Notebook

Peter’s creation in dire straits

St. Petersburg — The historic center of St. Petersburg is dying for lack of financial resources to renovate its buildings, and experts are becoming alarmed. According to official city hall figures, 25 percent of apartments are still communal, where families are forced to share kitchen, bathroom and telephone. “The infrastructure of the city center is almost worn-out,” said Alexei Vassiliyev, chief of the municipal architecture department. “All the piping dates form the time of [the city’s] founding by Peter the Great and we don’t dare to even touch some of it.” 

In Moscow, thanks to an active policy by the city hall of bringing in private investors, buildings have been decorated in striking pastel colors, apartment interiors are being steadily modernized and blocks of offices and living accommodations are mushrooming. But in St. Petersburg, a city of 5 mn inhabitants that claims to be the cultural capital of Russia, wall ceilings crack, pipes burst and the old quarters dating back nearly 300 years are decaying. Most of the buildings of the central area, covering 54 square km, need to be restored, if not completely demolished. 

Apart from the apartment blocks, some architectural jewels have deteriorated dramatically. They include the Kunst Kamera, Russia’s first museum, and the former residence of ballet dancer Matilda Kchesinskaya, built in 1906. A development plan has been worked out with the World Bank, which released a $31 mn loan last March to help with the restoration. Among the first projects in the pipeline are improved lighting for well-known Nevsky Prospekt, the creation of a pedestrian zone and upgrading of part of the city conduits.

Meanwhile, some private funds are being dedicated to help save one of Petersburg’s most prominent historical monuments. The US computer giant IBM has given the State  Hermitage Museum a $1.6 mn grant; yet much of the funds will be used to improve the museum’s World Wide Web site. By next year, virtual visitors to the Hermitage will be able to view and download several thousand pieces of art from the museum’s collection.  Alexei Grigoriev, head of computer technology at the Hermitage, said there are already about 150 high-quality digital pictures of exhibits available at the museum’s Russian language site (http://www.hermitage.ru).

Mikhail Piotrovsky, the Hermitage director, said only the museum’s most famous masterpieces would be put on the Internet from its collection of 2.9 mn objects. 

The grant is also intended to improve services for the museum’s visitors: both IBM and the Hermitage will install several computerized, touch-screen information terminals to help visitors find their way around the sprawling building.  IBM will also work with the Hermitage to develop a computerized digital library of images of art works. In 1996, about 1.8 mn people visited the Hermitage. The museum last year bought new exhibits worth R1.8 bn ($313,000).

Roll over Vladimir 

Russian Church spokesman Archpriest Gennady Geroyev said Vladimir Lenin’s embalmed body, which has been on display in Red Square for more than 70 years, is “a symbol of evil and should be buried. As long as Lenin’s body remains unburied, as long as Red Square remains a burial place, tensions will persist in Russia,” said Geroyev. The statement was by far the harshest ever made on the subject by church officials and came in the wake of President Yeltsin’s recent proposal to hold a nationwide referendum on whether to bury Lenin. Yeltsin had said keeping the body on display goes against Christian tradition and suggested Lenin’s remains be buried in St. Petersburg alongside his mother. Earlier this year, the lower house of parliament, worried by calls to move Lenin’s body from Red Square, passed a draft law banning changes to the Moscow landmark and reconstruction of Red Square sites. However, the draft has to be considered by President Boris Yeltsin, who is likely to veto it. Yeltsin  had also hinted that he may proceed with his plans to bury Lenin, regardless of the eventual outcome of the referendum.

Passing of a

Legend

Russia’s famous bard, Bulat Okudzhava, died in June, just a few months short of the 850th anniversary of Moscow, the city he sang praise to repeatedly in his marvelous, chamber-like folk songs. Tragically, he died far from home, in a French military hospital. He was 73.

Georgian by birth, Okudzhava remained a devoted Muscovite to his last days. His art belongs to the generation known as the shestidesyatniki (“those of the 60s”), which greeted Khrushchev’s “Thaw” with open arms, but were then brutally deceived by the crackdown on dissidents under Brezhnev.

Okudzhava’s beautiful songs, like “The Last Trolleybus,” “Let’s Hold Hands, Friends,” and “Oh, Arbat, My Arbat,” are known in every Russian home. He was respected as much for his mesmerizing and soft voice as for his honesty and non-conformity – he would regularly meet with exiled dissidents on trips abroad. 

A monument will be erected to the poet on the Arbat, a street will be named for him, and a high school is establishing a scholarship in his name.

Dial 007 to come in from the cold

Looking for a few good turncoats? Why not set up a special phone line and promise local agents of foreign powers a chance to turn on their former employers? 

Why not indeed! For that is just what the FSB (modern successor to the KGB) did last month. And, according to Nikolai Kovalyov, head of the FSB, the agency has received “several hundred interesting calls.” The agency promised all callers full confidentiality, full immunity and a right to keep all past pay if they fessed up to their crimes and revealed the content of their spying activity.

The move has been so successful, Kovalev told the local newspaper, Moskovsky Komsomolets, that “several foreign intelligence services have already reacted by completely wrapping up their activity with agents on Russian territory.”

Better air safety?

Russia’s aviation authorities say that, by the end of the year, they plan to introduce new federal aviation rules aimed at improving air safety standards.  Yuri Karetksy, head of the pilots’ department of the Federal Aviation Service, said the rules  will be geared to reducing the number of carriers by 150 over the next two years, “because many are in a bad financial position.” Domestic carrier Aeroflot has said it has invested R12 bn ($2.1 mn) to improve its air security. But some smaller carriers (390  are currently registered in Russia) lack the resources to improve standards, and travellers say baggage inspection is occasionally lax at some airports. 

Duty-Free shops axed

Moscow’s English language daily, The Moscow Times,  reported that the Russian State Customs Committee has ordered the duty-free shops at Sheremetyevo-2 and St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport to close, in what officials say is a step toward bringing Russian customs up to European standards. Most countries allow duty-free shopping for departing passengers only, and airlines often sell duty-free products while flights are in international air space.  But at the two Russian airports, duty-free shops were also available for incoming travelers. A senior official with the duty-free shop formerly in Sheremetevo-2 insisted that at least 30 other countries have similar arrangements. “Common sense suggests that such trade raises the level of service for passengers,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. “Besides, the state will receive up to $2 mn in taxes [from this activity] through the end of this year.” Likewise, the officials said, the airport and Aeroflot – owners of the holding company Aerofirst which ran the shop – will lose about $5 mn in expected earnings through the end of the year.