Biography
Theodore Branch and his wife Cheryl traveled from Pennsylvania to the Soviet Union as tourists in November 1987 and asked to remain. They said Soviet law, order and social equality offered an alternative to capitalism. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet granted them political asylum in January 1988. The couple worked on English-language radio broadcasts in Moscow. They returned to the United States in September 1988 after less than a year, then asked the Soviet Embassy to let them return when they became dissatisfied with conditions at home; that request was unsuccessful.