Women Is Women

The summer smells of popcorn and gasoline swept across Manhattan's hectic heartland--Times Square. Behind the cool glass panes of the Pepsi-Cola United Nations Center, an underpublicized celebrity was speaking on international friendship. It was Lidiya Gromyko, the diplomat's wife, appearing on the 21st of a series of ABC broadcasts on United Nations First Ladies. The interviewer: Alma Kitchell, a lesser Mary Margaret McBride. The broadcast was conceived in the widespread, well-meaning conviction (shared by the more thoughtful teenagers, the more optimistic cocktail partygoers and UNESCO) that a thorough exchange of information is the shortest route to mutual understanding between the U.S. people and the Government of Russia. The exchange:

Mrs. Kitchell: There is one great nation about which we know all too little . . . the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics--commonly written U.S.S.R., or just called the Soviet Union. We all want to know how a republic so vast, so mixed . . . so battered . . . is developing in every direction. . . .

Mme. Gromyko: . . . I should be glad to answer your questions. . . .

Mrs. Kitchell: How many republics are there in the U.S.S.R.?

Mme. Gromyko: There are 16 sovereign republics [in] voluntary association.

Mrs. Kitchell: Then Russia is rather like our Union. . . . Am I right?

Mme. Gromyko (noncommittal): The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a federal state consisting of the 16 Union republics. . . .

Mrs. Kitchell: This word--Soviet-- means what?

Mme. Gromyko: It means Council. . . .

Mrs. Kitchell: We know that the Soviet Union occupies one-sixth of the globe, but it is difficult to realize its vastness.

Mme. Gromyko: Then think of this: it is nearly three times as large as the continental United States. . . .

Mrs. Kitchell: That's a lot of territory. . . . What is the population now?

Mme. Gromyko: . . . About two hundred million people. . . .

Mrs. Kitchell: There is so much we want to ask you. . . . Do you know whether or not any Russian children have yet received the friendship boxes which our youngsters are sending abroad?

Mme. Gromyko: Yes . . . and incidentally, they can read the [accompanying] letters, for English is taught in our schools.

Mrs. Kitchell: That's fine. . . . A

fter this exchange of almanaccuracies, photographers clustered around Mme. Gromyko to take pictures. While the flashbulbs popped, she continued her remarks. Said she: having lived in many countries, she had decided that everywhere "women is women."

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