Avital Sharansky raised two daughters. Avital Sharansky Avital Sharansky (born Natalia Stieglitz (, ) in Ukraine, 1950; married name also Shcharansky) is a former activist and public figure in the Soviet Jewry Movement who fought for the release of her husband, Natan Sharansky, from Soviet imprisonment. Avital and Nathan Sharansky met in October 1973. Shortly after meeting, Nathan Sharansky's exit visa was denied, and he became an active refusenik. Avital applied for a visa to Israel, and the couple began to discuss marriage. They married in 1974, one day and a half before Avital's exit visa expired. The day after their wedding,
Begin the Begin of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987". As the opening track on "Lifes Rich Pageant", the song heralded a new clarity in Stipe's vocals. Written on acoustic guitars in Stipe's home, the original version of the song was a minute longer, with five different choruses, lacking melody and a bridge. Replete with references to Americana and revolution, the title is a pun on Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine". Begin the Begin "Begin the Begin" is the first song on R.E.M.'s fourth album, "Lifes Rich Pageant". Lead singer Michael Stipe has called it "a song of personal, political activism." Though never released as