The Many Nights I Drank And Partied With Russian Spies. I mean diplomats (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)
This is the restaurant I first met Soviet spies at. MOSCOW AT NIGHT has been almost erased from Chicago history ( it closed after the fall of the Soviets).
Upon entry there was a long bar on one side of the wall. You stepped down to tables and there was a huge dancefloor in front of a stage. Every table had a bottle of Russian vodka, and this was when Russian vodka was not allowed in the U.S.
I would watch a couple drink the vodka in one sitting. An entire fifth! Groups of 3 or more ran through the bottles like it was water. They did not add ice or mix, they drank it straight!
Then they drove home!
I met my first Soviet spies here. "Diplomats". I had met the people who would become the Weathermen before they went underground and went for training in Cuba but “useful idiots” don't count.
Russian people have fun like you cannot even imagine. Before disco even hit they were dancing and partying to the extreme. And the women. Good lord. For years propaganda from the Americans about Soviets portrayed plain women in bushkas or whatever they are called. These women however were 9's and 10's. They were staggeringly beautiful, but I never picked up any of them. A diplomat can kill you and not be charged, so I knew better than to risk my life.
But some of them sure looked worth it.
I would sit at the bar and eat and drink and that was how I met the "diplomats". After downing a fifth of vodka they began starting a conversation and knew ( somehow, haha) that I was one of the heads of the anti-Vietnam War group SDS.
I had some incredible conversations as you might imagine. They never tried to recruit me because they didn't really trust hippies, but they were shocked I knew the names of the Generals at Stalingrad that Stalin would later have executed.
The Diplomat game has existed for I don’t know how long. Most are spies. and every country knows this. Yet the worst thing that can happen to them is they get sent home. A non Diplomat doing the exact same thing could end up dead or in prison. Governments like to show off by kicking a bunch out when there are tensions between nations and they are replaced by- more diplomats! LOL!
I had many nights watching Russians dance, drink, tell stories. They remain some of my fondest memories. I have my moments.
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The more things change, the more they stay the same: