Fainsod Tells of Trip to Russia In Article for 'Atlantic' Magazine

Russian students are eager to learn about the United States, according to Merle Fainsod, Ford Research Professor of Government. In his article in the February Atlantic Monthly he stated that students are no longer willing to accept the party-line interpretation of conditions in America.

Students are curious about the United States, Fainsod claimed. In Moscow, he related, students disrupted a class when they learned that he was visiting them. After much whispering, they passed a note addressed "To the American professor," which read: "The honored Mr. professor: will you speak to us in the break between classes? (Signed) A group of students."

During the break these students asked such question as "What courses do Harvard students study? Are jobs assigned to students or do they have to find them for themselves?" Later the questions spread to segregation. Fainsod reported that there was no disposition to debate, even when his statements conflicted with the party line.

Students of journalism met by Fainsod expressed their desire to learn for themselves about America through a visit. The United States State Department, they felt, stood in the way. They repeated the Communist argument that fingerprinting was "shameful." Their parting words to Fainsod were, "Long live U.S.-Soviet friendship!"

Heretical political thought exists in Russia as well as curiosity, Fainsod wrote. He mentoned three students of Kiev who read the Yugoslav paper Borba because they do not believe their own press. Khrushchev was not popular with this group. They preferred Malenkov because of his identification with the consumer goods policy. Other "heroes" were Zhukov and Voroshilov.

Fainsod is a member of the Executive Committee of the Russian Research Center. He is also the author of How Russia Is Ruled, a study of Soviet governmental structure. The material for his article was drawn from a trip he made to Russia last fall.