Ransvestia

into a sort of a large boudoir-dressing room, leading in turn to a large bedroom which led in turn to a bathroom with a door back into the living room. It was all furnished with the eriod-type furniture that you usually see in palaces — gold-striped furniture and blue and white walls. Hardly consistent with the concept of stark and severe Com- munist living. But that was only the first of many inconsistencies, in- congruities and misconceptions that I ran into in Russia. For example, there were a lot of small boats with outboard motors tied up along one of the canals. With typical American preconceptions based on ignor- ance and anti-Russian propaganda. I commented to the guide that I supposed these belonged to Communist party big-wigs. "Certainly not," the girl guide said, "they belong to ordinary workers." I thought that was probably propaganda too and resolved to satisfy myself. Later in the week I went for a survey tour of the biggest department store in the city and finally found - you guessed it - a fibreglass boat for 900 rubles and an outboard motor for 500 rubles - 1400 rubles altogether or about $2100 by current exchange rates! That is not beyond the ability of a worker to save up or to borrow from parents or credit union. So began my Russian "debriefing."

Our second big surprise was the women's dresses. And the young women wore mini skirts and chunky heels. I thought things like that would be manifestations of "westem decadence" and be supressed by the Kremlin, right? But there it was all over town. And a lot of peo- ple driving private cars. But we all know that workers can't afford cars and the Russians don't make very many of them and they are used either by Communist bigshots or for export, right? Evidently wrong. By the second day I decided that I'd better clear my brain of all my pre-conceived ideas and simply walk around with my eyes and ears open, record my observations and set up some conclusions later. I did and I'll give you my conclusions at the end of this report. In the meantime back to the travelogue.

Since my companion and I were traveling first class it entitled us to three hours of guide and three hours of car and driver per day. We were in Leningrad for three days so we took the usual trips to the Aurora, the cruiser that signalled the start of the revolution in 1917 by firing her guns; the Peter and Paul fortress, the Hermitage museum

what a place; the St. Isaacs Cathedral, one of the most fantastic construction jobs in the world; the Neva River that winds through the city; and a day trip out to Petrovorets. This place is something to see. It was Peter the Great's summer palace and he did himself proud allright. It is built on a sort of palisade with fountains and pools run-

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