When the USSR began to fall apart I, being naturally curious, sent out a dozen or so letters addressed "To the largest newspaper in this city," and sent them to major cities in the USSR. The letters contained samples of my newspaper writing and photography. I received one answer, from Alexey Tsyguliov, 'chief of illustrations' of Sovetskaya Byelorussia, the largest newspaper in Belarus (White Russia). His English was atrocious but much better than my Russian, which is nil. That was in early 1993, I believe. His written English is now very good, but my Russian is still nil. Sovetskaya Byelorussia lost favor with the government and as far as I know is no longer published.

         I put together a nice article on Richwood with lots of photos for him to choose from, he translated it and published it. The letters from his readers poured in, the high count was 18 in one day. They sent me used stamps, vodka labels, identity cards, and they asked for friendship. I wrote a couple more articles which Alexey translated and published, and the letters poured in. Some were in Russian, a lot of them, but I paid little attention to them. Then one arrived that was obviously in verse, and I was intrigued.

         Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware OH is about twenty miles from here, and it has an excellent department of foreign languages. A young Russian girl, a recent émigré from Belarus who spoke little English, helped me translate it. That is, she translated it for me, line for line, and I returned it to poetic form. It is rather long, but also rather good, considering the circumstances. Her father is an engineer and the Jewish community of Columbus had helped them escape the consequences of Chernobyl.

         Chichersk, the home of the author, is referred to in the poem as a village but it is a town of about 50,000 folk, a river port. The author is (or was) a school teacher in the elementary school, her husband does (or did) whatever work he could find. When Chernobyl 'blew,' the fallout was not spread evenly but some places received much more than others. Chichersk was one of the 'hot spots.'

         I bought many photos from news photographers, friends of Alexey, and I commissioned one of them to travel to Chichersk and make a photo essay of the family. He sent it to me in negative form with proof sheets. It is an interesting collection, but I have quit developing my own photos and had only one roll processed. I will have David put some of the more interesting photos on the web site. Remember, these are photos made by some of the best news photographers in White Russia.

         Having recently heard from Alexey, I know that he and other newspapermen are in dire straits. They are working on newspapers which are tightly controlled by the government, which seems to have a desire to return to the old ways of Stalin. Alexey married a couple of years ago, at age 43, and is now a father (of a lovely girl-child) as well as the stepfather of a teenager.

         I had not wanted to sell these photos, but I would like to help my Russian friends. Would any of the TI folk be interested in one-of-a-kind photos from a nation recently freed but now apparently in danger of again being enslaved?