In part, Soviet accusations of alleged American espionage have been motivated by the Kremlin's desire to divert domestic discontent against foreign scapegoats. By arousing fear of foreign "spies," the Kremlin has sought to break down the attraction of Western culture for the Soviet people.
So wrote Professor Frederick C. Barghoorn in The Soviet Image of the United States more than a decade ago. The words proved prophetic last week when the Russians announced that Barghoorn, 52, longtime chairman of Yale's Russian studies program, was under arrest for "espionage." Then, as suddenly as it began, Moscow called off its seemingly pointless exercise. After being held in a Moscow prison for 16 days, the scholar was released and expelled from Russia.
Friendly Welcome. Barghoorn is a charter member of the influential band of experts who have devoted their careers to the occult art of Kremlinology. Ever since the first U.S.-Soviet cultural exchange agreement was signed in 1958, he has also played a key role in arranging for Russian and American intellectuals to travel and study in one another's countries. Faced with the news of Barghoorn's arrest, President Kennedy postponed negotiations for an extension of the exchange program, firmly gave the official U.S. answer to the Russian charge: "He is a distinguished scholar. He was not on an intelligence mission of any kind."
A shy, serious bachelor, Barghoorn liked nothing better than to hole up for a ten-hour stretch in his top-floor office at Yale's Hall of Graduate Studies. There, amidst bundles of old laundry and discarded razor blades, he meticulously pored over books, clippings and back issues of Pravda. Russian-speaking Barghoorn knew his subject firsthand. From 1942 until 1947 he was a press attache at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. To avoid trouble, Barghoorn deliberately did not carry a camera during five trips to Russia between 1956 and last March, when he arranged for scholarly exchanges or gathered information for his recent books, Soviet Russian Nationalism and The Soviet Cultural Offensive. His critical opinions were no secret ("While talking peace, the Kremlin wages war"); nevertheless, he got a friendly welcome from academicians wherever he traveled inside Russia.
The latest trip seemed no exception. Traveling on a 30-day tourist visa, the professor spent most of his time touring the capitals of Soviet Asia, including Tashkent, Samarkand and Alma Ata. Back in Moscow, he stopped off for a drink at the apartment of U.S. Minister-Counselor Walter J. Stoessel. From there, an embassy chauffeur drove Barghoorn back to the Hotel Metropole at about 7:15 p.m. on Oct. 31. Then he disappeared from view, but since Barghoorn was scheduled to fly to Warsaw the next day, he was not missed.