Free Last of the Cold War Spies by Roland Perry

comprehend that she was a farmer’s wife,” Michael Young recalled. Madame Vakhtagnov frothed about the iniquity of a woman’s lot as a Kulak slave. It was the fate to which women were condemned in capitalist societies. 14
    After visiting Moscow, the tiny party went on an arduous two-day train trip to Kharkov and Kiev, while the Blunts stayed behind. Wilfrid continued his art pilgrimage. Anthony met his KGB masters from headquarters at Dzerzhinsky Square for further inspiration and instruction.
    Straight, Young, and the others were forced to suffer the airless discomfort of a primitive train. The depressing atmosphere caused them to dwell again on the scatological. The lavatory had a poster for those who could not read. It showed the difference between a peasant, whose aim and method was inadequate for reasonable hygiene, whereas an enlightened worker demonstrated how it should be done. Most of the tourist’s fellow passengers were apparently not enlightened, Young recalled. 15
    It was a case of welcome to the real world of the workers’ paradise, yet most of these youthful communists were kept ignorant of more pertinent realities, such as the mass arrests going on across the country, the torture, and the general development of the then-worst police state in the world, fascist Germany included.
    The Russians encountered on board the train seemed a little primitive and xenophobic as they drank vodka, smoked, and boiled tea. They gave no clues to the blinkered bunch of foreigners of the nation’s plight. No communication meant no hints about the Stalinist malaise that had gripped Russia and turned it into a state of fear. An instance of harsh scare tactics and the nation’s poverty came when the students were stunned at night to hear gunfire. The train shunted to a halt. The curious travelers hurried to the end of their carriage to see a small group of starving children cowering on the steps. They had stolen on board at a remote stop in the middle of the night. The guards were searching for them. The shots were meant to make them flee the train.
    At Kiev such incidents became dim memories in between slumber as the tourists were taken by bus to a hotel, then a horse race meeting. “It was rather like the Melbourne Cup,” Young remembered imaginatively. “All the jockeys wore brightly colored caps and there was a big, raucous crowd.”
    The tour was also taken to a camera factory in Kiev. “The plant was run by a big fat man who happened also to be the headmaster of a school,” Young said, putting a benevolent spin on Russian intelligence operations once more. “The school was set up and controlled by the KGB. It was composed of homeless children from the Russian Civil War who had been brought together by the KGB. In the morning they would do their school work, have lunch, and then go to the factory to make cameras.”
    Without prompting, Young then began to speak of an incident at the factory involving Straight. “Michael Straight had a Leica camera, and the plant manager took a great interest in it,” Young said. “He asked Straight if he could take it away and examine it. Straight agreed. It was taken to bits, photographed, put back together and returned.” 16 It was a mild form of spontaneous industrial espionage that delighted the 19-year-old Straight.
    The group returned to Leningrad and on September 12 joined the merchant vessel Smolny for the return trip to London. Also on board was Harry Pollitt, whom Mayhew recalled spent his time making notes and planning a new offensive against fascists. Pollitt’s appearance made sure that MI5 scrutinized the names of all who sailed with him. Nancy Cunard, the millionaire London hostess, happened to be on board. She provided light relief for the other travelers by flirting with a black Russian dancer and with Wilfrid Blunt, when both would have preferred each other.
    Once back in Cambridge, Blunt reported to Deutsch on the trip and then wrote an art report about it