On the last day of 1980, the announcement came: our Pioneers’ Palace had been invited to perform at the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy in Moscow. My task was to announce the song numbers—“Bread Is A Land’s Glory,” “March of Pioneers,” “A Circle Dance of Friendship,” and so on—with “ringing optimism,” no small feat given that my voice, though loud, was naturally in a low register. When, at last, the day we’d prepared for over six long months had arrived, we lined up at 9 AM sharp, trembling with anticipation, in front of the Exhibition’s main entrance, a giant triumphant arch topped by the bronze “Tractor Man and Kolkhoz Woman” thrusting forward a bunch of wheat.
