The Rocky Road

As Associated Press correspondent in Moscow, Eddy Gilmore found the road to romance rocky when he courted Russian Ballerina Tamara Chernashova ten years ago. The Russians not only refused to let Correspondent Gilmore marry her, they even shipped her away from Moscow so that he couldn't see her. In desperation, Gilmore asked for help from his friend Wendell Willkie, who promptly cabled Stalin: "Anything you can do to facilitate this union I will personally appreciate." Stalin gave his permission for Gilmore to marry, "as a special exception on [Willkie's] recommendation and vouching." When their first child was born a year later, the Gilmores named her Victoria Wendell, and in 1946 Gilmore and his family paid their first visit to the U.S. But once back in Russia, when the cold war began, Gilmore's wife and child were no longer allowed out. Two of the three other correspondents in Moscow who work for the U.S. press had married Russians and were in the same fix. Despite repeated requests for exit visas for their wives and children, they were always turned down, became virtual prisoners inside Russia's borders.

Last week, as part of the Communist "peace offensive," the U.S. newsmen got some good news. Ambassador "Chip" Bohlen told them that the Communists had finally agreed to grant exit visas to Gilmore's wife and two children, along with the families of two other Americans working for the U.S. in Moscow. Bohlen added that the Russians were also considering granting visas to the families of Gilmore's A.P. partner, Tom Whitney, and U.P.'s Henry Shapiro. Once the families were out of Russia, one of the big pressures that U.S. correspondents have been subject to would be removed.

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