Soviet citizens of various ages often engaged in letter-writing campaigns. Whether they were supporting various political prisoners, protesting against Israel, or just wishing for the world peace, the dwellers of communal apartments and tireless builders of communism spent their time writing group or individual letters to anyone with a mailing address. When I was growing up® the sincerity of these letters was questionable and they became one of the many semi-mandatory activities in schools and pioneer organizations. Lack of sincerity wasn’t an obstacle when such important things where at stake.
Below you will see a few pages from a kid’s magazine “Murzilka” which was very popular and widely subscribed by the Soviet children.
Murzilka-Cover Page June 1982June 1st-International Children’s Day. Let There Always Be PeaceTo The President Of The United States Mr.Reagan
Murzilka has been asked by the children of the Moscow Region to publish this open letter.
To The President Of The United States Mr.Reagan.
Mr.President,
We, the Soviet girls and boys are sending this message of protest against the war through the magazine “Murzilka“. You are telling the whole world that the Soviet people are preparing for war. That’s a lie! Our mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers – everyone is fighting for peace. We know that the majority of the American citizens also want peace, and we ask – don’t deceive the people!
Peoples of the world remember that our country defended peace in the Great Patriotic War (WWII), millions of people died for peace. But you are manufacturing rockets, neutron bombs and other dangerous weapons. This is not very nice on your part. You are destroying the peace!
We don’t want kids to die in El Salvador or any other corner of the Earth. We are asking you to stop your policy because it’s the worst policy in the world. We are calling on all the children in the world to say “No to War!” together with us. We support the Soviet government and everything it does for peace.
We ask you, Mr.Reagan to accept the proposals made by the leader of the Communist Party and our State Leonid Illyich Brezhnev. We demand the end to the arms race.
We need peace!
Signed by the 3rd grade students of the middle school in Moscow Region.
I am pretty sure Mr.Reagan went to his grave without reading one issue of Murzilka.
And now the song: “Before it’s too late” with lyrics “to the sunny peace – yes, yes, yes; to the nuclear explosion – no, no, no!”
Besides the name of the doctor -Frank J. Strick and the year these photos were taken in Kansas -1949, I wasn’t able to find much about this set. One photo shows a road sign with distances to Burlington, Yates Center and Iola, KS so that somewhat outlines the general area in the Southeast Kansas.
A recent post on Kansas Travel and my own visit to a gallery this week, where I was chastised by my daughter for not understanding art, reminded me that I had this set of photos from 1955 bookmarked for a long time.
Up to now Attica, Kan., for all its classical name, could pass for any other tiny town in the wheatlands – a slowdown point on a rural highway leading to Wichita. But today traffic through Attica not only slows down but stops and looks. Encamped with palettes and drawing boards on the sidewalks, along the railroad, in the wheatfields are painters – singly or in bunches – recording the surroundings with the earnest concentration of Paris professionals. The painters are members of the Artists Guild of Attica, a burgeoning group that in course of three years had made the town of 622 people aware, curious and eager about art.
