I was watching the Seinfeld episode “The Baby Shower” (season 2, episode 10) and was surprised to see Jerry employ two Russians to install his illegal cable. This episode was apparently broadcast in May 1991, months before the dissolution of the USSR.
Jerry doesn’t seem that surprised to see Russians (presumably first generation, given the stereotypical heavy accents) in New York in 1991. Kramer mentions that one of them “escaped the Gulag” and was like the “Sakharov of cable guys”.
Was emigration from the USSR to the USA common by this point? How did Soviet citizens go about moving abroad? What kind of jobs did they do in the USA, and were they treated with suspicion? Would they have been deported back home for breaking laws – like installing cable illegally – despite humanitarian concerns?
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