Page 338 - The Mirror of My Soul. Vol. 1

Nicolai Levashov. The Mirror of My Soul. Vol. 1. Born in the USSR

it was only a conversation about the hypothetical possibility of getting the passport

quicker through his establishment. After this short conversation, the primary purpose of
which was his desire to show the true face of Mironov, he handed me our passports with
the exit visas and wished us a nice trip.

Thus, in the evening of December 24, we had our passports with the exit visas,
despite Vladimir Mironov’s efforts, but we still did not have the American visas. I told
Constantine Orbelian the situation with visas, and we agreed that he would come to the
American embassy with us. On Thursday morning (Wednesday was a holiday in the
American embassy, because of Christmas) we got into the Embassy and filled in forms
to which he added his invitation, which almost played a negative role, as it turned out
later.

The point was that he had made about two hundred invitations to the USA during
one year and was blacklisted because of this. In short, they took our documents for visa
registration and said to come to get the answer at 5 o’clock in the afternoon to such-and-

such a window. We went home and returned to the American embassy at 5 o'clock sharp.
We found our window and I calmly, unaware of anything, passed by the enormous queue
of people who were waiting for something. I came to the necessary window at 17.00,
waited until a person walked away from it, took his place and asked whether my papers
were ready.

I was told that they were not and was asked to wait a little. I stepped aside and
began to wait for my papers. Now I had the time to look around and only then did I
realize that all these people who stood in this enormous queue, which we had passed by,
were waiting their turn for the same window! I was guided by one thing—they told me
to be at such-and-such window at 17.00 and that’s that! I could not have supposed that
all other people were told the same thing. I never saw such an enormous queue, except

for the one to Lenin’s mausoleum, when thousands of people fooled by the Soviet
propaganda stood in the queue for hours in order to glance at the “great” Lenin.

In 1972, when my mother and I came to Moscow and went to the Red Square for
the first time, we saw the enormous queue of the zealous visiting the Mausoleum and
even wanted get in it, but it was very hot and our desire evaporated very quickly. So, we
continued our acquaintance with Moscow without the traditional visit. Later, when I
understood who Lenin was, I had no desire whatsoever to visit his mausoleum.

So, almost exactly that kind of long queue stretched out from the indicated “visa”
window. I was absolutely sure that if I was told to come to the window at 17.00 sharp
that meant that I must come exactly at this time to this window. I waited near the window
for fifteen minutes and when the next person stepped back, I again inquired. This time
the answer was ready. I paid for the visas and took our passports. We had 6 month visas.
I was given a visa B1 and Svetlana—B2, which meant a business visa without the right
to work in the USA. We got these visas, because I was invited to take part in the

conference on alternative medicine in San Francisco.

Thus, we got our visas in 15 to 20 minutes, without standing in the queue. No one
was indignant with us. No one even asked me, who I was or when was my turn. When I
told my friends about this, no one believed me. I was told that people began to queue at
5 or 6 o'clock in the morning and, if they could not get to the window that day, they
sometimes spent the night near the American embassy in order to get there for sure the

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