Russia's Best Foot Forward
BARRON, ARTHUR
By Arthur Barron Russia's Best Foot Forward Exhibition reveals technical might and cultural poverty THE FIRST THING a visitor to the Soviet Exhibition of Science, Technology and Culture in New...
...Russian: "They are the bosses themselves...
...They tell you so themselves...
...chosen not to produce consumer goods doesn't seem to occur to them...
...You have strikes because your people fear unemployment...
...American: "When will you get out of East Germany...
...American: "But what about the opposition...
...American: "You don't expect me to believe that, do you...
...This kind of talk doesn't sit very well with Americans...
...Russian: "Why should they go...
...They deny, in fact, that any limitation on artistic freedom exists in the Soviet Union...
...There is a lot to see...
...It consists largely of an immense mound of crazily shaped bagels...
...American: "Was Khrushchev's speech on Stalin published in Russia...
...They are out to beat us...
...The voice sounds as if it comes straight from MIT...
...Do Russian women work...
...Ask them, and they will tell you they are impressed with what they see...
...The three automobiles on display are poor imitations of our own...
...Several times a day, the Russians have to discourage American children from climbing into it...
...The Americans quickly learn how impossibly hard it is to communicate with the Soviets on political issues...
...Center stage is reserved for the sputniks, which whirl around over head, suspended on wires...
...As long as the questions remain on this level, the conversation is great fun...
...The boy was as American as Kansas...
...You prefer the lies of your own press...
...That's why I'm here...
...The cultural displays have been relegated to the top floor of the Exhibition...
...When asked when this will happen, they cheerfully predict, "at the end of our current Seven Year Plan...
...American: "How could such crimes happen...
...If there is any hi-fi equipment around, it is well hidden...
...They are showing off some very excellent equipment...
...The boy smiled...
...Most of the questions reveal an immense curiosity (and an equally immense naivety) about the workings of the Soviet system: "Can you own a home...
...American: "Yes...
...One day last week a small boy ducked under a rope and sat down at a Soviet piano...
...American: "Could they happen again...
...About 150 Russians have accompanied the Exhibition...
...And they have come a long way...
...They readily admit that consumer goods in the United States are more plentiful, less expensive and of better quality...
...The food display is hardly mouth-watering...
...It is an engineer's paradise...
...There are computers, spectographs, microscopes, tractors, oscillators, portable cyclotrons, coal cutters, machine tools, oil-drilling rigs—every device an advanced technology can provide...
...His feet barely touched the pedals...
...soon we will leave you behind...
...But maybe the Exhibition will even accomplish a bit more...
...It offers few comforts, no luxuries...
...Nothing of serious art...
...Russian: "I am an engineer...
...Most of the exhibits come equipped with earphones...
...Soviet art at the Exhibition shows unmistakable signs of regimentation...
...The 10 Soviet trade experts with the Exhibition intend to bring home orders for much of this equipment...
...Russian: "Let me tell you about this exhibit...
...No exhibit at tracts such crowds or generates such excitement...
...They fire questions at point-blank range...
...Each day about 40,000 Americans pay their dollar admission and click through the Exhibition turnstiles...
...The Party of all the people...
...Some of it (like the Soviet high speed camera that takes three or four pictures a second) is better than anything we have in the West...
...They told us it was garbage...
...The Russians are immensely proud of this technological opulence...
...Let someone ask a question with anv political bite to it, however, and the picture changes...
...Russian: "There is none...
...two are replicas of our Rambler, and one, a black limousine, is all Cadillac, including tail fins and a V-crest on the trunk...
...By Arthur Barron Russia's Best Foot Forward Exhibition reveals technical might and cultural poverty THE FIRST THING a visitor to the Soviet Exhibition of Science, Technology and Culture in New York sees is a huge statue of a Soviet proletarian bending a sword into a plow share...
...The statue perfectly expresses the mood and theme of the Exhibition...
...For a moment, at least, the cold war was over...
...It happens every time: American: "Why aren't you al lowed to read Doctor Zhivago...
...Most disturbing of all are the several canvases on which three or four artists have collaborated (to insure ideological correctness, presumably...
...Who wants to read garbage...
...Russian: "Because it is the Party of Workers and Peasants...
...The consumer goods shown are uniformly drab...
...All of it seems superbly designed...
...Those who are interested can get a lecture on a variety of technical subjects...
...Third, that there is little room for individual freedom in the Soviet system...
...It is a story of immense technological progress achieved at the expense of individual freedom and well-being...
...No other show in town, not even Ethel Merman's brilliant Gypsy, is enjoying such good box office...
...See our sputniks," they tell you...
...There is no vitality of color or form, no social criticism, no nudes, no still lifes, no pain, no grief, no tender ness...
...But as he struggled through the little piece he knew, a crowd of Russians and Americans gathered around...
...This is a lot to expect...
...Russian: "Who would they strike against...
...They are tough...
...What kind of impact will it make on them...
...They show how far we have come in overtaking you...
...In stead, there are only happy workers performing their Socialist tasks in a setting of bland photographic realism...
...Second, that Soviet life is hard...
...The real hit of the show is the Russians themselves...
...About half speak flawless English, and all seem eager to boast about their nation's achievements...
...American: "Simply because they want to...
...They claim that at least 80 American firms are seriously in terested...
...American: "Why can't Soviet workers strike...
...Surprisingly, the Russians are willing to concede their backwardness in such things...
...The piano's trade mark read "Estonia...
...About two million Americans will have seen the Soviet Exhibition be fore it leaves...
...Under a huge floor-to-ceiling poster of Lenin (Stalin is no where to be seen...
...Americans are plainly de lighted with the opportunity to talk with the Russians face-to-face...
...But the evidence is there to contradict them...
...Even the Russians aren't foolish enough to try to show Americans anything about kitchen appliances...
...But one sees American engineers every day at the Exhibition earnestly talking with the Russians...
...Do you have advertising...
...The paintings are all alike...
...But the Soviets have a right to be proud...
...The Russians boast that "soon we will be richer than you, too...
...The "typical" Soviet apartment on display looks like an inferior American motel...
...The idea that the Soviet leadership has deliberately ARTHUR BARRON is a member of the CBS-News Public Affairs Department...
...The Exhibition was brought to New York City's Coliseum late last month for a seven-week run...
...Politically, it is eloquent testimony to the kind of regimentation which produced the sophisticated hardware on display downstairs...
...American: "Why can't Soviet Jews emigrate to Israel...
...They are plainly (and proudly) labelled "First Earth Satellite," "First Cosmic Rocket," etc...
...and the Russians themselves...
...There are basically three types of at tractions: hardware (industrial and scientific equipment), cultural displays (consumer goods, art, etc...
...There is a home freezer, but it is filled only with an enormous dead fish labeled "A Type of Sturgeon...
...Many of the guides are already dressed in clothes they have bought at Macy's...
...Aesthetically, the art is equivalent to Saturday Evening Post covers...
...It is sleek and precision-tooled...
...They are not so willing to predict when Soviet artists will be allowed greater freedom of expression...
...An ordinary men's suit costs $240...
...The main floor of the Exhibition is technology...
...The mood is one of unrelieved seriousness...
...How much is a pound of butter...
...In any event, the lag is only "temporary...
...First, that it would be a fatal mistake to underestimate the Russians...
...Russian: "You go...
...If they come with an open mind, they should leave with three distinct impressions...
...Taken together, these attractions tell a story...
...The television sets have tiny screens...
...When he finished, the group laughed and applauded...
...The theme is "peaceful construction...
...The Soviets have sent 10,000 separate exhibits...
...Russian: "Our writers read it...
...Russian: "No...
...It was a huge concert grand and the boy was lost behind it...
...Russian: "When you get out of Texas...
...American: "Their bosses...
...Each bears the stamp of socialist realism: an absolutely literal style, a mood of forced optimism...
...The Russians are charming and persuasive, the Americans attentive...
...there is only one small pencil sketch of Khrushchev), the Soviets have laid out a staggering display of industrial and scientific equipment...
...The rooms are tiny and there is no kitchen...
...American: "Why do you have only one political party...
...They show that the Russians have a long way to go before they pull even with us in this area of life...
...One table holds a section of a sputnik marked "Dog's Chamber" (after Laika...
...Russian: "You are a Jew...
...The clothes are ill-tailored, shoddy and expensive...
...But they quickly add an explanation: "We are poor in such things because we have fought two devastating wars on our soil...
...Russian: "Of course...
...This is probably an exaggeration...
...Most are specialists—teachers, engineers, chemists...
Vol. 42 • July 1959 • No. 28
