Joe Adamov, (Yosif Adamov),pron. yos-eef adamof (7 January 1920 – 18 December 2005) was a journalist and presenter on

Radio Moscow Radio Moscow (), also known as Radio Moscow World Service, was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics until 1993, when it was reorganized into Voice of Russia, which was subsequently reorga ...

and its successor, the

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, for over sixty years. Of

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n descent, he was born in

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ), historically Batum or Batoum, is the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), second-largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast ...

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. As a child, he lived with his family in England and attended British schools. Later, in the 1930s, he attended a special school for American expats in Moscow where he acquired familiarity with Americans. He was a graduate of

Moscow State Pedagogical University Moscow State Pedagogical University or Moscow State University of Education is an educational and scientific institution in Moscow, Russia, with eighteen faculties and seven branches operational in other Russian cities. The institution had under ...

. An expert

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who spoke with a neutral American accent, Adamov joined Radio Moscow as an announcer at the foreign language service of Radio Moscow in 1942. He lived in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

during most of his career. Among English-speaking listeners, he is best known as the presenter of the programme ''Moscow Mailbag'' on Radio Moscow's North American shortwave broadcasts. The program answered questions from listeners on all aspects of Soviet life and the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

's policies. At its height, ''Moscow Mailbag'' listeners sent Adamov thousands of letters yearly. In his capacity as a Radio Moscow journalist and presenter of ''Moscow Mailbag'', Adamov conducted interviews with many western politicians and journalists, including

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

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Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trust ...

and

Larry King Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American TV and radio host presenter, author, and former spokesman. He was a WMBM radio interviewer in the Miami area in the 1950s and 1960s and beginning in ...

. During the

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, Adamov's broadcasts, like all other Radio Moscow output, were carefully studied by Western governments, a fact of which the Soviet authorities were well aware. Joe Adamov presented ''Moscow Mailbag'' from 1957 until shortly before his death, when ill-health forced him to relinquish the role permanently. The program remains on the air with different presenters. Joe Adamov was also the official Soviet translator at the trial of

Gary Powers Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929August 1, 1977) was an American pilot who served as a United States Air Force officer and a CIA employee. Powers is best known for his involvement in the 1960 U-2 incident, when he was shot down while flyi ...

, shot down in a U-2 spy plane in 1960. The signature poem of Moscow Mailbag was:

You can't do better than send us that letter and in it tell Joe what you think of his show

Adamov's death was reported on Voice of Russia's English-language news bulletins on December 21, 2005, although neither these bulletins nor the obituary on their website gave an exact date of death.

References

External links

Biography by Katherine Lawson

Archive of studio recordings of Joe Adamov including Moscow Mailbag
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adamov, Joe 1920 births 2005 deaths People from Batumi Soviet Armenians Radio in the Soviet Union Journalists from Moscow Russian radio personalities Soviet expatriates in the United Kingdom 20th-century Russian journalists Soviet journalists Radio and television announcers