
Over the course of 17 years, Begun was imprisoned three times and spent over eight years in prisons and labor camps
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
as a political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
. He was pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
ed and freed in 1987 after political pressure from Jewish political organizations and the US Government.
Biography
Begun was born and grew up in Moscow, Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. He graduated from Radio Technology Department
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
of Moscow Power Engineering Institute
Moscow Power Engineering Institute
Moscow Power Engineering Institute is one of the largest and leading technical universities in the world in the area of power engineering, electronics and IT...
in 1957, and Department of Mathematics at Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
in 1962 (in the extension school). He received Candidate of Technical Sciences degree and worked as an electronics engineer and a statistician
Statistician
A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...
.
From 1971 to 1988, Begun was repeatedly arrested for his political activities, and imprisoned under social parasitism
Parasitism (social offense)
Social parasitism is a charge that is leveled against a group or class in society which is considered to be detrimental to the whole by analogy with biologic parasitism .-General concept:...
charge. One of his early arrests, in 1972, was during a 10 day Moscow visit by President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
. After his first two labor camp terms, he was forced to live on 101st kilometre
101st kilometre
101st kilometre is a colloquial name for the law restricting freedom of movement in the Soviet Union.In the Soviet Union, the rights of an inmate released from the prison would typically still be restricted for a long period of time...
, in Strunino Village, Vladimir Oblast
Vladimir Oblast
Vladimir Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Vladimir, which is located east of Moscow...
. In 1982, he received a seven year sentence for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." His actual crime was teaching Hebrew and protesting for free emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. His struggles led to wide protests in the West, by NCSJ
NCSJ
National Conference on Soviet Jewry is a leading US organization advocating on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Eurasia. It was started in 1971 as a volunteer organization and played an important role in the Soviet Jewry movement, including such landmark legislations as...
and other Jewish organizations, and US diplomatic protestations. His case was covered by a number of media outlets, which referred to Begun as a "leader of the Jewish emigration movement."
Begun's release from prison was announced on February 16, 1987, by Georgy Arbatov
Georgy Arbatov
Georgy Arkadevich Arbatov was a Soviet and Russian political scientist who served as an adviser to five General Secretaries of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was best known in the West during the Cold War era as a representative for the policies of the Soviet Union in the United...
, a member of the Central Committee
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
, in a Face the Nation
Face the Nation
Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer is an American Sunday-morning political interview show which premiered on the CBS television network on November 7, 1954. It is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television...
interview on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
.
In January 1988, a year after he was freed, Begun and his family was permitted to immigrate to Israel
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
. In May 1988, President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
invited and honored Iosif Begun at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
.
Begun's arrest, trial and imprisonment was followed and recorded by Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
. He was fully rehabilitated
Rehabilitation (Soviet)
Rehabilitation in the context of the former Soviet Union, and the Post-Soviet states, was the restoration of a person who was criminally prosecuted without due basis, to the state of acquittal...
in 1992, and got back his Russian citizenship in 2001. Haifa University awarded Begun an honorary doctorate "in recognition of his continued struggle to make an Aliah". He now lives in Jerusalem and runs a publishing house translating Jewish books into Russian.
Legacy
- President Reagan kept a silver “Prisoner Of Zion” bracelet, engraved with the name “Yosef Begun” on his desk in the White House. Reagan later gave the bracelet to Begun at their 1988 White House meeting.
- He was the only Jew mentioned by Elie WieselElie WieselSir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
in his Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
acceptance speech.
- Begun is the subject of short documentary "Iosef Begun - Human Rights Limited", made in 1980s.
- Begun is a subject of a documentary filmDocumentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
"RefusenikRefusenik (2008 film)Refusenik is a 2008 documentary film by Laura Bialis that chronicles the struggle of Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union in the 1960’s and 70’s...
", directed by Laura BialisLaura BialisLaura Bialis is an American-Israeli filmmaker. She grew up in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California and is a graduate of San Marcos High School and Stanford University...
.
- Begun is a subject of the film "Through Struggle You Will Gain Your Rights”.
External links
- Begun's speech at NCSJNCSJNational Conference on Soviet Jewry is a leading US organization advocating on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Eurasia. It was started in 1971 as a volunteer organization and played an important role in the Soviet Jewry movement, including such landmark legislations as...
conference in 1988, C-SPANC-SPANC-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
video archive. - Former refusenik comes to terms with Jews who stay put, an interview with Iosif Begun.
- Pictures from 75-th birthday banquet.
- Autobiography (in RussianRussian languageRussian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
) - Yosef Begun: Human Rights Limited, a documentary about Iosif Begun from the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film ArchiveSteven Spielberg Jewish Film ArchiveThe Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive is dedicated to the preservation and research of Jewish documentary films. The Archive is jointly administered by the Abraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Central Zionist Archives of the World Zionist...
, posted on YouTube.com by the Hebrew University of JerusalemHebrew University of JerusalemThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
. - Yosef Begun, a YouTube video of a speech (in RussianRussian languageRussian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
).