devastated. In Chicago, his estrangementnfrom his parents grew as theyncontinued to manifest indifference tonthe hopes and dreams of Walter and hisnsister.nFortunately, Walter’s story has anhappy ending. His parents returned tonthe Ukraine without him. The ACLUncontinued to pursue the case all thenLetter FromnMoscownby Russ BraleynThe Friends of Peter Ustinovn”Peter Ustinov’s Russia” has been makingnthe rounds of Public Broadcastingntelevision stations with a timely plug fornMikhail Gorbachev and glasnost, andnraising the hair on the back of my neck.nThe British-born comedian, author,nand mimic confesses, with the shrug ofna sophisticated actor, that his series isnnot the complete story. It does not, innfact, mention the Gulag or the contributionnof prisoners’ labor to the Sovietneconomy. Ustinov explains that there isnenough unfriendly propaganda fromnothers, so he has confined himself to ancheerful message.nPeter Ustinov’s Russia is a land ofngenius, especially musical and literaryngenius, where no one is threatened,nbut rather, minority groups are protectednfrom enemies like the Turks. Henselects the Georgians and Armeniansnas examples rather than the Ukranians,nBaltic nations, Uzbeks, etc. It is anmerry land of fabulous circus clownsnand ballerinas, where children haventheir own restaurants and theaters.nHe interviews the shades of Russia’sngreat authors, but he does not mentionnthat today’s Tolstoys, Dostoyevskys andnChekovs have been forced out of thenway up to the Supreme Court, whichnruled in favor of Walter’s parents. Bynthen, however, it was too late; Walternwas approaching his 18th birthday andnthe right to become an American citizen.nThat honor was bestowed on himnon October 8, 1985 in Washington,nDC.nToday, Walter Polovchak walks thenCORRESPONDENCEncountry, like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,nAndrei Sinyavsky, and VladimirnBukovsky (whose propaganda Ustinovnis refuting).nUstinov says his whole point is tonshow that “you can, really, have anRussian for a friend.” Well, what cannpossibly be wrong with that? SurelynUstinov is on the side of the angels.nBut it is not true for everyone.nMaybe you can have a Russian for anfriend if you are like Ustinov and arenwilling to accept Lenin and Stalin asnnational heroes. I did not qualify.nBack in 1960 I was living in Bonnnand reporting to the New York DailynNews from West Germany, East Germany,nPoland, Hungary and Yugoslavia.nLater, when I could get visas, Inadded Czechoslovakia, Romania, thenMiddle East, and North Africa. I feltnhandicapped reporting from EasternnEuropean nations without having seennRussia, which dominated and repressednthem. The paper declined to pay for antrip, so I bought a two-week vacationntour to Moscow not long after Sovietntourism started.nUnlike Peter Ustinov, I felt then, as Indo today, that Russian Communistsnhad ruined the lives of generations ofnEastern Europeans, stifling their cultures,ndepriving them of expression andnimposing on them atrocious local rulers.nThe Communists deprived thenworld of the melodies Hungarians neverncomposed and mathematical break­nnnstreets of Humboldt Park a free man.nLet’s pray that someday, he’ll be joinednby another Chicagoan from the SovietnUnion, Abe Stolar, who like youngnWalter, had a misguided father.nMyron B. Kuropas is vice president ofnthe Ukrainian National Association.nthroughs they have not discovered (anHungarian discovered non-Euclidianngeometry). Germans of the East, previouslynthe world’s best physicians,nchemists, and engineers, already werenfalling hopelessly behind the Japanesenand no longer gave the world cures andninventions, only ice skaters and swimmers.nI met my Russian friend on a Moscownstreet in 1960, just after I visitednGorky Park to see the exhibit of GarynPowers’ downed U-2 spy plane and thengold coins, poison pills, pistol, andnother artifacts found on the intruder.nAmerican visitors were rare in 1960,nand I was regularly accosted by youngnRussians, some curious, some offeringnto buy dollars or my clothes. Ivan, whonlooked to be in his late 20’s, fell intonstep beside me and asked if I were annAmerican. He said the lightweight suitnlooked American.nI thought the young Russian was ancop. At my hotel I told John Reddin ofnthe Milwaukee Journal that I was goingnswimming at a lake outside Moscownwith a young Soviet agent provocateur,nso if a photo of me with my pants downnappeared in Izvestia, he was my witnessnthat I had been set up.nThe next day, wearing no jacket andna dirty shirt as instructed, I met mynRussian at the appointed spot, andnclimbed behind him on his motorcycle.nThe machine had no springs, brakes,nor rearview mirror, and it slewed alarm-nOCTOBER 1988 j 37n