., ..

Page Fourteen

By LEWIS E
WHEN travelers
out-of-the-way
are especially prone
to their pronounce:
state of affairs a
hand accounts arej
and the visitor to
as the Soviet Union
not need to look fa
to listen to his tale:
ing to draw gener,
from personal ex
view of this, I must
impressions are th
dent who is neither
pert nor impartial i
of the Soviet regim
I entered the Sov
a group of fifteen.
tour was sponsored
avian student trav
addition to the guid
Soviet Intourist, w
nate in having wit
who spoke fluent R
The Soviet visas
our time was to bet
between Leningraa
We would also be
off the train at Vib

THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE Sunday, October 20, 1957
Grand our Through Russia
A Student's Eye View of Eight Days in the USSR
NGMAN Despite Low Living Standards, the women working with pneti-
have visited matic air hammers, were well-
places they A Promise of 'Big Brother' suited physically for their jobs.
to subject us The most striking thing abopt
ments on the the Russian people was their gen-
broad. First- ty minute station stop near the Our tour had been planned There was evidence of the re- eral eagerness to talk with us.
relatively rare Finnish border. These details elaborately, even including such cent Youth Festival everywhere. Foreigners, especially Americans,
a nation such filled two full pages of my pass- items as a visit to the "First State One candid Russian student told seemed to be a great curiosity. in
finds he does port. us that many of the more impor- the evenings, groups of Russians
Sfor someone Our supposedly third-class ac ll Bearing Factory and a con- tant buildings had been re- of all ages would gather in frofit
s. It is tempt- comodations on the Russian train cent by the "Rumanian State Jazz painted especially for that event. of the hotels which accommodated
al conclusions running between Helsinki and Band." It can't be denied that the Banners and cut-outs of peace foreigners. Often they would give
periences. In Leningrad were quaint but sur- Soviet Union has many cultural doves were still evident - even us small pins depictihg Lenin, a
say that these prisingly good. During much of attractions, some of which date on the grills of the army trucks. peace dove, or some other appro-
ose of a stu- the trip the doors of the car were back to the Czarist period. The priate symbol. The low denomin-
a Russian ex- locked. Although there was no Ermitage, which has been pro- Eulit tion foreign coins or autographs
n his opinions feverish examination of our lug- served and added to by the Com- 9" 7 . * * which we gave in return were
e. gage, we were amused by the offi- munists, houses one of the best HAD NOT realized how com- then proudly shown for the others
it Union with cers who kept coming through collections of Western art in the pletely the Soviet Union im- to see.
b'ha Sei- Bykn ndrt set. w &accompanying tihe g roup o- plements its policy of equality b- Russians who could speak Rn. -
by a Scandin- casionally and "getting lost" the tween the sexes. Although news- glish acted as interpreters. Tl
el agency. In rest of the time, I tried to strike paper accounts had prepared me question of these "hotel entrance"
es provided by a balance betwoen seeing muse- for the sight of old women sweep- crowds were nearly always the
e were fortu- N LENINGRAD we were greeted ums and seeing the people. Al- ing the streets, it was hard to ov- same. "Do you like rock and roll?
th uos a Danse b(levce"otd adse h eol.A-igtesres t hr They were surprised that I did
tus an gby the outstretched arms of a though we couldn't go too far out- ercome the initial shock of seeing nott Another type of question
ussian. "igantic statue of Lenin as well as side the city (Intourist generously women loading asphalt on trucks, aot endter vafistion
were explicit: a pudgy, balding representative of had offered to hold our pass- and mixing and laying cement on almost endless variations concern-
divided equally Intourist: Then, although it was ports), the possibilities of walk- contruction jobs without such ed our knowledge of Russian lus
and Moscow. 1:30 a.m., we were given a buffet inT down side streets and through Western luxuries as a wheelbar- cWhat Russian writers (us
allowed to get dinner at the hotel. The Russians residential districts were nearly row. It must be admitted, how- knows, pa ters, etc.) do you
or, - a twen- seemed determined to impress us' nlimit(d. ever, that some of them, including k o u ifeaof Ne re
aske about the life of Negroes in
...., , -------- -America, althought in August Lit-
tle Rock was not yet known inter-
nationally.
More penetrating expressions ci
DEAU-HARRIS opinion could be obtained by ar-
ranging to meet individuals more
than once. In these meetings a
wide range of viewpoints were
W HAT'S heard. Surprisingly, most of the
f-k .1!opposition to the government
came from the younger people-
MOST A' students who had been born after
the revolution and who had knoAm
IMPORTANT no other way of life.

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ON .I

Student .
TJHE strongest opponent of the
Communist regime with whom
I talked was a student I met one
evening while walking across Red
Square. At- first distrustful, he
became amazingly free in his de-
nunciation of the fundamentals
of the Communist system. Yet
caution was still of prime impor-
tance. When I met him for the
second and third times, he was
I wearing clothing more closely re-
sembling Western styles. He spoke
brokenly to other Russians, using
an accent which made him sound
foreign.
Unlike several, he considerd
Khrushchev to be as bad as Stal-
in; the only reason Khrushchev
appeared to be better was thlot
he had not yet consolidated his
position. This student owned a
short-wave radio and had heard
"the truth about Hungary" from
BBC broadcasts. He was proud f
the ingenious methods he had
used to disseminate this informa-
tion to his friends at the Univeo-
sity of Moscow.
To him, however, the long-rsn
I view was one of pessimism. "Sur'e,
some of us know what is going on.
Then there are those who realty
seem to believe in the govern-
ment, butimostof the people jost
don't care."
Another student "rebel" told
me he was a member of a Kom-
somol (youth groups supervised fry
the Party). Although he spoke to
me much more guardedly, his
general attitude was one of cyni-
cism. By showing an interest in
Communism, he hoped theye
would be less of a chance he would
"end up sweeping streets."
It was not hard to find loytol
students, however. In Leningrad
two of us were approached by
some students who seemed proud
that they were Komsomols. One
later confided, "All the best stu-
dents belong." Apparently "The
New Class" of Djilas has its junior
edition too.
After asking us the standard
set of questions concerning our
knowledge of the Soviet Union-r,
these student proudly informed
us that they had studied Ameci-
(Continued on Next Page)

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