"You speak very good English," Frye told him, happy to have his lone encounter with the police come to so simple an end.
The most important discovery Berman made in the U.S.S.R. also concerns the MVD. He learned unexpectedly that the Special Board of the MVD was abolished two years ago, but that the law accomplishing this has never been published. Berman, in an address before the Institute of Law of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, said he had been surprised to hear that the Special Board, which he frankly termed "the chief legal instrument of terror in the Soviet Union," had been abolished, and that this fact had been kept secret. It appears, however, that the Russians still do not want this information released, for all reference to the Special Board was censored from American newspaper dispatches covering Berman's address.
Defendants Benefit
In his conversations with Soviet jurists, Berman learned of large-scale legal reforms now underway in the U.S.S.R. The trend in these reforms, he notes, is in the direction of increased rights for the accused and greater leniency in sentences. Any crimes which can be construed as offenses against the State are still harshly punished, however, and there exists a pre-trial hearing in which the accused is without right to counsel. But reforms are being pressed even in these matters, Berman reports.
Fry and Berman both speak with interest on the question of religion in the Soviet Union, but their conclusions are somewhat different. Frye, who attended a Moslem burial in Central Asia and visited various houses of worship, noted great interest in religion, but says that generally it was confined to the older people. He believes that religion is dying out as a result of the anti-religious propaganda taught in the schools.
Berman, from his Moscow experience, disagrees. "While there certainly is anti-religious propaganda in the schools, there are also many young worshippers in the churches," he says. He points out that at many services it was practically impossible to find room to stand in the church, and says that new construction and expansion of existing facilities are being pushed ahead. While in Moscow, he attended Baptist and Russian Orthodox services.
Cleaner than New York
The cleanliness of Moscow's streets also impressed Berman,--especially the way that people come out early in the morning to wash the sidewalks in front of their buildings. "Moscow," he observes, "is much cleaner than New York."
Frye and Berman both found the Russians interested in further educational exchanges with the United States. Berman noted, however, that the desire for exchanges of books and scholars was discernible primarily on the intermediate level, and he has no way of knowing what top-level policy would be.
Lecturer Invited Here
Frye, meanwhile, took a step to help push Soviet policy in the right direction. While in Moscow, he invited the Soviet Academy of Sciences to send a lecturer to the United States. This lecturer, who was invited on behalf of the Medieval Academy of America, would speak on the Middle Asian States.
"Our first hope," Frye said, "was that such a lecturer might give a course at an American university, but that appears impracticable. Our idea now is that he might give a series of lectures at some university here." This university might conceivably be Harvard, Frye added.
The Russians gave no definite answer to the professor's proposal, but said they would consider it.
Both Frye and Berman feel that their trips helped to improve understanding between East and West. They emphasize, however, that there is still much to be done toward this end. Berman tells, for example, of a case he witnessed in a Moscow courtroom.
A woman was suing for reinstatement in her job. When the judges left the room to deliberate, she became quite vociferous, insisting to one and all that she would get her rights. Someone in the courtroom tried to quiet her, and pointed to Berman, implying that she should not make a scene in front of the American guest.
At this the woman looked at Berman defiantly, and proclaimed, "I can say anything I want; this isn't America."