The USSR, 1988

I remember that the first time we were introduced to our Intourist Guide, Ludmilla – Luda –was on a bus bringing our newly assembled tour group into Moscow after a grueling two hour customs session at the run-down airport.

Welcome to the USSR, she said, “Today is a great day for Russia. We have a new President, Mikhail Gorbachev.” This was in the fall of 1988. I have looked this up and apparently what she was particularly saying was that he had been elected to become President of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In any event, she seemed very proud of this man who was instrumental in dragging the Soviet Union out of the mud of history.

Luda was a charming young lady, in western jeans, with good English. She’d been an Intourist guide long enough that she wasn’t followed around by a “minder” as was our later guide in Leningrad, and was quite relaxed about squiring around a group of very critical Americans.

Our group was rag-tag, not affiliated with a college or a non-profit, and we had an American escort with us at all times. There were only 19 of us in all, mostly couples, but I was the only single woman so, happily, I settled into a room by myself. I learned quickly the disadvantages of group travel,  but it was an instructive trip in a special era, and I've included my full journal here.  The photographs have been produced from slide film I took at the time, and not well edited, I fear!