ABSTRACT
Among the former Soviet citizens who are now returning to the Motherland or who have announced their intention to return, a large percentage are people of the creative professions—writers, poets, composers, film people, and scientists. Why? What makes them leave the “blessed, wealthy West” where they tried so hard to get, and return to where there is neither “freedom nor the goods necessary for living”? Probably this question interests many readers of Western newspapers and journals, who are used to getting information about the USSR as a country with a “nondemocratic regime,” which Soviet citizens will readily leave at the first opportunity.
