Postcards from the Edge: First Steps Toward Becoming a Global Citizen

.         

 My First Postcard Home — from Moscow, USSR March 1977

An Overview

Today Russia is always in the news. Thanks to Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine, many Americans and people the world over can make comments about Russian military aggression or the sad plight of Ukrainians.

When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, the focus on the Russian threat — then characterized as the Soviet nuclear and ideological / communist threat — was just as powerful if not moreso. As an elementary school student I experienced bombing drills where we kids had to either kneel under our desks or be dispatched to the school basement in an ‘evacuation exercise.’

That experience was my first awareness of the Soviet Union. By the time I was in 6th grade, I could have been conditioned to have fear and hate toward the Russian empire. In fact, the opposite was true. I wanted to know what the full story was. For that reason, when our teacher Mrs. Redd announced that to better understand the unit in our social studies book about life in the USSR we would have a visitor to our class who would show us a slide show about Russia, I was fully onboard. When she called for a volunteer to assist the gentleman in bringing his equipment into the auditorium and in the set up, I raised my hand. As it happened, the visitor would turn out to be our local high school’s Russian teacher, Mr. Ed Taylor.

And that was the start of my journey. Mr. Taylor’s slides showcased his own journey to Russia, and inspired by the vibrant human images and the man who shared them, from that point forward, I would take every opportunity to learn more about Russia, its culture and people.

I studied basic Russian language both in 9th and 10th grades in high school and also learned something about its culture and history. My most vivid memory of the classes was memorizing dialogues and practicing those with my classmates.

By the time I entered university in September 1974, the die had been cast: I would be studying Russian language and Soviet Area studies as my major and, if the stars aligned right and I did well, maybe I could teach Russian in the future and inspire students just like Mr. Taylor did, or perhaps I could even score an analyst job with one of America’s intelligence services.

Lucky for me, once I was enrolled in Ohio State University, I learned that the uni had one of the only study abroad programs in the USSR that existed for students in the USA. I was in solid.

That brings us to this postcard. In March 1977, nearly through my 3rd year at OSU, I had left Columbus as a naive but wide-eyed 21-year-old, bound for Moscow and a term at the renowned Pushkin Institute of Moscow State University.

Though I had already studied Russian for two years in high school and had learned a lot about the country's history and people through eight trimesters at Ohio State, such an immersion was something else entirely. I would be living in the capital city of the USSR and we would not be allowed to speak English, which was both daunting and exhilarating. Alongside language practice, we had to attend lectures on Soviet culture and history, gaining clearer glimpses into daily life and government policy decisions under Brezhnev’s USSR. At the same time, I'd have a chance to get to know real Russians, which I had not done in Columbus save for the professors I'd met.

My journey to Moscow was itself a rite of passage: Columbus to JFK, Icelandic Air to Luxembourg via Reykjavík, bus to Frankfurt, flight to Berlin, crossing through Checkpoint Charlie into East Germany, then eastward by train through Poland and Belarus. Finally, we reached Moscow — a city that seemed impossibly romantic and mysterious.

On my very first night, a few American companions and I descended into the Moscow metro and emerged into Red Square. That moment — stepping onto the cobblestone of the city I'd learned so much about and which had played a central role in global geopolitics for 60 years — sealed my fascination with travel and cross-cultural discovery. There I was, standing in the heart of Russia, hooked.

Looking back now, half a century later, I feel that this postcard was more than a note home to my family. It’s a snapshot of my transformation: the moment I stepped beyond borders and began to see the world not as one simply divided by ideology, but as a place connected by our common values, dreams and interests in bonding. It was when I first truly sensed our shared humanity.

The Postcard’s Visual Imagery

This postcard pairs two powerful symbols of Soviet identity. In the background stands Moscow State University, one of Stalin’s monumental “Seven Sisters" skyscrapers, its soaring spire and wings embodying the intellectual ambition and disciplined grandeur of the Soviet state.

In the foreground rises a World War II memorial: two stark, tapering obelisks with a commemorative plaque and wreath at the base. Red flowers soften the austerity, but the monument’s purpose is clear — honoring the students and staff of Moscow State U. who died in the Great Patriotic War (our World War II).

Together, the university and the memorial present a carefully composed narrative of Soviet endurance, achievement, and national pride.

Stamp Imagery

The stamps themselves carry ideological weight. One depicts Sergei Korolev, chief architect of the Soviet space program, surrounded by rockets and medals — a celebration of cosmic ambition and technological prowess. Another commemorates the 60th anniversary of 1917's October Revolution.

Even ordinary mail at that time was infused with meaning: these stamps projected the USSR’s identity as a scientific, historical, and ideological superpower. Against this backdrop of monumentality and state symbolism sits my handwritten message — personal and tentative.

Postcard Text (1977)

Hi, well, I finally made it. It’s really unbelievable. So different.

The food has been different but good. We aren’t allowed to speak English and that’s pretty hard but I like it. I’ve already made many new friends, many from our group and a few from other groups who are staying here but not many Russians yet.

Well, I plan to write a letter soon so I’ll say more then.

Hope everything is OK.

Brad

---

Closing Thought

That spring in Moscow sparked a lifelong pursuit of cultural understanding. It led to further study in Russian language and literature, travel across Europe and Asia, and eventually to a career shaped by and for global engagement. This postcard — tentative, wide-eyed, and sincere — was the first step on a path that continues to unfold. It reminds me that even small messages sent from the edge can carry the weight of a mind beginning to open.