In the autumn of 1963, Steinbeck and his wife visited Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad and Tbilisi.

Vladimir Pozner in a preface to the Russian edition of the American writer John Steinbeck's "Russian Diary" told such a story related to this trip.

By that time, he had a lush red beard (which is important for this case). Here is what he told me:

I went to the restaurant to see what they were selling. While I was standing, a man approached me and began to talk. Well, I don’t know a word in Russian, and he understood, put one finger out and said, “Ruble, ruble!” I knew he needed a ruble. I gave him. He put out his hand, said, stand, went somewhere, very quickly returned with a bottle of vodka, made a sign for me to follow him. They walked out of the store, entered some entrance, there was another person waiting for him. He pulled the glass out of his pocket, this cleverly opened the bottle, poured the glass to the edges, without piercing a drop, raised it, like a salutation, and drank a ballot. He licked and gave me. I followed his example. Then he poured out the third, and he drank. Then he puts out his finger again and says, “Rubble!” I gave him, he jumped out of the entrance and three minutes later came back with the bottle. Well, we repeated the whole procedure and broke up with our best friends. I went out, thought badly, sat on the side. Here comes your policeman and begins to say something to me. You cannot sit on the side. I stood up and told him the only sentence I learned in Russian: “I’m an American writer.” He looked at me, smiled in his whole face and rushed to embrace me, shouting “Hemingway!!!”. Your country is the only country where the police read Hemingway.”