Life Begins at 40

It is wholly appropriate that the 40th anniversary of Russian Life should be overshadowed by the 300th anniversary of the Russian Fleet. Quite aside from the chronological precedence  of the fleet’s birthday, it is bad journalism to let news about the messenger overshadow the message.

Still we cannot let the anniversary of this magazine pass without comment. After all, not many magazines are 40 years old.

There is surely a sense of irony in this celebration. This magazine was founded as a mouthpiece of the Soviet leadership. Government owned and operated, its editorial policy and content were dictated and censored by bureaucrats in Moscow. Now, forty years hence, the situation could not be more different. Russian Life is privately owned and operated; it has no connection (overt or covert) with either the Russian or American governments; and, for the first time, it is a truly joint venture of Russian and Western journalists.

While none of us addressing you as senior editors or publisher are yet forty, we will all shortly be passing that important milestone. So we are inclined to aver that life — Russian Life — starts to get more interesting at 40. Indeed, we promise that the best of Russian Life lies in the months and years ahead.

The mix of stories in this month’s issue is a case in point. To mark the country’s first ever major celebration of its maritime history, we devote half this issue to Russia at sea. For this we have enlisted the help of Russian writers from Rodina, the foremost Russian history magazine.

While Dawn of the Russian Fleet (p 6), the first of three articles reproduced from Rodina, provides an introduction to the theme, the remaining two serve to demonstrate once again how far we have come from totalitarian ideology and the Cold War. Blood for the Revolution (p 8) explains why sailors were in the forefront of revolution in the early part of this century. On Moscow’s Orders (p 13), meanwhile, gives a shocking insight on how close the USSR and US were to nuclear holocaust in the brief but explosive period of the Six Days War.

If it weren’t for Chechnya, though, where marines have been in combat, today’s Russian navy would be on an entirely peaceful footing. And at time of writing, peace appears to have reached that region too, thanks to Alexander Lebed, seen at Moscow’s celebrations of Navy Day (photo essay p 16).

Clearly the navy has been celebrating its tricentenary in style. Let us just hope that some of the money currently put aside for pomp and ceremony helps relieve some of the financial problems that the navy and its personnel are experiencing.

But then, as Lisa Dickey shows in Setting the Standard (p 18), government funds are no longer the be-all and end-all if a replica of Russia’s first warship can be built without them. In this case, the single-mindedness of builder Vladimir Martus would appear to be enough. His example proves the old axiom that Russia has never been short of talented people, as does the history of the Belov dynasty told by Alexandra Strelnikova in Eternal Birch Bark (p 22).

With two major anniversaries in one month we found a suitable recipe to allow you all to join in our celebrations. Pirozhki, which accompany any Russian feast, suit us just fine. Luckily for us all, Russians are not just talented carpenters and craftsmen, but culinary experts too.