Join us at the Wende Museum for a discussion with Alexis Peri on her latest book, Dear Unknown Friend: The Remarkable Correspondence Between American and Soviet Women. Peri brings to light the story of pen pals who defied Cold War hostility by writing across borders in the late 1940s and 1950s. Their letters opened windows into daily life, raising questions about family, work, education, faith, inequality, and peace. The women often clashed over issues such as racial segregation in the United States or repression in the Soviet Union, yet their exchanges revealed deep curiosity and the search for common ground. What began as tolerated correspondence soon became suspect as paranoia grew, with some American women even accused of subversion.

Author Bio
Alexis Peri is Associate Professor of History at Boston University. She is the author of The War Within: Diaries from the Siege of Leningrad, winner of the Pushkin House Book Prize and listed by The Wall Street Journal as one of the ten best books on the Soviet home front.