Notebook

Gorbachev resurgent?

History is kind to him, even if the present is not

An authoritative Mos-cow radio station named ex-Soviet president Mikhail Gorba-chev Russia’s most important politician of the 20th century. 

Ekho Mosvky (which recently named Mikhail Bulgakov Russia’s greatest 20th century writer, see last issue) based its results on a non-random popular poll carried out through the mail, newspaper ads, the internet and call-in campaigns. 

The also-rans behind Gorbachev (in order of precedence) were: Vladimir Lenin, Pyotr Stolypin, Josef Stalin, Boris Yeltsin, Sergei Witte and Nikita Khrush-chev. Gorbachev has long been more popular abroad than at home and the former president said that the poll results are much more important to him than the results of a recent poll in Australia, where 70% of respondents named him “person of the century.” 

“When I heard and keep hearing criticism at my expense,” he said, “I realize that there can be no happy reformers.” 

 

Saving sturgeon

When interests coincide

 

W

hile Russian and US diplomats spar over Yugoslavia, IMF loans and the ABM treaty, eleven time zones from Moscow Russian and American border guards are working together to crack down on sturgeon poaching in the Bering Sea—a vital spawning area and source of half the commercial US fish catch.

The two country’s coast guard forces (which have worked together here for nearly 10 years) have coordinated the expulsion of trawlers from the five mile buffer zone and dragged up over 100 km of poachers’ nets. In one recent incident, a US ship detected a Chinese vessel illegally fishing near the cape of Lopatka. Russian border troops were informed and they pursued the poachers, firing across their bow to get them to surrender.

 

A monument to Yuri Nikulin, Russia’s best-loved clown and former director of the Circus on Moscow’s Tsvetnoy boulevard, has been erected on his grave at Novodevichy cemetery. The sculpture, by Alexander Rukavishnikov, was inspired by a famous photo of the clown showing him sitting on the edge of a circus arena next to his favorite dog. 

 

CLEANING TIME. The clock in the Kremlin’s Savior’s (Spassky) Tower will be under repair for six months. Russia’s best clockmasters will reinforce the panels of the clock face, then remove the hour figures and the hands to clean them. The famous clock has been fully restored just once since it was installed in the 17th century—in 1913, one the eve of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, about the time the photo above was taken.

 

closing down

death row

On June 3, President Boris Yeltsin commuted the death sentences of all 7000+ death row convicts in Russia. He is also pushing the Duma to adopt a law revoking the death penalty in Russia—a requisite precondition for membership in the Council of Europe, which Russia joined three years ago.

 

Finishing touches

Interior painting in Moscow’s Christ the Savior cathedral is to be completed by November 1, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said at a session of the Council of Observers supervising the cathedral’s construction. Zurab Tsereteli, who oversees the artistic work, said the cupolas will be complete by City Day (Sep-tember 5), the halls by Sep-tember 30, the glass windows by October 15 and the corridors by November 1. Engi-neer-ing systems will become operational by November 1. Initial consecration will be held prior to Russian Orthodox Christ-mas (January 7), so that Christ-mas services can be held inside. But the main consecration will coincide with the anniversary of the Russian Orthodox Ecumenical Council, to be held in the summer of 2000.

 

adieu vladimir

In a July 6 interview with Izvestia, President Boris Yeltsin was asked if Lenin will be removed from his tomb and buried. “Yes...” Yeltsin responded, “but when? That is the question.” Yeltsin said a special commission is being set up to study plans to bury Lenin. Yeltsin also indicated that he has no intention of staying in the Presidency after his term is over in 2000.

they know the risks first-hand

Japan will give Russia $200 million to help destroy aging nuclear weapons, Interfax reported. Due to the serious safety threat these aging tools of mass destruction pose, Japan is stepping in to help bury the Cold-War relics.

 

farm woes

Warm weather in April led Russian farmers to plant early. But frosts in May and savagely hot weather in June have decimated crops, threatening the fall harvest. The Agriculture Ministry said Russia will not likely reach its target of 70 million metric tons of grain and some regions are reporting 70-80% crop failure. This after last year’s drought, which left Russia with its worst crop harvest in 40 years, just 47 million metric tons. The harvest is made the more difficult by the usual mechanical woes: only about 75% of the required number of combine harvesters are in working condition and fuel shortages hamper efforts to keep functioning machinery operational. After last year’s poor harvest the EU and US pledged food aid in excess of $1 bn.

 

rehabilitation

The Prosecutor General’s Office has officially granted posthumous rehabilitation to Grand Princes Pavel Alexandrovich, son of tsar Alexander II, and Niko-lai Mikhailo-vich, Georgy Mikhailovich and Dmitry Konstantinovich, nephews of Alexander II. The descendants of the assassinated tsar were executed by the Bolsheviks in St. Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Fortress on January 24, 1919.

 

just say “no”

By a vote of 297-43, the Russian State Duma has passed the first reading of an anti-smoking bill. The bill, if it passes two successive readings, and is approved by the Federation Council and the President, would prohibit smoking in state and publicly owned buildings and on all public transportation, would outlaw tobacco advertising by means of billboards, posters, handbills, and television and would prohibit sales of tobacco to persons under 18. The lattermost restriction was crucial to the bill’s passage. Some 77% of Russian men, 27% of woman and 42% of children and teenagers smoke. Observers do not give the bill much hope of final passage and discount the effects of prohibition to stem teen smoking. 

 

IN BUSINESS NEWS: 

Goldman, Sachs & Co. has forecast a 7.8% growth rate for Russia this year. • The US company Metromedia Group, long active in the Russian telecom market, is purchasing Petersburg Long Distance (PLD) for $132 million. • Ford Motor Company said it is setting up a $150 million joint venture in Vsevolozhsk to produce some 25,000 cars annually. • Red October, Russia’s biggest confectionery, declared a pre-tax profit in 1998 of R148,56 mn ($6.04 mn). The company projects that its chocolate output in 1999 will increase over 25%. • On July 6, the first Russian-made BMW rolled off the line in Kaliningrad, at a factory that produced Korean KIAs until the Asian crisis. 

 

our lady at rest

Russia’s most cherished icon, Our Lady of Vladimir, will soon be placed in the Church of St. Nicholas. The icon, which according to legend was painted by St. Luke, was seen on many occasions to have saved Moscow from foreign invaders and natural disasters. After the Revolution, the icon was placed in the Tretyakov Gallery. It remained there until October, 1993, when, by a government decision, it was taken to the Epiphany Cathedral for a service to subdue hostilities between President Boris Yeltsin and the Duma. The icon was slightly damaged during this excursion. Therefore, the Tretyakov Gallery, after restoring the icon, has said it will give Our Lady of Vladimir to the church if it will be kept in a bulletproof, climate-controlled case (being financed by the Moscow City government).

 

above the fray

The Russian Orthodox Church has declared that its priests cannot hold political office. The Metropolite of Smolensk and Kaliningrad had reportedly been offered a presidential candidacy by the democratic movement Vozrozhdenye (Resurrection), so the Patriarch’s office said that if the priest did run, he would be stripped of his priesthood. 

 

 

“The government stopped stealing in the open long ago—it’s too dangerous.” 

Kommersant Daily, on Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin’s new cabinet.

 

“The Duma is a plane without a fuselage. It’s some sort of strange creature with just two wings—the left and the right—but which cannot fly.” 

Yuri Luzhkov, quoted in Argumenty i Fakty.

 

 “What a great plan: to wage a Cold War at the expense 

of the West! A diplomacy worthy of Berezovsky!” 

Sevodnya on the contradictions of Russia’s 

international policies toward

the Balkan war.

 

“One needs to explain to the IMF what a vodka price hike would mean for Russians. One could, namely, get Camedessus to taste some aftershave lotion or 

something.” 

Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky, on the Russian government’s promise to 

increase vodka prices if it receives 

yet another IMF loan.”

 

“Yeltsin is a nuclear mine in an emergency ... We propose to wait until he runs down on his own, while communists opt for calling in the sapper, giving him 200 grams of vodka and telling him: ‘Come on, Vasya, go and clear out the mine.” 

Vladimir Ryzhkov, leader of Our Home is Russia, on different tactics to rid Russia of President Yeltsin (Argumenty i Fakty).

 

One of US now

Khrushchev’s son sworn in as US citizen

N

ikita Khrushchev once promised to bury America. Now his son, Sergei, 63, has become a US citizen. 

The former rocket engineer—he once headed the Soviet Missile Design Bu-reau—will settle in Provi-dence, RI with his wife Valentina. Khrush-chev has been living in the US for eight years, working as a scholar and lecturer at Brown University’s Center for For-eign Policy De-vel-op-ment. 

Sergei Nikitich said his father wouldn’t have disapproved of his move, which he said was taken for purely financial reasons: he ex-pects the US government to cut pen-sions to non-citizens when the baby boomer generation reaches retirement age.

 

Solzhenitsyn honored

Controversial dictionary cited

T

he Russian Academy of Sciences awarded its annual Great Golden Medal named after Mikhail Lomo-nosov to Aleksandr Solzhe-nitsyn for his outstanding contribution to the development of Russian language, Russian literature and Russian history. 

The jury considered not only Solzhenitsyn’s literary achievements but also his linguistic opus, Russian Dic-tionary of Linguistic Ex-pan-sion. 

The dictionary is based on Solzhenitsyn’s belief that any writer, as a professional user of the language, has the right to widen and develop the language on his own. Thus, in addition to many folk and dialect words, Solzhenitsyn’s dictionary includes many words which he invented, using different suffixes and prefixes. 

 

Time for a change

Jails, orphanages indicted by UN

B

y a vote of 400-0, the State Duma has amne-stied over 94,000 prisoners in Russia–about one in every ten inmates. The speediness of the releases now depends of the bureaucrats in the prison system, the Justice Ministry says, and the first to be released will be about 12,000 people who are await-ing trial, followed by pregnant women, women with small children, elderly, disabled, and those who infected with tuberculosis. 

Although it is somewhat unclear which crimes amne-sty has been granted, the Moscow press reported that an amendment sponsored by liberal Duma Deputy Valery Borsh-chov allows those convicted of military desertion to return home. But, with spare housing almost absent, many inmates will find themselves homeless. And with health care hampered by budget shortfalls, there is a real risk of the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis, which has been breeding in Russian prisons. 

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson visited the Moscow jail Butyrka, where 60-80 prisoners are housed in cells intended for 30 and are allowed outside only one hour per day. She called conditions there “inhumane” and spoke with Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov about laws to stem police brutality in extracting confessions–no such laws exist. Robinson also commented on the state of children in Russia’s orphanages and other institutions. She said that in most countries, many of the 600,000 children with minor disabilities in Russia’s institutions would be taken care of by their families with state support. If similar action were taken in Russia, she said, it would reduce the number of children being cared for directly by the state. Robinson agreed to a $3 million, three year human rights education project that will include a television program, distribution of printed materials, and training workshops.

 

Pushkin in America

A new statue honoring Pushkin will soon stand in Washington, DC. Groundbreaking took place on June 6 and the statue will be in place on the campus of Wash-ington University, at the intersection of H and 22nd streets, this fall. The statue (above) is being sculpted by preeminent Russian sculptor, Alexander Burganov and has been organized by the non-profit organization, American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation.

 

In the first four months of 1999, the government deficit was down 7% and revenues were up 12% vs. the same period in 1998 Meanwhile, imports dropped 46.9%. ! Some 2.5 million Chinese reside within Russia’s borders. ! Russia’s population decreased by 265,800 during the first third of 1999, to 146.1 million. During the same period in 1998, the decline was just 159,700. ! There are 5 million Cossacks in Russia. ! The Russian government is cutting its expenditures on culture by 75% in 2000 vs. 1999. ! On May 1, the average wage for Russians was 1,465 rubles ($60). ! 30 tons of space waste litters the Republic of Khakassia (it neighbors Baikonur space complex in Kazakhstan). Meanwhile, Kemerovo oblast has 200 tons of undisposed Earth waste, 35 tons of which is toxic (from mining and metallurgy). Russia produces 85-90 mn tons of hazardous industrial waste each year. ! 1.9 million Russians use the internet. ! In the current draft for the 2000 budget, 2.17% of GDP will be devoted to military spending next year; law enforcement and state security would equal 1.35% of GDP. ! Unified Energy Systems has said it must replace 1/3 of its 50,000 computers to avoid problems related to the Y2K computer bug. ! 50% of Russian students said they have used drugs. ! There are an estimated 2.5 million drug addicts in Russia. ! 75% of factories in Buryatia are unprofitable and the region’s enterprises owe the equivalent of the region’s GDP. ! Some 50% of all Russian banks and financial institutions are somehow connected with criminal gangs. ! 17 army generals and navy admirals were convicted on corruption charges last year. ! 7,933 Russian Jews emigrated to Israel in the first three months of 1999. 31% of emigres cited anti-Semitism as one of the two main factors for emigrating (9% higher than prior to August 1998). Since 1989, 750,000 Russian Jews have emigrated to Israel. ! 72% of Russians are in favor of a union between Russia and Belorussia. ! Since August 1998, over 100,000 people have left Magadan oblast, due to a deteriorating economic situation which has left food stores and fuel stocks empty. SOURCES: Russian Statistics Agency, Interfax Eurasia, Russian Statistics Agency, Union of Cossack Officers, ITAR-TASS, Trud, RFE/RL Report, ITAR-TASS, RFE/RL Report, ITAR-TASS, Kontinent, Russian Interior Ministry, Interfax, ITAR-TASS, Russian Interior Ministry, Reuters, Public Opinion Foundation, Nezavisimaya gazeta.

 

The Research Fund Russian Project asked Russians about their greatest fears. 38% cited price hikes and/or civil war. 22% cited famine and the fate of relatives. Just 16% were concerned with Russia’s fate and 9% feared loss of meaning in life. Only 4% feared a communists seizure of power, equal to the number of those who fear falling prey to a crime. Death, air crashes and car accidents were at the bottom of the list, with just 3% citing this as a real fear.

 

Bouncing back

Russia’s national soccer squad makes a heroic comeback

L

ast fall, there seemed little hope that the Russian soccer team would qualify for the Euro 2000 tournament. After not scoring a single point in their first three games, the team shared last place in its group with the tiny country of Andorra. Then manager Anatoly Byshovets was fired and Oleg Romantsev was hired in his place. The Russian team has been hot ever since.

Employing new strategies and a formation of five midfielders and one forward, (Alexander Panov), Roman-tsev successfully gelled his players into a unified team, which charged to victory in their next two matches against Armenia and An-dorra.

Then the Russian team faced its greatest challenge, the World Champion French. Played in Paris, the match saw Russia take an early 1-0 lead thanks to Panov. But by the 53rd minute, the lead had been squandered, and the match looked as if it would end with a 2-1 French victory. 

But Romantsev did not allow his team to give up. With fifteen minutes left to play, Alexander Panov scored a tying goal. Then, with only three minutes remaining, midfielder Valery Karpin kicked the ball into an empty net. In Paris, French fans cried while in Moscow there was revelry. 

Four days later, Russia defeated Iceland 1:0 in Moscow’s Dynamo stadium. It was Iceland’s first defeat after eleven consecutive wins. 

Russia now stands three points behind group leading Ukraine, and has captured a world ranking of 23rd, up ten spots from last fall. Russia’s next match will be September 4 against Armenia, followed two days later by Andorra. Then, on October 9, the team will face Ukraine. If the team can hold its winning streak, the match against Ukraine will be decisive and Russia may yet claim a berth in Euro 2000.

 

Tee Time

for Russia

G

rand Prince Konstantin would be jealous. He loved golf, but could not play it at home in Russia, only when he went abroad to France. But today, just 11 years after the sport was introduced to Russia, the country has two world-class golf courses, eight professional players, a golf Academy training, over 60 up-and-coming junior players and the Russian Open Tournament, sanctioned by the Euro-pean Professional Golf Association. 

True, foreigners did create a small golf course in Vyborg in the early part of the century. But, needless to say, after the Bolshevik revolution the petit-bourgeois sport was expunged from the approved list of sports. 

The first man who dared promote the idea of golf in Soviet Russia was Armand Hammer. In the 1970s, he raised the issue with then Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who apparently gave his okay to the idea. 

But experts at the Russian version of Golf Digest consider September 1988 to be the true date for golf’s return to Russia. In that month the first driving range—on Moscow’s Dovzhenko street—was opened. In fact, things were set in motion one year earlier, when former Swedish hockey player Swen Juhansson—known to millions of Soviet hockey fans as “Tumba”—came to Russia with the idea of building a Golf Club. By 1990, Tumba had opened a 9 hole course near the Dovzhenko driving range. Soon thereafter, the Russian National Golf Association was established in Russia, joining the European Golf Association in 1992.

In 1993, the Moscow Country Club (MCC) opened a second course in Russia, in the town of Nakhabino (Moscow region)—originally with 9 holes, but now with 18. A picturesque area off Volokolamskoye shosse was selected because of its suitably hilly terrain (making the creation of hazards easier), and the existence of several underground springs—vital as a water supply for keeping the grass green.

“The climate of Russia and its landscape is very similar to that in Canada,” said MCC Golf Director Nigel Roscoe, “so the design, the irrigation techniques and the upkeep of the golf course is very similar to that of Canada, because of extreme temperatures both in summer and winter.” The course was designed by  world-famous course designer Robert Trent Jones Jr., who said that “the deep Russian forest, with large evergreens, birch, with native wildlife and song birds is a magnificent setting.”

MCC was the site for Russia’s hosting its first (1996) professional tournament sanctioned by the European PGA. Roscoe, a professional golfer since 1978, was the one who put the tourney together. “It was a tremendous challenge,” he said. “What I took for granted when it comes to golf technology was at a very, very embryonic stage here ... You basically had to explain to everybody what golf is all about, why you use a golf ball, what is the composition of a golf ball, why the golf course is designed the way it is ...” 

Step by step, golf is making progress in Russia. Golf Digest now counts at least 14,000 readers. And, importantly, the number of event spectators has risen. “In 1996 we had about 50 or 60 spectators,” Roscoe said. “Last year we had over 500 to 600 spectators ... This year I have to try to get a thousand.” 

On August 19, fifty-six leading world players will come to MCC to play for the $150,000 prize fund—Russia’s highest ever. Several top Western players are slated to attend.

“Golf is extremely new in Russia, and, yes, it is  reserved for the elite,” Roscoe said. “But the barriers to entry are slowly dropping.” 

MCC is trying to help encourage the sport by subsidizing 32 junior players in their training. Sergei Bylinkin, 13 has been playing golf at MCC for 2 years. “My friends brought me here for the first time. I tried my hand at it and came to like it,” he said. “I like the game itself and that you can communicate with other players. Golf helps you to develop your accuracy, stability and ability to measure.” This past June, Bylinkin participated in the local McDonalds Junior Tourney and won second place.

Still, the Russian National Junior Golf Team’s Head Coach Igor Ivashin said that his pupils have a lot to learn.  “They are getting used to two courses—in Moscow and Nakhabino,” he said in an interview with Golf Digest. “They are not ready to quickly analyze the situation. They also suffer from a rather poor set of strokes and lack of psychological stability.” 

Despite this lack of expertise, the first steps in the international arena are promising. Last year Russian junior Masha Kostina played at a tournament in Florida and came within the top five. Junior Svetlana Gunkina won a full golf scholarship at Lynn University.

So how is it that golf, which takes patience and self-reserve, could strike a cord with the usually temperamental Russians? “The beauty of it is, because, like tennis, if you enjoy it very much you will come back and play the game again,” Roscoe said. “And, if you enjoy it, you will tell your  friends, and it gets addictive.” 

Russians easily fall prey to addictions. Just ask Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russia’s top tennis player. He said he spends all his leisure time playing golf. Spartak soccer club has also recently taken up golf. What with these popular sports leaders teeing up, golf may just fulfill the dreams of golf boosters of a linkster boom in Russia over the next decade. 

— Mikhail Ivanov

 

Muscovite Yuri Sekirkin won Russia’s first ever medal—the bronze—at an official tournament of the International Federation of Bowling: The 23rd Gold Cup of Europe in Southend, England. 

 

The World Champion Russian handball team lost their title in Cairo, defeated by Sweden by a score of 25-24. 

 

At the 1999 European Cup of Track and Field in Paris, Russia’s women’s team ran away with the championship. The Russian men’s team failed to place (the championship being claimed by Germany).

 

Alina Kabaeva, the young leader of the Russian Rhyth-mic Gym-nas-tics Team de-fended her title at the Euro-pean Cham-pionship in Bu-da-pest, Hun-gary. It was Kaba-eva’s second conse-cutive all-around Euro---pean gold, which the gymnast said proved that her first title was not by chance.

 

Zenith (St. Petersburg) broke the stranglehold that Moscow soccer clubs have had on the Russian Cup, defeating Dinamo (Moscow) 3:1 at Luzhniki. The last time Zenith won the cup was in 1944, also breaking a string of Moscow teams’ wins. “You have achieved a lot winning the cup after 55 long years,” said St. Petersburg Mayor Vladimir Yakovlev in the locker room, “You have yet to realize how important your victory is for our city and its citizens.”

 

Russia’s best tennis player, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, was awarded the Title of Honorary Citizen of Sochi. Kafelnikov was born in Sochi, made his tennis debut there and makes regular donations to a local hospital. One perk of the title: the right to use local beaches for free.

 

Kasparov vs. the World

World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov offered to play a match on the Internet with anyone who can click a mouse and knows the rules of chess. “The Kasparov vs. the World Interactive Tournament will be a success no matter what the outcome,” the 36-year old Kasparov said at the launch of the event in Manhattan’s Bryant Park. Kasparov (playing the white) made his first move with King pawn to E4. It was posted to the Microsoft website, which then started immediately fielding countermoves from chess players all around the world. Visitors to the site have 24 hours to vote for their side’s move; the move with the highest number of votes will be taken by the black side. Kasparov will then reply within another 24 hours and on until the conclusion of the match. You can follow or participate in the match (if it is not over by early August), by visiting the site at: www.zone.com/kasparov