THINGS IN COMMON

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 308, 29 December 1944, Page 3

THINGS IN COMMON

TWO PEOPLES ALIKE

AMERICANS AND RUSSIANS

j lam one of the very few persons who has lived as an ordinary resident in both "Communist" Russia and "Capitalist" America during the past quarter-century. It's a shame more people cannot have the same experience, because it is startling how much the two peoples are alike down underneath the political crust. I'm convinced they are more alike than any other two peoples in the world, and hope they can see more of each other when the war is over. How I got here is one of the quirks of war. I was born of Russian peasants near Minsk during the Czarist days, grew up under the Soviet regime, and married an American, Robert Mogidoff, N.B.C.'s correspondent in Moscow, writes Nila Mogidoff in The American Magazine. Similar Fascinations Since I came to America I've noticed many ways the Americans and Russians are alike, even though they don't realise it. Both peoples are fascinated by things that are the biggest or the best. Both seem proud that they are young, pioneering peoples who built their nations with their own hands, sweat and brains. The Soviet people are still behind Americans in industrialism, but they feel that the Americans had a full century head start. Both peoples seem to have an acute sense that they "are going somewhere" and on a schedule. Americans rush to meet deadlines, Russians to meet Five-year Plans. Both peoples are extraordinarily curious about mechanical things. Finally, both have astonishingly similar geography. For example, both have their warm southern Georgias, their Great Plains, their physical vastness, their abundant and varied resources that make them virtually independent of the outside world. Surprisingly, the American products that intrigue the average Russian most are the small gadgets which you take for granted, such as electric razors, mechanical can openers, luminous-faced clocks." I'll long remember a party we had soon after our marriage, when my husband brought back many American things, including a new American toaster. I invited in several friends and we set the toaster on the table. We spent the entire evening watching the toast pop up. It was amazing. We ate 131b of bread. Post-war Co-operation Russians, like Americans, are now busy with their post-war plans. They not only hope to build beautiful new cities and towns in their land, which has been so horribly devastated; they also hope to build many of the "American" comforts of life. They think they deserve them now. Architects and artists all over the land are busy drawing designs for futuristic furniture, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, cars. Yes, and even heliocopters. The typical Russian to-day is anxious to be on good relations with America. He feels that the post-war world will be complicated indeed if thiese two great nations do not cooperate closely. A few months ago a single German plane flew over the Russian lines and dropped anti-American propaganda leaflets. Ordinarily the Russians ignore such leaflet raiders, but this time a pilot who saw the message obtained permission to go up after the Nazi. A spectacular dog-fight ensued. Finally the Nazi plane crashed to earth. The Russian who shot him down was flying an America Airacobra.