Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro - Refusenik Period and Emigration To Israel

Refusenik Period and Emigration To Israel

During the early 1970s, a growing number of Soviet Jews were permitted to emigrate to Israel. The anti-Jewish behavior in the Soviet Union, however, was not enough to make Ilya want to leave his country. What shook him to the core was the difficulty of maintaining a Jewish identity and the enforced conformity to communism around him in the scientific community. He didn’t wish this future for his son, sixteen at the time.

Piatetski-Shapiro lost his part-time position at math dept of MGU (Moscow State University) in 1973 after he signed a letter asking Soviet authorities to release a dissident mathematician Alexander Esenin-Volpin from a mental institution. Many other mathematicians who signed the letter (including Shafarevich) also lost their part-time positions.

After his ex-wife and son left the Soviet Union in 1974, Ilya also applied for an exit visa to Israel and was refused (curiously: his ex-wife and son were also refused, even though they were already in Israel).

After applying for emigration in 1974, Ilya lost his research position at the Moscow Institute of Applied Mathematics (IPM). Authorities refused to grant Ilya an exit visa, claiming that he was too valuable a scientist to be allowed to leave. As a refusenik, he lost access to mathematical libraries and other academic resources. He continued his researches nevertheless, and colleagues took books from the library for him.

As a prominent refusenik with connections to an international scientific community, Ilya was followed around by a KGB car and his apartment was under electronic surveillance. He conducted his meetings with friends and colleagues by writing on a plastic board, especially when he needed to communicate about his situation. His plight as a mathematician, with serious restrictions on his researches and without means for survival, attracted much attention in the U.S. and Europe.

In 1976, a presentation was made to the Council of the National Academy of Sciences urging the use of their good offices to get Ilya an exit visa. Later that year, Ilya obtained an exit visa. His second marriage ended as his then-current wife remained in Moscow. He visited colleagues all over the world who had signed petitions and fought for his freedom before going to Israel. He was welcomed warmly upon arrival in Israel and accepted a professorship at Tel-Aviv University. He was elected into Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1978.

After leaving Soviet Union, Ilya also visited US in 1976 and spent a semester as a visiting professor at University of Maryland.