I’ve always wondered what it would’ve been like if Americans had freely traveled to the USSR during the Cold War. Was it genuinely ill-advised, or were people still going despite the risks? Was the KGB really a constant, looming threat for visitors, or did we exaggerate that fear over time? Did most Americans simply avoid the region until the Soviet Union collapsed?
I can’t help but think it may not have been as bleak as it was often portrayed. People travel to objectively dangerous countries even today. But without YouTube, social media, or instant information back then, it’s hard to tell how much of what we believed was grounded in reality and how much was shaped by propaganda on both sides.
I don't know about Americans, but in 1984 I met a group of tourists from Belgium on a train. And I didn't notice a KGB escort with them.
I’m not saying they had a KGB escort.
But having said that, if you could’ve noticed them, then they wouldn’t have been a good KGB agent
First, Google the number of Western tourists in any given year in the USSR, and then calculate how many KGB officers were needed. It's not difficult.
To clarify, you make a decent point here. I don’t necessarily believe every westerner in the USSR had KGB on their tail.
I was just saying the argument that you didn’t see them was kind of silly by definition. The more recent point you made about the number of tourists is a stronger argument and I agree with you.
Man, unless someone's been trained in stealth, they're noticeable. There was even a term for it, "comrade in civilian clothes." You should know that if you're trying to talk about the USSR during the Cold War.
do you think kgb escort announce themselves?
I think you're a bit dense. Your comment is the reason.
I imagine they weren’t of interest to anyone. Would you have been seen as rich if you came from a western country?
I don't understand how this is connected? For example, I have personal property (not financed by a mortgage): a family home, 30 acres of garden and orchard, a horse, pigs, cows, and poultry.
You live with your parents and are paying off college loans.
I'm wearing a three-piece suit. You're wearing a denim suit.
Which of us is richer?
I was simply asking because it’s a known fact that life was better on the western side of the Berlin Wall.
There's nothing more misleading than "common knowledge." Common knowledge for whom exactly? What are we comparing? An unemployed person living on welfare in West Berlin and a college student in East Berlin? Or an engineer from East Berlin and a greengrocer from West Berlin?
I don’t agree with OP entirely per se, but in all fairness, one of the big problems the GDR had was that highly educated people fled to the West almost as soon as the GDR began.
While there are individuals that prospered in the GDR, the west was superior as to every economic metric. This is, largely, common knowledge.
By the end of the GDR, it had to beg the west for loans to keep existing.
The truth is, the east could never compete with the west in terms of economics, that is the biggest reason why communism collapsed. It doesn’t work.
Yeah getting off topic to the original post. I just want insight into people who lived through it.
Berlin wall was around western side btw
No, it was not. The wester side propaganda though was and still is nuts.
Well LHO traveled normally to SSSR
I remember late 1980s I helped an american with some sight seeing and translations around Moscow. The dude was in his mid 30s, looking for UFO’s and kept asking me if KGB was watching him. Pretty thought nut-job, but then a met a number of more “normal” people. The younger ones were not as brainwashed and had great time.
Bill Clinton travelled to the USSR, and discusses it in his memoir. Trump did too, but later and tries to downplay it.
I'm going to have to look into it. My knowledge of the USSR is basically from a military point of view. Like I know about the cold war and all the proxy wars as well as the Afghan war, but to hear about the day to day just somehow piques my interest.
I knew a bunch of American students in the USSR in the 80's.
What were they doing there? Traveling?
Some traveling, but majority were studying on exchange programs.