When I read of Andrei Sakharov`s recent death, it reminded me of an incident which occurred while I was teaching English to Soviet Jews in Rogers Park. As part of my dissertation research on Soviet Jewish immigration to Chicago, I was examining the contribution of dissidents and other activists in the early 1970s to the first wave of emigration from the USSR.
I posed the question to my students, asking them how important they considered the activist movement to the emigration. As there is no Russian equivalent for dissident, I used the name of Sakharov and other activists as examples. At this point, one woman spoke with conviction: ”Sakharov, he is real hero.”
Her classmates nodded approvingly. My question was not answered but I learned that they placed Sakharov in a special category.
