title: Siberian Seven
text: # Siberian Seven
  
  The Siberian Seven refers to seven out of twenty‑nine members of two families of persecuted Pentecostals in the Soviet Union who took up residency at the US embassy in Moscow in June 1978. These seven members represented the Vashchenko and Chmykhalov families, both originally from Chernogorsk, Siberia. The seven stayed at the embassy for five years, from June 1978 to June 1983, before all twenty‑nine members were allowed to leave to Israel on a tourist visa. Sixteen members of the families eventually settled in the United States.
  
  