European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 13, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Irina Mcclellan Here on Moscow Street in 1978 finally received an exit visa from the soviet Union after 11vt years malting it possible Tor her to join her husband in Virginia last january. Overcoming soviet nets to join husband in Virginia Irina Mcclellan struggle for Freedom by Marilyn Goldstein new Dayt he sight of rows and rows of shoes in every style and any color Irina Mcclellan can imagine is enough to Light up her Large Hazel eyes. High heels. Low heels. Sexy sandals and Patent pumps trendy Flats. Man Mades lion Brazil leather from Italy. And All of them $13.88 or less. One pair is on Sale for $2.58, including tax. Irina Mcclellan shakes her head in disbelief i would like to buy the whole store and Send them to my friends in the soviet Union she says. There shoes Cost fifty rubles a third of a month s salary. Here i am at a loss i Don t know what to do with so Many  it s the same in the supermarket. So much she says so Many mushrooms year around Broccoli. Fresh fish produce she rarely saw in the soviet Union i have a headache from too much she says i never had such  such problems Are Irina Mcclellan s pleasure they Are the tasty fruits of an 11 it year struggle to win an exit visa from the . So she could join her american husband Woodward Mcclellan in Charlottesville a. It was a struggle that ended in january when the soviets relented and allowed Irina Mcclellan her 26 year old daughter Yelena and seven other soviet spouses of americans to be reunited in the United states. Ii was a struggle that was always dangerous sometimes lonely and seemingly endless a struggle that forced a basically non political person to take on the soviet bureaucracy and Campaign with letters by lobbying and holding one woman demonstrations often ending with her arrest and her release after Short detention i am interested in people s lives not in  says Irina. A Petite slender woman with Short cropped Blond hair. But sometimes people s lives depend on  Irina 46, and her husband 52, sit on the deck of their Home in Ivy va., where the Dogwood and hot Pink Redbud Are in Blossom. The House is just outside Charlottesville where Woody As he likes to be called teaches russian history at the University of Virginia he is a tall thin Man with spectacles and Mustache very professorial. And he is especially Wise in the ways of the soviets having written several books on the nation and he says he is awed by his wife s bravery you know How tempting it must have been to give up. She would t be human if she had t thought about giving up.". The Mcclellan met accidentally. He was leading a tour to the soviet Union in the summer of 1972, and she was a Friend of the i tourist guide assigned to his group. The guide invited her to meet the group. Woody remembers the Date exactly August 13. We were eating at a  no Irina says. You were running. As you usually do. Along the corridor and you invited us to your room for a  she says something to Woody in russian and they laugh. Both had been divorced and each had one child from the previous marriage. Woody says when he met Irina it was love at first sight Irina says it was at first just fright a foreigner in my life. Fourteen years ago it was unusual. Now i know foreigners and have contacts she says but that was 14 years ago. I was  still she stayed with the tour for several Days unite photo posing As the tour guide s sister feeling sure about her love for the american. During the next two years. Woody visited Moscow frequently and when he returned in 1974 As a visiting professor to research a Book on 19th-Century russian history the couple got permission to be married. At first Irina says i expected that once the government permitted our marriage no problems would be raised concerning an exit visa at that time no couple had been kept apart for More than two years although in later years As detente unravelled Irina and Woody met couples who were separated for up to eight years. Currently they say they know of 19 spouses of americans wailing for exit visas. But Irina and Woody hold the record. On the Day the office of visas and registration turned Irina Down Mcclellan says i Felt the same kind of horror i Felt when i heard that president Kennedy was  even today most american soviet couples Are United without problems the state department says and Irina in t sure Why she and Mcclellan were Kepi apart while others Are allowed to emigrate. Although she once worked at the Institute for world Economy and International relations a soviet think tank she said she did not Deal with classified documents. You Are mistaken if you try to find any sense in Why she says. Once Irina mys when she tried to convince the office of visas that under the Law legally married soviets qualify for exit visas a bureaucrat said to her we Don t have Laws. We have Only instructions Inthis  from that Point the couple spent a decade feeling like characters in a Kafka novel. Mcclellan returned to Virginia at the end of his term and never again received a visa to visit the . Page 16 the stars and stripes sunday july 13,1986