People overseas

The proposed book contains essays written at different times about the inhabitants of the United States of America - the people the author encountered across the ocean. In selecting material for the book, the author adhered to the principle of conveying only live impressions, describing only those individuals whom I saw and felt personally, through my own heart. The characters in the essays represent an extremely small part of American society. In their stories, the national character and society are reflected, divided into classes and groups, with their characteristic features interacting with customs, politics, economic ups and downs, and the history of a great, powerful, cruel, and contradictory country. This work is the labor of a journalist who has been studying the United States intensively for a quarter of a century. The author of the book is drawn to the genre that allows conveying vivid impressions, a mosaic representation of life. Each fragment of this mosaic complements and highlights one another. Of course, our interest in American life is not devoid of political character. Our encounters with Americans are inseparably linked to politics, reflections on Soviet-American relations, and the necessity of peaceful coexistence in the modern world. In addition to essays, the book includes several political reports inspired by my recent travels, as well as several essays dedicated to important events in modern US history. Special attention deserves the essay "Touching Hiroshima," in which I describe my impressions from meeting with pilots who participated in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.