Goodbye Now

The visiting Russian artists and scientists, and their American friends, wanted to take their Manhattan "peace" show on road tour. They had a cross-country junket all worked out, and a fine crowd-teasing routine: a little lulling piano music by their star performer, Soviet Composer Dmitri Shostakovich, accompanied by stirring oratory to prove that it was the U.S. and not Russia, which was the real threat to peace.

Last week the State Department peremptorily called a halt. It ruled that the visas of 17 Iron Curtainers were no longer valid, ordered the men to leave the country as soon as possible. Before they left, the visitors got a quick look around, and did a little shopping. One night Composer Shostakovich slipped quietly into a balcony seat at a Manhattan concert to hear the forbidden "formalist" music of Hungary's late Bela Bartok.

At week's end two cars arrived at La Guardia field, bearing the departing Russians, a dozen suitcases, several cartons of cigarettes and 155 Ibs. of excess baggage. Under his arm, Shostakovich carried a large bundle of phonograph records. He was, he said, "glad to be returning home." Novelist Piotr Pavlenko told a Polish-speaking cop: "America is a wonderful country, a strong country. And it has one of the finest police forces in the world." Czech Journalist Jiri Hronek, however, said that "I wouldn't live in this country even if I were invited." Soviet Film Director Sergei A. Gerasimov, asked how he liked the U.S., replied: "We have hotels in Moscow just as good as the Waldorf--but not as tall."

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