Monday, Dec. 03, 1945
Toward a Two-Way Traffic
Sardonic New York Timesman Brooks Atkinson last week took advantage of Moscow's new freedom from censorship to get a few things about Russia off his chest. He noted the "fatuous satisfaction" in the Russian press over Soviet Russia's soccer victory in England (TIME, Nov. 26), and quoted a sample from the Moscow News: "Would it not, perhaps, be well to get to know us better? Better knowledge of us might, perhaps, help foreign observers understand other things about us besides sports."
Said Atkinson: "This temperamental remark . . . assumes that the effort toward understanding is to come all in one direction. . . . Living in isolation behind inhospitable borders, Russia dwells in an atmosphere of self-congratulation. . . . Despite the warmheartedness of the individual Russian people . . . Russia is not trying to understand us as eagerly as many Americans are trying to understand Russia. In such matters Russia imports a great deal more than she exports. . . .
"If anyone in the Soviet Union feels--as Moscow declares--that Westerners ought to know Russia better, the Soviet Union has only itself to blame. So far Westerners have made all the efforts."
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