Memoirs of 1984

A Ukrainian-born Jewish chemist, Tarnopolsky became an activist after his request to emigrate was refused; he spent three years in a Soviet labor camp before being allowed to come to the U. S. in 1987. His meandering ``collection of reminiscences,'' written in simple, direct English, tells a worthy story about dissidence and the sickness of Soviet society but doesn't offer much new to a growing literature. Born in 1936, the author traces his skepticism of the Soviet system to Khrushchev's de-Stalinization speech of 1956, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and his surveillance by the KGB beginning in 1976. Most interesting is Tarnopolosky's invocation of his scientific training: facing the insanities of interrogation, he sees his responses as a ``little experiment''; he finally embraces Judaism through rationalism. He offers some intriguing intellectual history: 19th-century Russian dissident Alexander Herzen inspired his critical attitude toward society. Life in a labor camp, the author notes mordantly, is ``a natural continuation of Soviet life.'' Nancy Rosenfeld, whose book Unfinished Journey (Paperback Forecasts, Sept. 20) also concerns Tarnopolsky's path to emigration, contributes an afterword. (Nov.)