Five years away from the end of the the Soviet Union, at age 13, I had turned down an earned trip the the Junior Olympics national track meet of the United States in the 4×800 meter relay in order to say yes to an offer from my maternal grandparents [“Nonna (1917-2015) and Grandad” (1915-2009)] to visit the Soviet Union, Mongolia and Finland with Maupentour.1 In this moment, my life’s priority was self-revealed and slowly redirected away from sports (namely American football over the next seven years) to better understand and help shape human civilization away from nuclear war and all conflict potentially leading to auto-nuclear annihilation. 26 years later at the completion of my doctorate in political science (international relations) at the University of Hawaii, I offered an academic discipline a way to do just that.2
Below is my log from our trip, insisted upon by my dad (1919-2007), one of the first activists in the Sister Cities program after World War II. Below are images of this log written in adult style cursive or so I thought with many 1) spelling, 2) punctuation, 3) word usage, 4) grammatical and 5) factual errors along with transcriptions and a few corrective additions for this readership to consider 35 years after the Cold War ended. Then, we were promised “The Peace Dividend,”3 particularly during the prime years of my generation, roughly 1992-2012 to enjoy and mold with our youth culture at the time.
Day 1 of 24 – Sunday, July 20, 1986: Let’s say my day started yesterday at Cincinnati airport. I flew to New York City and stayed there for four hours, left there at 10:00pm thinking of Late Night with David Letterman and arrived in Helsinki the next morning and stayed and saw saw town (stone church), left at 6:30pm and arrived in Moscow at 10:00am local time. I am now staying in Hotel Cosmos, the same place the Goodwill athletes are staying. (Ted Turner, Founder of CNN is here also.)
Day 2 of 24 – Monday, July 21, 1986: Today, we took a tour of Moscow and saw Red Square and Saint Basil Cathedral, some other churches of the same religion (Eastern Orthodox Christianity) and saw some old Russian clothes and carriages in an armory. We also saw the Goodwill Games stadium and an Olympic ski jump. I met a Russian college student and we talked and he gave me a necklace. Then we saw some Russian dancing.
Day 3 of 24 – Tuesday, July 22, 1986: Today, I saw the Moscow Metro subway. Every station was more beautiful than the last but the most exciting things happened in Red Square. I saw good looking Russian girls. I smiled and they smiled back and I was detained by a young Soviet soldier with one strong hand for carrying Lifesavers candy in my pocket that looked to him like a bomb as I twirled the roll with my hands in my pockets while waiting in line. This all happened inside Lenin’s Tomb. Nonna, wrapped her cane against the soldier’s shin. Adelle, our tour guide from Poland talked the soldier down in Russian as I offered him a mint Lifesaver which I think is the real reason he let me go. Our tour saw more of Moscow and went to a farewell party because we’re going to Irkutsk tomorrow.
Day 4 of 24 – Wednesday, July 23, 1986: Today, we traveled from Moscow to Irkutsk, Siberia (Soviet Union) and arrived five hours ahead of Moscow and 13 hours ahead of Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States (EST/GMT-5).
Day 5 of 24 – Thursday, July 24, 1986: Today our tour saw a Russian town and church near Lake Baikal and went on a hydroplane on Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world. I learned how to hand wash clothes from Nonna and packed my clothes to go to Mongolia tomorrow. I’m a little bit disappointed that I haven’t seen any more Russian girls since I’ve left Moscow but it’s alright. Big deal!
Day 6 of 24 – Friday, July 25, 1986: Today we got on the train to Mongolia at 8:00 am and won’t arrive until 9:00 am the next morning so not too much happened but I did get to get off the train to take a picture for somebody. I’m having a good time.
Day 7 of 24 – Saturday, July 26, 1986: We arrived in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia at about 9:00 am and saw a Mongolian monastery. Then we had lunch and went to the Gobi Desert and will stay there for two days. Everybody doesn’t seem to like it here because it wasn’t what they expected. One lady said that she wanted to leave. I don’t like the camp but I like the desert. I also played some basketball with some Polish guys.
Day 8 of 24 – Sunday, July 27, 1986: Our tour took an excursion into the mountains and the desert sand dunes. The driver liked to go over bumps and I cheered him. I climbed a small mountain in 15 minutes (beautiful view). I walked in the sand. We met some Czechoslovakian (Czech) people and had a conflict but I don’t know what it was about. We also saw a Mongolian documentary (boring). We will go back to Ulaanbaatar tomorrow at 11:00 am.
Day 9 of 24 – Monday, July 28, 1986: Today it rained in the Gobi Desert so we stayed inside most of the day. We finally left our yurt compound at around 7:30 pm and got back to Ulaanbaatar at 9:00 pm due to plane trouble including taking off from a muddy desert “runway.” Mrs. Mooi is getting on my nerves and so are her jokes. I also said goodbye to our Czech friends. Tomorrow, we are going to sleep in another yurt compound.
Day 10 of 24 – Tuesday, July 29, 1986: I woke up at 4:30 am today and didn’t leave until 10:30 am because Bata, our local guide showed up late. We finally got to our yurts around Noon without Nonna and Granddad because Granddad’s sick. (Granddad might be really sick.) Today, we saw a Mongolian horse breeding family and saw a ruin of an old monastery in which Genghis Khan lived. The yurt that we’re eating in is about nine times (70 square meters) the size of a regular one (8×8 meters).
Day 11 of 24 – Wednesday, July 30, 1986: I got back to Ulaanbaatar today at about 9:30 am. Then we took a city tour of Ulaanbaatar, we saw Ulaanbbatar’s tomb and the public square and a monument honoring Russian and Mongolian soldiers. Before the tour, we saw a [natural history] museum that had dinosaur bones and Mongolian history. Then we had lunch and saw some Mongolian folklore. Somebody walked on stage and took a picture. It was funny. The xylophone performance was very good.
Day 12 of 24 – Thursday, July 31, 1986: We left Mongolia today and arrived back in Irkutsk, Siberia, Soviet Union at about 11:30 am. Then we took a city tour (boring). Then we walked around town and bought some socks. That was fun. We ate dinner than I went to a teen club and I danced for the girls and everybody. I met Dina, a guy my age (Russian) and made friends. I also met Olga (Russian), my age and made friends with her. I’ll probably never see them again. I always had a crowd around me and met a lot of Soviet citizens my age.
Day 13 of 24 – Friday, August 1, 1986: Today we flew from Irkutsk, Siberia (Soviet Union) to Alma-Ata (Almaty since 1993), the capital of Kazakhstan (Soviet Union). We are now 11 hours ahead of home time (GMT-5), not 13. We got to Alma-Ata at 6:40 pm local time. Then the tour had dinner and I danced for Nonna and everybody. I wish I had girls [watching] then. I danced because it was Nonna’s 69th birthday. After dinner, I gave her the socks and card from Mom and played her my Suzuki Violin Method tape. I also did a wash. Dad told me to try and make contact with Soviets my age and last night I did. I hope that I can do it again because it’s fun.
Day 14 of 24 – Saturday, August 2, 1986: Today, our tour took a city tour of Alma-Ata. We saw a war memorial and a church. Then the tour went into the mountains and saw a speed skating rink. There was an observatory deck 817 steps high and Kristy from the tour and I climbed it and came back. The tour came back to Alma-Ata and Granddad and I bought three traditional Kazakh hats. We also went to a musical instruments museum. Then we went and saw the Moscow Circus which had come to town.
Day 15 of 24 – Sunday, August 3, 1986: Granddad and I went for a walk in Alma-Ata and bought some kbac, a Ukrainian drink. It wasn’t good but later we had it cold and it was better. Then we saw two other museums, The Ethopatia museum and the Museum of of Economic Achievement. Then we did some other stuff and went to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan (Soviet Union), a two-hour flight. Now we are staying at Hotel Uzbekistan and went to sleep at about 1:00 am.
Day 16 of 24 – Monday, August 4, 1986: I was sick today so I didn’t go on the city tour to the market this morning but I was better by Noon and went shopping in the dollar store and bought mom or dad a wooden jug. We also saw a pharmacy and a shoe repair (Russian) shop. Granddad got his shoes shined there. Then we had lunch and then I did a wash and then we had dinner. After dinner, Adelle, Granddad, Nonna and I went for a walk in the park. After that, I packed a little for a trip to Khiva, Uzbekistan (Soviet Union) tomorrow.
Day 17 of 24 – Tuesday, August 5, 1986: Our tour went to Khiva today and saw the restored city of an old one. I took about 15 pictures. Both plane trips were awful. I found the city very interesting because it reminded me of Babylon because of the narrow streets and blue walls. We got back to Tashkent at 9:00pm and had dinner. Then I wrote a postcard. I wish I had more space to write about Olga and Dina to Dad but instead I have the space on this diary page to write because it is so easy to explain today.
Day 18 of 24 – Wednesday, August 6, 1986: Today, our tour went to a Soviet kindergarten. It was very similar to Mom’s school. Charlie and I went to a Berioska store. I bought three drinks. Charlie bought everything. We then went to an art museum. I liked the modern paintings the best because of the details and shadows. We had lunch then Granddad and I took some pictures and rode on the Ferris Wheel. Our tour also saw Uzbeki folklore. We flew to Leningrad and arrived at our hotel at 3:30 am and went to sleep at 4:00 am. It was a pretty long day.
Day 19 of 24 – Thursday, August 7, 1986: We were in Leningrad today and our tour saw architecture, both 17th and 18th century. We also saw an old fortress that Peter the Great helped supervise its building. In this fortress there was a church that was different from most Russian churches because inside this church was Peter the Great’s tomb. Then we went to the Berioska where I bought amber jewelry and a record. After dinner, Granddad, Nonna, Charlie, Sue and I saw a folklore that was really good. Everything was good.
Day 20 of 24 – Friday, August 8, 1986: In Leningrad today, we saw the Hermitage Museum (Peter the Great’s winter palace). Inside we saw paintings of Rembrandt, da Vinci and a lot of impressionist paintings. We also saw a lot of pretty rooms in the palace. Peter was 6’7.” After that we saw St. Isaac’s Cathedral. I thought everything in it either took time or was precious. Then I bought a wooden stein, had dinner then went to the small theater to see Rigoletto. I really enjoyed the singing but I couldn’t understand the story.
Day 21 of 24 – Saturday, August 9, 1986: We went to Peter the Great’s summer palace today by hydrofoil. Outside there were beautiful fountains and gardens that I took pictures of and inside were restored and original artifacts that were destroyed in World War II. Then some of our tour went to the Ethological museum and saw per-revolutionary stuff. Finally at the gala party, everybody seemed to have a good time and were in good spirits, except Buck didn’t show up and the food wasn’t that good. We leave for Helsinki, Finland tomorrow.
Day 22 of 24 – Sunday, August 10, 1986: Last night and this morning, I said goodbye to our tour members except Buck. Then Nonna, Granddad and I went on a train from Leningrad (Soviet Union) to Helsinki, Finland. Our hotel was about half a mile from our train when we thought it was going to be 50 yards. But it was worth the walk because the hotel is very clean and pleasant. The train trip was five hours long and it was fun but Nonna and Granddad didn’t see what Aunt Jeanne liked about it.
Day 23 of 24 – Monday, August 11, 1986: Today, Nonna, Granddad and I were on our own, away from the tour. We were in Helsinki, Finland. First, Granddad and I went for a swim and sauna. Then we all had breakfast together. After breakfast, we went to the mall to buy Jeanne a briefcase and Nonna bought herself a purse. The mall was really neat. Granddad thought is was creative. In it was a Formula One speedway simulator. It was fun. We had lunch at a pretty neat place. I had whitefish. We had dinner in the hotel.
Day 24 of 24 – Tuesday, August 12, 1986: No entry.
Epilogue: Upon returning to the family house in Yellow Springs, Ohio, self-assembled from 1977-80, Dad reflected on his involvement with the Sister Cities project in the aftermath of World War II in which he lost several friends, sacrificed his left lung and almost his own life giving stateside pre-combat physicals to U.S. Army soldiers and several years of his civilian medical career in recuperation from tuberculosis. He told me to immediately write up and publish my experience in some form. At 13, I balked, not our of laziness which Dad’s wry smile seemed to indicate to me at the time but because I told him that such an important project needed to marinate a little bit in my head or words to that effect.
Upon reflection, Dad’s smile may also have indicated that he knew I was right, “as usual” he would often begrudgingly say whenever I declared some opinion on any matter after offering some perspective from either youth or some intuition that he may or may not have lacked – really addressing me as his own intuition or inner self which in some ways, all children are to adults, parents or not. We both didn’t expect that the incubation period for my promise would be exactly 40 years and in this online form as we were speaking in front of the rustic kitchen cabinetry that he had recently crafted with the help of Readers Digest, some eight years or so before the birth of the internet as we know and use it today.
REFERENCES
1. “1959 Soviet Union, Poland, Finland, Germany trip, “A look behind the Iron Curtain” (silent),” PeriscopeFilm (Maupentour film). Posted October 1, 2020 (54:07): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKMImGziG3c. Retrieved August 12, 2026.
2. Martin A. Schwab, Prospects for Collaborative Power in a Brutal Universe, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawaii, 2012. https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/f71abd7c-66fb-4d25-898f-e61f357cc386/content. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
3. “Peace dividend,” Wikipedia, webpage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_dividend. Retrieved August 12, 2026.
3x3 GLOBAL DRILLS 