FRIENDLINESS OF RUSSIANS

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26800, 4 August 1952, Page 7

FRIENDLINESS OF RUSSIANS

“Olympic Medal For Propaganda”

(Rec. 7 p.m.) HELSINKI, August 2. Finnish Government officials are joking that the Russians have won their most valuable Olympic medal of all in the propaganda field. Some of the athletes and officials from the Western nations are going home declaring openly that in future they will take what they hear about the Russians with a pinch of salt. A typical comment from one Commonwealth official was: “I was told before I came here that the Russians woulcl be unfriendly and would have nothing to do with me. I was misled. I met them and liked them, and all this stuff about sinister Russian secrecy is a lot of nonsense.” Finnish diplomats with their Intimate knowledge of the Russian mind, are convinced that the Soviet athletes and team managers came to Helsinki with definite instructions to foster this kind of attitude.

Several political commentators who made the trip to Helsinki with sports writers were cdnvinced that the 1952 Olympics, with Russia taking part, would be Berlin, 1936, all over again—as much a diplomatic as a sports story. But instead of rows they found the Russians going out of their way to be friendly, giving congratulatory hugs to the Americans who beat them, exchanging lapel badges with the British, and even shaking hands With Marshal Tito’s footballers from Jugoslavia.