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870 Market Street
Suite 1028
San Francisco, CA
94102

(415) 391-0228

Elena Fadeeva
Russian Rocket Scientist

by David N. Strand

Elena Fadeeva is an attractive, petite Russian woman who was once a real honest-to-goodness rocket scientist! We were able to procure her permanent resident status in America by submission of an immigrant visa petition pursuant to the Soviet Scientist Act of 1992.

When we first met, she was somewhat hostile and deeply suspicious of me as a lawyer. The role of a lawyer as a confidant and advocate was not recognized or practiced in the Soviet Union. Attorneys were distrusted because their essential loyalty was to the state, not to the individual client. My experience with Russian clients has been that they have little trust in anyone other than closest of friends, in large part because Communist society was rife with government informers.

An essential duty of an American lawyer to his or her client is a duty of loyalty and confidentiality. In explaining this to foreign clients I often emphasize that even the President of the United States lacks the power to compel an attorney to reveal confidential information or privileged conversations regarding a client.

It took several months for Dr. Fadeeva to really trust me, but ultimately, after procuring permanent residence for her and her whole family, we became best of friends. I sometimes call her Dr. Rockets, a nickname bestowed upon her by American friends.

As the militarily mighty Soviet Union began to crumble, the U.S. Congress, in an effort to discourage the proliferation of weapons and technology to potential enemies such as Libya, China, and Iran, passed the Soviet Scientist Immigration Act, which encouraged the immigration of former Soviet military scientists to the United States. Dr. Fadeeva appeared to perfectly fit the profile.

Curiously, very few scientists took advantage of this opportunity. The annual quota of 750 never came close to being filled. I learned why when I visited Russia in February 1993. During that trip I met many government officials and Russian and American diplomats in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. I thought it peculiar that there was limited familiarity with the Soviet Scientist Immigration Act. Although the American Embassy in Moscow and Consulate in St. Petersburg issued extensive informational propaganda during this period when many Russians were enamored of virtually everything American, there was no information available about the Soviet Scientist Act.

My subsequent inquiries into this seeming oddity revealed why. Although Congress thought it would be a great idea to bring former Soviet scientists to America, the State Department had a different philosophy. They felt these scientists should be trained to use their talents and energy to convert production within Russia from military to domestic purposes, the “swords to plowshares” approach: build cars, trucks, and tractors instead of tanks and jet fighters. Our State Department policy appeared to be in direct contradiction of Congressional intent. As a result very few of the former Soviet military scientists for whom this legislation was enacted ever heard of it.

Dr. Fadeeva earned her PhD in Technical Sciences at the one of the Institutes of the Academy of Science of the USSR. She was a highly qualified specialist in the area of Engineering Psychology and Human Factors. She was a leading specialist in the field of psychosomatic modification of operative control of complicated high-responsibility air/space flight navigation equipment. She was involved in research and development on the assessment and improvement of the performance under stress and severe conditions of personnel such as jet fighter pilots, astronauts, and operators of nuclear power plants and other demanding facilities. Most notably, she was involved in the research of training operators of Russia’s missile defense system, which is the equivalent of America’s controversial Star Wars program. One significant difference between America’s and Russia’s sophisticated missile defense systems is that Russia’s evidently works. Dr. Fadeeva claimed that U.S. nuclear missiles could not penetrate their defense and hit Moscow. I found that unbelievable and questioned a retired foreign service officer who specialized in disarmament negotiations. He verified the claim. Although our missiles could penetrate most of the Soviet Union, it was unlikely they could hit Moscow.

To support Dr. Fadeeva’s immigrant visa petition, we submitted a list of seventeen of her scientific papers which she had either written or edited with titles such as “The algorithms of the correction by using biophysical information from the points of acupuncture for the human-operator control” and “The psychological aspects of diagnostics and correction of the human-operators functional states by methods of reflexotherapy,” among others, as well as letters and testimonials from several outstanding scientists in related fields.

The whole process took less than a year. When her husband Vadim Morgunov came to California to join her, he reminded me of a great bearded affable Russian bear and when he sat down at the table in my office where I interviewed clients, the chair collapsed!

Elena and Vadim and their son Max all became permanent residents of the United States. We became fast friends. One of Elena’s first jobs in the U.S. was at my office for which she was very overqualified. She now works as a senior Usability Specialist at Autodesk, a software company with the headquarters in Marin County, California, now her family’s home. Vadim is a very sophisticated computer consultant. Max Morgunov, their son, also worked in my office for a while before graduating from Cornell and moving to New York City where he works as an operations analyst for S.A.C. Capital.

During the years that I served as President of the San Francisco International Program, a J-1 exchange visitor professional training program, I asked Elena to serve on our board of directors, which benefited from her remarkable intellect. She is also a remarkable cook of Russian delicacies and a talented pianist. Dr. Fadeeva’s story is another glowing example of how America benefits from the talent, energy, and achievements of the immigrants who contribute so significantly to our nation.