Diane Henrikson Russell
In August of 1979 Diane Henrikson Russell accompanied her graduate-student spouse to Soviet Georgia (now the Republic of Georgia) as part of an academic exchange sponsored by IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board). Today’s blog entry is the fifth in a series of accounts about adjusting to life in a former Soviet republic during the Cold War. In it she describes the gracious welcome she received from the Tbilisi locals, a warmth that gradually soured with a growing awareness of being under constant surveillance. Four earlier entries, Uzbek Suprise, Stalin’s Birthplace, A Leap of Faith Helped Soviet Émigrés and It’s Never Too Late to Return a Book, are linked here if you want to revisit accounts of her extraordinary journey, or you can simply enter the word Uzbekistan in the search box on our main page to bring up the full set of stories with one search term. —Editor
