Hello! We are at Moldexpo today. I have the great pleasure to be here with an old friend of mine
and the former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow John Beyrle, who 40 years ago worked as a guide, here
at the American exhibition which was showcased as part of the agreement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
This was my first trip to Chisinau, which we called Kishinev in those days.
And this trip now is my first trip back since then.
- Almost what 30 years? 40? 40 years almost!
It's been a long long time.
It's been one of six Soviet cities that this American exhibition
was showing in as part of the cultural exchange between the U.S. and the USSR.
Well, I have a lot of memories about this pavilion of the actual setup of the exhibit.
We hired laborers from Kishinev to come and help us set the exhibition up
because it was a pretty heavy installation.
The theme of the exhibit was agriculture.
We showed American tractors, American agricultural products.
We had American agricultural specialists who came in from the United States.
The most interesting part of the exhibit for the visitors from Kishinev who came
were the American guides. We were largely college students from American universities
who spoke Russian. And we had one guide who spoke Romanian.
These were two separate identical pavilions, this pavilion and that pavilion.
What they've done is they connected them now.
Then the exhibit was set up on this side.
The city has changed immensely. Viewers who lived in the Soviet Union will know what I'm talking about.
There were not a lot of restaurants, there was really not a lot to do in the evening...
And we tended to entertain ourselves.
- I hope we'll hear from some people who view this, who attended the exhibit.
- I would be very interested to hear from anyone who remembers...
Who still has the znachiok we gave every visitor, a small lapel pin, a znachok.
- It's kind of funny...
- It's emotional. It's been a long time. Forty years, it's a long time.
- Big, big changes in 40 years. Thanks a lot Jim. - Yeah yeah!
- Thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment