Iosif Ziselovich Begun, sometimes spelledYosef (born 9 July 1932,Russian:Иосиф Зиселевич Бегун,Hebrew:יוסף ביגון) is a former Sovietrefusenik,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 andlabor camps as apolitical prisoner.[1] He waspardoned and freed in 1987 after political pressure from Jewish political organizations and theU.S. Government.
Begun was born and grew up inMoscow, Soviet Union. He graduated from theradio technology department of theMoscow Power Engineering Institute, in 1957, and thedepartment of mathematics atMoscow State University (the extension school), in 1962. He received aCandidate of Technical Sciences degree and worked as anelectronics engineer and astatistician.
From 1971 to 1988, Begun was repeatedly arrested for his political activities. He was dismissed from his job as an engineer in 1971 after having submitted an application to emigrate.[2] After that he began teachingHebrew, but since this was not regarded as useful work, he was arrested on charges ofsocial parasitism, and sent into exile in Siberia.[2] One of his early arrests, in 1972, was during a 10-day Moscow visit byPresidentRichard Nixon.[further explanation needed][citation needed] After his first two labor camp terms, he was forced to live beyond the101st kilometre from Moscow, in Strunino Village,Vladimir Oblast. He advocated for the free emigration ofSoviet Jews toIsrael. In 1982, he received a seven-year sentence for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." His actual crime was writing descriptions of the situation of Soviet Jews that the authorities deemed to be anti-Soviet.[2] His struggles led to wide protests in the West, byNCSJ and other Jewish organizations, and to U.S. diplomatic protestations. In the coverage of his case by various media outlets, he was described as a Jewish activist,[3] or, in one instance, as a "leader of the Jewish emigration movement."[4]
In February 1987 refusenik protests against Begun's continuing imprisonment took place on Arbat Street in downtown Moscow. The protesters, among them Begun's son Boris Begun, Begun's wife Inessa Begun, veteran refusenik Emilia Shrayer and other refuseniks, were attacked and beaten by KGB agents in plain sight of onlookers and foreign journalists.[5][6][7] Following the refusenik protests, Begun's release from prison was announced on 16 February 1987 byGeorgy Arbatov, a member of theCentral Committee, in aFace the Nation interview onCBS.[8]
In January 1988, a year after he was freed, Begun and his family were permitted toimmigrate to Israel.[9] In May 1988,PresidentRonald Reagan invited and honored Iosif Begun at theWhite House.[10]
Begun's arrest, trial and imprisonment were followed and recorded byAmnesty International.[11] He was fullyrehabilitated in 1992, and got back his Russian citizenship in 2001.[12]Haifa University awarded Begun anhonorary doctorate "in recognition of his continued struggle to make Aliyah."[13]
Begun settled inJerusalem, and as of 2010 was running a small publishing house specializing in the translation of Jewish books into Russian.[14][15]
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