[vkou]

I was not aware that Poland allowed people to leave.

Yugoslavia on the other hand, was more interesting, in the sense that it was not a part of the Warsaw pact, or a puppet state under the USSR. It was a 'non-aligned' communist state, and, after Stalin's death had passable relations with both the East and the West.

[llukas]

No, not really. Poles we're theoretically allowed to get a passport but in practice if one didn't have a good reason to go west and get back one didn't receive passport.

In '68 some Jewish-origin Poles were handed passports and one way tickets if they pleased (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Polish_political_crisis#E...).

[vkou]

Due to anti-semitism, jews were always a special case - they were not wanted across the Soviet block, and were occasionally 'encouraged' to emigrate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_Soviet_Union_aliyah