Writer says Soviet balk on vow to let him leave

Vladimir Voinovich, a writer, and his wife, Irina, said Soviet authorities appear to have pulled back on a promise they would be able to emigrate to the West after the summer's Moscow Olympics. Mr. Voinovich, widely known for his novel "The Adventures of Private Chonkin," about a Soviet soldier in World War II, was expelled from the official Writer's Union in 1974. He had declined to follow other disgraced former official writers into emigration, but changed his mind after he was warned in April he could face arrest if he did not leave. When he agreed to emigrate with his wife and six-year-old daughter, he was told exit permission would be given for September. Now he has been told his case was not decided.