�鶹��ý

Dear Unknown Friend
By Alexis Peri
Harvard University Press, 2024.

“My unknown American friend! … it seems to me that the American radio broadcasts for the USSR … only prevent us from getting a correct impression of … the American people … I would like you to tell me about your own life, about what you do, your thoughts and aspirations.”

In Dear Unknown Friend, Alexis Peri has researched and written about a little known part of history, letters exchanged by American and Soviet women who corresponded during World War II and up to 1953, as a result of various friendship programs. Thousands of letters were exchanged between ordinary women. The letters are moving, political at times and demonstrate the bonds and solidarity that can be built between working class people, even when seemingly culturally and politically divided.

As well as analysing the content of the letters, Peri details the background to the program and logistics which made the letters possible. This had its origins in the internationalism fostered by Communist and left leaning groups in support of the Soviet war effort. A key role was played by the US National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, whose sponsors included senators, Paul Robeson, Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein. Later, US Christian groups with a mission to foster international peace, and in the USSR those interested in proselytising about Communism, also joined in.

Peri writes that the letters contradict the usual claim that communication between Soviet and US citizens only occurred after "The Thaw" in relations that followed Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s death in 1953.

It seems women were permitted to correspond, and in some cases children, but men were not. Peri speculates that both the organising groups in both countries and the women were considered of low status, who unlike men, had little access to information of any political importance.

Some of the pairings seem odd, such as older with much younger women, but that did not stop bonds being formed, for example, young women referring to an older woman as "Auntie". Censorship was surprisingly light, meaning the letters are a great source of information about what ordinary citizens of those countries thought about politics and each other, and their curiosity about human experiences outside of their own.

The gender politics of the times permeate the letters. For example, when describing themselves, many of the US women list their roles as homemaker, mother, and detail the size of their houses, consumer goods etc, demonstrating the emphasis in postwar America on women as consumers and mothers. In contrast, the Soviet women emphasised their education and roles in the workforce — three correspondents starting their first letters with a hopeful, "Dear female zookeeper", hoping to find women in the same profession in the US. The Americans often introduced themselves by using their husband’s first name, resulting in Soviet responses such as "Dear Leonard…" One Soviet woman responded that no one used (the equivalents of) Mrs and Miss because everyone called each other comrade.

Many of the correspondents found their views converged around expanded social roles for women. Most of the US correspondents expressed support for educating their daughters and many were interested in work outside the home, but talked about barriers such as being denied education as young women.

Whilst the war brought expanded work opportunities for both Soviet and US women, the differences in their wartime experiences are stark. Many of the Soviet women lost husbands and other family members and survived sieges and starvation. The US women often lived rurally, far from the ravages of war and some lost sons and husbands. The empathy towards their Soviet sisters is palpable.

They write of shared experiences of taking on "men’s work", such as Soviet women working in the logging industry or the American women having to run the family farm. "I used to do only housework and cooking but now I am operating a tractor," wrote one apple farmer from California. The USSR correspondents often expressed a desire to know more about the lives of ordinary working people, and working women in particular, rather than their experience in the home.

The women also had in common an understanding of the impact on their lives of the postwar push to accommodate the work needs of returning soldiers and emphasis on population growth in both the US and USSR. The barriers women encountered in continuing their new found skills were a shared area of complaint and regret.

The program was inevitably caught up in the US House Unamerican Activities Committee’s shameful shenigans but survived that scrutiny. However, the popularity of "pen pals" was mediated by other forms of communication, for example conferences and exchanges facilitated by the United Nations and organisations, such as the Women’s International Democratic Federation, which sprang up in the wake of the post-war "peace" narrative.

After Stalin’s death, a consequence of "The Thaw" was a loosening of cultural relations between the USSR and US, such that thousands of Soviet and US citizens visited each other’s countries during the 1950s and early 60s and many cultural exchanges occurred. An enthusiasm for letter writing persisted but even though, for example, the Soviet Women’s Committee received dozens of requests for pen pals, it did not continue to facilitate the exchange, possibly due to the concern of other Soviet political organisations that the "right" messages might not be conveyed.

This summary does not do justice to the complexities that Peri uncovered in her research — the political context for the program and the influence of the women on each other’s perspectives.

It is well worth reading for an understanding of Cold War politics, as well as to reassure yourself that political narratives are always, always mediated by human experience, which can undercut propaganda in all its forms, if only those bonds can be built. 

It is of special note that Harvard University has published it, since it is one institution resisting Trumpian propaganda and authoritarianism.

[Maree F Roberts is the author of The Impossible History of Trotsky’s Sister, which is available .]