Only 914 Soviet Jews were permitted to leave in 1986, a 20 percent drop from the 1,140 Jews who were permitted to leave in 1985. This was about 2 percent of the peal year of 1979, when 51,320 emigrated.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.