Soviet Warships in Port for a Taste of U.S. Hospitality

NORFOLK, Va. —  With the American flag snapping atop its mainmast, the guided-missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov, flanked by two smaller Soviet warships, sailed Friday into the home port of the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet on a good-will mission that will give 1,000 Soviet sailors a five-day taste of Virginia hospitality.

“Peace has got to start somewhere,” said Todd Oiesen, a 19-year-old fireman aboard the vessel Harry E. Yarnell, who swapped a white seaman’s cap and a can of Coca-Cola for two colorful pins from a young Soviet sailor.

“This visit is part of making that peace,” Oiesen added. “I’m definitely proud to have them here.”

The visit by the Marshal Ustinov, the destroyer Otlichny and the oiler Genrikh Gasanov marks the first time in 14 years--and only the second time since World War II--that Soviet warships have visited the United States. In 1975, two guided-missile destroyers spent six days in Boston while two U.S. Navy vessels sailed to the Soviet port of Leningrad.

The three Soviet ships sailed into a U.S. naval nerve center at a time of great change in Soviet society, giving the mission more significance than the earlier visit, U.S. and Soviet officials said.

Yuli Dubinin, the Soviet ambassador to the United States, who was on hand to welcome his countrymen, said the visit “underscores the great, deep changes in Soviet-American relations.

“It is a big event . . . a clear, tangible manifestation of the new spirit, the new thinking” in relations between the two superpowers, Dubinin said.

From the mightiest officer swathed in gold braid to the lowliest cadet in a tasseled cap, the Soviet seamen seemed delighted with their new roles as ambassadors of friendship--and just as pleased to make port after a 22-day sail from their home base in the northern reaches of the Soviet Union.

“Seas and oceans do not only separate continents, they also unite peoples living on these continents,” said Vice Admiral Igor V. Kasatonov, the first deputy commander in chief of the Soviet Northern Fleet, who oversaw the voyage.

“We stand for converting the seas and oceans of the Earth into the zone of cooperation, of mutual assistance and friendly contacts,” he said.

Kasatonov walked down the Marshal Ustinov’s gangplank and was escorted by his American hosts to a small table bearing a loaf of freshly baked bread and a dish of salt, traditional Russian tokens of hospitality. Bowing formally, Kasatonov took a bite of bread and dipped it in the salt.

“I think we’re lucky to come here,” said Roman Tachenko, a 21-year-old seaman from a suburb of Odessa. “They are two great countries,” he said through an interpreter. “We must cooperate and solve all great questions together.”

Tachenko and his comrades will get to experience everyday life in this city--scheduled lunches at McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza; trips to a shopping mall, a supermarket and a hardware store, and a minor league baseball game one night. There are special events as well--daily excursions to the Busch Gardens theme park near Williamsburg and a pig roast tonight, complete with an outdoor concert and fireworks.

“The goal for the Navy and the city has been to put on a show,” said Lt. Cmdr. John W. Lloyd, a Navy spokesman. “We want to look our best.”

The Soviets, for their part, are offering public tours of two of their ships this weekend, although cameras will be prohibited on board. A Soviet song-and-dance troupe will perform during the visit, backed up by the 20-piece Soviet Navy band that played Sousa selections at dockside Friday.