An Unexpected Spiral
An Unexpected Spiral
The tragedy currently unfolding in Ukraine reminds me of the two weeks I spent in Czechoslovakia in 1968. I was 19 and traveling with a group of German students. We were teenagers going on vacation and looking for a good time in the mid-summer. Adults in the families of some of my friends were warning that it was a dangerous time to make this trip because of threats from the Soviet Union, but I was not concerned. Those threats did not seem real to me or my travel companions.
On July 18, 1968, I wrote to my parents: “Have you been reading in the paper about everything that’s been happening in Czechoslovakia? It should be a very interesting time to be in that country and I’m glad I’m visiting there rather than another communist country.” When she copied my letter to share with other relatives, my mother added this note: “She knows very well how I feel about her being there at this time – I don’t like it at all. I thought the tour would be cancelled. This is a conducted tour for students so I presume there is some supervision and they would high-tail it out of there if things started to look bad.”
Once our bus reached eastern Czechoslovakia, we saw Russian soldiers and vehicles lining many roads. We were still not worried. It just seemed a curiosity because the reporters for the Western newspapers we had access to didn’t seem to know the troops were there.
I spent a week interacting with students at a summer camp in the Hohe Tatra mountains. Here’s how I described it in a letter home dated July 25, 1968:
My primary activity in the past few days has been teaching, sleeping, eating, drinking and dancing. On our first day here (eastern Czechoslovakia student conference center) I found out that an English class was taking place during this week. There are 20 Czech students and a Czech teacher. I asked if I could help and the class was divided in two parts. He teaches grammar and I have conversation practice. I have each group for 2 hours each morning. I usually see many of the kids in the afternoon too and many come to the dances in the evening. I think I’ve learned a lot from talking with them.
I had a wonderful time and was treated like a rock star. The students were eager to learn English, because the required foreign language at their schools was Russian. They made their feelings about Russia and the Russian language very clear. They wanted to learn anything I could share with them from the U.S. – songs, dances, customs and stories. I loved my visit and the students I met. They reciprocated by showering me with attention and gifts, including the dolls in the picture.
I described the evening social time for my parents: Our evening meal is usually 7-8 pm. Afterwards everyone sits around drinking wine or beer or something else until the band starts playing. They play sort of like the Beatles and most of the songs have English words. They are very loud, but usually that doesn’t matter, because they play three songs and then take a break for a few minutes. When they play, almost everyone is dancing and when they stop we can sit down and talk to one another again. They (eastern European students) seem to love wild American dancing, beat music, jeans, sweatshirts and anything else they can get their hands on. Sometimes they seem more American than Americans. It’s hard to remember that nearly all of them come from communist countries where such “capitalistic” behavior is looked down upon.
At the end of the week there was an odd social gathering involving the West German students in my travel group, and students from Czechoslovakia and Russia. By that time I knew the attitude of the Czech students toward the country of Russia, but didn’t know how this gathering of students would go. It was awkward. Here’s how I described it in my letter:
Last night some German, Czech and Russian students had a party. There was dancing and a lot of folk song singing. I liked the Russian songs very much. Most of them have such a good rhythm to them. The Russians loved to sing their folk songs and to do some of their traditional dances, but they sat around the room looking somewhat dazed and amazed when the others began dancing or playing beat music. To liven up last night’s party the German and Czech students provided wine and the Russians vodka, of course.
Looking back at that event from today’s perspective, I recall that the Russian students appeared to be intimidated by the freedom of the Czech and German students. I wondered whether there was a selection process for the Russian students that ensured that only those very loyal to communist ideals would be allowed to come, so that they were fearful of interacting freely with “Westerners” and those sympathetic to western music, dress and activities. When they passed around a huge bottle of vodka as a sign of friendship each person was expected to take a swig from the bottle. I really did not want to participate, but felt like, as the only American present, I might provoke an international incident if I didn’t. That was the first and last time I participated in that sort of “friendship” activity.
It was a wonderful trip, but only about a week after I left Czechoslovakia the Russian troops moved into Prague and took over control of the government. Once I got home most of the Czech students from my class sent letters and I kept up correspondence with some of them for an extended time. Some of those letters reflected the depression the students felt because of the Russian takeover of their country. They were worried about their mail being censored and possible adverse effects if they expressed themselves too freely. One young man aspired to be a playwright but now wondered if that would be possible under the new government that was now in place.
There was little active resistance to the Russian takeover, but there could have been, which is what comes to mind with today’s events in Ukraine. At the time I visited Czechoslovakia, the population had a lot of freedom and they were continuing to move toward closer relations with the West. There was a sense of excitement about anything related to the United States. When the Russian troops took over, that spirit was forced underground. I could have been caught in the middle of an actual war and possibly unable to get out of the country, a worry that never seriously crossed my mind at the time, perhaps in the same way some people are now trapped in Ukraine due to Putin’s war.
When and how will this spiral from peace to war end?