Moroz to Visit University Next Week, Says He Will Accept Research Position

Valentyn Moroz, one of five Soviet dissidents exchanged last week for two convicted spies, will visit Harvard next Tuesday to discuss the University's offer of a post in the Ukrainian Research Institute.

Although Moroz has not yet officially accepted the offer, he said this week he would accept a position as senior research fellow at the Institute.

"Instead of letting us wait in suspense, he's going to visit us and discuss his plans--he's already made up his mind to accept the offer," Stephan Chemych, head of the Ukrainian Studies Fund, Inc., which would sponsor the post, said yesterday.

Omeljan Pritsak, Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Institute, was more cautious, saying the visit would allow Moroz to meet President Bok and members of the Institute, and "smell our atmosphere."

"I don't want to force any decision on him," Pritsak added.

The 43-year-old Ukrainian historian would begin his stay at Harvard in July and would remain at least through the 1979-80 academic year, a spokesman for the Institute said yesterday.

Moroz originally planned to visit the University tomorrow, but the Institute decided late yesterday afternoon to postpone the visit until next week so he can undergo a complete medical examination.

Besides suffering from jet lag, Moroz is "all right and he feels strong," Zenon Snylyk, his interpreter, said yesterday.

Moroz, who yesterday attributed his release to a Soviet desire for a SALT II agreement and to Harvard's offer, met with former Soviet Gen. Peter Grigorenko last night and will meet with President Carter within a few weeks, Snylyk added. In addition to Grigorenko, "a major dissident figure" who has been in the United States since 1977. Moroz met with a figure whose name could not be released, Snylyk said.

President Bok made a standing offer to Moroz to come to Harvard in November 1974 while Moroz was on a 20-week hunger strike at Vladimir Prison near Moscow. Moroz has spent most of the last 14 years in prison for "anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation."

Along with fellow dissidents Aleksandr Ginzburg, Mark Dymshits, Edward S. Kuznetsov and George P. Vins, he was exchanged last Friday in New York for Valdik A. Pnger and Rudolf P. Chernyayev, both convincted last October of spying for the Soviet Union.

Moroz could not be reached for comment yesterday