Photo credit: Cydney Scott

This event is FREE for TMORA Members!  REGISTER HERE.

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Join us for an evening with historian Alexis Peri, author of Dear Unknown Friend: The Remarkable Correspondence between American and Soviet Women. Peri will discuss the true story of the extraordinary letters exchanged between American and Soviet women during WWII and the early Cold War.

Dear Unknown Friend tells the story of U.S. and Soviet pen pals during the early Cold War. These women approached one another with curiosity and a desire for coexistence. Their letters—initially permitted by censors on both sides—revealed the shared humanity between supposed enemies, inspiring each to reflect on and question their own societies.

Tea and sweets will be available during the event. All museum galleries will be open for viewing, and the TMORA Shop will also be open for your holiday shopping.

Dear Unknown Friend will be available for purchase in TMORA Shop. A book signing will follow the event.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Alexis Peri is author of The War Within: Diaries from the Siege of Leningrad, winner of the Pushkin House Book Prize and named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the ten
best books on the Soviet home front. She is Associate Professor of History at Boston University.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
In a compelling new perspective on the early Cold War, prizewinning historian Alexis Peri explores correspondence between American and Soviet women in the late 1940s and 1950s. Previously unexamined, the women’s letters movingly demonstrate the power of the personal, as the pen pals engaged in a “diplomacy of the heart” that led them to question why their countries were so divided.

Both Soviet and American women faced a patriarchal backlash after World War II that marginalized them professionally and politically. The pen pals discussed common challenges they faced, such as unequal pay and the difficulties of balancing motherhood with a career. Each side evinced curiosity about the other’s world, asking questions about family and marriage, work conditions, educational opportunities, and religion. The women advocated peace and cooperation but at times disagreed strongly over social and economic issues, such as racial segregation in the United States and mandatory labor in the Soviet Union. At first both governments saw little risk in the communications, as women were presumed to have little influence and no knowledge of state secrets, but eventually Cold War paranoia set in. Amid the Red Scare, the House Un-American Activities Committee even accused some of the American women of being communist agents.

A rare and poignant tale, Dear Unknown Friend offers a glimpse of the Cold War through the perspectives of women who tried to move beyond the label of “enemy” and understand, even befriend people across increasingly bitter political divides.

TICKETS: TMORA Member FREE | General Admission $10 | Student $5