Notebook

New Ballets for a New Century

Boris Eifman’s St. Petersburg Ballet company has completed its final series of rehearsals of “Monsieur Moliere and Don Juan” (right). Eifman choreographed the ballet in which he uses  the French playwright Moliere as a pretext to talk about the destinies of great artists. The ballet will premiere in May in New York (see Events Calendar), the city which once proclaimed Eifman “choreographer of the 21st century.”

 

Choreographer Yuri Grigorovich marked his return to the Bolshoi Theater with a new staging of Swan Lake, which premiered here in March. Grigorovich, whose classic rendition of the ballet first premiered in 1969, reportedly insisted that the lead role of Odilliya-Odetta in this totally new version be danced by Anastasia Volochkova, who currently resides in London. The male role of Siegfried was given to the popular Bolshoi star Andrei Uvarov. (Volochkova and Uvarov are pictured at left.) 

 

Local critics said that Grigorovich’s new, lengthened role for the Evil Genius (danced by Nikolai Tsiskaridze) is a major highlight of the ballet. The role of Buffoon went to Japan’s Morihiro Ivata, whose acrobatics further beautified the performance.

 

Capitalizing on a popular president

T

he Russian president’s high popularity rates have spawned a well-promoted brand, “President Vladimir Putin,” reported Kommersant daily last month. 

Residents of Azov district (Rostov region) have decided to build a church in Putin’s honor and the archbishop of Rostov and Novocherkassk has given his blessing. 

Elsewhere in Russia, there has been a judo tournament named after the martial arts practicing president, and alphabet books about “little Vova” (diminutive for “Vladi-mir”) have been printed. 

In St. Petersburg a company has launched the production of picture portraits of the president for offices. A4 format, wooden-framed photos sell for R380 ($13.50) and larger sizes sell for R730 to R900. Company head Alexander Belik told Kommersant that his firm can barely keep up with demand from state functionaries, businessmen and average citizens alike. 

Yet a cautious Belik added that, “today demand for Vladimir Vladimi-ro-vich is over the top. But what will come tomorrow, when the market becomes saturated?” 

 

“The communists say people will take to the streets if Lenin’s body is taken from the mausoleum. No one will. They will just have an extra shot of vodka.”

Duma Vice-speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky. 

(ORT TV channel)

 

“They keep talking about a demographic crisis at a time when we have 700,000 people under 30 sitting in jail.”

Minister of Labor and Social Development Alexander Pochinok. (Kommersant daily) 

 

“... Russia and the US will never become true friends in politics, for the differences in their interests is far too great.” 

Historian and co-editor of the US journal 

Demokratizatsia, Nikolai Zlobin. (Sevodnya)

 

“The strongest castling [by President Putin] was the new job of [former Defense Minister] Igor Sergeyev: Presidential Aide on Issues of Strategic Stability. Can you imagine the president calling Sergeyev first thing in the morning: ‘Igor, is everything stable?’ ‘Yes, Vladimir Vladimirovich.’ ‘OK, then don’t come to work today.’ 

General director of the agency Secret Councilor, 

Leonid Levin, commenting on the recent cabinet 

reshuffling by Vladimir Putin. (Kommersant)

 

“There always have been plenty of 

critics and persons wishing us ill, 

even in the time of Peter the Great. 

But Peter had more administrative tools at his disposal.” 

St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev, 

on critics of his development projects. 

(Moskovsky Komsomolets)

 

“So much for safe sex. Russia needs to boost the birth rate.”

Moscow City Duma Deputy Valentina Prisyazhnyuk. (Kommersant)

 

34% of Russians feel the US is Russia’s #1 enemy—up from 27% one year ago, after the start of NATO bombing of Serbia. Only 5% put China at the top of the list and 3% named Japan as the leading foe. 34% could not name an enemy while 15% said no country poses a serious threat to Russia. (monitoring.ru) !  Between 1992 and 2000, Russia’s population declined by over 3,000,000 persons. The average Russian family has 1.3 children. ! The government has collected 90% of the taxes owed it in the first quarter of 2001, vs. 60% for the same period last year. Tax revenues have risen to 15% of GDP, versus 9-10% three years ago. Experts attribute these recent successes to last year’s passage of a 13% flat income tax. ! The minimal survival income has risen 8.1% since the beginning of the year, to reach R810 (less than $30) per month. ! The number of students in institutions of higher education this year will be 3% higher than last year. State institutes and universities (tuition free institutions) will enroll 596,000 students, while another 534,500 will study at the same institutes, but for a fee, at so-called “pay” faculties. As many as 135,000 more students may be enrolled in non-state institutes and universities. (Goskomstat) ! The number of registered inventions and trademarks is growing by 20-30% per year. In the year 2000, Rospatent received over 28,000 applications for inventions, a 15.8% increase from 1999. (Rospatent) ! 8.3% of Russia’s adult population uses the internet. (National Institute of Socio-Psychological Studies) ! 46% of Russians say they would tolerate polygamy among Muslims, while 14% say they would not have a problem with it among Russian Orthodox believers. (Ogonyok) ! There are 39.5 million children in Russia. Over 600,000, or 1.5%, are orphans. ! Russia registers 1.7 million births annually, and over 2 million abortions. An estimated 7 million Russian couples cannot have children because of past abortions or sexually transmitted diseases. ! 70% of Russian adolescents suffer from chronic disease of some nature. The death rate (from all causes) among youths aged 10-17 is now 213 per 100,000. Meanwhile, the infant mortality rate fell by 4% last year, to 15.8 deaths per thousand. (Russian Health Ministry) ! The Interior Ministry estimates that between 2.5 and 3 million Russians (2% of the population) are narcotics users. ! In 2000, there were 386 suspected contract murders in Russia and only 146 went to court. There were 31,829 murders in 2000, of which 24,993 were solved; in 1999, the figures were 31,140 and 24,513, respectively. (Interior Ministry) ! Almost one in every 1000 Muscovites carries the HIV virus, the highest rate in Russia. Over half these cases were registered in 2000. There are 102,000 persons registered as HIV positive in Russia (90% from intravenous drug use), but Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the Russian Federal Center for Aids Treatment said that 650,000 is a more realistic figure. His center projects that, by the year 2010, 1,000,000 Russians will die of AIDS. ! Over 3,500 reindeer starved to death this winter in the Far Northern region of Chukotka, because they were unable to break through the ice which covers the winter lichen on which they subsist.

 

AFANASY TURNS 25

Walking below a silent statue of Vladimir Lenin on Tver’s main Sovietskaya street, several hundred Tveryanins (and a military brass band) marked the 25th anniversary of Afanasy Brewery, chanting out slogans reminiscent of the Soviet era—but “Long Live the CPSU!” was replaced with “Long Live Afanasy Beer!” 

Founded in 1976, the brewery was originally named Kalininsky  (Tver was named “Kalinin” in Soviet times). In 1996 the brewery was renamed for Afa-nasy Nikitin, a famous traveler of local origin. Afanasy is one of the only major Russian breweries which has grown successfully in recent years without any outside foreign investment. Brands include Afanasy dark, light, gold and a recently launched porter. 

 

Million dollar theft

Poor security is to blame for the theft of a 19th century painting from St. Petersburg’s Hermitage museum. The painting, “Pool in a Harem” by Jean-Leon Jerome, is valued at $1 million and was sliced from its frame by the thief. The painting was hung in an unguarded hall, which was supposed to be checked just a few times a day by a museum guard. Observers take the theft as a sign that security measures are lacking at the museum—the picture and frame were not even connected to the museum’s alarm system. Guards’ salaries also could stand improvement—presently guards receive about R400 per month ($14). Perhaps both will reap the benefits of a huge Easter Gala and Auction held by the American Friends of the Hermitage Museum in April at New York’s Tavern on the Green restaurant. 

 

most clever woman?

In a recent opinion poll, 24% of Russians called Empress Catherine the Great “the most clever Russian woman of all time.” Mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya polled just 6% and Catherine’s confidante, Yekate-rina Dashkova just 3%. 46% of respondents to the monitoring.ru poll could not name anyone. No mention was made of the fact that Catherine was, in fact, German.

 

Walking Moscow

By 2020, Moscow’s city center will be quieter and cleaner. According to a plan presented by the head of Moscow’s Architecture Committee, Alexan-der Kuzmin, city builders will focus mainly on reconstruction of existing buildings in the downtown, while new office buildings will be concentrated outside of the center. What is more, inspired by the positive impact of the city’s existing pedestrian zones—the Arbat, Stoleshnikov and Kamergersky lanes, and Manezh square—Mayor Yuri Luzhkov promised to turn more streets into car-free zones. The city’s downtown has 1,546 cultural sites (including 80% of all the city’s monuments), plus 215 historical monuments (90% of the total). Experts  pointed out that the city needs more bridges: Moscow is four times the size of Paris, yet has just one-quarter as many bridges.

 

On a Bender 

A monument to Ippolit Vorobyaninov and Ostap Bender, protagonists of Ilf & Petrov’s comic novel The Twelve Chairs, will be unveiled in Pyatigorsk, RIA Novosti agency reported. In the famous novel, the two characters stop in Pyatigorsk during their endless search for the twelve chairs (one of which supposedly contains Vorobyaninov’s family jewels). The two statues will show the pair standing near the town’s famous Proval, a scenic view where the entre-preneurial Bender sold unnecessary tickets to hapless visitors, giving a discount “for militiamen and students.” 

 

THE WAY WE WERE

According to a recent opinion poll by the Public Opinion Foundation, an ever-growing number of Russians regret the disintegration of the USSR (79% today vs. 69% in 1992). However, 23% of Russians (mainly youth and persons with higher education) believe that saving the USSR in 1991 would not have been feasible. 30% voiced hope of seeing the Soviet Union reborn (mostly supporters of communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, persons with incomplete secondary education, and persons over 59).

 

Popular anchor dies

Vladimir Voroshilov, author and moderator of the TV program What? Where? When? (Chto? Gde? Kogda?), died of a heart attack on March 10. He was 70.

Voroshilov’s program marked its 25th anniversary last December and is one of the few intellectual programs left on Russian TV (and the only high-calibre homegrown game show). Participants in the game have to be quick-witted and possess a wide range of knowledge; often very tricky questions of trivia and general knowledge are posed by the show’s viewers. For the znatoki (“know-it-alls”), as the players dubbed themselves, Voroshilov’s death came as hard blow. Veteran player Maxim Potashev told Sevodnya that Voroshilov was the symbol of the game. “He was able to do something which inspired thousands of people. This game became like a sport of its own—like chess or soccer. This game has no equal and never will. It is hard to picture this game without Vladimir Yakov-levich. It will be different—the personality of the game’s creator and anchor played an immense role.”

 

Zhostovo trays 175

A popular Russian folk art—Zhostovo trays—marked their 175th anniversary this spring with a Moscow exhibition, “The Ever-Blossoming Rose of Russia.” The rose is the “trademark image” of Zhostovsky craftsmen. Zhostovo village is located in Mytishchinsky district of the Moscow region. The tray business there was on the decline at the turn of the century, but was revived in 1928 after the Soviet state decided to pay closer attention to once-popular traditional Russian crafts, including Zhostovo trays. Artists paint their drawings on metal trays, which are then covered with several coats of lacquer. Larisa Dyatlova (pictured above with her tray, “Svadebny”—Wedding Tray) has been a Zhostovo artist for 25 years and comes from a dynasty of Zhostovo tray makers that stretches back over a century. Exhibitions of her art have toured internationally and she has given master classes in the US. 

 

5,000 PER year 

The number of new books published each year in Russia has stabilized at around 5,000, Kultura weekly reported during the recent Moscow International Book Fair. Half of these are published outside Moscow. The fair was one of the preparatory stages for the World Book Fair in Frankfurt in the year 2003—the directorship of the famous Ger-man book fair has announced that in that year Russia will be the featured country of the fair.

 

PRIVATE PEKING

Moscow will privatize five city hotels, including the Zolotoi Kolos (near the former VDNKH exhibition center) and the Pekin Hotel. The centrally-located Pekin, if properly renovated, could offer significant competition to other downtown hotels.

 

Cataloging Mariinsky

The US Library of Congress will help St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater preserve its unique collection of musical scores, ITAR-TASS reported. Mariinsky Artistic Director Valery Gergiev and Librarian of Congress James Billington (who is also a noted authority on Russian history and art) announced the cooperative program on March 30. US experts will provide long-term storage, microfilming and cataloguing of the original scores, which have been collected by the theater since tsarist times. In return, the Mariinsky will provide the Library musical department with copies of the scores. 

 

Kabaeva DEBUT

World champion in rhythmic gymnastics Alina Kabaeva (see Russian Life, March/April 2000) will make her cinematic debut in the Japanese film Red Shadow, by director Yusuke Nakano. Kabaeva plays the role of a circus acrobat, a role Nakano said was made for her and allows her to show off the fullness of her athletic abilities.

 

Going, going, gone…

If anyone doubted that most Russian newspapers sell their news space, those doubts can be put to rest. In an April Fool’s day test, an unidentified Moscow PR agency contacted 21 Russian publications and offered to pay for a “news item” about an audio and video store which had allegedly opened in Moscow. According to Itogi newsweekly, 13 of the 21 publications contacted agreed to place the item upon payment; 11 of these printed the item as a signed news story. The agency reportedly spent $15,000 for the placements and now must pay some $9,000 in fines for deliberately spreading false information in the media.

 

What’s good for GM

General Motors sold 305 cars in Russia in the first quarter of 2001, versus 133 in the same period of 2000, said Alexander Moynov, manager of the GM’s representation in Moscow. GM hopes to sell over 2,000 cars in Russian in 2001 (it sold 963 in 2000 and 629 in 1999). 

 

Conservatism reigns at figure

A

s anticipated, Yevgeny Plyu-schenko won the gold in men’s singles at the world figure skating championship in Vancouver (see Russian Life, March/April 2001), while his archrival and teammate Alexei Yagudin, had to resign himself to the silver after three consecutive golds. 

Eighteen-year-old Plyushchenko is the fifth Russian to win the world gold, joining the ranks of Sergei Volkov (1975), Vladimir Kovalev (1977, 1979), Alexander Fadeev (1985) and Yagudin (1998-2000). Russia won the largest number of medals at the competition (5), but only one gold. 

In doubles, defending champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikha-rulidze lost their title to Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier who, as Russian observers were quick to note, were “pushed to the top” by the judges, despite Sale’s obvious error of turning a planned double Axel into a single.

Russian pairs coach Tamara Moskvina said the conservative judges probably didn’t like her team’s light and humorous free program on a Charlie Chaplin theme and she said that, in future, she will be inclined to find something “more routine” for Sikharulidze and Berezhnaya. 

Irina Slutskaya was also bested by American Michelle Kwan in women’s singles. The judges did not seem to appreciate Irina’s artistic program based on Don Quixote, and gave her lower marks for presentation than Kwan. Meanwhile, Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh took a well-deserved bronze in ice dancing.

 

Metallurg (Magnitogorsk) won Russia’s national ice hockey championship after a dramatic playoff series against Avangard (Omsk). 

 

Russia won 15 medals at March’s World Indoors Track and Field Championship in Lisbon. This put them second in total medals at the competition, after the US (17). Olga Yegorova, won the 3000 meter race. Yuri Borzakovsky (see page 24) won the gold in the 800 meters, 36-year-old Larisa Peleshenko from St. Petersburg won in the shot put (throwing it 19.84 meters), while the women’s’ relay team won the gold in the competitive 4x400 meter relay race. 

 

Russian tennis star Yelena Dementieva (see Russian Life Mar/Apr 2001), briefly reached a career-high WTA ranking of #8 in April after beating Lindsay Davenport in the quarter-finals of the Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne. Meanwhile, another young Russian, 6 foot 2 inch, 18-year-old Elena Bovina, climbed to #95. Russia presently has eight women in the WTA’s top 100.

 

Alexei Shirov won his ninth world title in checkers. When asked whether he would like to play against a computer (as did Gary Kasparov) Shirov said that “checkers is a much more difficult area than chess; no software to date can even match the level of Grand-master in checkers. The computer can’t fathom how it should play this rather abstract game.”

 

Russia defended the world title in bandy it won two years ago after defeating Sweden 6:1 in the finals. For Sergei Lomanov Jr., it was his first world gold. His father, Sergei Lomanov Sr., was the team’s coach and was on five world-title Soviet teams. Lomanov Jr. said he plans to at least repeat his father’s record.

 

Sculptors from the Far East won 1st place for “Abstract Composition from a Single Piece of Ice” at the recent World Championship of Ice Figures in Fairbanks, Alaska. Ice sculpting will be an Olympic competition in 2002.

 

The US Department of State recently decided to require transit visas of Russian citizens traveling through the US on their way to other countries. The new transit visa regulations affect only Russia—not other CIS countries—and came into force on April 5. Moscow has vowed to reciprocate.

 

Moscow’s Aerostar hotel feted its 10th anniversary with an entertaining dinner theater, performed in Russian. The light and humorous play, Cupids in the Snow, was based on The Brigadier, by Russian classic playwright Denis Fonvizin. Cupids was written by popular contemporary playwright, poet and singer Yuly Kim, with original music by Grigory Auerbach. The Aerostar, a Canadian-Russian joint venture, opened on May 1, 1991 and has received the award for Best Four Star Hotel in Moscow from the city, and its Borodino Restaurant has been voted best restaurant in the Moscow. Located on Lenin-gradsky prospekt, the hotel is a 30 minute drive from the Sheremetevo Airport and 10 minutes from the Kremlin.

 

By May, all passengers passing through Moscow railway stations must go through “in and out” turnstiles when entering or exiting train platforms. The pilot installation at a few Moscow stations of turnstiles for just outbound passengers increased railway profits 40-fold through the screening out of “hares”—ticketless passengers. Passengers thus should hold onto their ticket even through their arrival at their destination.

 

A new 5-star hotel, the Bogoslovskaya has been opened in the small town of Krasnoturinsk in the Urals. The hotel’s construction was funded by the Bogoslovsky Aluminum Plant, as it is primarily destined for businessmen who visit the plant from around the world. The hotel boasts comfortable rooms with modern amenities, a bar, a sauna with a swimming pool and fitness hall. 

 

During rush hours on the Moscow metro, “passenger density” can reach six persons per square meter (or one person in less than two square feet). Today some 2 million Muscovites live in districts without metro stations and spend over an hour to get to their work places, Interfax reports. City metro engineers are working on a technical feasibility study to construct a mini-metro line from Kievskaya metro station to the intersection with the new Third Ring Road being built in Moscow. 

 

It is now illegal to use a mobile phone while driving in Russia. Violators will be subject to a fine, but the law does not apply to persons using hands-free mobile phone devices.

 

Moscow’s Novotel hotel greeted its one-millionth guest last spring. A member of the French-owned hospitality chain ACCOR, the 4-star hotel, owned by Aeroflot-Russian Airlines, opened in 1992 at Moscow’s Sheremetevo airport.

 

A NEW LAKE BAIKAL CRUISE has been  announced by Value World Tours. The 15-day program features stops in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and an 8-day cruise on the world’s largest freshwater lake, on board the newly renovated MV Alexander Vampilov. The ship is a first-class, yacht-like cruiser that will accommodate just 32 passengers with a crew of 18. For more information, call 800-795-1633. 

 

THE AMUR RIVER BASIN is the site of another new Russian Far East cruise, this one put together by the World Wildlife Foundation to study the watershed and conservation efforts in that region. For more information, contact WWF at 202-861-8335.

 

The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences recently presented Moscow’s National Hotel (above) with its prestigious Five Star Diamond Award. AAHS sends independent experts around the world to visit hotels incognito, so as to gain impartial evaluations of every aspect of the hotel’s service, cuisine and design. Only the best international hotels are awarded the Five Star Diamond. “This award has a special value for us,” said National Marketing Director Kiril Pokrovsky, “because we are a municipal hotel with 100% Russian management. It proves that domestic hotel managers and staffers can deliver quality at an international level.”

 

Russia advances

Despite a rather lackluster performance, Russia’s national soccer team took the lead in its World-2002 qualifying group, with 10 points—ahead of Switzerland (8), Slovenia (7),  Yugoslavia (5), the Faroe Islands (4) and Luxembourg (0). After its 1:1 draw against Slovenia, Russia barely eked out a 1:0 victory (thanks to a masterful score by Alexander Mostovoy) over the Faroe Islands. Luckily, Yugoslavia tied Slovenia 1:1. Yet, things will now start to heat up. Everything depends on two matches between Yugoslavia and Russia to be played on April 25 (in Belgrade) and June 2 (in Moscow).