Suzanne Massie Knows Russia

Suzanne Massie is perhaps better known in Russia than in her native United States. I met Suzanne Massie several years ago. She had heard about me and wanted me to make a movie about her life. At the time, still living in Maine, USA, I had never heard of her. I was busy documenting environmental and anti-war protests, and the Occupy Movement, and finishing my first film, The Ghosts of Jeju.

A few years later, working on my second documentary, Thirty Seconds to Midnight, I came to Russia to find out for myself whether these Russians were a godless nation, the evil empire, and the Red Menace. Tatyana Bukharina, my interpreter and guide on that and two subsequent trips to Russia, said, “Are you crazy? You don’t know who Suzanne Massie is, and you refused to make a film about her life?”

In 2020, Tanya and I visited Suzanne at her home in Blue Hill, Maine and made this video, Why Russia? Suzanne spent over 40 years living, researching and writing about Russia and this is part of her story.

We also made a second video, Trust But Verify, about how Ronald Reagan, after reading The Land of The Firebird, invited her to the White House. He wanted to learn all he could about Russia. Their many visits resulted in Reagan traveling to Reykjavík Iceland, on 11–12 October 1986 to meet with the Soviet Premiere, Mikhail Gorbachev. Reagan wanted to know if he could trust the Russian. Suzanne told Reagan, “Trust, but Verify,” which led to the INF nuclear treaty. I will post that video in the near future.

For her lifetime of work promoting Russia to Americans, and for her many books about Russia, President Putin granted her Russian citizenship in December 2021.

Tanya and I were fortunate to meet Suzanne in Yalta in June 2021, where we filmed more of Suzanne’s amazing story as she relived her life and times in Russia.