An American's Odyssey in Soviet Russia: Will We Heed His Warning?

American Thinker ^ | 15 July, 2020 | Eileen F. Toplansky

[MtnClimber]

After I wrote the article titled "The Soviet Plan for 'Ideological Subversion' Describes Our Current Turmoil," Charles Cole, author of In Russian Wonderland: An American's Odyssey in Soviet Russia, contacted me. His memoir recounts his time in 1972 as a Russian-speaking American "guide" in various Soviet cities where the "Research and Development in the USA" exhibit was on display.

He chronicles the lives of average Soviet citizens at that period and describes how people lived under the tyranny of an omnipotent government. He is exhorting Americans to perceive the lessons of the failed communist experience. Like others who have reviewed the book, I was struck by the following anecdote, where an elderly man gave Cole a bag of ten freshly picked apples. At the bottom of the bag, Cole found a piece of paper folded into a tiny cube. It read, "We have a totalitarian regime. If we had a democratic republic, we would have progressed further and achieved more. Nowadays the psychiatric hospitals are filled with dissidents[.] You should take pride in having such a democratic country and not be overly tolerant in the face of those who have been blinded and deceived by propaganda."

Also illuminating is the story that Cole recounts of when he and his fellow guides went to dinner. They were approached by English-speaking black men from Africa. Cole asked if their country sent a lot of exchange students to Moscow.

'Oh, yes,' replied one, 'we send all of them here to the Soviet Union.' He explained why: 'We used to send quite a few of our students to Princeton, Columbia, and Berkeley, but they all came back Marxists. Now we send them here, and after three or four years in the USSR, they all return dedicated anti-communists.'

[MtnClimber]

A great article to send to a leftist.

[MtnClimber]

We came upon an old man who recounted an interesting irony about the street we were on. In 1972 this street was called 'Lenin Street.' He said that during the Nazi occupation of the 1940s, it had been called 'Adolf Hitler Street. 'The man noted wryly that during the Latvian independence before Soviet occupation and before the Germans renamed it, the street had been called 'Freedom Street.' That a street named in honor of freedom would later bear the names of Hitler and Lenin was indeed a bitter irony.

Will every city have a BLM Boulevard?

[Buckeye McFrog]

One of our greatest cultural mistakes IMHO is that we completely stopped talking about Communism and the horrors of the USSR once the wall came down. We now have a couple of generations who are clueless. Material like this is invaluable.

[Thunder90]

Vladimir Putin is still playing from the Soviet playbook. He was trained in these subversion tactics when he was training for the KGB. The whole “Russia-Trump” thing also gives them perfect cover to assist our domestic Marxists and associated groups here in the US without being caught.

[dfwgator]

Vladimir Putin is still playing from the Soviet playbook.

And the Soviet Playbook was based on the Tsar's Playbook.

[shotgun]

Your average Russian doesn’t dump without a plan

[Terry L Smith]

The late science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, in one of his novels, wrote of a trip (I forgot why) to Stalinist Russia. The man was a rabid American, so I knew it would not be a woo-woo for Stalin, a la Bernie Sanders.

I suggest you find that, and read it twice.

[dfwgator]

'Oh, yes,' replied one, 'we send all of them here to the Soviet Union.' He explained why: 'We used to send quite a few of our students to Princeton, Columbia, and Berkeley, but they all came back Marxists. Now we send them here, and after three or four years in the USSR, they all return dedicated anti-communists.'

Reminds me of the classic Reagan quote. “How do you tell a Communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”

[marktwain]

One of our greatest cultural mistakes IMHO is that we completely stopped talking about Communism and the horrors of the USSR once the wall came down. We now have a couple of generations who are clueless. Material like this is invaluable.

It wasn't a mistake.

It was deliberate.

The Media is populated by "Progressive" ideologs, as is Academia, as are most publishing houses.

[marktwain]

The late science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, in one of his novels, wrote of a trip (I forgot why) to Stalinist Russia. The man was a rabid American, so I knew it would not be a woo-woo for Stalin, a la Bernie Sanders.

I suggest you find that, and read it twice.

I recall reading it. It was pretty good.

But Heinlien started as a rabid Progressive.

WWII helped him get over some of that, but he was pretty anti-Christian until the end.

His later novels all pushed his any-sex, anytime obsession.

[SMARTY]

It reminds me of y Gasset, who said: “Communism. Its’ the concession we make to the Slavic sense of morality. Now THERE is a piece of moral extravagance!”

I thought it was a great assessment. He also said Communism is a ‘dead letter’.

[Terry L Smith]

So, you are saying that his “anti- xian” view made him “anti-American”?

He was exercising his American right to free speech AND his right to worship as he saw fit. As called out in The Bill of Rights, “the right to worship” does not define which to, or how to, worship!

[marktwain]

So, you are saying that his “anti- xian” view made him “anti-American”?

I am opinining on what I read, that Heinlein wrote.

I read all of Heinlein I could find. He was a great writer.

But, he had his weaknesses, and they contributed to the current situation we find ourselves in.

Heinlein influenced a lot of people. It is what writers do.

Many things he pushed as factual, were simply his opinion.

On balance, it is hard to say if he helped or harmed the Republic more.

[Terry L Smith]

Yes, he was a great writer.
Yes, The Church of All Worlds is a reality.