From Russia, With Hollywood’s Dreams : Disillusionment: Two Soviet men leave a California Conservation Corps exchange program, saying the work was more than they bargained for.

They came all the way from Moscow, expecting to make contacts in Hollywood and elsewhere, while doing a little work in Ventura County parks.

Instead, the two Soviet visitors found themselves making mud bricks in the hot sun.

So what would any self-respecting members of the proletariat do but revolt?

The two Soviet men decided this week to leave an international exchange program at the California Conservation Corps’ camp at Camarillo. The tough work regimen was more than they bargained for, district director Ignacio Pina said.

“They said they were misled, that this wasn’t what they signed up for,” Pina said.

The two men, Vitali Matysko, 24, and Vladimar Mitrkhine, 34, were among 19 Soviet citizens taking part in a four-week international exchange program. Six were assigned to the Camarillo camp, seven to the corps’ camp in San Luis Obispo and six to a camp in the Bay Area, program assistant Lisa Doty said.

“They come over as volunteers, to see our program, how it runs, and hopefully take it back and implement it in their country,” Doty said. A contingent of American corps members will visit the Soviet Union next month, she added.

Doty said the visitors generally follow the same routine as regular corps members, which includes a 5:45 a.m. wake-up call, physical training and five full days of work, such as making bricks for the restoration of the historic Presidio in Santa Barbara.

“I guess they don’t like making bricks,” Pina said.

Matysko and Mitrkhine did not wish to be interviewed or photographed, said Olia Oakley, who speaks Russian and invited the visitors to stay in her Oxnard home until they return to the Soviet Union next week.

Pina said he was willing to be flexible but could not grant the two weekdays off that they requested. He said the program is supposed to be an even exchange of work, and it would be unfair to California taxpayers if the Soviets got leisure time while their American counterparts in Russia worked a full week.

None of the other Russian visitors has complained, Pina added.

Matysko and Mitrkhine, he said, “had their own objectives, to make business contacts.”

Matysko, he said, is a writer who “was trying to make contact with Hollywood and Las Vegas.”

Mitrkhine was interested in learning how drivers’ education is taught in the United States. Pina said that could have been arranged one day, but the Russian wanted more time off than that.

Pina said he liked the pair and has no hard feelings. As a goodwill gesture, he said, he’s taking them and the other Soviets to Disneyland today.

But Matysko and Mitrkhine have already started enjoying the pleasures of Southern California, Oakley said Tuesday. “They just got back from the beach.”