Evening star., 1946-04-28
Russians, the West
And UNDERSTANDING
Moscow's Iron Curtain Must Be
Lifted to Clear the Air
By William II. Harrison

oy WttttuW II. 7uTTtSOU.
When he and two of his distinguished
colleagues met in this city recently with
the American Society of Newspaper
Editors, Ilya Ehrenburg, the celebrated
Soviet writer, made a point which no.
body can deny. Russia, he said is like
the Gulf Stream: 1t is here to stay, and
the other nations of the world must
concede the foolishness and unreason-
ableness of expecting 1t to commit sui
eide to please its enemies.
There will be no disagreement among
sane people over such thesis. The
Gulf Stream is one of the most impor-
tant currents in the world, and Russia
one of the most important nations, and
to the extent that there can be any
degree OF certainty in this life, it Is
hardly to be doubted that both will last
as long as the earth itself lasts. With
that said, however, it must be added
that these two great physical realities,
IN addition to their durability, have
another trait In common which involves,
in the one, an element Of uncertainty
for shipping, and in the other an ele-
ment Of uncertainty-to put it mildly
In the field of international relations.
Thus, as one authority describes 1t,
the Gulf Stream, when it meets the
cold Labrador current, causes powerful
whirls," and at some points it is so
indefinite as to vary with the winds"
Nevertheless, since it is not made up of
ideas, personalities or a government
that refuses to let observers study it
and report upon it freely, the countries
interested in it have no trouble under
standing it or getting along with it, de-
spite its caprices.
The same, obviously, cannot be said
of the Soviet Union. Like the Gulf
Stream, it causes powerful whirls'
when it comes in contact. as in Iran,
with certain political currents. and like
the Gulf Stream again, its actions-to
western eyes at least-appear often "to
vary with the winds" But unlike the
Gulf Stream, it does not give any out
slider much of a chance to study it and
to report upon it freely, to the end that
its seeming capriciousness may be bet
ter explained and mutual understand
ing thus promoted between itself and
other countries.
Unoer the best of circumstances, of
course, it is always difficult for one ma
tion to see eye to eye with another, even
when, like Britain and the United States,
they share a common heritage of Ian
guage, law and political philosophy. The
fact that there are many Americans who
still tend to regard the English in terms
of 1776 and that there are Englishmen
who continue to look upon Americans as
a race Of grasping boors-this despite the
free reporting and free exchange of in
formation between them-is enough to
make clear that the problem of achiev-
ing genuine international understanding
does not lend itself to any easy solution.
1t is certainly safe to assume, however,
that the gap between Britain and Amer
lea would be far wider than it is were it
not for their unrestricted reporting and
information exchange. And by the same
token it may be said that the mental
gulf between Russia and the Western
powers would now be much narrower if
the Moscow government would pull aside
the iron curtain in front of it and let
American, British, French, Belgian and
other correspondents travel as freely in
that great country, and report what they
see as freely, as accredited Soviet cor
respondents are welcome to do in the
United States and lands similarly enjoy
ing freedom of the press.
To be sure, such reciprocal gesture
on Russia's part would not at once clear
the air Of the potentially dangerous irri-
tations and mutual suspicious that exist
now. But 1t would be an all-important
first step toward bringing about an era
of more sympathetic understanding.
Once taken, for instance, it might make
it much easier for Americans to develop
a broader appreciation of the fact that
many of Moscow's recent moves are not
innovations, but have their origins III
the distant past, when the Czars pur-
sued an imperialistic course-clashing
with Britains-to win outlets to the sea
f, for the vast Russian land mass. SINH
larly. by means of free reporting, the
outside world might acquire a new in
sight into the reasons why the Soviet
Union looks so suspiciously beyond its
borders. 1t might come also to compre-
hend better the traditions, the culture,
the religious background, the political.
social and economic thought, and the
frequently bitter and tormented his
tory-all basically unlike that of the
West-that have so conditioned the Rus
sian mind that it sees things quite diff
ferently from the way the Western mind
sees them.
Finally, within this broadened frame
work of understanding, Americans,
Britons and others now baf1ed by it
might be able to find an answer to this
enigma: How so many Russians, de-
spite what seems to us to be their rigid
totalitarian dictatorship. can insist with
apparent sincerity and honest convic-
tion that their land is truly free and
democratic-more so, in fact, than ours.
different minds define the same things
differently: even in the United States
there are those who argue eruditely, If
narrowly that we are Republic, not
a democracy.
K \
When Mr.. Ehrenburg spoke of his
country and the Gulf Stream, he went
on to complain of the volume of ma
licious anti-Russian slanders appear
ing in certain sections of the free Amer