The Foreign Service Journal, May 2007

The First Days Assistant Press Attaché Margo Squire recalls the embassy’s first day without FSNs, when Amb- assador Arthur Hartman had lost his chauffeur: “… I had to work a press event at Spaso House with Amb. Hartman. Because I was running late, I drove my car over, and after the event, the ambassador asked me for a ride back to the embassy. Serge Schmemann of the New York Times walked out as Hartman was folding himself into my tiny Toyota Starlite and took a photo, which he gave to The Associated Press. The next day the Washington Post and New York Times carried this photo. …My 15 minutes of fame.” Amb. Hartman, Deputy Chief of Mission Dick Combs and Administrative Counselor David Beall decreed that all embassy staff would henceforth engage in “all-purpose duty,” each in turn, in alphabetical order, to perform the housekeeping tasks that previously had been done by FSNs. Only the ambassador and DCM were exempt. Kathy Kavalec, a political-section human rights officer at the time, recalls: “[W]e had Elie Wiesel [visiting] when the whole thing began, and … the expulsions and loss of Soviet staff were announced while I was squiring him around town. At the embassy reception for him, Mrs. Hartman and the Marines served popcorn [because] there was no house staff. … “I remember going out to the airport on the bus to meet a delegation of [congressional] wives, including Mrs. Teresa Heinz (now Kerry), who thoughtfully brought us a cooler full of fresh produce — only to find that the embassy had decided, in all its wisdom, not to provide a van to pick them up. ... (I always felt bad about that.) The ladies graciously agreed to ride the city bus with me to their hotel. ...” Things were no better in Len- ingrad, as then-Deputy Principal Officer Jim Schumaker recalls. “The next thing we had to do was invite our FSNs back to the con- sulate for one last time to get their final paychecks. It was a very sad occasion. We knew, of course, that there were quite a few informers among our FSN crew, and that UpIP, the KGB-super- vised agency that provided our employees, even held reg- ular debriefs on Thursdays. But many of these employees were our friends as well, and quite a few had divided loy- alties. For some, their old lives were over.” The Routine Running an embassy or consulate without FSNs was a lot of hard work, particularly in the Soviet Union’s “deficit economy,” under which basic necessities like food, plus cleaning, medical and office supplies, all had to be import- ed. The U.S. press focused on the poor American diplo- mats who, boo-hoo, suddenly had to clean their own homes and offices. But that wasn’t the half of it. All travel arrangements now had to be made by lan- guage-qualified officers, and the rule of thumb was that it took one day of preparation before and one day of paper- work afterward for each day on the road. Because all trav- el had to be approved by the KGB, we often spent days preparing for trips for which permission was denied at the last minute. All high-priority messages to Soviet officials and all requests for hotel accommodations for visitors had to be hand-delivered, a time-consuming affair that required functioning autos. All cars also had to be washed daily, for under Soviet law, driving a dirty car in the city was against the law — and this in a city famous for its mud. We chipped ice from sidewalks and hauled snow. We hauled furniture. Finnish contractors were building an ice barrier (to protect pedestrians from the massive icicles that formed on the back of the chancery each spring), and one afternoon a semi-trailer loaded with 30 tons of sheet steel and I-beams arrived. We unloaded it in 30-below weather. Because these tasks were not in our job descrip- F O C U S 36 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 7 All embassy staff except the ambassador and DCM engaged in “all-purpose duty,” performing the housekeeping tasks previously done by FSNs. Allan Mustard started his government career as an FSS- 9 exhibit-guide/interpreter with the U.S. International Communications Agency in 1978. He joined the Foreign Agricultural Service in 1982 as a Civil Service employee, then underwent lateral entry into the Foreign Service in 1986. He is the only FSO veteran of the period described in this article currently serving in Moscow, where he is now minister-counselor for agricultural affairs, and can still touch-type in Russian when required. He has also served in Istanbul, Vienna and Washington, D.C