Time Machine: Russians in Eastern Iowa

While President Dwight Eisenhower was attending talks in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1955 with Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin and Soviet Communist Chief Nikita Khrushchev, a dozen Russian farm officials were visiting Iowa.

The men who arrived in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, July 19, were described by a Gazette reporter as 'the 12 Russian apostles for peace via the corn rows.'

One of them, Alexsandr Tulupnikov, was a favorite with locals and journalists.

'Truly,' as he was nicknamed, was personable and had a good sense of humor. He was recognized immediately wherever he went by his wild, curly dark hair. He also was the only one of the group fluent in English.

Vladimir Matskevich, a short, stout man with a bald head, was the USSR minister of agriculture and leader of the Soviet group. His group came to explore opening trade between the two countries, he said, admitting that Russia had a shortage of food. The plan was to order American machinery to increase output on Soviet farms.

Petr Babmindra, the Soviet state farm director, said he was responsible for 115,000 acres, 900 workers and 100 combines in the Soviet state-run farm system.

When the entourage visited Iowa farms, the visitors were surprised the fields were not filled with workers and that farmers did not answer to any state organization.

Arrival

The Russians arrived at the Roosevelt Hotel at 5:40 p.m., followed by about 50 newsmen and photographers.

A few native Russians were on hand to meet the tour bus. One was a Russian war bride, Mrs. Oliver Northrup, formerly Klara Nedoshopa. She had grown up on a collective farm near Borodaevka, Ukraine, and hoped to find a delegate from Ukraine who would look up her family there. She had not talked to anyone in her family since 1948.

Even though she was talked to several members of the group, including Ukrainian Boris Sokolov, head of the corn selection laboratory, none of the took her contact information.

Another Cedar Rapids man, 83-year-old Israel Slutsky, who emigrated from an area near Kiev when he was 33, talked to Boris Sokolov from Kiev. Sokolov told him that raising a hog for market in Russia took five years. He was surprised to hear the process took about six weeks in the United States.

The Russians — tired from a tour of the Richard Alleman farm near Slater, a Des Moines Chamber of Commerce banquet and another farm tour near Washington, Iowa, hosted by master swine producer George Hora — were ready to relax in their air-conditioned rooms for an hour-and-a-half before their Cedar Rapids tour began.

Banquet exchange

First on their agenda was a brisk walk to the Montrose hotel for a banquet for 300 people hosted by the Chamber of Commerce. The hotel's air conditioning was not working well, and the men were relieved when it was suggested they could remove their coats.

The gathering was informational although the banquet program included a note that no media representatives could ask questions of the delegation.

At one point, the dialogue got a little testy. A chamber member asked Matskevich, 'Former Premier (Georgy) Malenkov said serious mistakes in agriculture were the reason for his stepping down from the premiership. What were those serious mistakes?'

Matskevich simply said, 'Reasons for the resignation of Malenkov were presented clearly in his own announcement. I have nothing to add.'

Matskevich also seemed to skirt a question about his country's average corn yield, saying, 'Corn production only became extensive in the Soviet Union this year,' indicating yield figures would not provide a complete picture.

Meat and machines

After returning to the Roosevelt, three of the delegates investigated the taproom but didn't stay long, returning to their hotel rooms for the night. The men did buy a number of magazines and newspapers, including The Gazette, from the hotel lobby.

The last stop on their Cedar Rapids trip was a two-hour tour of the Wilson & Co. meatpacking plant. Ten of the dozen men donned white coats and toured the plant's holding pens, butchering and cutting floors and packing operations.

The other two opted for a look at farm implements at the Iowa Tractor and Machinery Co., an International Harvester dealer at Highways 30 and 149 SW (now 16th Avenue and Williams Boulevard SW).

While there, Alexander Yezhevisky, deputy minister of automobile, tractor and farm machinery, and Nikolai Bogch, director of one of Russia's 9,000 farm machine and tractor pools, asked company owner Charles Daniels a constant stream of questions. The equipment that fascinated them the most was a combination plow, disc, fertilizer and planter. (Daniels closed his dealership at the end of the year to make way for his proposed Crossroads shopping center. It instead became May's City.)

On to Waterloo

The Russians then boarded a bus for Waterloo. Their itinerary included a visit to the Dean Moser farm in Eagle Grove, a 4-H gathering in Humboldt that included square dancing, and then back to Ames on Sunday, July 24, before heading out of the state.

Matskevich told reporters in Ames that he was going to press for an agricultural attache at the Soviet embassy in Washington. The United States had had an agricultural representative in Moscow for more than 10 years.

'Our diplomats are too much occupied with talk. We consider it's our duty to help pull them down closer to the earth,' Matskevich quipped.

While the Russians seemed intent on creating goodwill wherever they went, they missed one chance.

The Roosevelt's bellboys hauled some 30 pieces of luggage to the hotel's seventh floor, then hauled it back down the next day. The Russians left no tip.

l Comments: (319) 398-8338; d.fannonlangton@gmail.com