Born in 1931 in Kharkov, to an assimilated family in which his mother was a Trotskyist and his father—a member of the Bolshevik Party and a military officer, who taught mathematics in a military school. However Ilya was involved in Zionist activity from 1965, when he began to study Hebrew and, at the same time, began writing letters to the government, protesting against the anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic campaign in the Soviet newspapers. He established contact with the Slepaks, Nathan Faingold, Ida Nudel, Avital Shcharansky and David Markish. In January 1972 he applied for the exit visa, but did not have time to receive an answer as, in February, he was arrested for his Zionist activities and was held prior to his trial in Lefortovo jail. According to article 70 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“anti-Soviet propaganda”) he was sentenced to 3 years of high-security imprisonment in the Gulag plus 3 years of exile. He spent his time of imprisonment in Colony ¹17 in Mordovia, and then was exiled to the town of Boguchany, in a district of the Krasnoyarsk province. Released in February 1978 he left for Israel within 3 months He now lives in Raanana.
This information was provided by Ilya Glezer. The photo was taken in Boguchany, where he was in exile.
Note of editor: The interview with Ilya Glezer was held in 2005 and was posted to the website in 2006. In April 2007 Ilya Glezer died after a long illness.
