Yanks for Stalin
Interview Transcript

Feodor Chinchenko  (cont)

A.  The foreigners I worked with, and those who worked with people that I know, all had very good attitudes toward Russians and toward our country.  Some joined the Party, others who were Social-Democrats switched to the Party, but later, when they were leaving, they threw away their Party cards.

Q.  Did you see that?

A.  I saw it.  When they came to get their final pay they threw away their Party cards and…

Q.  What did they say?

A.  They said that they weren't going to remain Russian communists.  They said they were going home and would join trade unions.

Q.  Did you notice any change between how they treated Russians when they arrived and how they treated Russians when they were leaving?

A.  No, it didn't change.  The fact is that, well, you could say that living conditions here were difficult, especially concerning food.  They would come to the plant with their own food.  They had their own special store.  They said that they didn't need our kind of socialism, they needed decent living conditions.

Q.  Were you fed differently?

A.  Yes.  Russians ate in a 500-seat cafeteria.  Each shop had its own time to eat, sometime between 12:30 and 1:30.  There was always soup, a main dish, bread, and some kind of beverage.  The foreigners came with sandwiches, cheese, sausage or ham, and those liter thermoses.

Q.  What was the most difficult part of the situation?

A.  The greatest difficulty was the food shortage, since our food was different.  They ate their sandwiches, from their thermoses at their working stations, while we went to the cafeterias that I told you about.  Housing was also difficult to find, because a special American settlement had been built, and they all lived in apartments, small though they may have been.  The Russian workers had rooms in stone basements, and some lived in barracks.  There were many barracks, and living conditions were very difficult.  There was no water in the rooms, everything was out in the corridors.  There was a lack of everything.  It was very difficult back then.

Q.  How did the Americans react to the living conditions?

A.  The Americans told us:  "You know how to work, and work well, but the living conditions here represent a socialism that we don't want.  We're going home.  The food there is better, housing is better, basic necessities are met."  Many of them stayed, married Russian women and stayed.  Many of their girls who came here with their families got married here to Russians.  I don't know whether anybody has shown such people to you.

Q.  How does the story end?

A.  It ends with them staying here, living here.  I remember that during the war, when the bombings began, some American women stood on the roofs of buildings and threw bombs from the roofs.

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