In a speech on the U.S. House floor, Congressman Les AuCoin advocated for the release of Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky (who later changed his named to Natan Sharansky) from a Soviet labor camp on the two year anniversary of his arrest. After the Soviet government denied Shcharansky's request to move to Israel, Shcharansky became a "refusenik" activist. He was eventually arrested by the KGB and accused of high treason, among other charges, and imprisoned at a Soviet forced labor camp. He was released by Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. This is one of a collection of digitized objects from the Les AuCoin Papers (MS.147) at the Pacific University Archives. AuCoin served in the Oregon House of Representatives (1971-1975) and in the United States House of Representatives from Oregon's 1st District (1975-1993).
