magic carpet walk beyond the red curtain: a report on the 1987 american soviet walk

7/27/2019 Magic Carpet Walk Beyond the Red Curtain: A Report on the 1987 American Soviet Walk

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MAqic .CA Rp ET wxlkbeyond Tl-iE REd CURTAi Na repor t on th e 1987 Americ an Soviet wa lk

by tom joh nso n

The words ' soviet Union, Communi sm , and Russia ' ins t i l l in Amer icansoci e ty a dispari ty of r eac t ions from fear t o curiosi ty , hos t i lity t ohope, and respect to r ighteou s anger . We are mutual partne r s in anunspoken pact of i nt en t t o preserve a human fu ture , ye t we can't ta lk toeach other without misunderstanding and mis t rus t . As an alern at iv e tomutual acknowledgement our countries bristle with rhetoric and comm i t $600billion per year towards more powerful 'protective weaponry ' . As ourrepresentative United s ta tes government moves us ever close r to th ecliff's edge o f se lf extinction, responsible and concerned people b egin toask themselves , "What can we do?"In January of 1987 a small bu t determined band of vi s ionarysuzvivors from the nine month, Great Peace March across America, se t upoffice in Orange County, California to see what they could do . Theycalled. their organization Internat ional Peace Walk, Inc. Allan Af f e ldt ,the group leader had jus t returned from Moscow a f t e r success fu l lynegotiating a soviet style sequel to The Great Peace March. This projec tcalled for a group o f 200 Americans and 200 soviets to t rek t og et h er byfoot, by bus, and boat the 450 miles from Leningrad to Moscow. Affeldt ' sstated premise was, ' I bel ieve t h a t th e arms race can an d must bereversed, and tha t this is most l ike ly to take place in t h e context of adramatic improvement o f relations between the united states and the SovietUnion. As ci t izens we cannot enact the legislat ion th at will end th::-arms race but we c a ~ help to create a climat e in which su ch legis l at ion, .is increasingly possible . ' The event would be known a s 'The Amen.canSoviet Walk, ending an arms race nobody wants'. I t s g o ~ was to promotepeace by going beyond the t radi t ional cold .war barn.ers of human andcultural exchange. Wa1Jcers were to pay, or raJ.SE! through sponsor s , $2,500to partic:i.pate. Recruitment started around mi..t7-February There were onl yfour months ava i l ab le in which to pu t ~ t a l l t oge ther .


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th s of frantic work and an unbroken, On Mone!a:y, ~ e 15 . followmg mon 'caDS from 31. s t a t es , ranging incham of ozqam zational m:iIacleS, 230 A m ~ from th e sky in t he i r Aeroflotage from 8 months to 79 years d e s c ~ n d e , d to touch th e hea r t s andchar te r f l ig hts to touch th e Sovl.et so i l an th nex t severa l weeks webodi . 'oz' I t as 'NYT1,,., For eas o f Soviet CJ: ens. w ~ . . . . . . . ced disappointment, ected d ected We expenensaw things both exp an unexp , . , dous cross cu l tu ra land el ation, physical t iredness, confUSl.On, JOY, t remen t inuous ly andiffi.cultias, sadness, and endless sw:pri.se. The walk was coJ.1 eelusive th ing to t r y a n d i n t e rp r e t fo r both th e sovl .e ts ~ n d thAmericans. Noth ing l ike it had eve r happened b efore. pe r spec t ive wast ough to come by. ,Minutes af ter being swept through customs (without in sp ection) .wewere introduced to our f i rs t cheering soviet crowd wa it in g fo r u s outSJ.deth e a i rpor t lobby. Th e s e ra l l ie s became da i ly r i tua l s everywhere wewent. HUndreds, thousands, and tens o f thousands of people would ga the rto say how much they wanted peace and fr iendship with th e Uni t ed s t a t e sand i t s peoples. They said it off ic ially t hrough amplified microp h o n e st rans la ted in to Eng l ish, and th ey sa id i t unoff ic ia l ly in way s it wasi mp o s s i b l e to n ot unders tand .Most of the American participants spoke no Rus sian. Most sov ie tsdon't speak English. They spoke to us with radiance from the i r hear ts andwith t ea r s of appreciat ion rol l ing down t he i r cheeks . " Th ank y ou fo rcomingn , they said. We communicated love and concern t h r ou g h th e mostpowerful eye contact I'Ve ever experienced, through our embraces and handgrips tha t were anYthing but casual or merely pol i te . We were s howe r e dwith love, gi.fts, and cOlorful., f rag ran t bouquets of f reshly cu t f lower s .These intensely genuine displays of emotion were repeated many t imes eac hday, day a f t e r day. For most of us , i t gave the word 'overwhelming ' newmeaning .

As we drove away from the Leningrad airpor t to our f i r s t encampmen ton the forested :banks of the Baltic Sea in wha t would be our mobile homebases fo r th e next 23 days (eleven, 40-passenger, g lo ssy o ra ng e to u rbuses) , we began to lose ourselves on the endless conveyor b e l t o fp] anned and unplanned activities: meals, concerts, chance encounters , a l lnight bonfires with local s, museums, the walking, palaces, factory t ou r s ,meetings, subway rides, vodka bouts , parades, overnight home s tays , t r a i Dr ides , and deep, developing r e l a t ionsh ips with th e S ov ie t w alk ers .Like hosts everywhere, the Saviet:s wanted to impress us, to show useverything :beautiful and wonder.ful about their country. Seeing o r doin gone thing meant mi ssing something else. There were so many fasc inat in gthings gmng on day and night tha t i t w"'aS ' o f ' " ~ diff icul t t o make choic e sor to get enough sleep . The soviet priority seemed to be showing us th e i rcountxy: i t s historical places, i ts indUStry, and i t s cul tura l depth . TheAmeri can priori ty was meeting the people and spending qual i ty tim e withthem. Offic ia l ly , these pr io r i t i e s were near ly always in con f li c tf inding resolut ion through continuous hard bargain ing and comp romise,. d a ;by day. ono:ffi.cially, people ~ , and explored fo r thems e lves to th el imi t s of t h e i r adven tu rous abl . l i ty .The soviet people are pre-occupied with the notion of p eace . Whenyou're there i t becomes quite c lear , that t:hese peopl,e know what war i s anddespe ra te ly don' t want i t going on 111 thel. r country . For a thousand yearsthey'Ve be !i invaded and conquered from the East, the S01;1th and th e West.Most recen:tl , they experienced modern w a r f ~ waged a g ~ s t them by th eGermanS in iorJ.d War II . 20 million of t h ~ ~ ~ p l e dl.ed. 72,000 towns, , 100. t to the ground and thel.r CltiZens massacred. In thand C1.t,es were I JU In , .: " d Th . eNazi occupied areas, 99 out o f 1.00 people were xa.u.e . e agneu l tu re ,

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industry, housing, and t rans o rt tiwas no foreign aid or M a r s h ~ ~ on were absolutely dest royed . Therewe los t 350 ,000 l ives and p. to help them rebuild. By comparisonMetaphorically World W s u s t a : m ~ d severe damage a t Pear l Harbour .far as the S ~ e t ar n .ended Just l as t week in the sov ie t union asth e ir h i s to a w a r e n ~ s a.s concerned . During th is te rr ib le time inry , The U n ~ t e d s t a t e s i s remembered as t h e i r al ly .The dav af ter our . a l . .'. I arn.v III Lemngrad we were joined by thousandso f locals Who carne out to wa1k y"'; ' : th th .. ."'oO. us II I e pounng zaan to a memonalwhere 200,000 ~ e o p l e were buried in common graves. Leningrad was bese igedfor 900 days WJ.thout food or fuel . People ate the ir shoes and burned the i rhomes for wanntll. 9 people out of 10 in I-en ingrad perished but the citynever ~ e l l . They wanted us to know how bad it was. Reminders of thesuffenng and memorials to this tragedy were everywhere we wen t, e choingthe message - "We want p eace because we r emembe r war. This mu st not

~ a p p e n again." yet when we talked about Afghanistan, or soviet aggressionI I I the world outs ide of t hei r cou nt r y , we we re met with contradictorys tories t ha t jus t i f ied the i r actions and comparisons to s imila r uniteds t ates aggression. In the soviet Union, ' p eace ' means an absen c e of waron th e i r s oil. To t h i s t h ey a re t ru ly dedicated .

Thou sands of Americans visi t the soviet union every year. What madeth is walk sped at were the unprecedented c::i.rcumstances unde r which i t tookp l a c ~ In ternat iona l Peace Walk had negot ia ted with Th e sov i et PeaceCommittee a 'gJ asnos t ' reflect ive openness which inc luded: an absence ofrestr ict ions on who we could talk to, what we could phot ogr ap h, how manyjou rn a l i s t s we could b r ing , o r how we could ex p r e s s our se l vesreligiously. Ins tead of spending our time s ecluded with ot h er Amer icansand a tour guide, we t ravelled with 2 0 0 s ov iet c it izens rep res ent ing a l lof their republ ic s and near ly as wide a diversity of ages and occupationsas the American cont ingent. Over half of these sovi e t walker s s pokeEnglish and were readily willing to trans lat e fo r us as we t ravel led .

Except for the conclusion in Moscow, we s lep t in t en t s p i t ch ed inurban and ruxal. campsites, village fields and Sovi e t Pioneer yout h camps.We would spend severa l hours of each day walking betweeen 10 to 20kilometers amidst fores ts , vil lages , agriCUl t u r a l a reas , and c i t i e s .Through every populated place we passed, the s t ree ts were l in ed withcurious residents waiting to catch a s ight o r hold the hand of the f i rs tAmericans they'd ever seen. To them we were a symbol of hope, of peace,and of friendship a f t e r 40 years of cold war rhe tor ic . We were heroes .People would stand in the rain for hours jus t to acknowledge our passingas we drove by in our buses . In a ci ty called Novgorod, half o f th e200 000 residents come au t for the bigges t ev en t in th a c ity ' S 1 4 0 0 y sa rh.i.story. The soviet organizers were as astonished as we were. Noth ingl ike this had been predic ted o r planned. A raw nerve was tapped andpeople were responding by the millions. "Miry druzshba , miry dru zshba ,"they chanted as we passed, ''Peace .and f r i . ~ d s h i p , p ~ a c e and fr iends hip ."Nowhere did I de tec t any a n t ~ - A m e r ~ c a n s e n t ~ m e n tThe route along which we walked was the main highway from Leningradto Moscow the soviet onion'S two l a rge s t cit ies . Except where i t passesdirectly thxough urban areas , i t ' s a two lane road with wide s h o u l d e ~Think of th e rela t ive comparison to th e numerous pa r a l l e l a r t e r ~ a lfreeways from New York to washington. While we walked, they. shut downt ra f f ic on the road. The drivers and passengers got out of thell ' c ~ s andtrucks, smiles as big as rainbows and cheered us on. I t w ~ amazmg . andunb elieVable. Nothing l ike th i s could hav e h appened a.n th e u n ~ t ~ ds t a t e s . We came to see th e \ ev i l empire ' bu t c ou ld n 't lo ca te ~ tanyWhere. Where i s th e mythica l enemy?

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Exc p t fo r walking and sleeping in t en t s th e t r i p bore l i t t l eresemblance to a camping excurs ion. We were t rea ted l ike a high l eve ldiplomatic delegation on a magi c red carpet r ide . Three tim es a day weate the bes t food avail able off crysta l and bone china. We were lavishlyentertained by the best performers. Saunas, Volga r ive r boat r ides , andre c e p t ions we r e a r ranged fo r us .For the s oviet offici al 9 we were a wild spark , an experiment. Whatwould happen i f 200 undisciplined Americans were le t l o o s e on a 450 mile

t rek without customary controls? The sovie t union seems l ike a cl o s e d ,controlled, bureaucr a t i c social system t h a t i s t ry ing t o chang e and i spUZZled as to how to go about i t . The bigges t noticeab l e s imila r i tybetween soviets and Americans i s our appearance as peop le . We l ook anddress alike. You could take 50 Soviets and drop them in to any p lace inAmerica. They'd blend r igh t in . An Obvious di f f e rence i s Amer i canspontanei ty and th e Soviet lack of i t . In a pred ic t ab l e world , ou runpredictabili ty was l ike a magnet or a sparkl ing toy t h a t a t t rac ted andd rew at t ention everyWhere it went . I was amazed to d i scove r h owunfrightened soviets are of America and the American gc,.,crnment in l ighto f our rhetoric, th rea t s , and weapon stockpiles. The Amer i can fea r of thesoviet union and coIllllIWrism is not reciprocated. The Soviets fear Europe,Asia, and the Middle East ; the sources of pas t invasions across t h e i rborde r s .To the crowds we were a passing comet of hope. To our 2 0 0 fel lowsoviet walkers we were soul brothers and sisters who forg ed deep b onds off r iendship. We t alk ed l ong in to the nights about l i fe and phi losophy,relati..ons between men and women, music and freedom, wa r and peace, nuclearweapons, bir th control , l i t e r a tu re and hope, cars and money, capi t a l is mand communism, Afghanistan and Central America. We were the same and ye twe were a ls o different. Products of our cul tu res , and well aware of i t .

one o f the surpr is ing th ings we discovered in our di scussion s i sthat Soviets do not see themselves as communi s ts . Th e sov ie t def in i tionof communi sm i s qui te di f fe rent from th e American def in i t io n . Ourdefini:t:i.on suggests t h a t everyone who l ives in a ' commun is t ' coun t ry i s acommunist. eoIllllIWrism is defin ed by the soviets as a dis tant evolution aryideal where everyone volllntarDy gives acx::ording to hi s abi l i ty and tak esonly according to his needs, with a l l people l iv ing in comp le t e h armony.In tbi s ideal communist s ta te , th ere would be no need fo r government s ,bureaucrats, or a military. When sovie ts compare t h is def in i t ion to thehighly imperfec t sys tem now in place, they have an impossible tim e ca l l ingt he i r country or themselves communist. From t h e i r poin t of v iew, theCOr:l'"i1rnie:t, party is ccmprised o f pecple who seek t hi s utopian goal th roughthe path of governmental social ism. They see th i s evo l u t i o n t ak in gc en tu rie s o r mil lenia to ach ieve .Whenever we t a lked about th e arms race , th e d ia logues werere7ealing. From the sov ie t perspect ive , the arms race i s a produc t ofcapitalism and the high profi.tabili.ty of weapons produ c t ion by the Unitedstates mi..l.itary-indus l r ial compleX. "The soviet miss i les ex is t ," they say"only to deter nuclear aggress:icn against us. lever again wi l l th e Sovie tnion be unprepared to r e s i s t an a t t ack , nuc l ,ear o r conV'ent iona l . lle auld often ~ f - c n d by saying tha t Amencan, fear, Of the Sovi tonion and C'X'lITlJ:'l1m i sm was a much more patent sympt om an d n l l.ng th armrace than efrher capita.lism or defense contrac tors . "How could you bma id o f U!!J', they 'd as , puzzled? Or they would counter wi t h h t dabout the i r i n si s tent des i re fo r peace and how b ad ly w-.eclia Jied about their c:ount:ry. IrperllapS i t ' s not ,as con t r uc t i 'l or '1 ~

ge t so cau h t p n hee e r e S i e UD.2.on, staz:d o r p cora q . ~ e s : ! n c n as i .: is to l ea rn a.tn.It 700 are perce1.Ted 1ll Am c a It wsa . _ ese poin 9 of4-en see e d i p oss ib e to g t a c r o , ~ ,


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t . Thei r denia lsd they ' hard p ~ a v e been the stand

r or ld p ce, t h e ' d seQ to Change themarcI, party peace l ines for 40e ly o b s e r v a b l e 'Y say . "Why d "The Sovie t Union stands. l.S t h t ' oes Ameriericans a t h e r aren' t H ~ _ ~ thl .s t a c t i c i s ca want, war?" What'sthey hea r Th ~ ~ g or if they d ~ o t workl.ng very well.h e percep t ion of f . 0 l is ten, t h ey don' t believec " ea r 1.S not being changed by th isTrea t ing t h i s 'SOViet fp o ~ t detai ls begging f or ' : : ~ ~ m p ~ o m seems t o be one of the most

l.t ends Us. American n if we hope to end t he arms raceg the Soviet Union beiIJ.: COUld help to remedy th i s i l l n e s s bye ir experiences. The ~ O V i e t s an Open :"J.?t.e s s , and then ta lking aboute ir country. This WOUld mean C O ~ d d1m1nl.sh th is fear by opening upg soviets t ravel abroad let,ting go of people who want to l eave,y and extensive1 alloW1Ilg foreigners to trav el more easi ly ,~ shor t " Y, and by opening up their countJ:y to foreignas the Soviet ! g1v;mg up some of tha t immobilizing control. As,g ,Union l ives s e : 'retly behind a black mask people willthe worst: o f i ~ and be afra id . I hope tha t the Soviet government~ e a r n t h a t theJ.r long term securi ty in te res ts a re bes t served by

the 'gJasnost' principle to opening the i r country up to the r e s tth e world . As Americans, we can inc rementally ask f or and t ry tot ravel opportunities for both ourselves and for sovie t c it i zens.This has be n a pre t ty positive account of the Sovie t uni on . "Whatthe negative s ide , the news reports we read, and th e s tor ies weon TV"', you ask? My observation is tha t mos t of tho s e r eports are, bu t they do no t a c cou n t fo r the fu l l pic ture . We t alk e d with.dissidents, hare kri.shnas , and i ndependen t peace g r oups whodidn ' t l ike it there. We saw th e con tro l, the lack of con sumerand th e lack of personal freedom l.iJ:lerally reported in th e press .rea l , bu t they a re not a j us ti fi ca ti on fo r the arms race we arein. In many respects , the arms race, causes or enhances , th e s eWhat we'Ve done with our awareness l .S to focus a.l:I; at ten tion onsmall picture of th e soviet onion tha t represents everythJ.ng awt:ul andry th in good Of course, they'Ve done the same th l.n g t oeve g. . ' I' , th th ' r media Violent crl.me, starv 1.n g and home essra.ca Wl. ea a l l t ....u t ; t ' s not a f u l l pic tu re' d AIDS I t ' s rue, I J .. ., , raCl.sm ~ . , tha t the sovie ts realize th is p i c tu reAmenca. The di f fe rence 1S , :tin to believe in black and~ th Americans however, wan g ,e whole story. . n have carelessly labelled the Sov1.etgood and bad, nqh t a n ~ ~ t i o n is not in our bes t inte r e s t .black, bad and ~ n g . " Hie it t:here and wouldn1t want to le:av e

sense lif'as, thai: mcsc SO\7J.ecs s t Americans want to leave the Unl.tede Soviet union any more than moI t ' s home. . o r t we said a sad and t e a r f i l l edOn July 8 a t th e Mc;>SCOW with whom we had s ha red s o muchto our soviet waJ]d..ng p .ence Returning home was a mor et h i s except ional expent f r ~ m vpopuLar' hero e s ' to ' Sov i e t, We wenl .cult t ask than g o U l ~ . ac tic lives. Confused and f rus t rat e,d , wepes' and back to our ordinaI=Y h mparis on, the United S tat e s as anAmerica with new eyes. By c ~ with the gent?-e, control l ed, andtense, and angry plaCS c o ~ - - - " " : ves in. Thl.s acknowledgementd 'meLS O \ . U . ~~ Soviet cul ture we' ]m t ieed i t as clearly before. We have soit hard because I had never no have so much to learn from us. I thinkto learn f1:om. them, a n ~ t h ~ u r be s t ins tead of our worst .t ime to t r y exchangl.ng was i t a success or a fai lure? These. Did the walk do any good? ad- The answers depend on the yardst ick

Of que I ions are always ~ ilDpact. In some areas we were h igh lyto measure progress an not so successful. The arms race s t i l land in other areas, 5


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- -g oe s on. The walk i t s e l f came of f i n s p it e of t h e c o u n t l e s simpossibil i t ies . 230 Americans and 2 00 s ov i e t s have a profound l ydifferent impression of each other th an they did before the walk. One ofthe major object ives of the walk was t o c r e a t e an i n t e r e s t i n g anddistinctive event that would capture worldwide media i n t e r e s t and draws ignif icant at tention to the issue o f our collective need to end t h e armsrace b efo re it ends us. We created an incredible event , b u t it waslargely ignored outside of the soviet Onion. An enormous amount of e f f o r twas extended t o keep t h e news s er vi ce s abr ea st of t h e walk as i t wasorganized and as it happened. At t h e n a t i o n a l l e v e l we "r e c e i v e dpract ical ly no mention. Perhaps t h i s i s because nothing went wrong.Imagine the news coverage we would have recei:Ved if even one s i g n i f i c a n tn e g a t i v e i n c i d e n t had o c c u r r e d . I n t h i s a s p e c t of b i g mediacommunication, the walk was "not successful. I t was a tremendous learningexperience. The political., economic, and social momentum of the arms racei s an enormous obstacle to be overcome. In t h e end, t he r espons ib il it yf o r t e l l i n g s t o r i e s l i k e t h i s f a l l s on people l i k e you and I .The United s t a t e s and The sovie t Union a z e b o t ~ c o n s e ~ r :::ti V' ecount r ies committed t o conserving t h e i r p o l i t i c a l , i d e o l o g i c a l andeconomic sys tems. Unless this dedication to cons erva t i s m i s broad ene d t oinclude conserving the abi l ity of our delicate p l ane t to sustain l i f e , itwon't matter a whole lo t whose systems were right or wrong. 45 years ago,Americans and soviets overcame their philosophical differences t o combat alarger problem. Together we won a war against tyranny. Together we n owface a common enemy immensely more threatening than the Nazi domination ofear th , t h e t o t a l extinction of a l l l i f e on our small planet by nucleardestruction. We have 60,000 nuclear weapons pointed a t each other on h a i rtrigger, long distance, computer;zed guidance systems. All s e t t o go, a l lof t h e t ime. We have enough explosive force to equal 4 1 / 2 t o n s o fdynamite f o r every person on ear th , y e t we continue t o bui ld 6 morenuclear weapons as each day passes. I t ' s t ime -t o come together again .OUr common ground f a r exceeds our differences, i t ' s our move

If this article has s timu la ted any i n t e r e s t in the idea of v is it i n g t h esovie t union as a cit izen diplomat, I recommend two r e s o u r c e s worthc ..... 1 . r ~ " " " ' - - - ~ 4:-r ~ - 4 = ' - . , n r r ~ ' - T " ~ ' f t . : : l i ; ~ . e ~ ~ .- ......eck and a c 1 . t i z e ~ ... ha g e. a . ~ ~ 'w-. .... .-'-' ~ ' - J . _ . . , ~ _ ~ - . . . : . -_ _ ,- """' ..... _. _. ~ ...o r g a n i z a t i o n . -read - 'citizen Diplomats', by Shuman and Warner

cal l or write - Center for US/USSR I n i t i a t i v e s3220 Sacramento S tSan Francisco, California 94115(415) 346-1875

copyright 1987 - southern ~ o- " I : " SUre

s a l t 1 a k e ; ~ t a ~ O X : ~ 1 1 3 ~ 9 3108permission i s hereby given t o r e .and c::i..rcuJ.a1:e this non-exclusiv P ~ te art iCle

magic carpet walk beyond the red curtain: a report on the 1987 american soviet walk

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