S*x Behind the Curtain
SIR,—Mr Tibor Szamuely, who wrote 'Ssx Behind the Curtain' in the August 12 issue, mentioned the absence of birth control clinics in the Soviet Union.
I attended a conference at the Ministry of Health about ten days ago to welcome a party of some twenty-five Soviet Russian doctors, hospital matrons, nurses, etc., Mr Kenneth Robinson was also present for a time.
Ideas were exchanged about contraception. Lucky Russian women can get real medical advice about it; all the more effective advice because the doctor is almost always a woman. In Britain, however, if is far more difficult for the average woman. The birth control clinician or nurse does not often have a medical degree, while the ordinary British GP knows almost nothing about contraceptives until he himself marries. After that he is usually able to pick up the odd tip or two from correspondence, etc., in the British Medical Journal or the Lancet.
I often wonder whether the Russian woman's easy access to excellent birth control advice compared with the difficulties suffered by the British woman, explains why Russians have such small families, hardly ever more than two children. Whereas here in Surrey, one can hardly move in the towns and villages which overflow with babies, tired mothers, usually with four or five children.
As for girlie mags and striptease shows: one reason for their absence is the ridiculous puritanical government policy which every sophisticated Russian I have met openly deplores (please note that I said openly, for in talking to me they are aware they are talking to a British journalist working for a Tory newspaper who happens also to vote Tory). But Rus- sians also declare that even if it were made com- pulsory to visit striptease shows (which they have seen here and found dull and pathetic and this is the opinion of other foreigners visiting or living in Britain) they would refuse to do so. The reason is that they enjoy sex and hate seeing it made ridiculous and pitiful.
In fact, the most popular government-sponsored translations in Russia are the highly erotic stories and novels of Graham Greene and John Braine.
Why do I write this letter? Because my Russian colleagues in London do sometimes send quite spite-
ful dispatches home about Britain and which I later read in the Russian papers. And one can hardly blame them in this endless, silly game of mutual censoriousness But my Russian colleagues cannot be faulted in one respect. They are always superla- tively, conscientiously careful to get their facts right. OLGA FRANKLIN
London, EC4 [Tibor Szamuely writes: I also have tried to be 'superlatively conscientiously careful' to get my facts right. It seems that I have been successful: Miss Franklin does not try to disprove my statement about the absence of birth-control clinics (or any other point raised in my article)—she merely says that contraceptives are available in the USSR, to- gether with advice on their use, upon request. Of course they are available—I never implied the oppo- site—though they are neither more accessible, nor more popular, nor of better quality than in Britain. As for the smaller size of Soviet families, this has far more to do with housing conditions than with the availability or otherwise of contraceptives.]
Previous page
