Speaking of Russia

The first U.S. radio staffmen to broadcast regularly over the Soviet radio was back home last week and talking last week. CBS's dark, thin Larry Lesueur, 33, rolled into Russia via Archangel a year ago. Onetime United Press reporter, he had covered the R.A.F. in France from war's outbreak through Dunkirk, the London blitz as apprentice to CBS's Edward R. Murrow. In talking about Russian radio Lesueur told a lot about Russia:

> When Hitler lunged into Russia, the Soviet Government ordered all citizens to turn in their radios. Reason: the Government did not want the people to hear German propaganda. The Russians obediently waited in line for days to give up their sets. Each set was tagged with its owner's name and stored away. When Lesueur heard about this and tried to borrow a set, he was told: "Why, we can't give you someone else's radio set."

> To keep radio communication with the people, Russia expanded its wired radio system, which operates over telephone lines. Each village got a loudspeaker; each city dweller could have one if he had a telephone circuit. From 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. the wired radio was busy with war bulletins, poetry, music. First thing the Russians did after retaking a village was install a loudspeaker.

> For Russians in occupied territory who were overwhelmed before they could turn in their sets, the Germans provide powerful medium-wave propaganda out of Smolensk, Kharkov, Odessa. These stations lure listeners with a vast amount of Russian religious music.

> Personalities are taboo on the Russian radio. Some nameless announcers' voices become known through repetition.

> Russian broadcasting equipment is good but scarcely compares with the U.S.'s (including much U.S.-made machinery in Russia). Warcaster Lesueur was not heard in the U.S. until he persuaded the Russians to jack up their frequencies.

> Like U.S. newspaper correspondents in Moscow, Lesueur had to rely for most of his information on communiques, the Army newspaper The Red Star, other military journals. News beats were out because "Moscow is not the kind of place in which you pull fast ones." But he was allowed to dispatch more human interest and feature material than the newspapermen. He had to submit to double censorship (press & radio) and walk several miles through deep snow and blackout to the studios to do his stint.

This journey produced one striking bit of Sovietana. Lesueur stopped one day to ask a Russian child busy digging a hole where he thought he was getting to. Unlike U.S. youngsters, who know that if they dig far enough they will come out in strange and wonderful China, the child replied: "America."