Soviets Join Corps of ‘Hard Work, Low Pay’ : Exchange: Four visitors have toughed out a month of forestry, firefighting and Beatles’ tunes.

The lyrics were in English, but there was a definite Russian lilt to the voices issuing from the back of the blue California Conservation Corps truck Monday:

“It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog,

It’s been a hard day’s night, I should be sleeping like a log.”

Indeed, clearing brush from the hot hills just outside Thousand Oaks was all in a typical day’s work for a 15-member fire crew from the Camarillo branch of the corps, which includes four Soviets participating in an international exchange program.

Last week, two other Soviets in the monthlong program quit, complaining that the work schedule was tougher than they anticipated and left them little time to pursue other interests, including making Hollywood contacts.

But four of the six Soviets originally assigned to the Camarillo facility--three of them women--have decided to stick it out until July 28.

After singing Beatles’ tunes and a snatch of a popular Russian folk song, the Soviets set forth on their task for the day--acknowledging in fragmented English that the grueling physical labor was difficult, but not enough to make them say “do svidanya “--the Russian term for goodby.

“Very tough for me,” said Inna Samsonova, 20, laughing as she sought words to describe the hard labor. A secretary with the Youth Scientific Institute in Moscow, Samsonova was the most fluent in English among the group, so she served as spokeswoman.

Samsonova shrugged and smiled when asked what her two departed countrymen were doing with their free time, and said only: “In Oxnard.”

When asked to compare the desert scape of Southern California to Soviet countryside, Svetlana Sidoroua, 22, a student at Moscow University, shook her head and gazed up at the brown hills, where the group’s assignment was to aid in erosion control by pruning back the roots of rose bushes and oak saplings.

“In Russia,” Sidoroua said. “Very small hills.”

The remaining visitors are Vladamir Telegin, 37, an engineer, and his wife, Larisa Telegina, 29, a nursery school teacher.

American members of the corps said the chance to work alongside the Soviets--and to learn a little about their language and culture--was more than they expected when they joined the corps.

“A lot of us went out and bought Russian dictionaries so we could communicate with them,” said Galen Reyes, 21, of Stockton.

“It’s been an experience,” said Marcus Casper, 20, of Hesperia. “I never expected to learn a little about Russian culture when I joined the corps.”

The California Conservation Corps was established in 1976 under state legislation passed during the administration of then-Gov. Jerry Brown. Its purpose is to provide state-funded conservation and environmental work while teaching employable skills to young people.

A department of the state government, the CCC provides conservation work with local public or nonprofit agencies.

“It has to be work that will enhance the environment, and it also must teach employable skills to youth of the CCC,” said project coordinator Jim Castner. This week for example, members are working with the Simi Valley Parks and Recreation Department.

About 74 corps members, ages 18 to 23, are stationed at Camarillo, where they live in dormitorylike housing on the grounds of Camarillo State Hospital, said Paul Magie, assistant director of the CCC facility at Camarillo. CCC has 18 such facilities statewide.

The organization attracts a wide range of youths, with various educational backgrounds and career aspirations, Magie said.

“We have kids who want to be Smokey the Bear,” said Magie, referring to some members’ plans to become professional firefighters. “We have kids who just need a job and decide they’d rather do this than work at McDonald’s. We have kids who’ve been booted out of the house by their parents, kids who want to live in a different part of the state. . . . They can get away from home and work outdoors as opposed to the mall or somewhere.”

In addition to learning firefighting and forestry techniques, many members also attend classes, either at the high school or college level through Oxnard Community College.

Members are paid minimum wage for a 40-hour work week, from which a total of $185 is deducted monthly for room and board, Magie said. They are allowed to serve a maximum of one year, although that period can be extended.

Corps members joked that CCC’s motto is “Hard Work, Low Pay and Miserable Conditions.” But it’s a good program, they said.

“If you can get through this, you can do anything,” said Chris Sullivan, 21, who plans to join the California Department of Forestry.

As part of the exchange program, Magie and a group of 34 corps members will head to the Soviet Union next month to do similar work with a Soviet youth conservation program, although no CCC members from Camarillo were selected to participate.

For the Soviets toiling in Ventura County this summer, however, it has not been all hard work. They have visited Disneyland, Magic Mountain, and beaches here and in Los Angeles County.

Telegina said she has fulfilled a big goal, “To see America.”

And for their American colleagues, working with the Soviets wasn’t too bad either.

“They know the Beatles,” Reyes said. “So I can’t complain.”