A Healing, Heroic Day in Moscow

MOSCOW — First Lady Nancy Reagan summed it up best when she described her first day in the Soviet Union as “very exciting” but also “a little overwhelming.” First, she engaged in hand-to-hand diplomacy with Raisa Gorbachev at the Kremlin. Then she rescued a White House correspondent from what appeared to be hand-to-hand combat with Soviet security men.

“It was a very, very scary scene,” said Helen Thomas of United Press International, describing the First Lady’s heroics on her behalf when an unscheduled Sunday stroll with the President prompted a pushing-and-punching melee between American reporters and Soviet plainclothesmen.

“Mrs. Reagan heard my yelling and looked shocked and startled,” Thomas said. “Then she put her arm out to tell these Soviet Security to stop manhandling me.”

The drama occurred shortly after the First Lady, dressed in a black-and-white checked Oscar de la Renta suit that was comfortably lightweight for the warm spring sunshine, tried with Mrs. Gorbachev to put to rest the rumors about their feuding.

They made a point of clasping hands, putting arms around waists and just generally seeming affectionate during their 45-minute tour of the Kremlin’s religious treasures and historic sites. The pair pooh-poohed reporters’ questions about any strained relations between them, and finally got down to talking about their reported rift woman-to-woman over tea in the Great Kremlin Palace.

It was Mrs. Gorbachev who first brought up the subject over tea, noting how all the stories were trivial. Mrs. Reagan agreed, saying, “It’s just a rumor,” according to an account of the private talk relayed by the First Lady’s press secretary, Elaine Crispen, who was present nearby.

Then the First Lady lightheartedly tried to explain to her Soviet counterpart that there’s no controlling the American press, even from the White House. “I have told them, I can’t tell you how many times, that the rumors are not true and the important thing is what our two husbands are doing.”

The conversation took only 30 minutes but seemed to clear the air between them.

The only sign of strain during the day came earlier when Mrs. Reagan seemed to annoy her hostess by asking impatiently through the interpreter whether the Assumption Cathedral--the oldest and largest church in the Kremlin, where the two women admired a Madonna and Child icon--was used as “just a museum--wait, I’m not finished yet--or for religious activities also.”

Mrs. Gorbachev’s reply was a terse “nyet.”

“Oh, yes,” said Mrs. Reagan, who had been studying some Russian phrases in preparation for the visit, “the word nyet-- that I understand.”

Later, Mrs. Reagan showed off with another word, calling out spasibo (thank you) to a small throng of tourists who had applauded her.

A Lecture on Icons, Frescoes, Carvings

As the tour of the cathedral progressed, Mrs. Gorbachev put her arm around Mrs. Reagan’s waist and gave a lecture on icons, frescoes, wood carvings and other aspects of Russian art. Mrs. Reagan, in turn, showed her interest in the subjects by asking about restoration techniques.

After commenting that the cathedral had a “very spiritual feeling” to it, she asked another question relating to religious observance in the officially atheist Soviet Union. This time, whether any event was scheduled in the cathedral to celebrate the millennium of the introduction of Christianity to the Soviet Union.

Again, Mrs. Gorbachev answered curtly, “No.”

Exactly when the hand-holding between the two women began was unclear. But at a Kremlin welcoming ceremony earlier in the day, the pair seemed much stiffer towards one another. Apparently, at some point inside the cathedral, the first ladies were moved to join in what is a very common practice among Russian women and came out of the church into the paved Cathedral Square with their fingers clasped.

Reporters following the pair immediately smelled a story and asked if they thought they’d get along this summit. “We have gotten along very well every other time,” Mrs. Reagan replied somewhat testily.

But is there any “chill” between them, the journalists persisted.

“I would like to say it’s not serious,” Mrs. Gorbachev said.

“It’s all rumor,” the American First Lady agreed.

‘The Great Matters’

Then, Mrs. Gorbachev took control of the conversation and dressed down the reporters for their feud-related questions. “The great matters between the two countries are more important,” she said. Then she added that she and Mrs. Reagan were meeting each other for the third time, and “We do have a lot to talk about which is very, very important.”

But the journalists wouldn’t be silenced. One wanted to know if former White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan was wrong, since his “kiss-and-tell” book about the White House claims the two first ladies disliked each other from their first encounter.

Mrs. Reagan fixed the reporter with an icy stare and said “yes.” She finally expressed exasperation with still another question on the subject and simply did not answer it.

Seat of Power

However, as they walked through the traditional seat of Russian power, the two women were a study in contrasts. Mrs. Reagan had chosen a darkly elegant, highly tailored look, while Mrs. Gorbachev wore a feminine ivory suit with stylish flourishes, including a stand-up ruffled collar and a gold brooch depicting a firebird.

Crispen acknowledged that Mrs. Reagan, who looked more rested than her husband after their four-day stopover in Helsinki, Finland, to get over jet lag, was unusually “geared up” about being in Moscow. “And I’d say she had a great day,” Crispen added.

The one thing it wasn’t was predictable.

Maybe the President and First Lady simply had time to kill after the end of the scheduled activities. Maybe they just wanted to get out and walk among average Soviet people. Or maybe they figured to emulate General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev’s much-talked-about unscheduled stop along a downtown Washington street when he hopped out of his limousine and started shaking hands with startled passers-by during the last summit.

Most Notable Event

No one really knows what they had in mind. But it turned into the most notable event of their first day in Moscow.

Crispen, after learning of the pushing and shoving match, threw up her hands when asked what the Reagans were planning to do their first night in Moscow. (Nothing was scheduled except for a quiet evening at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence, Spaso House, which had been spruced up for their arrival.)

“Who knows these days!” Crispen exclaimed. “I thought they were at home and then they went out walking. Maybe they’re going out to Pizza Hut!”

After he had held his first summit meeting at the Kremlin, and she had wound up her sightseeing, Ronald and Nancy Reagan took an unscheduled walk in the Arbat, the city’s charming pedestrian street mall. They strolled hand-in-hand and then climbed into an open carriage to wave to the surprised crowd.

But the Muscovites who applauded and cheered the American couple, also surged around them, to the dismay of U.S. and Soviet security.

“That’s when it became a panicky situation,” said UPI’s Thomas.

Thomas, whose job it is to stick close to the President and First Lady in thick and thin, suddenly was set upon by some of the dozen Soviet security agents who had locked arms to create a human barrier around the First Couple--a barrier that served to separate them not only from the crowd but also from the press.

‘Pushing and Shoving’

“It was very, very rough. There was pushing and shoving. A CBS cameraman was almost knocked down. People were punched,” Thomas said.

Thomas herself said she was grabbed by plainclothesmen who forced her away from the First Couple “even though I had 15 credentials. So I did what I always do: I alerted the President and First Lady that I was being manhandled by yelling loud enough to call their attention to it.”

That’s when Mrs. Reagan came to Thomas’ rescue, even putting her arm around the journalist at one point for added protection.

Later, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater shrugged off questions about the incident involving the First Lady and the dean of the White House press corps, except to quip: “It is true the First Lady had to rescue Helen--against my advice.”