Soviet pair ate leaves to survive

Press, 7 August 1985, Page 10

Soviet pair ate leaves to survive

NZPA-AP Stockholm Two Soviet citizens from Estonia on the Baltic Sea seek political asylum in Sweden after trekking for 17 days through the wilderness of northern Soviet Union and Finland, said a Swedish newspaper yesterday. According to “Svenska Dagbladet” the two men, aged 25 and 28, survived on birch leaves and water for five days in a remote, unpopulated area near Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula before they reached Finland and then Sweden. The Swedish Immigration Board would not immediately confirm or deny the report, but said there was no reason to believe that the newspaper had dreamt up the story. The two Estonians were quoted as saying that

neither relatives nor friends in Estonia knew of the plan to flee and that Soviet authorities probably were not yet aware of their defection. They told the newspaper the trek began on July 5 when they went by train from Leningrad to Murmansk, the large Soviet naval port on the Arctic Ocean. From there, Finland was only about 200 km away, but frequent detours to avoid border posts, open land or inhabited areas forced them to walk much longer through marshlands and forests. After 12 days their food began running out and they made the last stretch to the Finnish border on a diet of birch leaves and water from streams.