{"id":122731,"date":"2019-05-18T14:42:51","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T18:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=122731"},"modified":"2019-05-18T14:42:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-18T18:42:51","slug":"bernies-in-serious-trouble-with-his-soviet-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=122731","title":{"rendered":"Bernie&#8217;s in serious trouble with his Soviet past"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_122732\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/static.politico.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-122732\" src=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/static.politico-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" class=\"size-large wp-image-122732\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/static.politico-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/static.politico-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/static.politico-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/static.politico.jpg 1160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-122732\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In 1988, then-mayor of Burlington, Vermont Bernie Sanders travelled to the Soviet Union to establish a \u201csister city\u201d relationship with the city of Yaroslavl. | Alex Wong\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n<h1>Bernie&#8217;s mystery Soviet tapes revealed<\/h1>\n<h3>Unseen by the public for three decades, a POLITICO reporter views hours of footage from his 1988 &#8216;honeymoon&#8217; to the USSR.<\/h3>\n<p>By HOLLY OTTERBEIN<br \/>\nPOLITICO<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nBURLINGTON, Vt. \u2014 It\u2019s 1988 and newlywed Bernie Sanders is in the Soviet Union with his wife, Jane, handing out gifts to the mayor of a midsized city they\u2019ve befriended. The mood is festive as the two bestow the items: A Beatles album, a red \u201cBernie for Burlington\u201d button, \u201cdelicious Vermont candy\u201d and a tape of tunes Sanders recorded himself with fellow artists from Vermont, among other goodies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have met many fine mayors in the United States,\u201d Sanders says, \u201cbut I want to say that one of the nicest mayors I&#8217;ve ever met is the mayor of Yaroslavl.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At another point,<b>\u00a0<\/b>a member of Sanders\u2019 delegation<b>\u00a0<\/b>hands a Russian woman a small American flag.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re wondering what\u2019s wrong with capitalism, it\u2019s made in Hong Kong,&#8221; he jokes. &#8220;Sorry about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The scene is part of 3\u00bd hours of raw, never<i>\u00a0<\/i>publicly seen footage of the trip Sanders took to the Soviet Union that year \u2014 his \u201choneymoon.\u201d POLITICO viewed the tapes this week, along with a forgotten hourlong episode of a TV show created by Sanders that featured the same trip, at the offices of a Vermont government access channel.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, two minutes of the long-lost videos went viral when a staffer at Chittenden County\u2019s Channel 17 posted a compilation of the station\u2019s archival footage online. The clip featured a shirtless Sanders and other Americans singing \u201cThis Land Is Your Land\u201d to their hosts after relaxing in a sauna. A few minutes later, Sanders doled out the gifts to his Russian friends with a towel wrapped around his waist.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"story-related\">\n<article class=\"story-frag format-sm\">\n<figure class=\"thumb\"><\/figure>\n<\/article>\n<\/aside>\n<p>But that\u2019s only the beginning. The hours of footage include a scene of Sanders sitting with his delegation at a table under a portrait of Vladimir Lenin. Sanders can also be heard extolling the virtues of Soviet life and culture, even as he acknowledges some of their shortcomings. There are flashes of humor, too, such as his host warning the American guests not to cross the KGB, or else.<\/p>\n<p>The video also paints a fuller picture of why Sanders ventured to the land of America\u2019s No. 1 enemy in the midst of the Cold War, the anti-war idealism that fueled his journey, and what he found when he got there.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of 10 days, Sanders, who was then the mayor of Burlington, and his dozen-member delegation traveled to three cities: Moscow, Yaroslavl and Leningrad, now known as St. Petersburg. Their goal was to establish a \u201csister city\u201d relationship with Yaroslavl, a community along the Volga River home to about 500,000 people. At the time, the Soviet Union was beginning to open itself to the world, if only slightly \u2014 and Sanders was a self-described socialist with an unusually large interest in foreign affairs for a mayor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t as outlandish as it looks in the pictures,\u201d William Pomeranz, the deputy director of the Wilson Center\u2019s Kennan Institute, said after hearing a description of the footage. \u201cIt\u2019s the height of Glasnost and Perestroika, where there are genuine efforts by Americans to reach out to Soviet cities and try to establish these relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Sanders was 46 and nearing the end of his eight years as Burlington mayor, which tracked precisely with Ronald Reagan\u2019s presidency. Two years later, Sanders would be elected to Congress.<\/p>\n<p>As mayor, Sanders worried about a potential nuclear war and railed against the bloated military budgets of both the United States and the Soviet Union. A year before the trip, he laid out his vision for a sister-city relationship. &#8220;By encouraging citizen-to-citizen exchanges \u2014 of young people, artists and musicians, business people, public officials, and just plain ordinary citizens,&#8221; he said in a speech, &#8220;we can break down the barriers and stereotypes which exist between the Soviet Union and the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sanders\u2019 opponents, though, will likely find much in the tapes to call outlandish. And in a campaign season in which Democrats are concerned about nothing more than defeating President Donald Trump, there\u2019s plenty of material that Democratic voters might worry the Republican Party could spin into a 30-second negative ad.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"story-related cl-l db no-border\">\n<div class=\"content layout-bi-unequal\">\n<section class=\"content-groupset db pos-omega\">\n<div class=\"content-group module-video\"><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Sanders is seen living it up with Russians. There are, naturally, shrines to Lenin everywhere. In one scene, Sanders and his wife, as well as other couples, boogie to live Russian music. \u201cI brought my special dancing shoes!\u201d Sanders exclaims.<\/p>\n<p>Later, he tells a Russian man, \u201cI\u2019m not very happy about this, but there are not many people in the state of Vermont who speak Russian. In fact, one of the things that we want to do is to see if we can develop a Russian studies program in our high school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At another point, one of Sanders\u2019 hosts jokingly warns the delegation to not upset the KGB: \u201cThose who don&#8217;t behave move to Siberia from here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For now, many of the videos will remain available for viewing only in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cctv.org\/welcome\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CCTV<\/a>\u2019s archives. POLITICO learned about the tapes\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/magazine\/story\/2019\/05\/03\/bernie-sanders-burlington-tv-show-video-2020-226761\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">after reporting<\/a>\u00a0on a TV show Sanders created while mayor called \u201cBernie Speaks With the Community.\u201d The government-access channel is not planning to put the raw tapes documenting the Soviet Union trip online because they never aired, said executive director Lauren-Glenn Davitian. However, she does intend to post the lost episode of Sanders\u2019 TV show online soon.<\/p>\n<p>The tapes also reveal Sanders and his team being wooed by the Soviet Union: They eat nice-looking meals, tour a decorated subway station, take horse-and-buggy rides and watch professional dancers. A cab driver serenades members of Sanders\u2019 delegation \u2014 it\u2019s unclear whether Sanders was in the car \u2014 with songs for minutes on end. When they return home, the Americans said the cabbie liked them so much that he didn\u2019t charge a fare.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Soviet Union always treated foreign guests very, very well,\u201d said Pomeranz said. \u201cThey always wanted to show off the best side of their country and that invariably included a big table with a lot of food.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At times, though, Sanders\u2019 team saw behind the curtain: The tapes showed people who appear to be waiting in line for food as well as the Soviet Union\u2019s shabby housing stock. Inside one Russian\u2019s apartment, Sanders addresses the poor conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s important to try to translate this,\u201d he says. \u201cIn America, in general, the housing is better than in the Soviet Union.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are also mundane scenes of everyday life \u2014 cars rolling around traffic circles, townspeople walking down the street, athletes playing sports on TV \u2014 rendered fascinating because of the moment in which they occurred.<\/p>\n<p>According to a newspaper account at the time, members of Sanders\u2019 mayoral team paid for the trip but also received their regular salary while abroad.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the videos, as well as in the final episode of \u201cBernie Speaks With the Community,\u201d Sanders speaks at length about his dream of reducing conflict between the two nations by building relationships between ordinary citizens. While being interviewed by a Russian man on a bus, he says he would \u201clove\u201d for young people to participate in exchange programs between the two cities.<\/p>\n<p>Sanders suggests a similar initiative for media outlets. He tells the man that a Vermont editor is coming to the Soviet Union soon and that \u201cI have asked her to drop in [to] your newspaper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sanders\u2019 wife also talks to teachers in the Soviet Union over tea. She asks them detailed questions about their work and proposes a teacher and student exchange program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne thing we are very impressed with is the cultural life,\u201d she tells them. \u201cWe strive in Burlington to enrich the cultural life as much as possible. But we have much further to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bruce Seifer, a top economic development aide to Sanders when he was mayor, said that 100 residents from Yaroslavl immigrated to Burlington after the trip and others visited.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Over time, it had a positive impact on to the economy,\u201d he said. \u201cBusinesses started doing exchanges between Burlington and Yaroslavl.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Davitian, who lived in Burlington at the time, said progressives were thrilled by Sanders&#8217; trip to the Soviet Union, while everyday residents didn\u2019t mind. \u201cAs long as the streets were getting paved, there wasn\u2019t opposition to him as an activist mayor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>When Sanders\u2019 delegation returned to Burlington, CCTV captured the group on film in a hopeful mood, applauding the Soviet Union\u2019s after-school programs, low rent costs and hospitality.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, they admit the poor choices of available food. Sanders says he was impressed by the beauty of the city and Soviet officials\u2019 willingness \u201cto acknowledge many of the problems that they had.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re proud of the fact that their health care system is free,\u201d he says, but concede that the medical technology is far behind that of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Later that year, the relationship was officially established. Since then, \u201cexchanges between the two cities have involved mayors, business people, firefighters, jazz musicians, youth orchestras, mural painters, high school students, medical students, nurses, librarians, and the Yaroslavl Torpedoes ice hockey team,\u201d according to Burlington\u2019s city government. A delegation traveled there as recently as 2016.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were just as friendly as they could possibly be,\u201d Sanders said at a news conference at the airport after returning from the trip. \u201cThe truth of the matter is, they like Americans, and they respect Americans, and they admire Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2019\/05\/17\/bernie-sanders-mystery-soviet-video-revealed-1330347\">https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2019\/05\/17\/bernie-sanders-mystery-soviet-video-revealed-1330347<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bernie&#8217;s mystery Soviet tapes revealed Unseen by the public for three decades, a POLITICO reporter views hours of footage from his 1988 &#8216;honeymoon&#8217; to the USSR. By HOLLY OTTERBEIN POLITICO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}