Getting a Telephone Call Through to Soviet Union

The article featured on the front page of your Jan. 1 issue, dealing with a phone call that was not completed by a caller from Russia, prompts me to offer you some additional information.

It is not quite true that the number of telephone circuits between the United States and the Soviet Union remains the same. In fact, four years ago the Soviet Union switched over to an automatic dialing system that made it possible to dial a call directly to the Soviet Union from the United States of America. This eliminated the need to go through the few (six, I believe) operators in Moscow Central who handled all of the U.S. traffic manually.

Long waits and delays were eliminated, but unfortunately, something else was eliminated as well: the ability of the Soviets to monitor and censor calls! So, after giving the automatic system a try for about a year, the Soviets converted back to the slow, primitive, manual system that permits the Big Brother to listen, and which makes it very difficult for Soviet emigres to call their relatives.

It is also true that there is a tremendous amount of interest by Soviet citizens in communicating with Americans, but the article should have mentioned how difficult that is. An average Soviet has to work for 7 hours for the cost of 1 minute of phone conversation with the United States, and 2 hours for an airmail stamp. And, of course, visits and travel abroad are out of the question unless they are given as a reward by the government.

I also found it amusing that the 10-year-old girl was quoted on her view of the Soviet Union, “They are just like us,” she said. “They just speak a different language and come from a different place . . . “ Of course! No one claims that the Russians have two noses or walk on all fours. The question is whether the ordinary Russians have any part in determining the policies of their government, and the answer is that they do not.

And the 10-year-old girl probably would have definitely had the same reaction after visiting Nazi Germany in the 1930s--the Germans were indeed just like us, they just spoke a different language and came from a different place. Does this make the Nazis and Hitler trustworthy and admirable? I think not.

SI FRUMKIN

Studio City