Galina Nizhnikov’s unique story of the Jewish Women’s movement is a part of Jewish life in the former Soviet Union that few people know about. It is an inspiring part of our history as Jews. Galina Nizhnikov was a member of a group of Jewish families desperate to leave the Soviet Union in the 1970’s.

In their despair, the women took unbelievable chances. They participated in demonstrations and sit-ins in government offices and wrote letters to officials. Many endured hunger strikes. They were followed by the KGB and their apartments were searched and bugged. They were arrested and sometimes they were beaten. Some spent years in the gulag and exile. These Jewish families were at the forefront of the human rights movement in the USSR. Their sacrifices made it possible for a million other Jews to apply to emigrate and to leave for Israel and the United States. Their contact with the West helped to open up the whole society.

In the 1970’s, when thousands of Jews received permission to emigrate to Israel, thousands more joined the ranks of the “refuseniks,” Jewish families who applied to emigrate to Israel and were refused permission. The bravest of them fought for the right to leave. The others waited quietly and fearfully. Most of them lost their professional jobs and were forced to do menial work. Some lost their academic credentials and all professional contact, including access to libraries and laboratories. College-aged children were forced out of the universities. Teenage sons were forced into hiding to avoid the draft. Service in the army meant life-threatening harassment and could prolong their refusenik status indefinitely. Like all Jews, they were not permitted to attend synagogue or to study Hebrew or their Jewish culture and history. movement as a legacy to the next generation of Jewish women. Many Hebrew teachers and emigration activists were arrested and sentenced to the gulag for anti-Soviet slander and other trumped-up charges. They attracted the attention of the West, and the support they received protected most of them from terrible fates. Housewives, scientists, journalists and politicians from the United States, Canada, England and France visited refusenik apartments to offer moral support. Still some suffered more than others, especially those who were sick and were denied access to medical treatment.

Now they are all in the West, mostly in the United States and Israel. But, the problem has not been totally solved. There are still small numbers of families who are refused permission to emigrate, particularly in Russia. When Galina Nizhnikov arrived in the United States, she dedicated herself to helping those left behind. She felt a responsibility to help save their lives. Speaking engagements, letter writing and even demonstrations were the major part of her life for over ten years. Almost 20 years have passed. Now there is no longer a Soviet Union.

Against the Kremlin Wall is about women and their families: refuseniks who were fighting for their right to emigrate. The women decided to openly fight the KGB with the hope that a separate women’s movement would help their own and other families to emigrate. They had no intention of becoming heroes, but it happened to them. They got caught up in the possibilities of a new and better life: a life where they could live openly as Jews. Galina Nizhnikov has published this account of the emigration movement as a legacy to the next generation of Jewish women.

Sheila Galland