The Foreign Service Journal, May 2023

28 MAY 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Politically it was a period of great tension between our two governments: Gary Powers and his U-2 spy plane had been shot down two years earlier over Russia (and he did not use the poison pill that he had been told to take if captured). It was during our exhibit that the United States ended its mora- torium on nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere. The crowds visiting Medicine USA the day after this announce- ment were unnaturally subdued but recovered within a day or two. The most popular song being sung throughout Russia while I was there was “Do the Russian People Want War?”The answer sung was nyet! Despite the strains, the U.S. Information Agency’s Medicine USA exhibit in 1962 was clearly a success in Moscow and Kiev (now Kyiv, the capital of independent Ukraine), at least from the perspective of the U.S. government. We exhibit guides had a training session inWashington, D.C., in February before leaving for Moscow. However, as we later realized, we weremuch too excited to listen very carefully to whatever rules were being read to us.There was certainly no recollection of a basic script of which we were later reminded, including that we should never meet with a Russian citizen more than once. If this was a rule, it was never observed. As guides we each had very different jobs: Those who were medical doctors were expected to be talking with Rus- sian doctors, while some of us were more likely to be speak- ing to members of the general public. My job was to demon- strate a mock-up of an American drugstore. Members of the audience would ask me questions and would often joke. For example, a question about the use of rubbing alcohol elicited laughter with the comment, “We would drink it!” A very large mock-up of a toothbrush elicited the question of whether it was meant for the use of elephants. Personal questions were common: Why was I not married? And how large, in square meters please, was the apartment that I lived in back home, and why would I be living in it alone? There were never any questions raised challenging our credibility. Except for a few professional agitators in the audience (who were overwhelmingly told to be quiet by the rest of the audience), everyone wanted to listen to us and ask questions. The most striking and unexpected aspect of the experience was the joviality of the crowds, and the requests of those of our own age asking to meet with us after the exhibit closed (which was usually at 7 p.m.), which we all did. Striking, too, was the warmwelcome that we always received everywhere from those of our own age. Unwelcome experiences involved being followed in the streets by KGB agents and their attempts to prevent Russian citizens from befriending us. But even strangers would try to help us, like taxi drivers quietly trying to lose KGB cars (easily recognized by their make and radio antenna) that would try to follow us. The conclusion I drew frommy experience was simply that we and the Russians with whomwe met never felt like strangers. We were always completely comfortable with one another. A renowned Russian law professor years later contrasted this with his experience with the British lawyers with whom he had interacted for 20 years. When I asked him why he thought he was more comfortable with Americans, he said that we were very much alike in our personalities. As evidence, he said that we would laugh at the same jokes. He did not find this surprising, he said, since it was basically Yiddish humor. I have returned to Russia many times since 1962, most recently in 2019. Although I have traveled to and lived in a number of countries outside the United States, I feel most at home in Russia. No two peoples in the world are more alike than Russians and Americans. The conclusion that I draw now frommy months with Medicine USA and subsequent visits to Russia is this: We should continue to try to maintain our friendships with old friends still in Russia as well as those who have now left the country. And within the United States we should fight as hard as we can against the culture wars that so many in the U.S. are now trying to promote. Jane M. Picker is a retired American law professor. From 1969 to 2002, she taught international law in Cleveland, Ohio, and also litigated women’s rights cases via the Women’s Law Fund, a nonprofit she helped found. She lives in Sanibel, Florida, where she heads the Russia-U.S. Legal Education Foundation (RUSLEF), a nonprofit that brings Russian law students to study for a year at U.S. law schools that agree to waive tuition for them. Ms. Picker and her late husband, Sidney, founded RUSLEF in 2001. We Never Felt Like Strangers Jane M. Picker Medicine USA / Moscow and Kiev / 1962