Word: sochi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...exchange program of sorts: his former counterpart, Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev, came to the U.S. last summer. Akhromeyev, now a close adviser to President Mikhail Gorbachev, accompanied Crowe on an eleven-day, nine-stop tour that stretched from Murmansk in the far north to Sochi on the Black Sea. Last week Crowe was summoned to the Kremlin for an audience with Gorbachev. The Soviet leader used the occasion to compliment the man who had appointed Crowe Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 1985: "Former President Reagan saw the way things should go and turned the situation in the right direction...
...mellow summer evening last week, Captain Vadim Markov ordered his aged passenger liner unmoored in the Black Sea port of Novorossisk. The 17,053-ton Admiral Nakhimov steamed out of the harbor, bound for Sochi, 115 miles to the southeast, with 1,234 souls on board: a crew of 350 and 884 tourists, all Soviet citizens, enjoying a late-season coastal cruise. A band was playing on deck, and some of the passengers danced beneath brilliant lights that reflected off the dark waters...
...Sochi, on the Russian side of the Black Sea, is one of the most popular resorts. Last year 4 million visitors walked along its shady lanes and admired its manicured shrubbery. But families do not necessarily share such pleasures. Because the permits for rooms at sanatoriums are distributed at places of employment or through trade unions, Soviet vacationers often take their holidays with their workmates. Said one beach-bound Muscovite: "Why would I miss my husband? I can see him all year...
...Sochi has 200 sanatoriums and dozens of hotels. As in other resort cities, the demand for rooms far outstrips the supply. Those unable to bribe or bluster their way to a place in the sun are forced to find their own lodgings. The Soviets refer to these masses of unfortunates as dikari, literally "savages," but in this sense meaning unofficial holidaymakers. They arrive with nowhere to stay and must try to strike a bargain with locals who have a room to rent. Such private deals are strictly illegal, but they are widely tolerated. Some seaside landladies offer a fair deal...
Soviet doctors stress the restorative virtues of spa vacations. At many resorts, visitors can immerse themselves in bubbling sulfur baths or inhale herbal steam. At Sochi, where the beach is covered with black pebbles instead of sand, white-uniformed nurses patrol seaside stretches with names like Medical Beach and Health Beach, enforcing a 55-minute limit on exposure to the sun's rays, even for the swarthiest guest. The preferred way for getting a quick tan is to stand facing the sun with arms held aloft. Because of a shortage of swimsuits and suntan oil, beaches are crowded with thousands...