A Hand in the Darkness; The Autobiography of a Refusenik

New York: Warner Books, 1990. First Printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 24 cm. [6], 314 pages. Illustrations. Index. Some sticker residue on DJ. Ida Nudel (born April 27, 1931) is a former refusenik and an Israeli activist. She was known as the "Guardian Angel" for her efforts to help the "Prisoners of Zion" in the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1972 she organized a hunger strike at the central office of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to protest the arrest of refusenik Vladimir Markman. She started a campaign for keeping contact with prisoners of Zion. She spread word about items the prisoners needed and were permitted to possess, and requested them from visitors from all over the world. In June 1978 she placed a banner in her apartment in Moscow reading "KGB, give me my visa to Israel". She was sentenced to four years of internal exile. For several months, she was the only woman in a factory dormitory, before finding herself a log hut and a job as a night guard at a truck yard. The KGB warned the residents of the village to stay away from her. She was released on March 20, 1982, having been warned not to associate with any refuseniks or foreigners. After almost a year in constant movement as she wasn't allowed back to her flat in Moscow nor gain permit to live in any other place, she was permitted to live for five years in Bender, Moldova. From 1973 her sister Elena Fridman fought to bring her to Israel. On October 2, 1987, she was informed she had been granted an exit visa. On October 15, 1987 Nudel arrived in Israel. Human rights activist and Jewish emigration movement leader Nudel chronicles her 16-year struggle to leave the Soviet Union in order to join her family in Israel. ``A moving personal story,'' said PW. ``Her courage and indomitable spirit shine through in this memoir.'' The movie Addio Mosca (Farewell Moscow) by Mauro Bolognini, starring Liv Ullmann, was a dramatized version the ordeal described in her autobiography.