Beyond the “Evil Empire”: Inside the Soviet Union in 1983

Ian Sanders (0:00)

Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.

Loring Hinds (0:06)

These Soviet soldiers just went into incredible detail about their experiences in Afghanistan. It was grim.

Ian Sanders (0:14)

In the summer of 1983, an American student stepped behind the Iron Curtain and found a Soviet Union nothing like the enemy portrayed at home.

Loring Hinds recalls travelling to Moscow and Leningrad at the height of Cold War tension. Studying Russian at Leningrad State University, he encountered surveillance, empty shops, endless queues and the contradictions of a system that appeared controlled, yet allowed students remarkable freedom.

He describes black market encounters and unexpected Soviet wedding, nights exploring the city and conversations with people eager to understand life in the West. When a train breaks down outside Leningrad, Loring meets two Soviet tank soldiers returning from Afghanistan. And here's the grim truth concealed by propaganda. This vivid eyewitness account reveals the warmth, pride and generosity of citizens living within a faltering system. I'm delighted to welcome Loring Hinds to our Cold War Conversation.

Loring Hinds (1:18)

So when I was a senior in high school, I took a Russian history class. That particular teacher was one that was highly sought after. Everybody would try to sign up for his Russian history class. And so I did and attended the class.

I fell in love with the whole history of the country, going all the way back to Kievan Rus, to basically I think the class probably wrapped up around the end of World War II.

But nevertheless, it just captured my imagination. The history is certainly colorful. If you go back through the czarist regimes and the various invasions that shaped what I noticed to be prevalent even when I was there, the sense of xenophobia going back to the Mongols, the Napoleonic invasions, and finally Hitler and the Nazis. So all of that came together when I actually got there. But the background is when I was in college, as I mentioned before, really enjoyed the Russian history class in high school. Then I decided to become a Russian major in college. I went to a liberal arts college and that was one of the offerings. It started with language and then progressed into literature, political science, history. So really very immersive.

Ian Sanders (2:22)

What were your parents' background? Were they interested in history or how did you get this fascination with Russian history?

Loring Hinds (2:29)

It certainly didn't come from my parents. They were musicians, not professionally, but that was their background in education. They, I think, were amazed that a topic that seems completely foreign to them, captured my imagination so much. As a student, I was always a good student, but not necessarily the most motivated one. They saw that all of a sudden this passion come from within, that they never saw and I didn't know it was there either, until I took those classes and then declared the major.

Later on, but going into my senior year, there was a bulletin board posting for a trip to the Soviet Union, study abroad, grabbed a piece of the flyer and filled it out, sent it in. It was through the State University of New York system. They sponsored the trip and filled it out and asked, first of all, asked my parents, would you mind if I went on this trip? They were reluctant just because of the general feeling. This is obviously the height of the Cold War in 1983 At least in my opinion, it was given what was going on. We had a long discussion about it. They finally agreed and the rest is history.

I was able to go on the trip.

Ian Sanders (3:32)

Yeah, because round about this time, Ronald Reagan is coming out with his Evil Empire speech, isn't he?

Loring Hinds (3:37)

Two months before I arrived, that speech had just come out.

That was on everybody's mind. Then the other piece that really struck me was how the Pershing 2 initiative to put those in West Germany, that was all on the table at the time as well. There was genuine fear on the Soviet side that we were going to attack them first preemptively. That was a backdrop on our route.

Ian Sanders (4:01)

The infamous Abel-Archer exercise was October 1983, which was record to be a near miss in terms of going to war with the Soviet Union. You arrived there on the 20th of June into Moscow. What's your first impressions of the Soviet Union?

Loring Hinds (4:20)

I left from JFK, so roughly a 16-hour trip and exhausted by the time we got off the plane. And I should back up, the plane was a large, wide-body plane. I believe it was an Air France flight that got us there. And I didn't know who the rest of my group was at the time. Didn't have names, didn't have anything, but we all found each other on the flight, and we started talking and getting into our backgrounds as to how we all got on the trip. And most of them took the same path I did. So similarly, we got off the plane. We were met by members of the Soviet Army. They escorted us to a bus that was marked Foreigners only, and they brought us into a terminal. And going through the passport process was interesting in the sense that I was really excited about getting a Soviet stamp on my passport. That's not what they do. They give you a little piece of paper with a stamp on it. So that was a disappointment. But then really what struck me as a first impression was one member of my group had a pair of Bibles in his luggage, and the customs people found it. And that turned into a bit of a controversy. They delayed us getting on our own bus to get to, we were ultimately going to go to a hotel, spend one night and then go to Leningrad. But that was delayed substantially because this one individual was bringing in what they called Christian mythology into the country.