Refusnik

Among the reported abuses of human rights provisions were these: […] Jews had been refused permission to emigrate for unstated reasons, and many such refusniki – a sad new term in the Russian^([sic]) language – had been dismissed from their jobs, thus being reduced to poverty; […]

Sean Dobson was bombarded with questions about life in America but was never able to explain our bizarre culture. He met many types: the black marketeers, but also the brave refusniki. He found Moscow grey and depressing, but old Leningrad still charming, despite its disrepair.

Janis Goldstein, 38, a Jewish activist from Jackson, Miss., also spoke before the Temple Beth-El audience, telling of her separate trip to Riga, Leningrad and Moscow to visit refusniki, or those who have attempted to leave but have been refused permission.

The structures of power in Montenegro treated these Montenegrin refusniki as not only traitors and enemies of the state, but also as individuals who were not worthy of calling themselves Montenegrin.