Since the later Sixties, Soviet authorities began allowing some Jews to leave USSR. Those who put in the application went through humiliating procedures such as a review of their "personal case", depriving them of rewards and ranks, expatriation, and, beside of that all, they had to compensate to the government all the expenses for their education. They lost their job. Their close relations were persecuted, too. Those who were not allowed to leave (and they were most) found themselves without means of support. Soviet propaganda formed the image of an outcast. The state of "otkazniks" ("refused ones") caused protests worldwide. In 1973, the meeting of top Soviet authorities took place. L.I. Brezhnev proved to be the most pragmatist. He offered to let go, first of all, pensioners, and to put a demonstrative end to the policy of seeking reimbursement for educational expenses; and, for propaganda reasons, to open a Jewish theatre in Moscow.
In 1968, only 231 Jews were allowed to leave USSR. However, in 1971, the number of those who left increased almost as much as 56 times. In different years that number was different. The record years were 1973 (34,733) and 1979 (51,331). During the next 7 years, the number of ones who left steadily decreased, and in 1984, it was only 896. The fluctuations can be explained with the fact that the problem of Jews' leaving became for Soviet authorities an object of bargaining with the West; so, depending on success of some or other negotiations, the number now increased, now decreased. The more there otkazniks were, the stronger resistance to the authorities' arbitrariness became. Jews' struggle for leaving USSR became a part of All-Russian human rights movement. The Helsinki Group included Aliyah activists. Through foreign journalists, tourists and diplomats, information on the state of Jews in the USSR made its way to the West; and from the West, literature and financial support arrived for the "otkazniks".
Refusal to let "otkazniks" go provoked an increase in Jewish national feeling. As they were exiled from official Soviet life, "otkazniks" united Jewish ethnic life around themselves and activated it. Before 1987, this life went, in general, illegally, in private apartments. This period of the history of Jewish movement in USSR was named the "apartment period". The work of Jewish activists was under constant surveillance of KGB. Jewish holidays were disguised as family picnics (The Day of Israel's Independence and Lag Ba-Omer) and usually ended with intervention by the militia (Soviet police) or "plain-clothed men". Around synagogues, the "toptuns" ("pacers") were on constant duty. Acts of provocation were undertaken against the most active fighters for Aliyah.
Both local authorities and central ones did not limit themselves to out-and-out repression, but used dirty tricks as well. For instance, they switched off "otkazniks" telephones and intimidated their children. In 1975, thanks to efforts by the KGB, parcels with matzoth sent to Jewish communities from abroad were confiscated. Some members of a family that had been refused permission to leave were allowed to go, and the authorities demanded their immediate departure, while other members were held in USSR for many years. Sometimes, the skillfull arbitrariness of Soviet authorities excelled even the rich imagination of central bodies. Quite often, the struggle against "otkazniks" had terrible consequences. In Novosibirsk, for example, local authorities persecuted the Poltinnikov family for some years and drove two of them to their deaths; and in Voronezh Region, the entire community of Subbotniks was declared Russians and they were forbidden to put in applications to leave.
"Otkazniks" did not stop their struggle. They appealled to all representatives of Soviet authority with protests, they organised demonstrations and hunger-strikes, they gave press-conferences for foreign journalists, smuggled to the West copies of the papers sent to Soviet authorities including the lists of "otkazniks". They were suppressed for that. The most active protestors were committed to lunatic asylums or were accused of article 70 (anti-Soviet propaganda). The leaders were charged by the terms of article 64 (spying and high treason). Article 70 stipulated imprisonment for up to 5 years; article 64 could entail the death penalty. The most glaring example of retribution against Jewish leaders was Shcharansky's case. Imprisoned Jewish activists were called "Zion prisoners". They were exchanged for Soviet spies unmasked in the West.
However tragic and irreparable the conditions seemed, Jews found the strength to laugh and enjoy life. They merrily celebrated Jewish holidays. They revived the tradition of purim-spils. The most numerous and popular group of purim-spillers was formed in the early Eighties in Moscow. The authorities guaranteed the constancy of the actors and authors who participated because they all were refused regularly to leave the country. The Moscow group played merry stories about Purim using real signs of Jewish life in USSR of those days. In the apartments where those performances took place, so many people gathered that all the visitors could not see the show at once. So, the actors had to repeat the performance some times in one apartment, then in another, and so they celebrated Purim until Pesach.
In the Eighties, the nationalist movement drew relatively little part of Soviet Jewry. The policy of assimilation was fruitful. Already in the Seventies, there were little more than 100 active synagogues. Jews-ashkenazim, in general, did not follow Jewish tradition anymore. Although Bukhara, Georgian and Highland Jews still followed the tradition, but they had neither religious education, nor confessional links. Almost half of Jewish women were in mixed marriages as well as more than half of Jewish men. Many Soviet Jews felt cut off from Jewry. According to statistics, in the Eighties, less than one third of Soviet Jews considered their identity as mainly Jewish, a bit more than half considered it simultaneously Jewish and non-Jewish, and only 8% considered it as non-Jewish. However, 90% of Soviet Jews expressed a desire to know more about the religion, the tradition and the history of their people.
With the beginning of Perestroyka, the Jewish policy of Soviet authorities began to soften. The number of those allowed to leave increased. The Zion prisoners were liberated. The first legal Jewish cultural and education organisations began functioning; Jewish theatres and concert parties made performances, for example, the "Shalom" Theatre. Any suppressions of Hebrew language teachers were cancelled. Diplomatic relations with Israel were resumed; so, there was possibility to receive legally Hebrew language manuals, Jewish books and films. The prohibition on Jewish themes in literature and the arts was cancelled. The first works that became widely popular were "The Heavy Sand" by Rybakov, novels by Kanovich