The Sidney herald., 1959-08-26

oCSiQSS liiC IltW, lit lilCiliDtl ;
of our tour we're the only persons
ABOARD the special Russian plane
which was sent to accommodate us
on the flight from Helsinki to
Leningrad. The first words from
any Red was an answer to an
inquiry relative to the photogra-
phing of the plane and crew upon
landing, when the hostess en-
phatically replied, ut is forbid
den"
Vera Kary = Ysku5ova, our in
terpreter and guide from Intourist
(Soviet tourist bureau), met us
at the airport as we were being
ushered through the customs at
Leningrad. Vera is a little dark
girl from Uzbek, a soviet socialist
republic just north of Afghanistan.
The people of this district were
additionally Moslems, but with
the advent of communism they
have become atheists, as all of the
young in the USSR are today.
This astounded us since we had
expected some form of agnosti-
cism.
An introduction to Russian
food came shortly after our arrival
at the hotel. Up to now our meals
were of a high quality, though not
always appreciated. We soon found
1t necessary, however, to accustom
ourselves to potatoes three times
a day, unsalted butter, unrefined
salt, caviar, and other courses in
GLIDING the Russian borsch, an I'M
palatable ~nauseating soup. Miss
ing the traditional American des-
sert, our craving for sweets turned
to jams, ice cream, and candy.
While their ice cream, like our
old-fashioned homemade variety,
is superior to our commercial pro-
duct, their candy is inferior and
priced out of the field; a candy
bar, comparable in size but not
quality to our nickel bars, sells for
8 rubles or 80 cents (tourist rate
of exchange).
Chewing gum and ball-point
pens r at a premium in Russia.
If they allowed the importation of
either commodity and the expor-
tation Of the money from the re-
sulting sales, any enterprising
individual could become a million
air overnight. A Russian gentle
man, whom we met at the Tschai-
kowsky's summer home at Kline,
was DESTROYS of a ten-cent ball
point pen which he noticed in the
pocket of my sport coat. l in
tended to give it to him, but GUS
tomary to their tradition he in
sisted on trading a fountain pen;
l later learned that this pen had
a value of As rubles or $3.50.
In the Leningrad area we we're
fortunate in being assigned to the
same guide as the reporter Of
Life" magazine had been some
time previously. Like Vera, she
a young lady of about twenty
five, but more effervescent, more
westernized, blonde, and possess
ing such a marvellous command of
the English language it was diff
to distinguish her from a
American.
Marks of the last war will prob
ably never be erased from Peter
The Greats window of the West.
The Germans laid seige to this
.reasure-house of Russian culture,
art, and science for a period of
over 900 days, creating a situation
30 perilous as to subjugate the
)opulace to starvation rations, and
his to- the point of subsisting on
,ats, dogs or anything hardly
The United States Embassy in
Moscow credits the Germans with
$4,000, 900 Russians. The
.stimate of the resulting ratio of
women to men is as high as 8 to
4, especially of those included in
he war age. AS an aftermath of
his catastrophe, women r found
many professions and %vocations
Inheard of in our country.
The people of the Soviet Union
ear us as much as they do the
Germans, including the East Ger
mans. This is the contributing ]
actor for their political and at
east part of their military be-
avior. This fear could lead to dis
strous results, especially if we {
re not ready for any emergency.
We in America have often
card much concerning the pro- 5
ress of the USSR in the field I
f science, but the United States I
department of Health, Welfare, {
nd Education in News Notes i
round the World" has stated that {
ne great contribution of the So
let Union to the field of edu-
alton is in music and the arts.
What we learned substantiated
MS report. BY the time a talented Z
will have reached the i
quivalent of our junior high S
four hours every morning r
ill be spent in the study of the e
arious phases of the art under S
qualified teacher in private f
nd class instruction. Instrumental h
societies exist by the thou v
inds in factories, schools, various :.
lstitutions, etc. This is also true
{ vocal groups.
Almost everywhere we went we
ere asked if we knew Van CHI
urn. Confidently, n of our
-oup did. Several years ago Prem
ce, one of the band directors
ON Texas, was asked for an