[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 110 (Wednesday, July 23, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1573]]
        TRIBUTE TO DR. NIKITA MORAVSKY, AMERICAN CITIZEN-PATRIOT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 23, 2003

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to pay tribute to Dr. 
Nikita Valerianovich Moravsky, American citizen and patriot, who will 
soon be celebrating his 80th birthday. Those of us who have had the 
good fortune to be born in the United States may sometimes take our 
citizenship for granted and forget how special it is. Dr. Moravsky's 
life reminds us of just how precious our birthright is, and his career 
of service to our country sets an example for us of appreciation for 
that gift.
  In 1923, when Nikita Moravsky came into this world, he had no 
country. He was born in Shanghai, China, to Russian parents who had 
fled from the Bolshevik Revolution in their homeland. Educated in 
Jesuit schools in Shanghai, Nikita studied French and English, while at 
home he learned to speak Russian with the perfect pre-war St. 
Petersburg accent that he still maintains. As a young man he lived 
through the brutal Japanese invasion and occupation of Shanghai. Then, 
in 1949, as the Chinese Communists prepared to enter the city, Nikita 
was evacuated, along with 5,000 other--primarily Russian--refugees to a 
displaced persons camp on Tubabao Island in the Philippines. There he 
remained for two years.
  Finally, in 1951, Nikita arrived in the United States, where he was 
soon employed on the faculty of the prestigious Army Language School in 
Monterey, CA, teaching Russian to American military personnel. Thus 
began Nikita's career of serving his adopted country. In 1958, he moved 
to Washington, DC, where he worked at the U.S. Information Agency 
(USIA) on the staff of its Russian-language magazine America 
Illustrated. He later entered the Foreign Service, touring Russia with 
USIA exhibits, and serving for two years as Cultural Attache at the 
American Embassy in Moscow. Next followed ten years of leadership 
positions with the USSR Division of the Voice of America, where 
broadcasts to the Soviet Union kept alive the values of truth and 
openness that ultimately undermined the Communist regime that his 
parents had fled so long before.
  After leaving government service, Nikita obtained his Ph.D. in 
Russian Area Studies from Georgetown University. In his post-government 
career, he has taught at George Washington University and American 
University, educating his students in Russian culture and history and 
thus helping to prepare a new generation of leaders for the post-Cold 
War era. He also has published numerous articles in both English and 
Russian and two books in Russian, one dealing with the Tubabao Island 
refugees and the Russian diaspora in the Far East and a new work 
entitled Through the Eyes of a Russian-American.
  It is thanks to the work of Nikita Moravsky, and countless others 
like him, who toiled for years behind the scenes during the Cold War, 
that the American ideals of democracy and liberty now have a chance in 
the former Soviet Union. It was not just American military expenditures 
that ended the Cold War, but the hopes of the Russian people themselves 
for a freer society--hopes well-nurtured by Nikita's work.
  The United States indeed has been fortunate in having Nikita Moravsky 
as an adopted son. I invite my colleagues to join me in saying ``thank 
you'' to Nikita for his career of service to the United States and 
``congratulations'' on the milestone of his 80th birthday.

                          ____________________