TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=93TT1407> <title> Apr. 12, 1993: The Political Interest </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993 Apr. 12, 1993 The Info Highway </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> The Political Interest, Page 32 Send Us Your Eager Students </hdr> <body> By Michael Kramer Bill Clinton doesn't know Anastasia Gvozdikova, but he should. As one of only a few thousand Russians studying in the U.S., Gvozdikova can testify to the truth of the President's assertion that "freedom, like anything sweet, is hard to take from people once they've had a taste of it." Last summer Gvozdikova lived with her parents in Boris Yeltsin's hometown, a city of 2 million called Yekaterinburg, about 1,000 miles east of Moscow--and the place where Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane was shot down in 1960. Today, thanks to a few good-hearted citizens in Ruston, Louisiana, who are raising $50,000 to cover their tuition and expenses for four years, Gvozdikova and her twin sister are enrolled at Louisiana Tech University. "When I left last July," explains Gvozdikova, who so wants to blend into America that she calls herself Nancy, "I thought things couldn't be worse. Most anything worth buying was stolen and sold on the black market. A kilo of butter cost 400 rubles. Today, my mother just wrote, it's up to 800 rubles. How can she afford it? My parents earn less than 10,000 rubles [about $15] a month." Like many foreigners, Nancy is mesmerized by America. Unfortunately, she says, "everything" is so remarkable "that many of us want only to marry an American so we can stay." Nancy wants to teach English at home, but she fears becoming "America-sick," a term coined by Russian Assistant Education Minister Elena Lenskaya. "Somehow," says Lenskaya, whose waiting list of Russians eager to study in the U.S. tops 200,000, "our students must become ambassadors of our country rather than just guests in yours. Then maybe more will want to return home to spread the word. But above all," she observes, "more than just a few must come to see the magic of America." Clinton wants that too, at least rhetorically. "But people-to-people exchanges are routinely short-changed when scarce foreign-aid dollars are divvied up," says Senator Bill Bradley. The President's plan to send American experts to Russia can help the country learn market capitalism, "but transforming the place permanently requires changing its values, and the best way to do that is to have people see democracy in action here," says Bradley. He points out that almost half the members of Germany's parliament have studied in the U.S., "a fact that's helped solidify their democracy." Over the past decade, almost 2 million Asian students have studied in the U.S., but fewer than 10,000 Russians have enjoyed the same exposure. "Get the Russians to America in massive numbers, and they'll get it on their own," says Bradley. "It'll take time. It's a long-term proposition. But nothing short of a large-scale sharing of ideas will produce enough democratic leaders to accomplish our goals of economic prosperity and political security, both for Russia and ourselves." "Everything Bradley says is right, but the student-exchange stuff just isn't sexy," says a Clinton aide. "We'll throw a few more bucks at the program, sure, but we'll mostly rely on exhorting Americans to take on the burden themselves, through private groups and with private money." That means the number of Russians in the U.S. will never be as high as it should be if the President is serious when he says "promoting democracy in Russia" is the "great security challenge of our age." </body> </article> </text>