HOLIDAYING IN RUSSIA Impressions Of Journalist

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29820, 12 May 1962, Page 8

HOLIDAYING IN RUSSIA Impressions Of Journalist

[By FRANK PROUST, a Special Correspondent jar John Fairtax Feature Services] SYDNEY, May 7. A HOLIDAY trip from Australia to Russia and back home again, all in 14 days, including a seven-day sight-seeing tour of Moscow and Leningrad, sounds fantastic even in this modern jet age.

Such a trip through the Soviet Union’s Asiatic “back-door” will become a reality next week.

On Wednesday. Air India International will introduce regular weekly Boeing 707 Intercontinental jet services between Sydney and Moscow.

Already Air India is operating Boeing 707 jet airliners between Bombay and Moscow. When the new Boeings replace Air India’s pistonengined Super Constellations between Sydney and Bombay, the entire SydneyMoscow journey will be operated by 600-mile-an-hour jets. These 130-seater planes will complete the 11,000-mile route in less than 24 hours’ flying time. .Already travel agents, in all eastern States, are receiving inquiries from tourists anxious to spend their annual holidays behind the “Iron Curtain.” I was one of a party of journalists and travel agents who flew recently on the inaugural Boeing 707 jet flight from Bombay to Moscow. The flight from Sydney to Bombay was made in a slower-type. piston-engined Super Constellation. Swift Travel Yet I was able to leave Sydney on a Wednesday night, travel to Bombay, spend seven days in Moscow and Leningrad and return to Sydney in exactly 14 days. I flew the 450-mile distance between Moscow and Leningrad in a Russian jet airliner and returned to Moscow in a night, electricdriven, sleeper train, from Leningrad, three days later. The 4000-mile journey from Bombay in the jet was completed in only eight hours We flew non-stop from Delhi, over Afghanistan, the Khyber Pass, the Aral Sea, the rivers Volga and Don. to Moscow. Intourist, the Soviet Government’s tourist organiaatkrn, caters well for us. For £l5 15s a week, per person, it arranges first-class hotel accommodation which includes a comfortable bedsitting room with a private bathroom. This cost also includes all meals and four hours’ sightseeing a day. Busy Itinerary The itinerary they had arranged for us was a very busy one. Most of it was highly interesting and although it included visits which had probably had more propaganda than entertainment value, it was not necessary to ’follow the planned itinerary. If tourists wished they could go out exploring the city, whenever they liked. I took advantage of this measure of freedom to mix with the Russian people, eat with them in restaurants and talk to them in a quaint mixture of English, French end a few words of German and Russian.

I found the people in both Moscow and Leningrad extremely friendly. The men always politely stood back to let me enter a building or a hotel elevator first. Even when I flew from Moscow to Leningrad in a Russian-built TU-104 pure jet airliner, my fellow Russian passengers, who were queued up ahead of me to board the plane, all stood back and insisted that I board the airliner first. Famed Places Some of the men called out “touristi” and clapped as I walked up the gangway. Tn a seven-day visit to Moscow and Leningrad a tourist will find his days filled with visits to such famed places as the Kremlin and its Armoury Chamber of priceless historic treasures.

The magnificent cathedrals •nd palaces of the Tsars will absorb the interest of most people, irrespective of whether or not they are historically minded. Even a visit to Lenin’s tomb, in Moscow’s enormous Red Square, is worth while queuing up for in spite of its sombre atmosphere. I was one of the many thousands who queued up to

walk through this mausoleum and view Lenin's emblamed body, lying in state, in a softly-lit glass case. The body W’as well preserved and appeared to be only sleeping. Lenin died in 1924 at the age of 54 years.

Underground Railway

The most impressive of the city's public utilities is undoubtedly its magnificent underground railway system. I travelled on the complete inner-city circuit and felt rather ashamed of Sydney’s somewhat grimy counterpart. All underground railway stations in Moscow are adorned with splendid bronze statues depicting famous Russians. The stations are air-conditioned and scrupulously clean. Other attractions for the tourist in Moscow, include the Bolshoi Ballet, the Kremlin’s world-famous concert hall which holds 6500 people and 30 stage theatres. Christian, Jewish and Moslem churches are functioning, very quietly, in both Moscow and Leningrad. Congregations consist almost entirely of old people. Huge crowds go to the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet at 11 a.m. on Sundays instead of going to church. There is not much for the tourist to buy in Moscow or Leningrad.

Prices are ridiculously high for the tourist, who gets only

two and a half roubles to the pound sterling. [One rouble equals 10s (Australian).] Some idea of shop prices in Moscow can be gained by a few observations I made. For example, an old-fashioned overcoat of the type worn by my grandfather costs £75, men’s shoes cost £25 up, and a simple woman's frock, of prewar style, costs £5O.

I did notice that all overcoats and other expensive clothes worn by the people had been used by their owners for many years. They were well kept— but well worn.

The Soviet is so anxious to obtain foreign currency that some shops in tourist hotels, both in Moscow and Leningrad, will not accept Russian roubles.

They accept only sterling, or United States dollars and then give you your change in roubles. Moscow’s main department store, GUM, by the side of the Red Square, reminded me of a Sydney emporium in 1890—all packed into the Strand Arcade.

It was almost impossible to get served because of the huge shopping crowds, even on a week-day.

Drab Goods

The goods on display were drab. I saw many a Russian customer turn up his, or her, nose at them. This is understandable, with so many Western tourists parading their modern-style clothes daily in the Moscow streets. If you are thinking of buying a traditional Russian astrakhan cap, make sure you have £2O in your pocket. The cheapest is £lO and they soar up to £25 each. Such headgear is not needed in Moscow at the moment, anyway. Spring is well on the way and the temperature, even at night, is no more severe than a pleasant windless, mid-winter night Sydney. The cost of the SydneyMoscow return air trip is £A6OB 5s economy fare and £ABO6 6s 3d first class.

And if you can spare the time these fares entitle the traveller to fly on to London at no extra charge.