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Attendance of Dr. Semeon Kheifets at a conference in the Soviet Union

Dr. Semeon Kheifets of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), a
former Soviet citizen, took part in the last International Conference on
High Energy Accelerators which took place in Novosibirsk,USSR, August
7-11, 1986. These conferences are held once every 3 years, the locations
alternate between America, Europe and the Soviet Union. The last one was
organized by the Institute for Nuclear Physics which has close contacts
with SLAC and considers them important. Kheifets's name was included by
SLAC in the list of the delegation, along with about 10 others. He was
told unofficially by a Soviet colleague that his visit would be
undesirable. However, he received later a personal invitation from the
Soviet Organizing Committee, like the other delegates. (Without such an
invitation, the Soviet Consulate doesn't accept visa applications). After
that, SLAC sent a telegram to the Organizing Committee with the list of
persons who intended to accompany the delegates; the list included
Kheifets's wife and grandson.

The other delegates were told that their visas were ready; Kheifets was told
that his relatives wouldn't be given visas, and there was no reply concerning
himself. The time of the conference was approaching, SLAC sent angry
telegrams to the Organizing Committee, and some members of the delegation,
including the head of SLAC and Nobel Prize winner, Burton
 Richter, said they wouldn't come without Kheifets.
Eventually the Consulate agreed to give him a visa, but only for the duration
of the conference, not for the extra week he asked for. The Consulate people
have told him that it would have been easier if he didn't ask for that extra
week. He's not sure how essential the pressure was for his success.

The next step was to receive a voucher from Intourist. Only after that was he
supposed to receive his visa from the agent in SF who handles the relations
with Intourist. The voucher never came, and on the last day the agent agreed,
contrary to the rules, give the visa to Kheifets. As a result, Kheifets didn't
deal with Intourist at all during his trip, and all the arrangements for him
were made through the Organizing Committee.

He submitted a joint paper, but in the Proceedings his name was dropped
from the list of authors. Otherwise, there was no discrimination against him
during the conference. He believes his visit is the first of this kind and
hopes that it will be easier now, after the precedent.

So far as we know this is the first time that recent emigrant from
the Soviet Union has been permitted to visit that country --- even
to attend an international conference.

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