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
Natan Rakhlin Natan Rakhlin Natan Grigoryevich Rakhlin (Russian: Натан Григорьевич Рахлин, Ukrainian: Натан Григорович Рахлін; in Snowsk near Chernihiv − June 28, 1979 in Kazan) was a Soviet conductor. Natan Grigorievich Rakhlin was born 10 January 1906 (in the Gregorian calendar, i.e. December 28, 1905 Julian calendar). He served as Artistic Director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine from 1937 to 1962 and was the musical director of a number of Soviet films. In 1941 he succeeded Alexander Gauk as director of the State Symphony Orchestra of the USSR. Under his direction the orchestra premiered Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11 on 30