RANSVESTIA

body but reporters, diplomatic attaches or persons suspected of anti- Soviet activities could do likewise.

Well our stay in Moscow came to an end and so back to the airport and a flight to Kiev. I had a big disappointment there, namely that the Kiev National Museum was closed the day we were there. It is the re- pository of the fantastic Scythian gold sculptures found in southern Russia over the last several centuries. Many of the pieces were on tour in the U.S. and knowing that I'd miss them in L.A., I made a point of see- ing them at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They were mostly produced 300 or 400 years B.C. and are really fantastic in the detail work. Kiev is on the Dnieper River, mostly on the palisades overlooking the river, but like all the cities in Russia, it is expanding outward with dozens of new high-rise apartment buildings. The skyline everywhere is dotted with the big cranes used to lift construction material to the top of the growing building. I walked among the crowds on the main street of Kiev, found the Metro (subway) and repeated my Moscow investigations. The cars and stations were again im- maculately clean and efficient although the stations were not quite the show places they are in Moscow.

one up

The next day we were delayed at the airport because Aeroflot planes go when they are ready - not necessarily when the schedule says. I was sitting in the waiting room on a chair along the wall. There were a number of small and inexpensive plywood coffee tables in front of the chairs on which various publications about the Soviet state and international affairs were left for reading or taking. I picked and was reading it with interest. Without any thought I had put the ball of my foot on the edge of the table. At least five people walk- ing past me on the way to the departure lounge pointed to my foot on the table and said "nyet" (no) and other Russian words which, be- cause of the tone of voice and the gestures toward my foot and the floor, meant that I should put it down. What they were in effect saying was that feet don't belong on tables to which, with some embarass- ment, I had to agree. The important thing was that ordinary citizens were saying this. Can you imagine any Americans doing this in any American airport? I can't, because in our airports we would consider that such furniture belonged to TWA or United or Eastern Airlines. In Russia, however, all such equipment and everything else belongs to the people and therefore the passers-by were in effect the owners and they were telling me to get my cotton pickin' feet off of their tables. I did so promptly and with embarassment at my poor American man- ners. But it made a big impression on me.

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