USSR and USA journals

[Elaine Rusinko]

At 04:19 PM 5/29/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>I believe (correct me if I am wrong here) that the protocol between USIA and
>its Soviet partner stipulated that neither journal would circulate within
>its own country--i.e., no _Amerika_ in the US and no _Soviet Life_ in the
>USSR.
>
>Actually it was US legislation that prohibited USIA from distributing any
>of its materials, not just AMERIKA, within the country. The idea was that
>the agency should not be used by the party in power for domestic political
>purposes. I believe a US-Soviet protocol demanded that there had to be an
>equal number of copies of the magazines exchanged. USIA could sell or
>distribute only as many copies of AMERIKA in the USSR as the Soviets could
>sell SOVIET LIFE here. Of course, SOVIET LIFE was never as popular in the
>US as AMERIKA was in the USSR in the era when any western publications
>were prized possessions. In fact, I heard that the Soviets used to return
>issues of AMERIKA to USIA as unsold and unwanted. When I was a guide on a
>USIA exhibit in the 70s, we used to hand out those "rejects" free to
>clamoring crouds of exhibit visitors.

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