4 Soviets Bring a Bit of Glasnost to Irvine

That’s glasnost for you. No sooner had President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev wrapped up their summit at the Kremlin than Loretta Ignatavischene was stalking the halls of power in Irvine.

Not by choice, however. If it was up to her, Ignatavischene had made clear, she would be relaxing, or maybe even sleeping , after more than two days of travel from her native Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, in the Ukraine, in the Soviet Union.

But Ignatavischene, 51, secondary school teacher and peace activist, has come to America as a “citizen-diplomat,” which means that she’s just plain folks, according to her tour organizer, the Center for US/USSR Initiatives in San Francisco.

Ignatavischene and three other Soviets, in Irvine for four days, are among 320 of their countrymen who will arrive in the United States this year in search of just plain Americans in places like Southern California, Mediapolis, Iowa, and Mountain Home, Ark.

Arriving Thursday on the same program were four Soviets each in Yorba Linda, Pasadena and Ventura.

“I have all the time dreamed to visit America,” Ignatavischene, named by her mother for actress Loretta Young, told her welcoming committee at John Wayne Airport.

But less than a half-hour later, while sitting on the couch in the condominium of her hosts, schoolteachers and peace activists Marilyn and Angelo Vassos, Ignatavischene received her first assignment: a tour of Irvine City Hall.

“What is City House?” she inquired politely, lifting a glass of white grapefruit juice to her lips.

“I’m sorry, but they said to me today is a free day,” she added with a bit of a smile.

“Loretta has not seen the itinerary,” Marilyn Vassos responded, laughing just a tad.

But in the tradition of the Soviet Union’s best central planners, Ignatavischene was told that, jet lag or no, the schedule must be kept. It was almost 3 p.m. now.

Dennis Gallagher, chairman of the Irvine organizing committee for the “Soviets, Meet Middle America!” program, suggested that Loretta take solace in the fact that the group’s unscheduled overnight stop in Denver, where Loretta was separated from her luggage, had forced cancellation of lunch at McDonald’s, a tour of an orange grove and a presentation by the Irvine Co.

All that was left--for Thursday at least--was City Hall, a press conference, a reception, a dinner of Mexican food and a meeting with UC Irvine students and faculty.

“But who told us we were free?” Ignatavischene wanted to know.

That, apparently, was not something that could be discussed. Mayor Larry Agran was waiting to welcome them to Irvine. Steven Smith, a management analyst in the city budget department, was waiting to show them how office computers work.

Jane Hunter, a systems analyst, was waiting to show them the department of informational services. Police Lt. Gene Nordan was waiting to show them how the 911 number works and how loud the sirens are on the police cars and what the inside of the police command vehicle looks like.

Alesandr Loukjanchenko, 37, a cancer researcher at the Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow, told Smith that they use computers in the Soviet Union too.

Oleg Parfenov, 46, the head of the foreign history department at Syktyvkar State University, asked Nordan about the most common police emergencies. Nordan told him that would have to be traffic accidents.

Vladimir Tarko, 25, an engineer at the Machine/Building Research Institute in Moscow, wondered if that was expected to continue. It was.

And Ignatavischene seemed impressed with the police car and that loud siren.

“They told us that we are going to know Middle America and Middle Americans,” Ignatavischene was saying less than an hour before while still under the impression that Thursday would be a free day.

“And what does it mean, ‘Middle American’? Normal American?” she wondered.

That was a question, the Vassos explained, that would surely be expanded upon during the Soviets’ visit to Irvine, a city that Ignatavischene said she had never heard of until arriving in New York.

“I sorry, but I didn’t know where I going,” she said. “In Moscow, nobody told me where I am going. We were asking what kind of clothes (to bring). So I brought my overcoat and some things.”

Marilyn Vassos explained to Ignatavischene that she and her husband live in the oldest part of Irvine, before it was a city and when “all this” was just open fields.

“Yes, that’s very interesting,” Ignatavischene said.

After leaving Irvine on Monday, Ignatavischene’s group travels to San Rafael, then to Pensacola, Fla. All 16 Soviets who began their visit in Southern California will meet briefly in Washington before boarding a plane for Moscow on June 18.

The program began this year after the nonprofit Center for US/USSR Initiatives reached an agreement with the Soviet Union’s official peace committee.

The aim of the visits, according to the Statement of Purpose of the “Soviets, Meet Middle America!” program, is to “create an informal environment in communities across the USA where Soviets and Americans can get to know each other as human beings while addressing the problems that directly affect their common futures.”

And speaking of common futures, Ignatavischene did say that she was pleased by the Moscow summit and “so excited that our friendship will be progressive.”

But what of the feuding first ladies, Nancy and Raisa?

“I think, as me, that these two women are quite different,” she said. “It a bit more different than their husbands. I didn’t think it a great thing that they like each other or not. It is not important.”