VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV
181
"Sovietism": suspicion, tailing, denunciations, threats, blackmail,
secret searches, provocations. Of course, one is surrounded by the
same things in Russia itself. But there they exist in a more diluted
state, whereas the Soviet tourist experiences them in their quintes–
sence, in sharp focus, in their highest degree. During one such trip
to the Benelux countries, I approached a writer whom I shall call X
and told him that before our departure the KGB people had warned
me that he was especially suspect, and had suggested that I keep an
eye on him. At this, he broke out laughing and said that they had
told him the same thing about me, and had suggested that
he
keep an
eye on
me.
He added that, as a result, he was afraid to look in my
direction lest "keeping an eye out" inadvertently and spontaneously
turned into tailing me.
Our visit to the Soviet Embassy in The Hague was one of the
most demoralizing visits we made during that trip.
It
was just our
luck that on that same day some Dutchmen staged a demonstration
before the embassy in defense of the Soviet Jews. All of us Soviet
tourists were shoved into a small room. Then the doors were locked
and the windows closed: one had the feeling that an alarm had been
sounded for Combat Readiness. Finally, when the demonstrators
had dispersed, the members of the embassy staff took their rage out
on us.
"If
one of those Zionist bastards got into our hands, we'd really
let him have it!" exclaimed vice-consul Vladimir Ivanovich, gesticu–
lating wildly. "We're the ones who run things here, on this little plot
of Soviet land, with enemies on every hand. The only laws in force
here are Soviet laws-no others! We are the masters here-not the
Dutchmen! And if one of our enemies comes in here, we won't give
him a kindly send-off. As for this country, it's a mere flyspeck on the
map. And it's been taken in by the Zionists - rallies and
provocations almost every day! But all we have to do is push a
button, and there won't be any more Holland. We'll swallow it up
without a trace, and nobody will remember it-just like Czecho–
slovakia . . . . These Dutchmen have forgotten that their whole
country depends on dikes, and just barely manages to stay intact.
But what if we used just one little bomb - on the dikes? Eh? What
then?"
Supplementing my experiences in Holland with the tragic story
of a Soviet actress who, one year before, had tried to stay on in
Holland but had been unlucky enough to trust a Dutch woman who
