European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 24, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes May 1985 columns trading fantasies for reality in Russia by Ellen Goodman Boston to begin there was the paranoia that hit me As my plane descended upon Moscow it came rather like cars but More paranoia was the prerogative of my Hus bands born in Russia and not at All sure Why anyone would paranoia belonged to the Boston Bank Teller who sold me american express checks and i Hope you get but there it every cold War every spy every tale from a every evil Empire re Mark was in my subconscious As i pass cd the Soldier with red got by the serious customs officials and entered the soviet it turned out thai this emotional baggage was the Only baggage that arrived with me in Moscow a hint of what was to in the two weeks i spent in the soviet Union i was More hassled by disorder than i had entered an obsessively documented state of the next few Days brought any number of i had been warned by colleagues that i would have a by my Side at almost All but no one was at the Airport when i hitched a ride into the City with a Tipsy bbl my tourist was hardly a we got along but not until some time after she put me and my 100 words of russian on the Moscow subway going the wrong the Telephone system was another rite of passage into this disordered i came armed with precious num but the use of them was something a phone could ring endlessly in an empty there was no formal message but it was also possible to connect immediately with someone remarkably High up in the because he answered his own the soviet passion for official papers is profound and sometimes an engaging soviet Man told me a prototypical Story about the Day he took Norman Mailer to see lenins he approached a guard to ask if Mailer could Cut through the hours Long he was a great american the guard looked suspiciously at Mailer and then asked his companion with utmost does he have the right documents at the same time it was possible to Cut through the blizzard of paper and officials with a direct con tact or my moment of enlightenment came when i went to retrieve the elusive with neither the right forms in nor my the Odds of wrestling my bags out of officials were my mos cow colleague spotted the bags in the holding picked them and walked out of the army controlled Airport without without Ever going through Cus As i began to see the Odd chinks in the it was easier to realize that the soviet people also see because information is we underestimate How much is even about such delicate matters As but every six a new contingent of tens of thousands of Young soldiers is sent Over five years that adds up to a million or More anxious its hard to keep that sort of it May be True there Are certainly no opinion polls of foreign policy that most soviets accept the War As a limited engagement at the Behest of the afghan but Here is also a disinformation joke making the rounds that describes the 250 years of mongol Rule Over Russia a temporary limited engagement at the Behest of the Kievan soviet citizens dont count on their Media for information the Way we censorship is deep and but there is a cultural difference As Well As a constitutional one in attitudes toward if not free one curl haired who had refereed a conversation about vasectomies with notable engaged me later in a debate about he we Are not so sure its a Good idea to just speak your he want talking about the but questioning the value of we Many times treat people like Chil Dren to be he said and defended that posture with an in the soviet doctors do not usually Tell patients if they have they withhold that As they once did in America out of kindness and the fear that the patient will give at the same this benign withholding of unpleasant information can extend to More serious there seems to be Little talk of nuclear Winter or nuclear War in the soviet the soviet people i met were less Likely to believe in nuclear holocaust than their american in a Young film Kostya Lupus Hans is one of those breaking through that his first film was an exquisite Short called it described a French Horn players Daylong struggle during the Leningrad siege to prepare for a symphony he is directing a film called at the end of the about the survivors of nuclear disaster caused by a computer the main character is a scientist who lives in the basement of a museum with other Surv As he is the scientist gathers together the remaining children and tries to convince them that the whole world Hast in the last scene the Chil Dren arc seen walking toward the asking them silently whether there is any the permission to make this film did not come easily or but when i ask this impressive director what it is like to talk about nuclear holocaust in a society that hides he my film leaves people with in the Case of nuclear i think you must Tell people that they Are sick or they cant there were times when it was impossible to get through the documents and the fifth line of the of the soviet passport lists every citizens one of those nationalities is when i challenged that designation with an rather soviet i could see the curtain go in prot Are religious i Tell the soviet Way smacks of racism to my she says pm it is just a but where is the i the georgian is from where is the jew from there is a she says i somewhere this Side of is i barely refrain from that not where the jews come that where there during my stay i heard what our analysts would Call cautious optimism about the new the Young whom i found More less wary of conversation than their elders had been deeply embarrassed about the succession of infirm the first thing that the educated people i met said about Mikhail Gorbachev he Speaks he can talk without he has two Hes an educated even a dissident couple at last we have a Leader who can stand up and not fall Over and there was a report on television Complete with still of Gorbachev visit to a working couples he had Tea with asked them about their troubles and a few were cynical about it sounds like the Good Czar walking around in his pauper admitting he Doest know the said one but most of the people i met found this a Good if i had to pinpoint the greatest personal gain out of my Brief i suppose it would be this simple when i think about the soviet Union now it int an but a country of places and i think of the hotel room with a dozen Bronze statues of the woman Selling re caviar sandwiches on the and the work Crews with six observers and two i exorcised some of the replaced fantasies with on my last i traded in my rubles and went through customs with my papers and the customs official asked what was in my heaviest i smiled and and he sent me when the finn air plane was airborne in route to the flight attendant offered me the first Western paper id seen since i it was the Wall Street journal and it looked today crossword by Eugene Sheffer across 1 regale 6 possesses 9 use a Straw 12 furious 13 Nile Snake 14 actress Lupino 15 circus worker 16 nones poet 18 not out of Bounds 20 Lair 21 the works 23 Gott Dank 24 nuisances 25 walk 27 Buenos 29 Verdi works 31 foot parts Church feature 37 gawk 38 kicking 41 set 43 humor 44 prime time hour 45 pro cession 47 Prufrock creator 49 gut 52 audience 53 middling Grade 54 stans partner 55 concorde 56 print measures 57 up solution Down 1 Tantrum 2 epoch 3 Poohs creator 4 British gun 5 Maryland players 6 Nenes Home 7 pallid 8 health resort 9 10 that is 4 time 25 hsh5b gds1e1 hush Ibsh Nasa Mas answer to 524 yesterdays 11 Slacks 17 United nations adjunct 19 minimum 21 bother 22 Cut off 24 apiece 26 emulate Gulliver 28 less Well done 30 Porter time machine author 33 Yale 34 go Down 36 marbles 38 feeds the pot 39 Mona 40 like Neon 42 toil 45 Limerick 46 Sandwich shop 48 Frost 50 deceit 51 longing 524 Hubert excuse Lucius j this bum and my Usk for Auto get thwu6h the a few not unto Vidu Are  Dow to vender our 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