Trust

A collision of cultures. It is amazing that the Soviet Union and the United States were able to successfully work together on a Russian air base. From 1944 to 1945, up to 13,000 men and women from America traveled to the U. S. S. R. to live and work with the Soviets for the great Operation Frantic, during wartime. While there, the Germans bombarded the main base at Poltava, while our people had only cloth tents between them and the shrapnel.
There were huge cultural, political and of course language differences to overcome. Yet many international friendships were born. Still, as you can imagine, stress points often arose, especially over the issue of fraternization. American men and women spent time in the city of Poltava when off duty. There were plenty of opportunities for romantic attachment. This (understandably) often created resentment among Russian men. Imagine the situation in reverse; Americans would have felt the same. Conversino covered this problem amply in his book: Fighting with the Soviets. 

Politically, it can be argued that our differences were even stronger. America was in the Soviet Union as a guest. It was proper for the U. S. to respect Soviet ways of life, and certainly, Soviet policy. Did we? Well, Americans didn't get a perfect score on this. During the 15 months of the experiment, there were a couple of international incidents involving human smuggling accusations on U. S. airplanes. One case involved a Pole, the other a Russian. In both, Americans were held by the Soviets for aiding the escape. Their actions encouraged mistrust by the Soviets.

At the same time these events were unfolding, Captain Robert Trimble was conscripted into the role of rescuer. So he traveled alone and on foot into Poland to find POW. He had intelligence help to locate them, of course. Did the Soviet Union follow his every move in Poland? Yes. Their intelligence organization, the NKVD, pursued him. The Americans called them "bird dogs" because of their tracking ability. Did we give the Soviets reason to be suspicious? Yes. The Russians had hard evidence of Trimble's covert attempts to bring lost Americans in to safety. Air Force historian, Major Lepawsky, wrote: Captain Trimble’s attempt...to pass off American exfiltrated  prisoners [of war] as AAF crewmen...caused [Russian Officer] Shepankov’s new order [for strict accounting of personnel]. So the Soviets had good reason to follow him.

The Soviet Union had their hands full, having lost tens of millions in the Great Patriotic War. Their heritage is of an immensely courageous people. They were still engaged in a brutal war with the Germans, but had banded together in a massive human and industrial effort the likes the world had never seen. And although a culture of suspicion had existed decades before, it was understandable that the Soviets had forbidden further, unescorted American movement in Poland. Americans had even been accused of helping the deposed Polish government regain control.  Therefore, Captain Trimble stepped naively into the beginnings of the Cold War; he had no training or warning for what was about to happen when he was alone.

Despite the protective cloak of the NKVD, the Russians were good hosts publicly; protocol was always followed. And provisions were made for the men on base which were better than for the average citizen. When the great President Roosevelt died, the Russian officers came one by one to offer their sincere condolences to the mourning Americans.

In a DVD released to the public not long ago by the KGB, Captain Trimble was described by [Soviet] Gen. Slavin as a moderate officer who may have temporarily contributed to the ease of the already existing tense atmosphere between the Soviet COs Slavin, Kovalev, and Perminov, and the U. S. commanders. These words were written by Slavin after Trimble had completed his clandestine rescue work. Finally, another U. S. Air Force historian, Officer William Kaluta, was an eyewitness at the time. He wrote: Amicable relations continued between the new Commanding Officer [Trimble] and local Soviets up to the full evacuation of Eastern Command personnel from Poltava. So despite political differences and mistrust, both sides respected the personal courage and sentiments shown by the other.