Citizens Diplomacy on the Volga River
By Douglas Mattern
Last edited: Friday, April 06, 2007

This short story is rated “PG” by the Author.

Citizens Diplomacy trips to the former Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War in the 1980s

Volga Peace Cruise

The Citizen Diplomacy Volga Peace Cruise trips that were organized by Howard and Alice Frazier of Promoting Enduring Peace involved around one hundred fifty Americans and twenty or so Soviet citizens and speakers that had been selected by the Soviet Peace Committee. Promoting Enduring Peace organized and directed the trips, and co-sponsors included the Association of World Citizens (AWC), Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and other peace groups in the U.S.
The trips began in Moscow and, after a few days, moved to Rostov on the Don where the participants boarded the passenger boat Alexander Pushkin for an eleven hundred mile trip up the Volga River, all the way from Rostov on the Don to the city of Kazan.

The 1983 peace cruise was very special because of the Moscow peace rally and the various other peace rallies held along the Volga River. After Moscow, the next joint meeting was held in the City of Rostov and featured a highly decorated war veteran who gave an emotional speech on how he could never go to war against Americans because of his memories of serving with U.S. soldiers against the Germans in World War II. After departing Rostov, the peace boat sailed up the Volga River, stopping at times to hold joint meetings with Soviet citizens. This included stops at Volgograd, Ulyanovsk, and Kazan, the capital of the Tartar Republic. At all stops we were greeted with wonderful performances of folk music and dance. On the boat there was a very good rock and roll band that performed every night with people filling the dance floor. The band also performed every time the boat arrived at and departed from a town along the river.

The cruise ended at Kazan, and after a big public peace rally in the city park, the American group traveled by airplane to Kiev. After visiting the huge and very impressive war memorial in Kiev, the group traveled to the Bari Yar Memorial where the Germans had murdered as many as two hundred thousand people and buried them in a common trench. This memorial is highlighted by a mass of towering dark statues representing the victims. It is topped by a poignant sculpture of a doomed woman kissing a child with her hands tied behind her back, symbolizing a hope for the future.

The group then flew to Leningrad, which was later renamed St. Petersburg, for a joint meeting and a visit to the memorial cemetery where five hundred thousand people are buried in mass graves, all victims of Germany’s nine hundred day siege of the city. The city of Leningrad alone lost over twice as many people as our country lost in the entire war.

While Cruising on the Volga

On board the boat during the eleven days of sailing up the Volga River, we had a series of workshops on different topics led by invited speakers and open to full discussion by everyone attending. The discussions were informative as they included an exchange of views and perceptions, some of which had been badly misunderstood by both sides prior to the discussions.

On the 1984 Volga Peace Cruise, we held another joint peace demonstration in the city of Volgograd on the Volga River. This city was formerly named Stalingrad, the site of the famous battle that proved to be the turning point of World War II. The battle raged for 135 days from September 13, 1942, to January 26, 1943. The fighting was so fierce that the life expectancy on the battlefield for a Russian platoon commander was three days, and for a company commander, seven days. It was a devastating defeat for Nazi Germany, and it spelled the end of Hitler’s dream of conquest. The Germans would not win another major battle in the war. The casualties in the decisive battle of Stalingrad were enormous. The Germans lost one hundred forty-seven thousand men and ninety-one thousand were taken prisoner. The Red Army had as many as five hundred thousand casualties.

The memorial to the fallen Soviet heroes is stunning. The memorial park is seen from a great distance, as this is the site of the spectacular statue “Motherland,” also known as “Mother Russia,” by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich. This statue is two times higher than the Statue of Liberty, and at the center of the memorial park is the Hall of Valor, constructed in the form of a cylinder. The walls are carved with the names of seven thousand people who died in the battle, which is only a small percentage of the total casualties. In the center of the hall, a huge hand emerges from the ground, holding a torch lit with the eternal flame. Around the top of the hall is the inscription: “We were mere mortals, and not many of us survived; but we did our duty to the Motherland.” The music of Schumann’s Reverie plays softly and continuously in the background.

There are many impressive statues in the memorial park, including a very poignant sculpture of a mother holding her son, a fallen soldier. Other displays depicting the horrendous battle are as impressive for the incredible courage of Soviet soldiers as they are sobering for the terrible waste of human life on both sides.

The Press Conference

The 1984 Volga Peace Cruise continued its way up the Volga River and ended at Kazan, where the American group flew back to Moscow. The following day, a press conference was scheduled at the Metropole Hotel to explain to the media the purpose of our trip, which was to build understanding and friendship and, most important of all, to accept our countries’ differences as well as their similarities, including the need for peace.

All the major U.S. media stationed in Moscow came to the press conference, including ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. It was a room packed with cameras and reporters. Three of us led the conference and explained the purpose of the trips, but it wasn’t long before the atmosphere became somewhat inquisitorial. At one point, the reporter for ABC actually asked us what side we would fight on if there were a war between our two countries. This infuriated everyone in our group, especially a contingent of World War II veterans, who came on the trip to participate in a joint memorial with Soviet veterans.

What is most interesting about this conference is that it was never reported in the U.S. media. We learned this before we arrived home, as there was a cameraman on the airplane out of Moscow from one of the TV networks. He told us that nothing would appear on TV or other media because, after we left the press conference, a New York Times reporter stood up and told everyone to kill the story. They dutifully followed orders, and the important story of Americans and Soviets working for peace was not reported to the American people.

This was the second time that the New York Times killed a story in which I was involved. In 1978, I drafted a resolution for the World Citizens Assembly in Paris that was addressed to the 1978 United Nations Special Session on Disarmament. I got forty-two Nobel Laureates to sign the resolution, and with a few colleagues, I presented it to the director of the Disarmament Center in a brief ceremony at the United Nations. The New York Times sent a reporter and cameraman and covered the entire story including a copy of the resolution with names of all the Nobel Laureates, but nothing appeared in the newspaper. This was all the more infuriating as the resolution was about the critical issue of nuclear weapons. Moreover, in 1978 there were not so many Nobel Laureates as today, and we may have gathered the largest number of Nobel Laureate signatures on any document up to that time. The United Nations accepted the document for its important conference, but not the Times. This ongoing problem with the press and its suppression of worthy news is even more extreme in this sixth year of the new millennium, as corporate America now owns nearly all the media. The press is only free if you own it, and that is not democracy.

Many interesting, and sometimes dramatic, events took place on the Volga Peace Cruises, on which I continued to participate as a speaker every year from 1983 to 1989. I should mention that the trips were handled through a travel agency selected by Promoting Enduring Peace and open to everyone interested in participating on a first-come, first-serve basis. The participants, with the exception of the trip directors and selected speakers, paid their own way, the cost about the same as regular visitor tours to the Soviet Union.

Meeting on the Volga

In 1985, another boat of the same size and carrying about the same number of passengers approached our vessel. At the time we didn’t realize that the captains of the two ships had communicated by radio and decided to tie up along side one another. It turned out the other ship was carrying tourists from West Germany. When the ships were side by side, we all eagerly talked to each other and exchanged souvenirs.

Suddenly, out of the blue, one of the West German men jumped down between the ships, and from one end, started walking with one leg straddling each ship. Soon afterward, a Soviet man did the same thing at the other end. It was a dangerous, spontaneous stunt, and the captains of the ships were understandably not happy about it. But after about five very nervous minutes, the two men safely met at the center of the boats and embraced. On both boats, we all cheered, including the captains. The drama of this story is that both men were veterans of World War II, on opposite sides of course, and this event took place with the site of the battle of Stalingrad clearly in the background.
Unforgettable!

From my book: Looking for Square Two – Moving from War and Violence to Global Community

Citizens Diplomacy on the Mississippi
By Douglas Mattern

The 1986 US/USSR Citizens Diplomacy trip down the Mississippi River on the Delta Queen Steamboat. Major media coverage including a spread in Time Magazine

Down the Mississippi River

In 1986, we agreed that it was time for the Soviets to visit the United States on a peace cruise just like the Volga cruises. Promoting Enduring Peace organized the cruise to travel down the Mississippi River from St. Paul to St. Louis on the legendary Delta Queen steamboat. The trip included one hundred twenty-seven Americans from twenty-seven states and forty-seven Soviet citizens from eight cities and four republics.

There were many memorable moments on this trip, although it got off to a shaky start at a press conference in Minneapolis when some right-wing goons tried to break up the meeting. But later that night, all the participants of the peace boat were invited as special guests to the premiere concert of Canto General. This is a work by the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis based on verses of the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. A symphonic orchestra and chorus performed the concert. Before the program began, the Soviet participants were introduced and given a standing ovation by the two thousand people in the audience as a gesture of friendship and peace.

The morning we began the voyage, a giant Mississippi River thunderstorm threatened our departure. We didn’t expect anyone to be waiting to greet the boat at the first stop. But to our surprise, hundreds of people were waiting to greet the Soviet guests and the citizen diplomacy mission. And just as we arrived, the sun suddenly broke through the clouds, and it became a beautiful day. This was an omen for the rest of the trip, which was very successful.

All along the way, thousands of people came to greet the boat to extend their own message of peace and friendship. They often waited for hours in pouring rain or searing heat with homemade signs, handshakes, and countless smiles. They did this at every town the boat passed by from Minnesota to Wisconsin, to Iowa, and on to Missouri. At each town there was an official ceremony complete with folk singers, dancers, high school bands, and speeches by elected officials.

At Davenport Mayor Thomas Hart had a Soviet and American delegation to his home for lunch. At Dubuque, Governor Terry Branstad gave the greetings and spoke at a lavish picnic in honor of the peace boat. I’ll always remember the conclusion of Governor Branstad’s speech, when an elderly, well-dressed gentleman came up to me and said how happy he was to be attending this event because he had never seen a Russian before, and he realized that they are just like us. A bit later he asked where I was from. He said he had never seen a Californian before, but he didn’t say they are just like us. That’s asking for too much, I suppose.

All the peace boat delegates were invited to tour the impressive John Deere factory in Dubuque, where the Soviets had a great time inspecting and playing with the huge tractors made in the factory. When the tour was over and we left the factory, I got on the bus carrying most of the Soviet delegates. As we got ready to depart, a young Dubuque police officer with a broad smile entered the bus and apologized to the Soviet delegates because they had showered him with souvenirs and he had nothing to give them in return. At this point, retired Soviet General Michhail Milshtein, a recent guest on the CBS “60 Minutes” television program, asked the young policeman if he could have a bullet from his gun as a souvenir. The young officer was happy to give the general one of his bullets, but now all of the Soviets on the bus wanted a bullet. Always smiling, but worried what his superiors were going to say, the policeman gave away all of the bullets in his gun and then his cartridge belt. At this point, the Russian General jumped to his feet and proclaimed this was a historic moment, the first step in unilateral disarmament between our two countries. This comment was greeted with great laughter from everyone, including the young police officer, who departed the bus amid cheers.

Goodwill and entertainment continued at each town we visited along the great river. The Soviets brought their nationally known singer, Tatyana Petrova, who at every occasion brought the crowd to its feet with cheers and pleas for more songs.

Perhaps the most impressive parts of the trip occurred at the many locks where the Delta Queen stopped along the river. Here hundreds of people, after learning through television and newspapers that the peace boat was coming, would wait to convey their own message of peace. This occurred at all hours, often late into the night, but always with a spontaneous response of folk and antiwar songs. Typical was the lock near Red Wing, Minnesota. Here, the Soviet cosmonaut Gregory Grechko leaped over the boat’s railing to shake hands with the crowd. Grechko was a national hero in the Soviet Union, but the reception he received in Red Wing, Minnesota could not have been more sincere if he had landed his space capsule in the middle of Red Square.

One of the American speakers, Rear Admiral Gene LaRocque (U.S. Navy Ret.) said, “Our goal is to avert nuclear war. If we take even one step in that direction, it will be worth it.” The trip was more than worth it, and with the Soviet delegation that, along with Grechko, included a famous retired general now working for peace, a famous actress and poetess, journalists, writers, and a milkmaid who was also a member of parliament. They all went back to tell their citizens that Americans want peace. A Soviet TV crew was aboard the boat to film a documentary that was shown on primetime Soviet television. An Australian TV crew and two independent American film crews were also on board to make films of the trip.

The logo of the Mississippi Peace Cruise is a drawing of the Alexander Pushkin and Delta Queen joined together with American and Soviet flags waving together, representing the notion that we are all “in the same boat.” And this slogan remains true today, as we will either sink together in an eventual war, or we will have the wisdom to swim together to build a better, safer world.

Now the great difference between the Mississippi Peace Cruise and the Volga cruise was that the U.S. media covered the former extensively. They followed the boat all along the way with reports that were positive and broadcast on all the national television news, as well as many newspapers across the country and a two-page article in Time magazine. We were on the CBS Morning show and on the NBC Today show, where I substituted for Admiral LaRocque (who had to leave for a meeting in Washington, D.C.) and interviewed together with retired Soviet General Mikhail Milshtein.

A humorous incident occurred as the general and I were being set up with a microphone for the Today show. The interview was held outside the boat, and with a helicopter hovering overhead, it was very noisy. As the small microphones were attached to our shirts, we were instructed to talk to the technicians in the sound truck to make certain the sound was clear. This lasted for several minutes, and during this time, I mentioned to the general that I was happy that another host was going to interview us rather than the regular host for the program (I’ll skip the name) because he often asks silly questions. At the time, I didn’t know our microphones were open to the station studio in New York City and heard by everyone there, including the regular program host. The technicians in the sound truck thought this was funny. Now what’s interesting is that when you are on the Today show, a company takes a photograph from the recording, and you can buy it for a small fee. I paid the fee and waited several weeks for the photograph to arrive by mail, but it never came. Eventually a letter arrived from the company stating that for unknown reasons the records for the day I was on the show were missing. Strange!

Exert from my book “Looking for Square Two”