Refusenik authorities to significantly increase the emigration quota. In the years 1960 through 1970, only about 3,000 Soviet Jews had (legally) emigrated from the USSR; after the trial, in the period from 1971 to 1980 347,100 people received a visa to leave the USSR, 245,951 of them were Jews. Refuseniks included Jews who desired to emigrate on religious grounds, Jews seeking to immigrate to Israel for Zionist aspirations, and relatively secular Jews desiring to escape continuous state-sponsored antisemitism. A leading proponent and spokesman for the refusenik rights during the mid-1970s was Natan Sharansky. Sharansky's involvement with the Moscow Helsinki Group helped
Sharansky District of Sharan accounting for 26.3% of that number. The district was established on January 31, 1935, when it was split from Tuymazinsky District. Within the framework of administrative divisions, Sharansky District is one of the fifty-four in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The district is divided into 13 selsoviets, comprising 103 rural localities. As a municipal division, the district is incorporated as Sharansky Municipal District. Its thirteen selsoviets are incorporated as thirteen rural settlements within the municipal district. The "selo" of Sharan serves as the administrative center of both the administrative and municipal district. Sharansky District Sharansky District (; ) is