42 — THE CITIZEN Prince George — Wednesday, October 15. 1980 CANADIAN DIPLOMAT IN MOSCOW LOOK FOR OUR 16TH ANNIVERSARY FLYER In today’s edition of the Citizen STE□MANS 16th ANNIVERSARY Prices in Effect Oct. 16-17-18 European ^ _ _0 Frankfurters 9 9 Reg. $3.39 Ib. .SPECIAL Ib. Sm Hunter Sausage $^$4 9 Reg. $3.99 Ib. .SPECIAL Ib. Polish Ham $989 Reg. $4.89 Ib.....SPECIAL Ib. %3 GOURMET DELICATESSEN COLD CUT TRAYS CHEESE TRAYS COMBINATION TRAYS Small — Medium Large Spruceland Shopping Centre ^■ 564-3611 Ambassador's retirement a major loss by NICHOLAS HILLS Southam News MOSCOW — He may be the only postwar Western diplomat who has come close to touching the soul of Mother Russia and finding at least some answers to the enigma. Certainly, after nearly 17 years as Canadian ambassador in Moscow. Robert Ford has accumulated more experience, knowledge, and intelligence about this mysterious place than any other Western diplomat. His departure from Moscow robs the West of its most valuable professional observer of the U.S.S R., but his retirement appointment as special adviser on Eastern Europe to the Department of External Affairs means that all his know-how accumulated since he first came to Moscow way back in 1946 will still be of great use to Canada and, indeed, the Western alliance. A unique man who has served Canada here during the reign of every Soviet leader since Stalin, he goes to partial retirement in the south of France. He will probably write more poetry (a long-time passion), and also the dispatches that may still give the West rare insights into what is really going on behind the Kremlin walls. He first travelled into the Soviet Union through Leningrad shortly after the end of the Second World War, and was stunned by what the siege had inflicted upon the city. ‘‘This was my first view of Russia, a dilapidated Leningrad with the people still desperately showing the effects of the siege. Yet that first night I went to the most fantastic per-formanceof the Kirov Ballet.” That memory, which still reflects the light and darkness of Russian life, remained with him to the end — so much so that he journeyed out of the Soviet Union for the last time through Leningrad and paid his personal farewell to the Kirov. “It was such a dismal period despite the elation of victory," he recalls of his first time there. “The country was in a very bad state with the transportation system virtually destroyed.” • All the people had to wear in the winter were felt boots and padded jackets. There was no private transportation. “This was the last gasp of Allied co-operation although much of it had disappeared already.” Ford returned for his second Moscow stint in 1951 and was in charge of the embassy as Charge d’Affaires because there was no ambassador. He was struck by one singular change from the late 1940s. ”a system of terror under which the state operated which was much more apparent than in 1946. "By this time, we had a little bit of information about the extent to which Soviet prisoners of war had been shipped straightofftoSiberia. We were also learning something of purges in the Baltic States.” In 1952, the Soviet government passed a decree forbidding direct contact between Russian citizens and foreigners, “except to buy a kilo of potatoes or a ticket on the train.” This was the internal Cold War but it didn’t stop men like Ford from finding out the fate of a lot of Soviet writers. Why was Stalin so repressive? "Stalin was a Georgian, not a Russian. His personality required all this,” Ford says. "He was brought up in the Caucasus on terror and secrecy. He was affected by a feeling of inferiority because the Russians and the Jews dominated the party at that time. "To get to the top Stalin had to use extraordinary measures. His way of getting there was through terror, so he could only stay there through terror. "He lived behind the walls of the Kremlin. One hardly ever saw him — indeed only twice a year.” Stalin had, admittedly, started from zero in 1945, and he concentrated solely on making the U.S.S.R. into a powerful state again by rebuilding the country’s industrial and military power. Ford’s view of Stalin seems reflected in his judgment on the Soviet leader’s postwar housing program. "No housing was really built except for those crazy skyscrapers. He wanted so much to catch up with the United States. He’d heard about their skyscrapers and said he wanted five built around Moscow.” Ford left Russia In 1954 and next returned as ambassador a decade later, after being Canada’s ambassdor in Columbia, Yugoslavia and Egypt. “I was amazed how the system of terror was now being played down and Khruschev was dismantling the concentration camps, and even revealing Stalin’s crimes.” It was a very different place from ten years previously but even then the euphoria of Khruschev’s liberalism was beginning to wane. Ford is still somewhat incredulous at the way Khrus-ciiev rose to power. He remembers that Khruschev had one job when Stalin died, and that was to arrange the Master’s funeral. He did not give a speech in Red Square like Molotov and Malenkov. “Yet,” says Ford, “Once he became sectetary of the Communist Party it was clear that Khruschev would rise to the top.” The ambassador remembers his human qualities. “Khruschev had a good sense of humor. He was impatient and wanted everything done immediately — action the very next day. He was impetuous and enormously curious about his own country and the outside world. “He was arrogant but not arrogant in a disagreeable way.” Then, what was his downfall? “He tried to fiddle around too much with the party struc- ture.” the ambassador answered. “In 1964, he divided the party structure into agricultural and industrial groupings. The party was very upset at some of the changes he wanted to make. “Then, there was disquiet about Cuba. Many of his colleagues felt he should not have done it if he couldn’t follow through. There was also disquiet about getting involved with Egypt.” Finally, says Ford, he was brought down because of his way of doing things. “He trod on too many toes and alienated too many members of the Politburo.” Ford says Khruschev was important largely because he dismantled the Stalinist system, yet today he is still a “non person” while Stalin is gradually being rehabilitated. On his death, a short report in Pravda described the once mighty man as a former pensioner. Ford, despite his familiarity with Russian ways, is still taken aback because the Russians cannot find a sensible way of describing their former heads of state. He recalls an extraordinary film celebrating Leonid Brezhnev’s 65th birthday in which there were a lot of historical scenes. “It was an absolute tour de force of editing,” says Ford, "because Khruschev was not in a single scene.” As for the current Soviet leader. Ambassador Ford believes that Brezhnev’s success has been his ability to maintain a collective government. “He has always managed to keep the key people in the Politburo with nim. This has been a remarkably stable period for the Soviet Union — 16 years. “The same prime minister, the same foreign minister, it is quite amazing . . . and there have been some great advances, in housing, private transportation, clothing, the appearance of the young people, air transportation.” The Brezhnev era has. Ford believes, two major failures — food and its distribution, and Russia’s bad roads. He gives Brezhnev and “Nixon-Kissinger ” — as the ambassador puts it — a good deal of credit for opening up a new era in Soviet-American relations. “They had a good understanding of each other based on the hard realities of politics and a determination to control the dangers. “There was a desire on the part of the Soviet Union to get Amercican capital and technology, and also a hope that the two super powers could divide the world between them.” NEW FOR FALL . . . new exciting lines, styles and patterns in pure wools, wool blends, mohair etc. Start now and make something for gift giving. Oct. 16-17-18 SPRUCELAND SHOPPING CENTRE Watergate, Ford insists, totally baffled the Russians and threw a great wrench into a develping relationship. “They would get Wategate figured out six months after developments in the States. By the time they had figured out what had happened in January, it was already June. It was a terrible shock when Nixon was forced out of the White House. “The Kremlin finds it an awful bore having to deal with new governments all the time. It could not understand Carter from the beginning, being particularly irritated by the U.S. approach to human rights.” At the same time, Ford says, Brezhnev is unable to admit indiscretions and adventures such as the Soviet involvement in South Yemen, Ethiopia and Mozambique. NINO TEAM! CA - 310 - Contemporary wood-grain styling in a reliable 14" colour TV receiver. The Blackstiipe picture tube provides clean, ensp mtural colour in seconds. Comput-R-Built 2 IC chassis offers greater reliability, automatic fine tuning and automatically balanced colour.* CA • 360 - Deluxe model 14" receiver with remote control in multi-facet Sculption styling on a swivel base. The Black-stripe picture tube provides clean, crisp natural colour m seconds. 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