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MOSCOW MAILBAG: Voice of Russia's Voices That Came From Afar




Listener William Kerr of Halifax, Canada, raised a question this week that I'm very happy to answer: When did the first foreigners start to work for our service?


Foreigners started working with us when we first went on the air, in 1929. Some have left us, and some have gone to their eternal reward. All those on the air in those days were native speakers.


Williana Burrows, a black teacher from New York, worked with us during World War II. Jim Patterson, a black man who worked as an announcer, was evacuated to Kuibyshev when the war began and died there soon after. His son Tom Patterson works today as a cameraman on one of our TV channels. Eve Manning from England could be heard on the air before, during and after the war. Her son worked on the Voice of Russia and today is a correspondent on our TV.


Our announcer Nick Kournakov was born and bred in New York, came to Russia to defend the land of his ancestors, joined the cavalry and ended the war in Berlin. Eddy Ruderman graduated from New York University and worked as a violinist in the United States. During the depression, he came to the Soviet Union and became an announcer. Murray Rivkind came from the United States, too. During the war, he was a gunner on a Soviet bomber; after he was wounded, he worked for us as an announcer. He had a beautiful bass voice.


Tom Botting came from England, and during the war in Spain, he fought against Franco. After the defeat of the Republicans, Botting came to the Soviet Union. His son graduated from a ballet school in Moscow and today is a ballet dancer in England.


There are many more who came from China and Japan, like Boris Novikov, who is still with us today and speaks fluent Japanese, besides English and Russian.


I was the one who got Vladimir Pozner onto the radio; he worked for us as a commentator. Today he is an anchorman on his TV program in Moscow. I also brought Annette Zugoff on board, during the war. She was known by three different names, because she was married three times. Her father was an Ossetian and her mother was Irish. She was born in Alaska. She and I sat at the same microphone for almost half a century. Ten years ago, she went back to Alaska. She took her son and his family, her daughter and her family with her. Both children are in Seattle.


Last but not least, there was Annabelle Bucar, who worked in the U.S. embassy here, married a singer from the Operetta Theater and stayed here. She worked for us beginning in the 1950s and died last year, a wonderful woman in all respects.


Joe Adamov hosts an English-language program on the Voice of Russia.

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