appear “accidentally” in a background but if you are suspected of this, they have a
silent counter to it. At some later time you will find that your film has been
exposed to light, then respooled. You could keep all your film with you at all times
and hope to get it across the border. . . but such behavior might cause you to be
arrested on suspicion of espionage, as one American tourist was this summer. At
best, sneaking a picture of one passed-out drunk risks losing all your pictures-too
high a price even if you aren’t accused of being a spy.
The most-used plane, the Ilyushin-14, flies very low; you can see a lot and
compare it with elsewhere. Are railroads single or double track? How much traffic on
the roads? On the rivers? How about factory smokestacks and other signs of industry?
How busy are the airfields? Or a dozen other things. I think you will conclude that
no Russian claim should be accepted as true until fully verified. A “great
industrial center” often turns out to be a jerkwater town.
But don’t make written notes about such things! Don’t!!!
Will your mail be opened? You must assume so. Will your rooms be bugged? It
seems impossible to monitor every room of every Intourist hotel-but if the police
get interested in you it takes just three minutes in these days of miniaturization
to bug a room. I do
know, from several incidents, that Soviet citizens believe that all hotel rooms are
bugged.
I wish that a million of us would visit the USSR; the dollars the Kremlin
would reap would be more than offset by the profit to us in having so many free men
see with their own eyes what Communism is.
But go there with your eyes open-Intourist is as fully an agency of the
Kremlin as is Gromyko or Mikoyan. Its functions are (1) to get your money in
advance, (2) to deliver as little as possible by downgrading accomodations, by
forced overcharges on food, and by clipping you on auto and guide service, (3) to
waste your time so that you wiil see as little as possible, and (4) to see that what
little time you have left is spent only on those things the Kremlin does not mind
your seeing-“new construction” (from the outside), parks of “rest & culture” (filled
with loudspeakers blaring propaganda), ballets, museums, stadiums, and the outsides
of public buildings.
The first point you must accept; the game is crooked but it is the only game
in town. Points two and three you can struggle against-I hope the tactics suggested
in here will help. Point four is the toughest. After trimming you down to about
three hours a day of useful time, Intourist can and will use up what is left in
“stadium sightseeing” unless you fight it constantly. Even then, Intourist is adept
in parrying with: “It’s closed today-too bad you’re not staying another day,” and
“That must be arranged in advance through the Ministry of Culture, etc.” and “You
should have requested that in Moscow.”
The essence of Intourist tactics is: “Jam yesterday and jam tomorrow, but
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never jam today.” The way to answer it is: “No! I will not look at the stadium, I do
not want to see another subway station, I will not visit a museum to see another
five hundred pictures of Lenin. I want to see thus-and-so and I want to see it now.
Stop the car, get on the phone, and arrange it- or tell the Director that, as far as
I am concerned,
you’re fired! I am keeping the car and the driver and will go on without you- I’ve
got hours more of car service due me today and I won’t be cheated out of it.”
You will find whether your guide is truly a guide… or a guard placed with
you to make sure you see only the facade of this regime. Whether or not you see
“thus-and-so” you are sure to learn a surprising amount about how a police state is
run. . . and thereby get your full money’s worth in education.
AFTERWORD
After twenty years it would seem logical for me to return to the USSR to see