[ARC5] Soviet Copying

[Robert Eleazer]

A Polish WWII veteran friend of mine once described how one Russian Czar took a map and said, "Build a railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow, like this."  And he took a map, laid down a ruler on it, and drew a straight line between the two cities.  But his thumb stuck out over the edge of the ruler and made a little curve in the line as a result.  When they built the railroad they included the curve in that spot.  So the mindset was set. 

But Alexander P. D. Severersky said that in WWII the Soviets would come into a US company and say "Give us one of everything you have in your catalog."  They company people would say, "Everything, including screwdrivers?" and the Soviets would say, "Everything!  We don't have time to go through your catalog and order specific items."

So I think Mike's right.  They could have legitimately gotten almost anything from us.  And with Soviet agents on FDR's senior staff they had a lot of help.

Wayne