Turmoil on the Tarmac

A dancer's spectacular defection leads to a U.S.-Soviet quarrel

When Soviet Ballet Star Alexander Godunov decided to defect to the U.S. last week, he could hardly have foreseen the fallout from his electrifying leap to freedom: a Moscow-bound Soviet jetliner with 112 passengers aboard grounded for more than 24 hours and surrounded by police at New York's Kennedy Airport; top U.S. officials at the U.N. and in Washington getting into the act; the official Soviet news agency, Tass, accusing the U.S. of "political blackmail"; and Godunov's ballerina wife an unwilling hostage in the center of the turmoil.

The drama began early last week when Godunov, 30, bolted from his Manhattan hotel, just as the Soviet Union's premier ballet company, the Bolshoi, was about to complete a hugely successful four-week run. Godunov, the Bolshoi's most charismatic star, coolly walked out of his room as if he were heading for a stroll, evading the KGB officer stationed in the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel. He rushed to the New York office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, where he requested, and was granted, political asylum in the U.S.

News of the defection--the first in the Bolshoi's history--sent waves of shock and apprehension through the 125-member Moscow troupe, which included Godunov's wife, Ludmila Vlasova, a soloist with the company. At that point some ballet insiders reported that the couple were estranged and that Vlasova, 37, was unwilling to defect with her husband. Still, angry Soviet officials felt it necessary to hold Vlasova incommunicado at the hotel. Because the Bolshoi has long been groomed to be the showcase of Soviet culture, Godunov's flight was evidently viewed as even more of a betrayal than the earlier defections of such luminaries as Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov, who had all starred with Leningrad's Kirov Ballet.

Godunov grew increasingly worried about his wife. Believing that she might also wish to remain in the U.S., he publicly pleaded with Soviet officials for a meeting with her. "I am certain that she is not being permitted to learn all the facts," he said. "I fear the Soviet authorities will force her to leave the U.S. without my seeing her again." To prevent that, Godunov retained Attorney Orville Schell, who informed the U.S. State Department of his client's belief that the Soviets would hustle her out of the country.

Two days after Godunov's defection, a group of eight grim-visaged Soviet diplomats and police agents escorted Vlasova up the ramp of the Aeroflot jet. As the plane readied for takeoff, Port Authority police cars raced out onto the tarmac and slammed to a stop in front of the Soviet aircraft. Acting Secretary of State Warren Christopher had ordered the flight halted to determine whether Vlasova was leaving of her own accord.

With uniformed police, plainclothesmen and Port Authority officials surrounding the plane, Donald McHenry, Deputy U.S. Ambassador at the U.N., and a team of State Department and Immigration and Naturalization officials sought permission to question Vlasova. Soviet U.N. Ambassador Yevgeni Makeyev refused to allow the beleaguered ballerina off the aircraft. But on two occasions, two State Department officials were permitted aboard the plane, where they talked with Vlasova. Dressed in a snappy black jumpsuit, the dancer said she indeed desired to return home. "I love my husband. But he has made his decision to stay here, while I have made mine to leave." On each occasion, Vlasova spoke while surrounded by Soviet officials.

The Americans were unconvinced. Determined to talk to Vlasova in a place "where she could see for herself that she is free to go or stay," as McHenry put it, the State Department proposed that she be interviewed in a room adjacent to the plane. This request was also refused. "Such strong-arm tactics," said Schell, would hardly be necessary if Vlasova were genuinely willing to leave.

All 62 Soviets on board were asked by Makeyev to remain on the plane. After ten hours, 68 non-Soviet passengers were allowed to disembark; 44 were Americans bound for a seminar on the Soviet legal system. They had already received their first lesson.

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