Radio Free Europe and Christmas in the Cold War Years ©

 

1951 RFE Card

Christmas played a role in both Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia broadcasts and in the Crusade for Freedom campaigns in the 1950s. 

 

Some states began their 1952 fund-raising campaigns in November and ended later than normal, due to conflicts with already planned fund-raising events. Pennsylvania, for example, with a fund-raising goal of $150,000, maintained the Crusade for Freedom through Christmas. One local newspaper article began with:

This Christmas will be just another Thursday to the children behind the Iron Curtain. There will be no Santa Claus, no toys, no days of joy and veneration. The children of Poland, Czechoslovakia and other Iron Curtain countries will spend the usual regimented day, listen to the same steady stream of Communist propaganda.

The most creative activity in the state was in Pittsburgh. On December 3, 1952, the Pittsburgh Press newspaper carried a small article and photograph with the caption: “Pittsburgh ‘Red Invader’ Surrenders—‘Russian Soldier’ Stephen Radkoff, really a Pittsburgh actor, remains grim to the end as he surrenders to Freedom Girl Miyal Harvey and Howard G. Burr, center, chairman of Western Pennsylvania Crusade for Freedom.”

The article described how local Crusade chairman Burr had arranged for Stephen Radkoff to walk around the streets of Pittsburgh in a Russian soldier’s uniform on December 2, 1952, hoping to get some sort of reaction from passersby. But, the newspaper reported that the “Red Invader” had gathered little attention from the citizens of Pittsburgh.

Chairman Burr also arranged for a “take-over” of a Pittsburgh television station WDTV at 11 P.M. by three men pretending to be “Red Agents.” The men were dressed as soldiers and seized the newscaster Dave Murray and for a few minutes, they turned the television station into a “Communist propaganda outlet" when the officer sat down before the camera and said, "Citizens! Comrades! You are about the hear the truth." After a few minutes, Murray returned to the studio and told the television audience, "The interruption was merely a dramatic demonstration of that has gone on in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Burma, China and many other countries in the world ... For the past three years they have had the chance to hear Truth. It comes to them from the Crusade for Freedom." 

Burr told the newspaper, “These were stunts, but we think that they are necessary to bring home to all of us just what is going on behind the Iron Curtain ... Our two radio stations need money to maintain. Really, not much money for all the good they do. 

Chairman Burr was also seen in a local newspaper photograph with Santa Claus and three young girls, two of whom (Claire Bletcher and Andrea McLaughlin) were holding a Crusade for Freedom poster. The caption read, "A Christmas Message of Hope." The text read, in part, "Santa's telling them Christmas is no time for happiness for children in the Iron Curtain Countries -- the greatest gift they can receive is a message of hope for the future, which the Crusade for Freedom, through Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, is trying to give them."

The article "Russian Kids Wont't Have a Santa Claus" added, "An equally important part of the campaign is educational -- letting everyone know what the Crusade is doing and how they can help." Burr also was quoted in the article as saying,

Christmas isn’t a happy day behind the Iron Curtain, but neither is any other day. We have to let those people, who are on our side in this struggle, know that we here in the United States have not forgotten them. Everyone must know what the Crusade is doing, and join in its work, either though contributions or by signing Freedom-Grams—the messages of hope which the Crusade transmits behind the Iron Curtain.

Below is a selected summary of other programs and events.

1952

On December 19, 1952, in cooperation with the Crusade for Freedom and Radio Free Europe, ABC’s nation-wide radio network broadcast the program "Caroling Through the Iron Curtain.“

1954

In December 1954, the Free Europe Press launched this Christmas card to Hungary, with this message:

Men bowed under sorrow and humiliation, men oppressed and persecuted draw from this light the patience and strength to await the day that will bring them peace, truth and freedom

1955

In 1955, the Free Europe Press sent at least two Christmas cards over the Iron Curtain via the balloon / leaflet program: one to Czechoslovakia and one to Hungary (possibly the same as the one in 1954).  It is possible that another one was sent to Poland. The Christmas card to Czechoslovakia was from a painting by the Dutch artist Rogier van der Weydon; Three kings altar, middle panel, Adoration of the Magi. The text on the reverse of the card read the same as the 1954 Christmas card to Hungary, with perhaps an additional sentence:

Men bowed under sorrow and humiliation, men oppressed and persecuted draw from this light the patience and strength to await the day that will bring them peace, truth and freedom. On the threshold of the New Year, we bow before God and renew within ourselves love for our neighbour.

It would appear that the Free Europe Press used the same message in the 1954 and 1955 cards launched by balloon--that would make some sense as the message was, in fact, the same to all three countries, to which balloons were sent.

In 1955, RFE broadcast an Advent service of the Czech Moravian Brethren Church that included songs from the choir and congregation under the direction of Rev. Frank D. Svoboda, pastor of the church in Taylor, Texas.

Also in 1955, RFE broadcast the Christmas message to Eastern Europe of President Eisenhower, who said, “The American people recognize the trials under which you are suffering; join you in your concern for the restoration of individual liberty; and share with you your faith that right in the end will prevail to bring you once again among the free nations of the world.”  Eisenhower’s message was heavily criticized by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who called it, “Crude Interference.”

1956

Twelve Hungarian refuges living in the USA recorded 30 and 60 second messages at RFE’s New York office for broadcast to Hungary. Some of the messages were in code: “This is from Black Bear to the Red Forest.” If the message was heard, word was sent back with, “We heard the melody on the piano.”

1958

Newspapers around the United States in December 1958 carried a photograph of 7-year-old Irena Dubicka of Brooklyn, New York, behind a Radio Free Europe microphone recording a “greeting to the children of Poland on behalf of youngsters in America” that would be broadcast by RFE on Christmas Eve as part a special holiday program. 

Additional programs to Poland included a broadcast by the Polish Boy Scouts in New York and a Polish Choir in London. RFE broadcast folklore, carols, and interviews with Christmas shoppers in London and New Work—“A potent reminder of the good things to buy in the capitalist countries.”

Listeners in Hungary heard folk songs, a children’s play from the Hungarian High School in Munich, and a special Christmas play performed by Hungarian émigré actors in New York.

Bulgarian émigrés in New York recorded old folklore and Christmas songs that were broadcast to Bulgaria. RFE also broadcast a special Christmas program entitled “Greetings to Jammers.”

President Eisenhower’s annual Christmas message was broadcast over Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and was not jammed.

1960

President-elect John F. Kennedy sent Christmas wishes to Eastern Europe via RFE in December 1960.

In 1962, for Christmas, RFE broadcast

·    Pope John XXIII’s Christmas mass and message.

·    A new play by children of Hungarian refugees in Germany to let Hungarians know that their language is not lost to new generations now living outside the country.

·    A Romanian jazz band that had escaped through East Berlin in September.

·   Special programs to Greek Catholics in Czechoslovakia and to orthodox members in Romania and Bulgaria.  

1966  

The official Christmas song for RFE was Kate Smith's "Christmas Eve in My Home Town." The song also was played over American Forces Radio Network for the military stationed outside the United States, the Voice of America, and domestic college and commercial radio stations.

 

 

 

1981

In 1981, after martial law was declared in Poland and communications to the West were cut off, RFE broadcast Christmas messages to friends and families over RFE’s “Telephone Bridge to Poland” from Poles living in Germany, Austria, Britain, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. There were two daily 45-minute programs with 120 to 145 telephone messages per program.