The World - News from Oct. 13, 1987

Former Soviet refusenik Alex Goldfarb, 40, who emigrated to New York 12 years ago, returned to his homeland for an eight-day visit “to see for myself how things are changing” under Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s reforms. Goldfarb, an assistant professor and microbiologist at Columbia University, was met at Moscow’s Sheremeteyvo Airport by relatives and a delegation from the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Goldfarb gave the academy delegation a container of protein used in cancer research, called SV-40, supplied by Columbia at the request of Soviet researchers. Goldfarb’s father, David, who won a long battle to emigrate last October, had hoped to make the trip but was hospitalized in New York last week.