Dear Unknown Friend: The Remarkable Correspondence between American and Soviet Women

by Alexis Peri

In the tense years of the early Cold War, American and Soviet women conducted a remarkable pen-pal correspondence that enabled them to see each other as friends rather than enemies.

In a compelling new perspective on the early Cold War, prizewinning historian Alexis Peri explores correspondence between American and Soviet women begun in the last years of World War II and continuing into the 1950s. Previously unexamined, the women’s letters movingly demonstrate the power of the personal, as the pen pals engaged in a “diplomacy of the heart” that led them to question why their countries were so divided. Both Soviet and American women faced a patriarchal backlash after World War II that marginalized them professionally and politically. The pen pals discussed common challenges they faced, such as unequal pay and the difficulties of balancing motherhood with a career. Each side evinced curiosity about the other’s world, asking questions about family and marriage, work conditions, educational opportunities, and religion. The women advocated peace and cooperation but at times disagreed strongly over social and economic issues, such as racial segregation in the United States and mandatory labor in the Soviet Union. At first both governments saw no risk in the communications, as women were presumed to have little influence and no knowledge of state secrets, but eventually Cold War paranoia set in. Amid the Red Scare, the House Un-American Activities Committee even accused some of the American women of being communist agents.

A rare and poignant tale, Dear Unknown Friend offers a glimpse of the Cold War through the perspectives of women who tried to move beyond the label of “enemy” and understand, even befriend, people across increasingly bitter political divides.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2024

Reviews

[Arthur Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Along with this book, I am currently reading about the planned and directly supervised starvation of Ukraine carried out by the Stalin regime in the 1930's as part of an effort to force collectivization and undermine any efforts at unity at nationalism within Ukraine. It was been a difficult read, hopelessly cruel, as entire villages were left to starve, the food was taken out of the hands of starving women and children, standing over the bodies of their dead husbands.

This book however was a breath of fresh air, of brightness and of hope. This book documented pen pal programs between women in the USSR and the United States. Done in an era directly after World War 2 and continuing into the escalating tensions of the Cold War, in an era before social media, these letters were fascinating as women of both countries talked about their lives and their families, everything that made them different, but also everything that bound them together as women.

They could bond over their children, their husbands, returned or not, from the war, the shrinking of their freedoms as men returned to the work force, and their government's efforts to censor and shadow with suspicion programs in which all they did was talk and try and understand the other. Even though the responses were made over a space of months, it was admirable to see them communicate and grow as friends, sharing their lives on a personal scale as on a national scale, anti communism and corresponding policies in the USSR made it seem as those the two were ireconciable foes. The power of connection, of wanting to know another, is the spirit of humanity, and I loved getting to read about how those bonds were forged and maintained.

A shortish, but bright and hopeful book.

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fascinating true story how American and Soviet women befriending each other as pen pals and how they were changed through the friendships making changes in their lives. This part of history that I never heard about. Now I know thanks to Alexis Peri to write about these ordinary women writing to each other.

[Julie Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit I did not finish this book. I got about 25% of the way through it, and think I got the gist of what the situation was like after World War II. it was interesting reading about the correspondence between various women in the US and Soviet Union. I suppose it is not much different today, which is rather sad almost 100 years later.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

for what i did read for my research paper, this was a wonderful, very thoughtful construction of a subject that should have more light shed on it! captivating, interesting read!!