For the philanthropic family, which fled the USSR in 1978-1979, the topic is a personal matter, but Alex Blavatnik tells eJP that he hopes the story resonates further. The Blavatnik Family Foundation, joined by the Arcadia Fund and the David Berg Foundation, is working to change that, funding a new digital archive — Refuseniks & Activists — that is dedicated to the Soviet Jewry movement and the Refuseniks, those Soviet Jews whose applications for exit visas were refused and who were then forced into horrid conditions for the sins of being Jewish and Zionist.
Blavatnik Family Foundation Spearheads Archive to Shed Light on History of the Refuseniks and Save Soviet Jewry Movement
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The Blavatnik Archive is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to preserving and disseminating materials that contribute to the study of 20th-century Jewish and world history, with a special emphasis on World War I, World War II, and Soviet Russia.