This article is based on data assembled during a thirty-two day visit to Russia in June and July, 1956. Occasionally I supplemented my personal observations by material gleaned from other travelers, and I used data from the Soviet press when this seemed appropriate, to place my personal observations in context.

I was interested in studying "cultural exchange" between Communist Russia and the West. My point of view was that of a proponent of the "open society," anxious to participate in any exchange of ideas that might contribute, despite Communist suspicion, to a beneficial interaction between the two "camps" into which our world is divided. Perhaps this statement seems pretentious.