Mission From Moscow

In 1975 Microbiologist Alex Goldfarb, then 28, was among the fortunate Jews in the Soviet Union allowed to emigrate. He became an assistant professor at the Julius and Armand Hammer Health Sciences Center at Columbia University in New York City. After his father David, a geneticist with a worldwide reputation, retired in 1979, he was eventually told that he too could leave the Soviet Union.

In April of 1984 the elder Goldfarb exchanged farewell presents with an American friend, U.S. News & World Report Correspondent Nicholas Daniloff. This led the KGB to ask Goldfarb to invite Daniloff to his apartment, apparently so agents could plant documents on the reporter. Unlike another Soviet acquaintance of Daniloff's, Goldfarb refused. The KGB then raided Goldfarb's apartment, seized his bacteria collection and accused him of planning to take material "of national security importance" out of the country.

Last July, Alex Goldfarb appealed to Armand Hammer, 88, chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corp. and a friend of Soviet leaders for some 60 years, for help. Last week, when Hammer was in the Soviet Union, he met Anatoly Dobrynin, the former Soviet Ambassador to the U.S. "I'd like to take Mr. Goldfarb home with me tomorrow," said Hammer. Replied Dobrynin: "That's impossible." Said Hammer: "Anatoly, I'm accustomed to doing the impossible." Later, Dobrynin telephoned Hammer to say, "Permission granted." Hammer rushed to tell Goldfarb, who was in a hospital with multiple ailments, including failing eyesight, diabetes and a gangrenous leg. But Goldfarb refused to leave without his wife Cecilia. Told this by Hammer, Dobrynin said that she could emigrate too.

The saga ended last Thursday, as Hammer's jet carried the Goldfarbs to a reunion with their son at Newark Airport. Kremlin watchers could only speculate why Soviet leaders, days after the summit, allowed the Goldfarbs to leave. Weary, pale and on a stretcher, the white-haired 67-year-old scientist offered his explanation: "A miracle happened."