As an average person living in a NATO country, was it possible for me to call someone on the telephone living behind the Iron Curtain? To send them a letter? Would the average USSR citizen even have a telephone?

by sirthrowsalot1337
jbdyer

I recently answered most of the parts of this question here.

I'm afraid I don't know about letter protocols, although in the 2020 AskHistorians conference, /u/Soviet_Ghosts spoke of Samantha Smith, an 11 year old from Maine who wrote to the General Secretary of the Communist Party.