Minus Soviet Help, Embassy Muddles Along

Americans at the U.S. Embassy here abandoned their usual routines Thursday and turned instead to mopping floors, driving their own cars and even taking on kitchen duty as the Kremlin prevented 260 Soviet employees from reporting to work.

For the most part, the diplomats managed to muddle through, though late Thursday the Marines were summoned to the embassy--to help tend bar at a popcorn-and-pizza reception for visiting Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel.

Most Soviet drivers, cleaners, cooks and office workers did not appear for work at the embassy here and at the U.S. Consulate in Leningrad the morning after the Soviet Foreign Ministry decreed that they will no longer be allowed to work for the U.S. government. The Soviet workers who did show up were turned away by U.S. security guards.

Maids Quit Without Notice

Maids employed by individual American diplomats also quit without notice, as part of the Kremlin’s unorthodox retaliatory move in response to the U.S. expulsion of 55 Soviet diplomats Tuesday.

“There have been disruptions, obviously, but we made it through the first day without any catastrophe,” Jaroslav Verner, an embassy spokesman, told reporters.

Another diplomat, who asked not to be further identified, said, “It’s not going to stop our work in any way, and one of the benefits is speaking more Russian.”

But another American, taking a less optimistic view of the disappearance of the Soviet staff, said: “It’s bad. I lost my maid this morning, and she’s been like a second mother to our 11-month-old baby. She didn’t want to leave, either.”

Mopping the Floor

American construction workers, who are in Moscow to put up apartments and other facilities near the site of a new embassy building, volunteered as cooks and served hamburgers at the embassy snack bar. At least one American was spotted mopping a floor at the embassy. Parents scrambled to organize car pools to replace the idled school bus.

Ambassador Arthur A. Hartman, deprived of the driver of his Cadillac limousine, got a lift from a fellow diplomat in her subcompact Toyota. Later, he drove his own car from his residence to the embassy.

His wife, Donna, produced the popcorn and pizza, along with other snacks, for about 200 guests at a reception for Wiesel and the Manhattan String Quartet. Two Marines from the embassy security detachment volunteered to tend bar, in freshly pressed civilian suits.

The embassy was eerily quiet. Without the Soviet employees, some of whom had been there for years, several offices seemed to be empty. “There’s enough room that I can bring my dog into the office,” said Mark Taplin, a diplomat who owns a Great Pyrenees.

In the embassy’s courtyard, cars, trucks and buses normally driven by the embassy’s 50 Soviet chauffeurs stood idle.

“We’re going to find out who among these diplomats . . . can handle a wrench,” said Ralph Goff, who once supervised dozens of Soviet plumbers, mechanics, carpenters and electricians.

Hartman gave a pep talk to the embassy staff Thursday afternoon, urging everyone to rally round in the crisis.

“We’ve got to rearrange ourselves a little,” Hartman said afterward, “but it may turn out better than we think.”

According to embassy people, the Soviet employees were especially helpful at cutting through layers of government bureaucracy and red tape to get routine tasks accomplished. They dealt with such things as arranging airplane tickets, making restaurant reservations and clearing shipments through customs--tasks that can consume hours.

One journalist arriving at the embassy found a diplomat leaving to clear embassy furniture through the customs depot--a job normally handled by a Soviet employee.

Stockpiling Milk

In the embassy commissary, milk that had arrived from Finland on Wednesday was mostly gone by the afternoon as people stocked up in case there were problems getting more.

The Friday shipment of fresh fruit and vegetables brought from Finland to supplement scare supplies in Moscow was canceled because Soviet employees would be unavailable to bring it to the embassy.

Some embassy procedures, among them issuing visas for visiting the United States, may take longer without the five Soviet secretaries in the consular section.

On the other hand, for nearly a year, the embassy had been reducing its dependence on Soviet employees, responding to pressure from conservatives in Congress who suspect the Soviets of doubling as spies.

As a result, Americans had replaced Soviets on the embassy switchboard and were assuming other jobs traditionally held by Soviet citizens.

Some official American activities were basically unaffected by the boycott, including the construction work.

“It’s business as usual,” a construction supervisor said. “We are right on schedule.”

In the snack bar, however, which is the community center as well as one of the best eating places in Moscow, the loss of 14 Soviet employees who helped deal with 200 customers a day was keenly felt.

“I don’t know what to do, because I can’t run this place without them,” said Alfredo Colletti, an Italian who has been working at the snack bar for the past 24 years and now runs it. “Maybe tomorrow they will all come to their senses.”

‘Give It Our Best Shot’

A temporary kitchen crew of Americans grilled hamburgers, and one of the impromptu cooks said, “We’ll give it our best shot, but it’s going to be rough.”

At Spaso House, the ambassador’s residence, the ever-cheerful Donna Hartman helped make a kosher lunch for Wiesel and then cleared away the dishes herself; the Marines washed them. The envoy’s wife, who holds a constant round of receptions, luncheons and dinners in the vast turn-of-the-century house, said she is willing to undertake other chores, too.

“I volunteered to do the gardening and the greenhouse and the snow removal--as long as they give me a machine,” she said. “I want the kind you sit on, you know--that’s long been a fantasy of mine.”

May Get Other Offers

Soviet employees were notified by their trade unions not to report to work, and they were advised that it was the Americans’ fault that they had lost their jobs. By tradition, they may be offered jobs at other embassies.

Under the retaliatory move announced Wednesday night, five more American envoys were expelled from the Soviet Union, bringing the total to 10, compared with 80 Soviet diplomats ousted from the United States.

In addition, the Soviets withdrew all but a handful of the Soviet employees from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and the U.S. Consulate in Leningrad, and imposed a ceiling of 251 on Americans at the two missions. Strict limits were placed on visas for temporary assignments and guests of diplomats.

“The American staff will have to take care of maintenance of housing and changing of light bulbs and so on,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov said in announcing the Soviet reprisals Wednesday evening. Soviet embassies routinely use their own citizens for every job, but U.S. embassies normally employ local citizens for support jobs to cut costs.