By David K. Shipler
An
event that now seems sadly remarkable occurred in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv,
in 1975, when it was part of the Soviet Union. At the time, Kyiv enjoyed such a
pleasant ambiance of broad boulevards and relative prosperity that Communist
rulers made it one of a few “closed cities,” along with Moscow and Leningrad,
where no Soviet citizen could reside without a government permit. Otherwise,
millions would have flocked there to escape the deprivation of the countryside.
Now, thousands are fleeing.
In September 1975, I accompanied three
American and two Soviet astronauts on a tour of tentative friendship. During a
partial thaw in the Cold War, they had joined with handshakes in space during
the Apollo-Soyuz mission, then came down to the hard gravity of Earth,
traveling through the Soviet Union together in a pageant of hope. They were
received with warm bear hugs and flower-bearing children as they tried jokingly
to speak each other’s language and toasted their two countries’ exploratory steps
toward cooperation.
Russian hosts made sure to feature World War
II’s Soviet-American alliance that had defeated Nazi Germany; the seven-city trip
took the astronauts to significant spaces of wartime memory. Wreath-laying and
somber pilgrimages at tombs and monuments were woven into the itinerary: the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier in Kyiv, which had been occupied by Germany from 1941 to
1943; a war memorial on the way from the airport to their hotel in Leningrad,
which endured a 900-day siege; an evocative monument with religious overtones
in Volgograd, the site of the ferocious battle of Stalingrad with its two
million dead.
At a dinner in Leningrad, now St.
Petersburg, the Soyuz 19 commander, Maj. Gen. Aleksei A. Leonov, raised his glass
in a passionate toast likening the rendezvous in space to the meeting of
American and Soviet soldiers at the Elbe River near the war’s end. The Soviets
created a collage of two photographs overlapping: the American and Soviet
astronauts and the American and Soviet soldiers reaching out to shake hands at
the Elbe.
If any American president ever again wants to strive for an emotional connection with the Russians, here is some simple advice: Remember and celebrate that noble partnership of victory.
