Behind the Scenes

I want to comment on the letter from Beverly Harlowe, who wrote about her positive experience with customs in Moscow and Leningrad, “Different Customs” (Nov. 27). As a person who is working in the Soviet Union (I am stateside on vacation), I can tell you that what foreigners experience in Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev and other “show” cities is not a true picture.

I work as a translator to an American delegation, so I get to travel into areas where no American has ever set foot. Some of these areas are strategically off-limits to foreigners. Thus, I get to see the Soviet Union as it really is.

Most of your readers have no idea what the real Soviet Union is like. They spend two weeks in tourist cities and they become instant experts. Glasnost is something that has been developed to appease the Western world. In reality there has been very little change. In cities where Westerners, particularly Americans, are accommodated, a show of glasnost is put on because the Soviets want that image to be taken back to the United States and shared with non-travelers.

JANELLE STEWART

Albuquerque, N.M.