1981: an overview

Defector

In 1981, Victor Kovalenko, the 24-year-old Ukrainian sailor from the Donbas region who had defected from a Soviet fishing trawler while it was docked in Reykjavik, Iceland, arrived in the United States, realizing what he said had been a longtime dream of his.

In the summer, Soviet authorities stripped Mr. Kovalenko of his Soviet citizenship - something he could certainly live without.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 27, 1981, No. 52, Vol. LXXXVIII

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