Dear Editor,

Ukraine and Russia are at war. Guyanese have connections with both going back to the 1960s as university students. Few studied in Ukraine with hundreds in Russia in what was USSR. I visited both and was most awed by the simplicity, friendliness, quietude (or docility), beauty, kindness, and charm of the Ukrainian people and in fact all of the people I interacted with during my visit to then Soviet Union. It was an unforgettable experience. In addition to meeting Ukrainians and Russians in USSR, I also met and dined with them in New Delhi and Mumbai where they would come shopping during the 1980s and later years in my frequent trips to India. Ukrainians and Russians would stay, socialise, dine, and shop in certain (low cost) affordable sections of Delhi where I also stayed in my early visits to India before I moved to more upscale lodging and dining areas. The Ukrainians and Russians brought goods to trade and returned with suitcases of items to sell back home just as Guyanese did during the 1970s thru 1990s in travels outside of the country. They were very friendly. The Ukrainians and Soviet people I encountered in India, Ukraine, New York, and other parts of America were/are peace loving, hardworking, and decent and among the nicest people I met in my many travels.

I passed through the Ukrainian Soviet Republic when it was still part of the Soviet Union’s 15 Socialist Republics, passing near the dangerous Chernobyl Reactor sarcophagus, Kiev, etc. I also passed through several other republics travelling on a bus from East Germany to Poland (Brest Crossing with long lines of trucks, trains, and buses) to Byelorussia (now Belarus), into Ukraine, to the Russian Republic, and going on to other republics including the Baltic states and crossing over into Finland. That was more than 30 years ago when Gorbachev was ruler during the period of glasnost and perestroika, but the USSR was on the verge of dissolution. Guyana itself was undergoing glasnost and perestroika (or Hoytestroika). Ukraine, like most of the other republics, especially the countryside was largely ‘underdeveloped’, using my economist hat to describe them. The cities like Minsk, Moscow, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Stalingrad, Kaliningrad, etc.) were very ‘developed’ with massive buildings and factories. I was amazed at the beauty of the subways of the Soviet Union – more than a block in depth and very decorated with some of the most beautiful ornaments and crystal chandeliers). They were the most beautiful I experienced and I visited subways of dozens of countries. The trains were very efficient, running on time, fast and extremely cheap (just one ruble at the time or the equivalent of two cents, if I remember correctly when I changed my dollar at the black market).  The subways in Kiev, as it was called then, and other cities would have been the same. Food and clothing were very cheap all over the Soviet Union but food (especially meat and bread) was very scarce and rationed. I remember a fur coat I saw in New York was less than $100 at the Gumb Store in Moscow. Sneakers and blue jeans were not available. I bought a coat for my mother at Gumb store. In one of the shops on the countryside, I bought a half-gallon of Vodka (three times distilled) for just $1.

Locals were not allowed to shop at certain stores and foreigners not allowed in local stores, not dissimilar to what happened in communist China. My Guyana Passport was treasured. I didn’t need a visa to pass through East Germany, Poland, and the Soviet bloc. In several major cities, I bounced up foreign students (South Asians, including Guyanese, Hispanics, and Africans). Most of them were in Moscow. On weekends and during their school holidays, they would hang out on regular spots at bridges in the cities. Foreigners, including Guyanese, were granted scholarships in universities like Patrice Lumumba (Friendship Univ). There were probably hundreds of thousands foreign students on scholarships in USSR with most in Moscow and other cities. Few studied in Ukraine. Rudy Jadoopat studied in Donetsk and not on a PPP scholarship. Rather, he received a labour union NAACIE scholarship. Other Guyanese got PPP, PNC, and Guyana Government scholarships at Lumumba University. In recent years, tens of thousands of Indians (from India and even some from Mauritius and Fiji) studied (and are studying) medicine in Ukraine. Currently, some 20 thousand Indians are studying medicine in Ukraine where studies are cheaper than in India or anywhere else.

During the Soviet era, some 90 per cent of the people of Donetsk and the Dunbass region of Ukraine were ethnic Russians, probably why Putin wants to cling to it; that percentage dropped to about 75 per cent today as Russians moved out and Ukrainians moved in. It was (and probably still is) one of the richest parts of the Soviet Union/Ukraine at one time.

I interacted with students who I happened upon in the Soviet cities especially Moscow where they would hang out (as we did in Guyana) on a bridge sitting on a rail chatting. Not far from there was the Friendship University and the Guyana Embassy/Consulate. Guyanese related how they crossed over into the West, through Check Point Charlie (which I also crossed) into West Berlin, shopped, and brought back goods that they sold for three times the price they paid, earning scarce money. Foreign students in USSR could not do much internal travels as funds were scarce with scholarship stipends barely enough for survival. Jeans, women clothing, cosmetics, sneakers, and tape recorders were in demand. In Moscow, a youngster came up to me and offered to buy the sneakers I was wearing. I told him to return the next morning.  He also asked for jeans which I did not have. I shared candies, cookies, chocolates and mementos with some friendly people. He showed up next day, and as promised, I wore my shoes and gave him my sneakers. I think my wife gave away her jeans but other tourists exchanged jeans for gifts or cash.  I had similar experience in Minsk and Leningrad and in countryside towns.

One day in Moscow, I saw a long line of people stretching from a bakery. I decided to join it recalling my joining lines in Guyana for basic goods. I purchased long sweetish hot bread that was quite tasty for the equivalent of just a cent or two of American money. The cashiers were friendly. People in general were glad to converse with me to practise their English they were learning.  Everywhere, people were very pleasant and helpful using sign language when their English was limited. The best service, public bathrooms and restaurants were not the equivalent of those in America or parts of Western Europe. But the people were mannerly and offered the best service available.

I had most pleasant memories in the Soviet Union traveling around the various republics of USSR. I don’t think Americans were allowed in certain parts of the Soviet Union. But my Guyana Passport and my ethnicity took me to several places as it also did when I visited China. And as an ethnic Indian, there were no restrictions on my movement in Soviet Union unlike my experience in China where tourist police monitored my every move during my first visit as a student in 1985; in subsequent visits, the police in China did not intimidate or followed visitors around and I could shop anywhere instead of only a foreign currency store.

In addition to Soviet Union, I also visited Soviet bloc countries like Hungary, Romania, Czech, Slovakia, etc., some multiple times. Some of my most unpleasant (racist) encounters were in East Germany (Leipzig) and Hungary (Budapest) by racist ethno-nationalists who don’t like non-Whites and my friendliest experiences were with Ukrainians in what was then USSR; they treated me with courtesy and adoration.
The war is destroying Ukraine. Every effort must be made to bring an end to it.

Yours sincerely,
Vishnu Bisram