FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE

...civilians during the war itself...

...sociologists, and to their own experimentation with field and research methods employed in the United States...

...From the next table, a man built like a tree—who told us, not surprisingly, that he was an opera baritone— helped us with the menu...

...There was almost nothing said by the Soviet educationists which failed to elicit the empathy and respect of our CEC group—and it should be borne in mind that this group included more teachers than people of any other profession...

...When, a while later, we parted, our baritone asked that this final message be translated: "If people like each other, they can get along without speaking the same language...

...And wherever they went, they were to find meetings and conversation with Soviet citizens in all walks of life not only easy, but nearly unavoidable, because of the eagerness with which visiting Americans were greeted...

...Some Soviet Jews express apprehension of cultural and religious extinction...

...civil libertarians believe in protecting the free expression of all views, including such noxious ones as those of Lincoln Rockwell, and that U.S...

...This is especially true of the youth, and of those who, through education or calling, have had an extraordinary Western exposure...

...standard of living and, more importantly, certain changes which have taken place in the management of the Soviet economy in the recent past, have led some outside observers to speculate that there may also be a trend toward emulation of the U.S...

...The energies of the whole people are truly needed, if the Soviet Union is to achieve the economic and social goals toward which it is pressing...

...The night before we left Moscow for Sochi, I took a final tour of the city, mostly on foot, with two young women of our party, one of whom spoke passable Russian...

...We were told with great pride, for example, by a youthful Communist Party member, that in the U.S.S.R...

...she was just on the verge of becoming elderly...

...At last, she said, "We would support the government...

...They initiated relatively little discussion of the specific issues of the Vietnam war...

...statistics...

...It is scarcely necessary to say that, except as physical forms, the "functioning" churches do not "coexist"—if by this is meant the enjoyment of public respect on a level with other institutions—and certainly the synagogues do not...

...Glorification of war and the military is not encouraged in the innumerable ways common in American culture...

...Russians with whom we spoke, however, including some Jews, denied charges of official anti-Semitism, reminding us that anti-Semitism is far older than the Communist state, having been officially cultivated by the Tzars, and that it is not easy to extirpate...

...The inequalities which mar capitalist societies are matters over which Soviet citizens shake their heads...

...They had gathered to welcome 165 U.S...

...At one of the Moscow "youth cafes," a serious young man in horn-rimmed glasses engaged me in a serious quiz regarding U.S...

...Would it go on being a peace organization, or would it support the government's war effort...

...Meanwhile, the three-week tours—at rates reduced below normal travel costs through contributions to the foundation and through the cooperation of Soviet authorities—offer a variety of educational seminars in addition to CEC-arranged meetings between U.S...

...I think of the style affected by a young woman elevator operator at our Moscow hotel...

...And it is the humanities which do this\" The applause which interrupted him threatened to dislodge the pre-Revolutionary plaster cherubs holding up the corners of the Friendship House ceiling...

...As the word "exchange" implies, CEC also wishes to receive Soviet visitors...

...Finding conversation was not much of a problem for any of the delegates, even those equipped, as I was, with roughly two-dozen ill-pronounced Russian words...

...How can you think that you are not dear to us...

...The high point of empathy occurred when a rotund and smiling lecturer, speaking of the central tasks of education, declared: "Before you shape a chemist, an engineer, a cosmonaut, you must shape a man...

...popular music and dancing...

...It became plain that the denial of visas did not originate in State Department attitudes toward CEC, but was in response to pressures by AFL/CIO President George Meany and his alter-ego in foreign affairs, Jay Lovestone, whose extreme anti-Soviet stance and activities are well-known...

...This is the country in which, during World War II, more than 1,700 cities and more than 70,000 villages were reduced to rubble by the Nazis...

...It was explicitly referred to, time and again, often with great emotion...

...It was notable that the Soviet faculty at our seminars called attention, from the public platform, to certain shortcomings and failures in the planning and practice in their special fields...

...If it crashes, all of us die...

...number, about whether such a worker is able to buy an automobile or a washing machine, and will then give you the official calculation as to when such conveniences will be standard possessions in the U.S.S.R...

...It is no new thing that people accept the values assigned by their society, but there is an observable difference between blind acceptance and an appreciation of meaning, between the parroting of slogans and genuine involvement...

...The Soviet academicians whom we met through CEC were well acquainted with the "going capitalist" line of speculation—which on the whole seemed to amuse them...

...Her type appeared everywhere, without exciting attention...

...It was a crushing embarrassment for CEC officials, but the affair had no visible effect upon the welcome of our group to the Soviet Union...

...A silence fell between us...

...It is understandable that the Jews, in view of their history generally, to say nothing of such recent Soviet history as the "economic crimes" trials, fear something worse than not "getting ahead...

...When you go home to the United States, tell the people that we do not want war...

...He then proceeded to flirt broadly with the youngest lady in our party, going so far as to sigh loudly, lay his hand upon his heart, sing to her, and gaze avidly into her eyes...

...someone was certain to accost you and draw you into talk, undeterred by language difficulties...

...Twenty-three million dead...

...I carried away from the cities we visited an indelible skyline of building-cranes in the blue air, coexistent with crosses...

...During the following three weeks, in Moscow, Leningrad, and Sochi, the delegation was to be addressed by, and meet in small, intense discussion groups with, Soviet experts in politics, economics, agriculture, education, medicine, law, and the arts...

...he cried...

...they repeat, the disbelief, shock, and grief scarcely abated after more than two decades...

...For myself, the most interesting "area of disagreement" emerged in discussions about freedom of expression...

...The fear and loathing of war are as genuine as the eagerness for material advancement...

...Our CEC young folk were in excited demand as teachers of "The Monkey" and "The Jerk...

...My CEC companion at the time—by now habituated to the Soviet scene—commented, "Must have been a gift from an American cousin...

...She admitted that it did...

...Peaceful coexistence" is not merely a Soviet slogan plastered over popular indifference...

...social realism" in art...

...Increases in wages are going to those with lower incomes, while the pay of those in the higher income brackets remains stable...

...I do know that, by the same sort of instant-acculturation which inhibited us from littering, we quickly understood that we had nothing to fear on the city streets, night or day...

...Members of the delegation did attend Christian and Jewish religious services, and chatted with the congregants...

...And you call that democracy...

...Didn't we fight that hard war together, and didn't we win it together...

...I had the sense that henceforward he was going to think twice about tape-recording any more "Alvas Priestly" coming his way over the Voice of America or Radio Free Europe...

...They insisted, however, that the churches are also free to promote their own messages...

...and the United States...

...These edifices of religious faith and aristocratic privilege are preserved with care equal to that lavished upon monuments to the Revolution or to the victory over fascism...

...and yet it was not so different from the assumptions which had set the CEC in motion, and had succeeded in bringing us a third of the way around the world to try them out, with a great deal of success...

...and Soviet "occupational counterparts...

...Well, but that will not happen," she said...

...When I told him that my teen-age daughter and her friends would as likely listen to Elvis Presley as wear their skirts anywhere below the thigh, he nodded his head gravely...

...It was also typical that he spoke openly of the number of months or years which would be required, in many sectors of the Soviet economy, for "catching up" to the United States...

...While many Americans similarly fail to appreciate the fine points of applying the Bill of Rights (as, for instance, to Communists), even the cruder forms of censorship seem to be generally acceptable in the Soviet Union...

...The most marked at-homeness with Western ideas was among the specialists in education...

...As "citizen diplomats," our motley enough crew was exhorted by the CEC leadership to avoid debate with our Soviet hosts in favor of "finding areas of agreement...

...Cultural penetration is not, of course, limited to "The Bittles" and eye make-up...

...CEC delegates who spoke Yiddish were usually able to find a conversation in that tongue in whatever public place we might be...

...I do not know the statistics on street crimes in the «major cities of Russia...

...Thus spoke the athletic-looking lady from Pravda, on a pleasant July morning at the Moscow House of Peace and Friendship...

...In the entire three weeks in Russia, I saw only one child equipped with a toy gun...

...Of undoubted importance is the World War II alliance of the U.S.S.R...

...The reference may be made by a grandmotherly woman attorney, speaking of her after-hours participation in a survey to determine the causes of divorce, or by a downy-cheeked member of the Komsomol—the Communist youth organization—who has spent his vacation helping to build cottages in a remote Caucasian village...

...At the popular level, we found it was assumed unquestioningly that the goods everybody wants will be achieved through "socialism...

...We were, in fact, repeatedly told by official hosts of the CEC that we must not confuse their welcome of us with endorsement of our government's policies in Vietnam...

...In fact, that's what the U.S...

...If they envy Americans as consumers of goods, they also pity them for the woeful inadequacy of their public services and benefits...

...Again, in private conversations, we heard nonconforming views expressed on such subjects as the Soviet government's policy toward the war in Vietnam...

...and I was a little sorry I had brought the whole thing up...

...CpC delegates were informed repeatedly, by the simple and by the sophisticated in the Soviet, of the blessings of free health care, free cultural and recreational facilities, nominal cost, soon-to-be-free transportation, and, especially, free education, through the highest level...

...What was mentioned most often was the threat of its spread to a generalized conflict which might, against its will, involve the U.S.S.R...

...Twenty-three million dead...

...It is true that individual enterprises these days not only have a greater share in management, but also divide profits with the state...

...In the minds of many, the two are related, inasmuch as military preparedness represents a drain on resources which might otherwise be directed to the good life...

...As distaste for the Germans clearly lingers, so does the memory of comradeship with Americans...

...We three found ourselves that night having dinner at "The Actors Club...

...All enterprises are still, of course, publicly owned...

...in a confrontation with the United States...

...But some of us are nevertheless opposing the war...

...My impression was that his sort of rationale is taken for granted in many quarters of the U.S.S.R., despite post-Stalin advances in free thought...

...It was all a great deal of fun, and was made more amusing because he spoke no English, and she no Russian...

...The study tour in which I participated was the second in CEC's history...

...That is not a new thing for governments to claim," I said...

...affluence is the Soviet measuring-stick...

...Our morning "buzz groups" with the Soviet experts usually came to an end only upon the fifth or sixth entreaty of our Intourist guides that we were about to miss the last bus taking off for this or that showplace...

...When all this has been said, there remains the already much-remarked Soviet infatuation with Western—often, American—popular culture and lifestyle...

...Within its own philosophical framework, this is a goal which the average Soviet citizen finds inspiring...

...There is no reason to dream, in spite of the strong anti-war sentiments of the Soviet people, that anything like an independent peace movement would come into being, or could long survive, should government policy change...

...but, further, nowhere in the cities did we see much outward evidence of the anti-Western Puritanism which is supposed to have characterized the Stalin era...

...The experience of the 500 or so CEC delegates who visited the Soviet Union last summer was, in that respect, almost uniform...

...While many of the ancient structures are in use as government buildings, workers' clubs, or places of public recreation, others are kept standing as museums, particularly the icon-stuffed cathedrals—most of them now "non-functioning," as the guides delicately put it...

...On the other hand, our contact with Soviet Jews definitely contradicted certain reports familiar in the United States, such as that they are prevented from associating with Jewish foreign visitors, as well as reports that they are afraid to be recognized as Jews, at all, and therefore shun the use of Yiddish in public...

...Government says about our intervention in Vietnam...

...It is important to keep in mind, of course, that both officially and popularly a distinction is made by the Russians between the people of the United States and the government of the United States...

...delegates of the Citizen Exchange Corps (CEC...

...The impression wre gained was that there are certain subtle social and economic penalties for the practicing faithful of any sect—"You don't get ahead...

...She slowly shook her head...

...Many of us would not dare to make so free in a large city in the United States...

...A number of the Russians with whom we discussed these questions pointed out that the Soviet Union is an atheist state, and as such, might be expected to promote an atheist viewpoint...

...Her dim blue eyes looked hurt...

...She is a former vice president of the Seattle Peace Information Center...

...His admiring remarks, and her responses, had to be shakily rendered by our laughing interpreter...

...The work of restoration goes on constantly, inside and out...

...The long-term goal is a program in which "thousands" of American and Soviet citizens can be employed at professions and trades in each other's countries for periods as long as two years...

...Nobody paid much attention to this plea, nor did our hosts show much inclination to conduct serious discussions at so cautious a level that no conflict could emerge...

...So, you see, although we have so much in common, that makes the basic positions of our peace movements very different...

...economic system...

...A great deal has been said and written, of late, about the changing limits of permissible criticism and debate in the Soviet Union...

...What would you do...

...We climbed down from the Intourist buses, as often as not, at some centuries-old monument to the bad old days before the Revolution—a palace, an estate, a cathedral...

...We had been in Russia only a short time before CEC visitors, female and male alike, were tranquilly exploring the nighttime streets, strolling through half-deserted parks, squares, alleyways, where we as tranquilly spoke with any stranger who happened to fall into step with us...

...we saw none of any description in the toy departments of shops...

...The most acute domestic need recognized by the Soviet Union is the need for housing...

...Nobody attempted to conceal from us that U.S...

...While people in Russia seem generally hospitable to foreigners—and the cities we visited were thronged with visitors from every part of the globe—many of the CEC delegates were gradually impressed by what appeared to be a marked consideration for us as Americans...

...What seems to be manifest is that many Russians do, paradoxically, feel a special closeness to the citizens of the great rival country...

...It would be absurd, in my view, to represent Soviet citizens these days as being terrified of expressing critical opinions on any facet of their national life...

...A sheet-metal worker or a grade school teacher will inquire about the wages of his opposite U.S...

...My social work"—meaning unpaid social service —is a phrase which Russians utter with obvious satisfaction...

...moreover, there is a firm belief that it is only through socialism (Communism) that such goods can be distributed fairly...

...In our more objective moments some of us attempted to measure the Soviet experiment in terms of its own ideal, which is informed with humanitarian, rather than libertarian principles, and which does not place the highest value upon individual freedom but asks the individual to sacrifice his claims to the common weal...

...If the group with which I traveled is any indication, CEC has made a start in attracting its intended "cross-section of Americans," excepting the poor...

...One of the more self-critical and sarcastic delegates exclaimed: "By God, it's true— they love us everywhere we go...

...For example, a Leningrad Peace Committee member explained unblushingly from the platform, that circulation of The New York Times (available in libraries) is restricted because its columns contain so much negative criticism of the Soviet Union...

...There was no doubt about the enthusiasm of many people we met for the goal of making a contribution to society, or to Communism, in their jobs and professions, as in their voluntary activities...

...Soviet social scientists referred often to their interest in the theories of U.S...

...Constitutional law is often successfully invoked for this purpose, he was shocked...

...In the past nine years, one-half the population has moved into new dwellings, and the other half is in a hurry to do the same...

...Our policy is non-intervention...

...Some of the people we met declared themselves unwilling to believe that the Vietnam war is one which the people of the United States—"our American friends"—really support...

...military operations in Southeast Asia...

...the propagation of anti-Semitic views, as well as "war propaganda," are crimes for which the lawbreaker must pay a heavy penalty—while we in the United States, he said, tolerate the expression of every variety of racial and international hatred...

...Further, the young people carry on a great deal, as has been reported, over U.S...

...A male member of our party was moved to comment: "She's a long way from the Revolution...

...The respect which often develops between un-equaled rivals may, indeed, be a contributing factor to this complex fraternal attitude...

...She hesitated, plainly troubled...

...This kind of identification of the individual with the public cause appeared to be fairly common...

...The delegates—to the surprise of many—were also to do a great deal of running-about on their own in those cities, wherever their interests and enterprise took them...

...War toys simply do not seem to be manufactured...

...Your group is a peace organization...

...To an important degree, Soviet citizens gave the impression of feeling that the country, its people and its programs are theirs...

...but while we were wistfully absorbing that information from a sign on the door, an emerging member identified us as Americans, and turned about to sweep us past the doorman and see us settled at a table, before he took his leave...

...A stranger with whom you pick up a conversation on a park bench is likely to call your attention to the inferior quality of the shoes he is wearing, compared to yours, and to tell you about the improvements anticipated in Soviet wearing-apparel...

...At the same time, the right of government to restrain and regulate public expressions of dissent—as in speech, press, assembly—does not seem to be much questioned...

...These views were offered casually, with no suggestion of daring...

...They rejected it in arguments which boil down to this: While the rise in productivity and in the national income have made it possible to reevaluate the role of profits, particularly as an incentive to workers, profits in the Soviet Union continue to "belong to all the citizens, to society," rather than to single individuals or single enterprises...

...judgments of "The Rollink Stones," "Alvas Priestly," and "The Bittles...

...The shared sense of national purpose may rest not only upon the philosophy of the collective good, but upon certain hard, and perhaps invigorating, realities...

...There," for the average Soviet citizen, means a material standard of living comparable to that enjoyed by middle-class Americans...

...Soviet emulation of the U.S...

...And nearly everybody wants to get there...

...the initial group of 140 had visited the Soviet Union in 1965...

...Carefully nurtured, the plans of eight Soviet trade union members to visit the United States in the spring of 1966, as CEC guests, were blasted when the State Department rejected all their visa applications...

...The ideal is continually reinforced by official propaganda, but that does not make adherence to it necessarily less genuine...

...Suppose," I said, "that your government would feel it must intervene militarily in Vietnam...

...It is a members-only restaurant, for professional theater people...

...That war, for obvious reasons, is perhaps more real to Soviet citizens even today, than it was to many U.S...

...The Pravda representative, who was to accompany us to other Soviet cities, was on a platform loaded with dignitaries of the Institute of Soviet-American Relations and of the Soviet Peace Committee...

...The really formidable efforts it has made to encourage the cultural equality of its myriad minority groups finds an exception in the case of the Jews, whose unique institutions and culture —Yiddish-language books and newspapers, theaters, schools—are much diminished...

...She was a fragile woman, with a fading pret-tiness...

...The Editors "TSTe are all in one airplane...

...Sue Davidson Gottfried is a free lance writer who has contributed to The Nation, The Commonweal, and Antioch Review as well as The Progressive...

...Although the delegation was heavily weighted with educators, Easterners, and people of Jewish and/or Russian descent, nevertheless a wide range of jobs, professions and interests, regions, races, income levels, and ages was represented...

...It was no doubt in part because of this distinction that the CEC program went through as planned, in an environment of good will, in spite of the summer background of tensions generated by fresh escalation of U.S...

...Yet the Soviet government's desire to overcome it seems open to question...

...Russian national historic pride assimilates Basil the Blessed and Peter the Great cheek-by-jowl with Lenin...

...and the value of such basic institutions as the Young Pioneers—a Soviet counterpart, roughly, of the Boy and Girl Scouts...

...A glance at any section of the new Five-year Plan, which calls for ambitious increases in consumer goods, housing, educational opportunities, and social services may explain the apparent conviction of the Soviet citizen that he has a part in the national schema...

...The spires and cupolas and crosses compete with endless rising concrete blocks of apartment houses...

...It was typical that a Soviet professor who lectured on the economic basis of Communism presented all statistics —from wage-levels to the number of kilowatts of electricity produced annually—alongside U.S...

...however, the profits of any particular enterprise go to planned improvement and expansion of its production, and to increased wages for its workers...

...Yes," I insisted, "but just suppose, theoretically, that the policy should be changed...

...In all this it must be remembered that peaceful coexistence is current Soviet government policy...

...All you needed to do was to loiter around in a public place looking American...

...Besides a Lutheran minister, a United Christian Church minister, and two Roman Catholic priests, who regularly raised questions about religious freedom, my CEC delegation included many American Jews, who regularly raised the issue of anti-Semitism...

...The Citizen Exchange Corps, a private, non-profit foundation, was begun in 1962 by a New York advertising man, with the objective of increasing mutual understanding and helping to ease international tensions...

...When I told him that U.S...

...The only war poster we saw publicly displayed was not a tribute to the armed might of the Soviets, but a condemnation of the enemies of Vietnam's National Liberation Front...

...In one form or another, this was said to us by all sorts of Russians...

...The formula was sentimental and over-simple...

...I do not believe I met a university student who failed to mention that his education was free, and that he was, besides, paid a monthly stipend sufficient to relieve him and his family of any financial burden...

...I spoke about this matter with a member of the Soviet Women's Committee— among whose primary functions is peace-education—on a day toward the end of our stay in Moscow...

...runs one quotation I find in my notes...

...Heavily mascaraed and eye-shadowed, her hair elaborately > ratted, she experimented daily with sultry expressions of the 007-dame variety...

...We would know that our government had made every possible effort to avoid getting into war, before taking such a dreadful step...

...In short, as one of the Soviet economists put it, "We live without capitalists in the U.S.S.R.—and how can you have capitalism without capitalists...

...There is much to be done by everyone and there is a long way to go...