Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-07-04
Me and My Russian Wife


almost any daily paper must
know, was an Associated Press
correspondent in Moscow for q
long time to be exact. IL years
and nine months, the greater
portion Of that time as chief
Of bureau.
While this, his personal story
Of those years. Is on the enter
tanning side, with many a laugh
at his own expense as he de-
scribes some Of the. scrapes he
got into, don't be deceived by
the title or by the coy. anec-
dotal way he writes. Despite
his disclaimer of any profound
purpose or Of being a Russian
expert GA Russian expert is
some one who has been in the
Soviet Union for less than two
weeks or more than 20 years.~,
1t is not a trivial book. Within
the amusing episodes and the
cheerful facing of constant
obstacles there is more infor-
nation about the Russian
people and their police state
than in most books by pundits
who have pontificated at much
greater length in heavy
phrases and voluminous foot
notes and who will not admit
that any facet Of the country
has eluded them.
Without Censor
Mr.. Gilmore is o first-rate
reporter and he illustrates
many phases Of Russian life
with incidents. never laboring
the point, assuming the reader
has sense enough to draw the
inevitable conclusions.
Sometimes" he conf1des. Il
was sure ] wrote for the small
est audience in the world
that handful of censors who
sat there with their blue PEN
els and ripped my cablegrams
apart and often my Journal
istic heart" Thus many Of
the things in his book he
makes public for the first time.
%. -. the longer I lived in
the Soviet Union the less, I
realized, I knew about what is
called communism. I still
don't know what it means. It
was state capitalism to me,
rigidly and brutally enforced
by the secret police"
The last big story Mr.. Gil
more covered in Russia was,
early in 1853, the death and
funeral of Stain.
Joseph Stalin," he writes,
twas a terrible and difficult
man, and feel that even his
closest colleagues were not
sorry to see him go. AS to the
Russian people, I am certain
that they were relieved. The
death and the suffering this
man caused was monumental.
He controlled their very lives.
He showed them no Senti-
ment. His grip was like icy
iron. He drove them, he
threatened them. he punished
them and he executed them,
but he never led them. He
was a latter-day Ivan the Ter
rihle, doing much for his coun-
try. but leaving a bloody trail
Of broken bodies and hearts as
he dragged the sad, massive
country along"
He Wosn't Fooled
During the new look" that
temporarily followed the ac-
cession Of Malenkov to the
No. / position, Mr.. Gilmore
managed to get visas allowing
his Russian wife and their
two children to leave Russia.
It was a minor miracle, which
happened through the inter-
vention Of Charles E. (Chip)
Bohlen, the American AM
bassador. But Mr.. Gilmore
was never fooled by the early
gestures Of Cancellation of the
Malenkov regime. Until /
see evidence to the contrary"
he felt as he left Russia, ''the
same old Communist goals
are, there, carryovers from the
Stain regime"
Mr.. Gilmore's romance with
Tamara, a ballerina, had been
storm tossed. He had not only
to win q glamorous and popu-
lar girl, but to fight the Soviet
government for the right to
marry her. Once, when they
were virtually engaged, the Sc
cret police exiled her to a viii
lage $50 miles from Moscow.
Eddy drove in his shaky car to
see her. Later. when he was on
leave in the United States, he
told Wendell Willkie. a close
friend. his trouble. Mr.. Willkle
appealed directly TO Stain,
and. for once, the dictator
relented and the marriage was
allowed.
Mr.. Gilmore first went to
Russia in 194l, and he traces
the changing attitude toward
Americans from favored al
lies to hated capitalist ag-
gressors after the war was
won. But he still doubts that
the Russian people, in their
hearts, hate Americans. The
secret police sent two of his
MISREPRESENTATION, Russian