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Opinion

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Will Putin trade his Mercedes for a Zil limo?

However half-heartedly, Moscow welcomes Obama’s re-election

Best Russian books for your holiday gift shopping

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ITAR-TASS

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EKTERINA RZYANINA

Economy

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Elections More Russian Americans appeared to vote for President Obama

NEWS IN BRIEF

Diaspora vote is changing

Adjusting to the Magnitsky Act The recent approval of the Magnitsky Act in the United States House of Representatives has many Russian experts speculating on its effect, especially after the Senate most likely approves similar legislation at the end of the month. On November 16, the house voted to impose sanctions on the high-profile Russian officials who are allegedly involved in the murder of Sergei Magnitsky, who was investigating Russian officials for siphoning funds from his employer, Hermitage Capital.

Gorbachev reﬂects frankly in new book Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is still churning out books at the ripe old age of 81. “Alone with Myself” is a personal reflection on his life, success, failure, family and love. By all accounts, Gorbachev was in love with his wife Raisa his entire life, and disconsolate when she died in 1999. After leaving the Kremlin a quarter century ago, he established the Foundation for Socio-Political Studies in Moscow and is active in charitable activities.

Ratmansky wins Liberty

AFP/EASTNEWS

While many Russian Americans still equate conservatism with anticommunism, young voters leaned Democratic. XENIA GRUBSTEIN ALEXANDER GASYUK SPECIAL TO RN

The re-election of President Barack Obama offered a glimpse of the Russian-American community’s shifting political profile. Long considered a bulwark of support for the Republican

Party, the Russian-American identity is changing slowly as a young generation with no experience of the Soviet Union comes of voting age. At the same time, some Russian-American seniors, concerned about social programs like Medicare and social security, are also reviewing their longtime support for Republican candidates. Nina Zaretskaya, a 33-yearold professional who works for a financial firm in New York, voted for Obama. “In my opinion, the

younger generation of Russian Americans vote more liberally, and the older generation tends to be more conservative.” She believes that Russian Americans are not politically active however, because they are still deeply suspicious of “anything communal, and political activity and electoral campaigns are based on communal social activity.” The community’s historic attachment to the Republican Party is no longer a given three weeks after the historic presi-

dential election. Russian-American conservatism is rooted in the Cold War, when Republicans were viewed as much tougher on the Soviet Union than Democrats. “After the collapse of communism this situation slowly changed and the Russian diaspora now votes more or less in the same manner as the rest of American public,” said Edward Lozansky, president and founder of the American University in Moscow. “The most successful

and well-to-do vote for Republicans while those with lesser income and older ones vote for Democrats, as they are viewed as more likely to fund social programs.” Lozansky, who emigrated in 1976, describes himself as a conservative Republican. However he said he was unable to vote for Republican candidate Mitt Romney after he labeled Russia “No. 1 geopolitical enemy.”

The future of bilateral relations reveals itself: President Barack Obama officially joins President Vladimir Putin in the geopolitical hot seats.

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NGOs say they will fight law branding them “foreign agents” Nonprofits are preparing to challenge in court new legislation that threatens to damage their reputation and paralyze their work in Russia. YULIA PONOMAREVA RUSSIA NOW

REUTERS/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

The human rights organization Memorial has stated it will not register as a foreign agent.

Alexei Ratmansky received the Liberty Prize at the Russian Consulate on 91nd street in Manhattan. The award is a nod to his gifts as a world-renowned choreographer and his ability to move ably as an artist and cultural ambassador from New York to Moscow and every ballet city in between. Ratmansky is an artist in residence at American Ballet Theater, and his Nutcracker is currently being staged in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Previously, he was the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet and was a dancer with several companies.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Civil society 1,000 NGOs could be hurt by new measures to minimize influence

New legislation that came into effect in mid-November obliged foreign-funded NGOs engaged in “any political activity” to declare themselves “foreign agents,” which is synonymous to “spy” in Russian. The law also toughens control over such organizations, exposing them to more frequent inspections and audits that now can be launched even at the request of an individual. One of the sponsors of the

new legislation, Irina Yarovaya from United Russia, who heads the Anti-Corruption and Security Committee in the State Duma, argues that “people should understand who does politics in Russia using money received from overseas.” “Russian law prohibits funding political parties from abroad,” she said in e-mailed comments. “The law on NGOs corresponds with the law on political parties and guarantees against illegal political interaction.” Lawmakers estimate that the legislation could be applied to no more than 1,000 nonprofits out of around 220,000 NGOs operating in Russia. Despite hefty fines of up to 500,000 rubles ($15,773), sentences of up to four years and possible termination of operations for up to six months for failure to comply with the new regulations, many of Russia’s NGOs have publicly stated that they are not going to register as “foreign agents” with the Justice Ministry. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

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Consumption New purchase power

Consumer market barrels ahead Russia’s oil-fueled consumer splurge makes the country Europe’s largest consumer market. BEN ARIS SPECIAL TO RN EKTERINA RZYANINA (2)

Automobiles Brezhnev’s classic limo stages a comeback

The Russian car manufacturer hopes the country’s leaders will show their patriotism and buy Russian limos again. OLEG DYMOV BASED ON IZVESTIA

President Vladimir Putin has long traveled in a MercedesBenz S-Guard Pullman, but this does not discourage Zil. The Moscow car manufacturer has completed production of a prototype limousine for the country’s top officials, including Putin. On his 60th birthday, the president told NTV he would be willing to try a newly developed Russian limousine. Zil’s engineers hope the car will replace foreign-made sedans in government motorcades. The Ministry of Industry and Trade and other government agencies are actively discussing purchasing the Russian-made luxury limousine for top officials, according to press reports. Some experts are skeptical about the project’s future, citing its development costs at $1.28 billion. Izvestia reported, however, that the Zil automotive factory in Moscow has already manufactured a prototype of the luxury car, and controlled costs. Prime Minister Dmitry Med-

Limited Soviet nostalgia: The interior features leather seats.

vedev ordered the development of a state-of-the-art vehicle two years ago, but Depo-Zil Executive Director Sergei Sokolov said the factory’s designers had been working on the project since 2004. The design of the new limousine’s body is complete. Work on the project, codenamed Monolith, continued intermittently until it was finally completed in 2012. The manufacturer is currently inspecting the car at the Dmitrovsky testing grounds. Zil manufactured executive limousines in the Soviet era. Russians who lived as young adults in the Soviet Union associate these cars with top officials. Designers working on the Monolith project wanted to reflect a continuity of style that alludes

When the Soviet limo was king The development of domestic cars for top Soviet leaders started in the 1930s; previously officials rode in foreign-made cars. The seven-seat ZIS-101 limousine pioneered the class of Soviet-made executive cars. It was manufactured by the Zil plant, which was then named the Stalin Plant. By the 1950s, domestic cars had completely replaced foreign vehicles in government garages. The era of Soviet-made limousines came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The factory’s designers recently finished the new prototype.

to the era of classic Zils that once chauffeured Leonid Brezhnev, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. Sokolov acknowledged, however, that few parts from that age survive in the new limousine. The most important revision that engineers made was to replace the carburetor engine with a fuel injected model. Engine capacity remains unchanged, but its power has been increased from 315 to 400 horsepower. The three-speed, manual transmission has given way to a five-speed automatic, while the suspension has not been altered. The six-door car features an interior similar to the Pullman class, with facing seats. The rear bumpers boast a climatecontrol system that is able to create separate zones. The new limousine also has a brand new power system, with an upgraded 150 A generator. “That’s enough to power a bus,” Sokolov remarked. The concept car is yet to be armored. According to factory representatives, an armored version may appear once the existing model has been certified and negotiations with the authorities completed. Depo-Zil was evasive when speaking about the project’s investors. “A group of rather rich people with an interest in the matter sponsored the project,” Sokolov said. Izvestia was unable to contact Viktor Khrekov, spokesman for the Office for Presidential Affairs. Meanwhile, Depo-Zil has not ruled out the possibility of starting serial production of luxury vehicles for second-tier officials as well.

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Cyrillic Internet domain takes off When it comes to non-Latin internet domains, .рф is the name to beat. The .рф domain, which uses Cyrillic letters that translate as .rf and stand for Russian Federation, is the most successful of those that use non-Latin characters according to the 2012 World Report on Internationalized Domain Names Deployment. After two years of operation, there are more than 845,000 registered .рф addresses.

Private sector to boost defense

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Deputy prime minister for the military industrial complex Dmitry Rogozin has announced plans to boost the share of private companies in the defense sector. “In the United States, 60 percent of defense industry companies are in private hands. I think this number will reach 30-35 percent in Russia, once government measures for [this] are implemented,” he said.

GLOBAL RUSSIA BUSINESS CALENDAR THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL FORUM OF NUCLEAR INDUSTRY SUPPLIERS ATOMEX 2012 DECEMBER 12-14, 2012 EXPOCENTER, MOSCOW , RUSSIA

The Forum attracts suppliers for construction of nuclear facilities. CORBIS/FOTO SA

Would Putin trade his Mercedes for Zil?

For investors, Russia is much more of a fairy-tale consumer story than an oil-and-gas play. These days, the services and consumer goods sectors are bypassing energy as the main drivers of growth. That’s the message coming from Russia’s top financial analysts, who see the consolidation of energy assets by the state being offset by greater investment opportunities elsewhere. Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Sberbank Investment Research, says the changing roles are clear: “The Russia story now is like the tortoise and the hare - a static energy sector, but very fast-growing consumer and service industries.” Steady growth in disposable income and investment capital, together with more government support and the advantages of WTO membership, will provide greater non-energy growth, Weafer said. Russia became the biggest market in continental Europe for milk and children’s toys in 2011, worth a robust $22.7 billion in sales. Next year it’s on course to become the biggest market in Europe for clothes, footwear, accessories and advertising worth a collective of $76.8 billion in sales. Russia’s consumer market has reached critical mass and, thanks to steadily rising incomes, is poised to become the

biggest consumer market for a wide range of products sometime between now and 2018 when it will simply become the biggest consumer market. “Rising wealth levels over the last decade have turned Russia into a middle-class country for arguably the first time in its history,” said Citigroup’s chief Russian strategist, Kingsmill Bond. Russian incomes have risen an astonishing 16-fold over the last decade, from an average monthly income of about $50 under Boris Yeltsin to just under $800 under President Vladimir Putin. This figure puts the country into the middle income bracket, according to the last U.N. Development Agency report. “In 2004 the government made the principle decision to hike taxes on energy and slash them on everything else. Today Russians enjoy some of the lowest income and corporate taxes in Europe,” said Clemens Grafe, managing director of new market economics for Goldman Sachs in Moscow. The state is using its oil and gas windfall to subsidize the real economy, which has fueled a decade-long shopping spree. Already the 11th largest consumer market in the world, according to Euromonitor International and in the top two or three for most sectors in Europe, Russia continues to climb the rankings. GDP will expand by about 3.5 to 4 percent this year, according to the World Bank.

BUSINESS IN BRIEF

› atomeks.ru/en/atomex2012 AP

FIND MORE Shoppers in Moscow were ranked 41st globally in terms of purchasing power based on a survey by UBS.

IN THE GLOBAL CALENDAR

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Innovation Tourists love the museums, the White Nights and the sea, but the best-kept secret is that St. Petersburg is the new Detroit

St. Petersburg’s auto cluster drives ahead The Northen capital of Russia is home to five of the world’s leading car manufacturers, and more are expected to come.

ELENA SHIPILOVA SPECIAL TO RN

St. Petersburg opens up to the Baltic with a fierce beauty, and during the White Nights, the sight of shoreline elegance, whitecaps and luminscent sky takes the breath away. The former Russian capital hosts about five million tourists every year (about the same number of people as live in the city). It is also famous for

its cultural history and architecture. But few visitors know that the Northern Capital also has a rich history of innovation, outside of arts and culture. It was here, on the banks of the river Neva, that the first Russian railroad was built, the first electric light bulb was switched on, and the Russian navy was formed. Each year, the city hosts the St. Petersburg International Innovation Forum, where businessmen from all over the world gather to buy and sell advanced technologies. The city has eight business clusters: automobiles, pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, ship-building, energy

machine building and smart energy systems, information technologies (IT cluster), radio electronics, radiology and urban economics. The first business cluster to

Every September, the city hosts the St. Petersburg International Innovation Forum. be developed was the automobile industry, which came to life during the spring of 2005, when Toyota Motor Manufacturing Russia and the city authorities

signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The plant was opened two years later. Today, Toyota assembles 50,000 Toyota Camry cars on the outskirts of the city. In December, the plant will celebrate its fifth anniversary in Russia. “The decisive factors in choosing St. Petersburg as the site for the future plant were its infrastructure, convenient transport routes and the support of the city’s government, which is also very important. We have been operating successfully in the region for five years,” said Toyota Motor Manufacturing Russia representative Olga Krainyuk.

Inspired by Toyota’s success and looking to emulate Detroit, the city administration decided to focus its efforts on building an auto manufacturing cluster. General Motors opened a

Looking to Detroit, the city administration decided to build an auto manufacturing cluster. plant here in 2008, followed by Nissan, Hyundai and Scania truck manufacturer. These companies have invested about $1.3 billion in St. Petersburg

between them and employ more than 6,400 workers. One in every five Russian-assembled cars rolls off the line in St. Petersburg. All the plants combined make more than 316 automobiles a year and are set to increase output. Some companies have already announced that they will be building new facilities. General Motors alone plans to boost its capacity to 230,000 cars a year by 2015. Nissan is also thinking of increasing its output. “The areas that we have available make it possible to greatly expand the enterprise,” Nissan Manufacturing Rus pub-

lic relations director Tatyana Natarova said in an interview with Delovoi Peterburg. In early 2013, the Yo-Auto hybrid car factory, the project of former presidential candidate and oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, will join the St. Petersburg auto cluster, and Fiat will start building its factory the same year. By 2018, St. Petersburg hopes to produce an estimated one million cars per year. This article was prepared in cooperation with the St.Petersburg State Committee for External Relations

ALEXANDR PETROSYAN

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Politics & Society

NGOs vow they will fight law CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Yelena Panfilova

HEAD OF THE ANTI-CORRUPTION AND SECURITY COMMITTEE IN THE STATE DUMA

THE DIRECTOR OF TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL RUSSIA

People should understand who does politics in Russia using money received from overseas. Russian law prohibits funding political parties from abroad. The law on NGOs corresponds with the law and guarantees against illegal political interaction.”

Oleg Orlov and Yelena Panfilova, the director of the Center for Anti-Corruption Research and Initiative at Transparency International Russia, said they are ready to defend their rights in court should any sanctions follow. “I can’t say what exactly we’ll do, all depends on the first step of those who potentially may take action against us,” said Panfilova. United Russia’s Irina Yarovaya said “it is premature to speak of possible revision of the law before we see how it works in practice.” Analysts opine that the government’s tightening the screws on nonprofits could be viewed as a reaction to massive protests against allegedly rigged parliamentary and presidential elections that hit Russia last winter. “NGOs help restrict lawlessness in this country, for example by reporting vote fraud,” said Dmitry Oreshkin, an independent political analyst and former member of the Presidential Council on Human Rights, who walked out of it in the wake of the election campaign. An-

other problem for some NGOs is the donations they received from American governmental organizations, especially USAID, which recently shut its doors in Russia. “Many of these organizations can be regarded anti-government, in a sense, because they fight against corruption, and the source of corruption is the government. They can’t but irritate the government, especially when it’s authoritarian,” said professor Olga Kryshtanovskaya, who heads her own sociological laboratory based in Moscow. “The message that ‘collective Putin’ is trying to communicate to the public by branding NGOs ‘foreign agents’ is that through them, the West interferes in Russian politics by fostering recent protests in order to replace Putin with a weaker leader that would be easier to deal with, and this by far tallies with the public’s general perceptions of politics,” she said.

This law spurs inequality among public organizations and makes us acknowledge that our activity, which has always been meant to benefit the Russian Federation and its people, is actually carried out in the interests of other states.”

Head of the Presidential Council on Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov (standing) meets with human rights advocates.

IN FIGURES

220,000 NGOs are operating in Russia; the law could be applied to about 1,000 nonprofits involved in human rights and civil society.

500,000 rubles ($15,773) is the maximum fine, but sentences of up to four years can also be the result of failure to comply with the law.

The NGO bill was pushed through parliament last summer by the ruling United Russia party.

Lukyanova also noted that one of the biggest shortcomings of the law is that it does not give a clear and unambiguous definition of political activity and that the word “foreign agent” has a negative connotation, that of “a spy,” with most Russians. A survey held by the Levada national polling organization last September showed that some 62 percent of Russians perceive the expression “foreign agent” negatively – 39 percent of those polled would define it as “a spy, a planted agent of a foreign state’s secret service, a spy acting undercover” and 22 percent of respondents said a foreign agent is a “covert enemy acting in Russia in the interests of other countries.” The law also demands more inspections, which may cripple the work of NGOs. Foreignfunded nonprofits are to report their expenses and activities on the territory of the Russian Federation every quarter and every six months respectively, instead of submitting annual reports as was the case previously.

Russians equate agent with spy

ALENA REPKINA

Weapons Americans and Russians try to redefine post-Cold War security

Still at arms length over missile defense Experts and policy makers gather in Moscow to discuss the pitfalls and potential for progress in nuclear arms reduction. ALEXEY DOLINSKIY

PRESS PHOTO

SPECIAL TO RN

Talks between the United States and Russia over missile defense and nuclear arms reductions have essentially stalled since May 2012 when President Barack Obama, with his microphone on, whispered to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that he wouldn’t be free to act until after the presidential campaign. Well the election is over, and Obama won. Now comes the hard part, so a group of experts and decision-makers from the United States, Russia, France, Pakistan, Israel and Iran gathered in Moscow this month to discuss the prospects for global arms reduction. Russian officials once again expressed concern about a U.S.led anti-ballistic missile defense system. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said nuclear weapons have long played a crucial deterrence role as they “equalized the chances of different powers” and prevented them from engaging in a military confrontation. But Rogozin told the “Moscow Nuclear Weapons and In-

Irina Yarovaya

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Oleg Orlov, a member of the board of the Memorial human rights center, anticipates that the law will tarnish the reputation of nonprofits in the eyes of ordinary people and government officials. “We are not going to put this label on ourselves,” he said. “Knowing Russian reality, I can say that officials and law enforcement will shy away from us if we are labeled a “foreign agent.” Orlov added that this could complicate human rights activists’ access to penal colonies, police stations and military garrisons. New regulations were brought up at President Vladimir Putin’s most recent meeting with the Presidential Council on Human Rights on November, 12. He said that “everything which isn’t connected with politics should be excluded from the law” and reiterated that “foreign influence on our home politics should not be allowed.” Mikhail Fedotov, head of the Presidential Council on Human Rights, has more than once pointed out the shortcomings of the new legislation, including to President Putin. At the November 12 meeting of the council, he suggested revisiting the law. “This law will either not be applied in practice at all before it’s revamped or the first attempts to apply it will cause a big political scandal and legal problems – it’ll come in conflict with the rest of the legislation, including the Constitution and the Civil Code,” Fedotov said. “If authorities want to fine an organization or suspend its activity, they can do it. But they won’t, they’re not crazy.” Fedotov added that the Human Rights Council will draft a federal law on amending the new legislation on nonprofits. Russia’s Civic Chamber gave a harsh evaluation of the bill in September, yet the authors say their assessment was ignored. No consultations were held with public organizations either. “I haven’t seen anything more absurd and harmful to the state,” said Yelena Lukyanova, director of the Institute for Monitoring of the Efficiency of Law Enforcement of the Civic Chamber.

Nuclear Weapons and International Security Conference in Moscow on Nov. 8.

ternational Security in the 21st Century” conference that such stability is threatened. Rogozin argued that an anti-ballistic missile defense system is potentially capable of intercepting intercontinental ballistic missiles and would limit Russia’s ability to maintain strategic parity with the United States. Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Ryabkov also spoke at the Nov. 8 conference, which was sponsored by the Russian Council on International Relations (RIAC), the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and the Global Zero project. “Strategic stability means pre-

venting a first strike through the threat of retaliation causing unacceptable damage,” said Ryabkov. “Despite all the reductions, U.S.-Russian stability is still based on the notion of mutually assured destruction. Russia sees a threat in foreign countries’ attempts to acquire military domination by developing high-tech military capacity and forming a global anti-ballistic missile defense system.” Richard Burt, the former U.S. ambassador in Germany and the head of the Washingtonbased Global Zero project, which advocates for the elimination of all nuclear weapons, said the United States and Rus-

sia should redesign rather than reset their relations. He said the two countries have an opportunity to cooperate in resolving nuclear proliferation issues all over the world, especially in Iran and North Korea. “Strategic stability now depends on a larger number of variables than whether or not the United States and the Soviet Union can destroy each other,” said Burt. “The Iranian nuclear program and its implication for the region or the situation in the Far East are now a far greater threat to stability.” Igor Ivanov, the head of RIAC and former Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said “nuclear weapons have a serious impact on the whole global political system, spreading far beyond Russia-U.S. relations. They cannot be used as a military tool, but they are an important tool in politics.” The development of missile defense by the U.S. and its allies, as well as hypersonic weapons and sophisticated precisionguided munitions, reduce the need for nuclear weapons. But these technological breakthroughs also increase the sense of insecurity in other powers. Shifting from a “zero-sum game” to international cooperation requires a level of trust still lacking 20 years after the Cold War ended. Russian government officials said American statements that a missile system will not be aimed against Russia are inadequate. “We need guarantees not on paper but in metal,” said Rogozin, meaning that U.S. missile defense decreases the impetus to reduce stocks of nuclear warheads.

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Diaspora political profile shifts CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

In the weeks before the election, Romney had softened some of his rhetoric on foreign policy and the New York Times reported that Romney’s son, who was recently in Moscow on business, sent a message to the Kremlin through an intermediary that when president, Mitt Romney would want “good relations” with Russia. But perhaps it was a case of too little too late. Russia experts like Lozansky are not wildly optimistic about big improvements in U.S.-Russia relations. “Unfortunately, I do not expect big positive breakthroughs with…Obama, but with Romney there [was] a serious danger of escalating into at least a rhetorical, Cold Warstyle confrontation while with Obama the relations will probably be more civilized.” Although there is little polling data on the preferences of Russian Americans in 2012, a number of observers of the community said the younger generation is breaking the Republican Party’s lock on RussianAmerican votes, and a significant percentage of them chose President Obama. The younger generation thinks differently,” said Ilya Galak, 49, the editor of Citizens Magazine on Staten Island, New York. “They studied in American schools and colleges.”

PHOTOXPRESS

Charity begins abroad In Russia, some expats find they have more time to help others.

Their parents, he said, “are convinced conservatives who, on the one hand, remember life in the Soviet Union and, on the other hand, have achieved a lot here so they can compare these two lifestyles and they have chosen conservatism.” Elena Solovyov of Washington, D.C., is a typical first-generation voter. “We saw firsthand that socialism and collectivism simply do not work and that communist ideals, as inspiring

“To me it’s clear that the Democrats represent the interests of young Russian Americans.” as they may appear at first, lead to ruin, poverty, government control and oppression,” she said. “The term ‘conservative’ is not what comes to mind when I choose to vote Republican in this or prior elections,

IN FIGURES

3 mln Russian Americans currently live in the United States, according to the 2008 census.

it is ‘individualism,’ ‘free spirit’ and ‘free enterprise’ that the conservative agenda supports.” But Bella Proskurov, a 42-yearold clinical psychologist from New York, said she supports Obama. “To me it’s clear that the Democrats represent the interests of young Americans including Russian Americans,” she said. Anatoliy Ryvkin, 45, the publisher and editor-in-chief for the Brighton Beach News, said new arrivals are less enamored of the Republican Party and some come steeped with President Obama’s glowing image overseas. The community in America has changed, he said, with Russian-speaking Muslims from the Soviet republics in Central Asia and young professionals adding to its diversity. Indeed a lack of cohesion was cited by some as a reason for the striking lack of Russian Americans in political office with the exception of people like David Storobin and Alec Brook-Krasny in the New York state legislature. There are more than 3 million people in the Russian-speaking community, according to the 2008 census, but their political influence appears marginal. There is also no unified Russian-American voice, which Lozansky said is “due to cultural, religious, ideological differences and other factors separating all five waves of Russian emigration.”

SUE S I T X NE Dec. 19

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ised to “never apologize” for U.S. actions and whose declared rules of engagement with other countries, with an exception of Israel, could be summarized by a popular idiom “my way or the highway.” For this reason alone, many foreign leaders would consider Obama as a more trustworthy and reliable interlocutor. The foreign policy of the new Obama administration is unlikely to change in any profound way; yet, it would be premature to say that there won’t be any changes at all. Obama is a “domestic” president and as many other U.S. presidents with ambitious domestic agenda, he has little passion for global issues. In such circumstances, the

MOSCOW WELCOMES OBAMA’S RE-ELECTION Eugene Ivanov SPECIAL TO RN

Until the secretary of state is in place, the administration’s foreign policy is not entirely clear.

Obama puts national interests first, but secondly, considers other points of view.

ly connect with the voters – Romney never had a real chance to win. Curiously, while the Americans found themselves almost equally split between Obama and Romney, the rest of the

world was almost openly cheering for the former. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. No one can doubt that as a mainstream U.S. politician, Obama puts American national interests above all other considerations. Yet, on

THE THIRD ANGLE

POST-ELECTION, RESET REPLACED BY PRAGMATIC VISIONS SPECIAL TO RN

he Kremlin sighed in collective relief when President Barack Obama arrived on stage to make his victory speech. Another two years of benign neglect from the White House is exactly what Moscow needs. There will be no “Reset-2” – that policy was designed by the U.S. administration to serenade the dawn of Dmitry Medvedev’s reign, in hope that it would gradually

morph into a second term gradually moving Vladimir Putin more into the political shadows. Now that these dreams are dead, Washington has more important issues to deal with on its global agenda. Syria, Iran, withdrawal from Afghanistan, the rise of China and, simultaneously, impending instability there, plus the growing South China Sea crisis – all these take precedence over Russia. Historically through the postSoviet era, the Kremlin was often irritated by the lack of attention from the U.S. to its de-

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The submarine crisis below In common with most discussions of the Cuban missile crisis, your articles [October 24th edition of Russia Now in The Washington Post] did not mention another crisis within. On October 27, 1962, a Soviet submarine lay submerged off Cuba. The U.S. Navy detected it and wanted it to surface for identification. Practice (i.e., harmless) depth charges were dropped near the submarine to make it surface. But aboard the submarine, no one could tell that the depth charges were harmless. Its captain assumed that war had broken out. He was authorized to fire his nuclear torpedoes, provided he and two

viet space. In response the Kremlin may be prepared to make fewer problems for Washington in the Middle East with a few caveats (“Please, Barack, do not go to the U.N. Security Council – we still like to wield our veto power there.”) Very probably, the Kremlin will grant the U.S. leader yet another disarmament treaty – something Obama seems to cherish in particular in view of his 1970s-inspired vision of the world. Russia knows it has to get rid of a lot of missiles that gradually rust away. So why not sell them to Uncle Sam at a price? Putin sees Obama and his team as weaklings who can hardly compete with him in toughness and who, actually, do not relish such competition. If U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is appointed Secretary of State, Mr. Putin’s dreams regarding

America will come to fruition. The senator will be welcomed in Moscow with open arms as a friend. Almost singlehandedly, Kerry appeared to withhold the one congressional bill that bothers the Russian authorities from his foreign affairs committee review for nearly a year: The “Justice for Sergei Magnitsky” law introduces a host of financial and visa sanctions on Russian officials suspected of involvement in the 2009 death in custody of Magnitsky. The attorney was an auditor who exposed massive corruption in Russia’s Interior Ministry and Tax Service. The act may also compel the U.S. executive bodies to sanction other Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses. That John Kerry is seen as someone who wasn’t too keen on passing this act endears him to the Kremlin, as opposed to

other officers agreed. Two agreed, one did not. Millions probably owe their lives to that officer, for Kennedy had already proclaimed that Soviet use of nuclear weapons in the Western Hemisphere meant nuclear retaliation on the Soviet Union. Both the United States and the U.S.S.R. were satisfied with the final outcome of the crisis, but that satisfaction does not justify the frightful danger of a nuclear holocaust which, but for that one dissenting officer, would almost certainly have occurred. Rudolph Hirsch, Washington D.C.

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caying global power status. Moscow’s post-Soviet geopolitical hangover is aggravated by what it deems a lack of respect from Washington. But all this may be about to change. President Vladimir Putin expects two things from the Obama administration. It should a) not pay too much attention to what the Kremlin does domestically (clamp down against the opposition, continued pressure on NGOs and civic activists, election rigging, etc.); and b) leave Moscow with a free hand in the so-called post-So-

If U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is appointed secretary of state, Putin’s dreams regarding America will come to fruition; Kerry will be welcomed in Moscow with open arms.

Eugene Ivanov is a Massachusetts-based political analyst who blogs at The Ivanov Report.

the outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who never had much traction with her counterpart Sergei Lavrov, and Putin himself. As far as Moscow is concerned the upcoming congressional vote on the Magnitsky act, as wells as Russia’s impending attempts to rope Georgia back into its fold after its proAmerican president Mikheil Saakashvili leaves his post next year, will be the first two tests for relations with the “Obama-2” team. And these two tests will determine a lot for the future. Konstantin von Eggert is a commentator and host for Kommersant FM, Russia’s first 24-hour news radio station. He was a diplomatic correspondent for Russian daily Izvestia and later served as the editor-in-chief of the BBC Russian Service Moscow Bureau.

ASTRONAUT NEIL ARMSTRONG AND RUSSIANS, REAL AND APOCRYPHAL George Feifer SPECIAL TO RN

eil Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module who died in August, had a necessarily distant but nevertheless special relationship with Yuri Gagarin, and not only as the first person to set foot on the moon with the first person to have entered space. Apart from Armstrong’s greater height – his nickname was “Stretch” – the two men resembled one another physically and otherwise. Country lads who traveled far from home educationally as well as geographically, both were good souls who behaved with modesty, dignity and friendliness during a time when many super-patriots were inciting fear and hatred. Surely that helped generate the kinship Russians felt with Armstrong when he visited in May 1970, 25 months after Gagarin’s death and ten after his moon flight. Cold War or no Cold War, he was given a tumultuous welcome, with near wild applause. But no resident of Moscow, Leningrad or anywhere else in Russia could have helped solve a mystery about the man, even if they’d been asked. Armstrong’s first words after descending the little ladder to the moon’s surface quickly entered at least the second tier of the world’s most famous sentences. “That’s one small step

for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Televised to earth, the eloquent declaration enabled half a billion people, a sixth of the world’s population, to share the thrill and enjoy an additional uplift from feeling unified in the exploration. In Moscow, where I was then working, disappointment that a Soviet cosmonaut hadn’t been first in that phase of the Space Race didn’t stop watchers and listeners from congratulating me as if I’d had something to do with the feat. Russians were genuinely happy for humanity, as Armstrong wanted them to be, and for me personally. However, no one then or during the next quarter-century could make head or tail of a remark he was said to have made just before re-entering his module: “Good luck, Mister Gorsky.” Mister Gorsky? Who was he? A Soviet cosmonaut, many NASA personnel assumed. Indeed, before leaving the moon, Armstrong left a satchel there containing medals commemorating Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov. Komarov, who commanded the Soyuz 1 with which the Soviet Union had hoped to reach the moon first, with Gagarin as his backup, was killed in 1967 when his parachute failed to open. But no amount of checking found a Gorsky of any kind in the Soviet space program, and when “Stretch” was asked about it, he always answered with a smile and nothing more.

NATALIA MIKHAYLENKO

Konstantin von Eggert

many occasions he demonstrated a willingness to at least consider national interests of others countries, as long as they didn’t contradict America’s. This provides a clear contrast to Romney, who proudly prom-

U.S. foreign policy is often hijacked by the secretary of state (or sometimes by the National Security Advisor); there is every reason to believe that in the past two years, it’s been Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, not the president himself, who was defining U.S. international priorities. Clinton is going to step down in January, and until the identity of her replacement becomes known, the precise contours of the U.S. foreign policies will remain somewhat blurry. The leading candidate to succeed Clinton appears to be U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), an experienced and competent chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. With Kerry at the

IORSH

t’s over. The long and expensive, yet highly entertaining political show called the American presidential election campaign came to an end in the early hours of Nov. 7. By winning 50 percent of the popular vote nationwide and beating his Republican opponent, former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, in eight of nine of the so-called swing states, the incumbent president Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term. The in-depth analysis of the factors leading to Obama’s victory will keep pundits busy for the months to come. Some will argue that Obama was helped by hurricane Sandy, which seemed to stop the momentum the Romney campaign acquired coming out of the presidential debates. Others will point to the release, just four days before the election, of the Labor Department’s unemployment report suggesting that the U.S. economy was on track to recovery, an argument the Obama administration has been making for the past couple of years. And there obviously will be those insisting that by being unable to provide substance to his job creation plan – and by failing to emotional-

helm of the Department of State, one can expect a renewed U.S. involvement in “grand projects,” such as the peace process in the Middle East. At the same time, an emphasis on the global humanitarian issues, championed by Clinton, may subside. Moscow welcomed Obama’s re-election. And it’s not because he has a lot of fans among the Russian political class. Russia’s policies toward the U.S. are perennially reactive: Moscow never takes the lead in its relations with Washington; rather, it prefers to respond to what Washington throws at it, be it a cold wind of confrontation blown by the Bush administration or a sunny “reset” offered by President Obama. In the eyes of the Russian leadership, Obama is a known quality, and the Kremlin finds it much more convenient to resume the established relationship rather than spend the time and effort for developing a new one. Although there seems to be a consensus among the Russian foreign policy establishment that the “reset” is dead, no attempts have been made so far to put forward a proactive, pro-Russian agenda, at least at the official level. Apparently, the Kremlin is going to take a wait-and-see approach in anticipation of a new paradigm for U.S.-Russia relations emerging from the White House – and then assume the comfortable position of being able to either accept or reject this paradigm. While such an approach may well suit the lifestyle of Russian foreign policy apparatchiks, it’s hard to see how it will advance Russia’s vital national interests.

The smile stayed in place and the enigma grew. On it went for 26 years until July 1995, when a reporter asked the question during a Q&A that followed a talk the veteran astronaut gave in Tampa: Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky, it turned out, had been Armstrong’s neighbors. While he was playing in his backyard, a friend hit a baseball into his neighbor’s yard, toward which young Neil hurried to fetch it. Leaning toward the ball beneath the Gorskys’ bedroom window, he heard a shout from Mrs. Gorsky. “Sex? You want sex? You’ll get it when the kid next door walks on the moon!” I don’t know whether to be happy or sad that this entire story, much repeated for more

than a decade, was eventually revealed to be apocryphal, an urban legend, I do know that the Russian affection for Armstrong was genuine. Shortly after his death, Vladimir Popovkin, the head of Russia’s space agency, said his colleagues there remembered him “as an exemplary spaceship pilot: modest in his ways, always correct in his dealings with people, with a fine sense of humor when that was appropriate while, first of all, being demanding of and hard on himself. For us, he’ll always remain the model of fulfilling the common man’s dreams.” “In a Bertolt Brecht play,” a popular Soviet website called Gazeta added, “Galileo an-

swered a colleague’s ‘unhappy is the land that breeds no hero’ with ‘No, Andrea, unhappy is the land that needs a hero.’ Neil Armstrong, the child of the struggle between two such ‘unhappy’ countries...nevertheless lived a long and, we hope, a happy life.” What fittingly generous tributes! How encouraging that rivals can be good sports! And the Russian emotion, which went well beyond sportsmanship, can also serve as a model for how we talk about each other publically. May we please have more of it? George Feifer is the author of many acclaimed books, including Moscow Farewell and The Girl from Petrovka.

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WANDERLUST

Tourism How to see the real city of Moscow as locals see it

Puzzling out Moscow for the under 30s SPECIAL TO RN

Hugging strangers, reciting poetry and looking for bird-shaped graffiti is not part of most tourist trips to Moscow — and Nikita Bogdanov, head of Moscow Game Tour, is fine with that. “It’s not a regular tour, it’s a quest,” he said. “You interact with Russian people, and you gain more experience.” Moscow Game Tour belongs to a new breed of innovative tourism in the capital run by and for young people. They are either low-cost or free, and focus on interacting with locals over sightseeing. “[Traditional] guides just give people information they read in a book,” said Alexei Sostkov, 30, the founder of Moscow Greeter. “Greeters give them information about their lives, about their parents, where they come from in Moscow, where they study.” Bogdanov, 25, started Moscow Game Tour in 2009 to encourage visitors to explore areas outside the city center. The several-hour game costs 700 rubles or about 20 dollars. Players complete challenges that lead them to clues, which come in the shape of a matryoshka doll. Many tasks require asking passersby for directions, or sounding out a Russian phrase. Along the way, players discover spots such as a monastery canteen, or a stern Socialist Realist statue by an apartment building. Some clues prove easier to locate than others. “There was one spot that we absolutely

For visitors without a guide, getting around Moscow can still be a challenging adventure. danov said. “For the game tour, you need much more time to explain what it is.” Business has picked up as Bogdanov has formed relationships with hotels, major tour agencies like TUI and companies such as Google. This year he also began receiving support from Moscow’s Committee for Tourism and the Hotel Industry, which has launched a program called “Moscow Fresh” to support creative tourism efforts. Sotskov started Moscow Greeter, a local chapter of the international Greeter network, as an outgrowth of the informal tours he was giving to friends. “I have a lot of friends in foreign countries, and when they come

to Moscow I show them interesting places. So I thought it would be a great idea to create such a service,” he said. After a slow start in 2010, he says this year the group led about 50 tours per month in summer and 10 in autumn. Most greeters are students learning English. Sotskov encourages them to take visitors to lesser-known Moscow. Valentina Lebedeva has been a greeter for two months. “When most people come to Moscow, they visit the Kremlin and everything, but they go back and they still don’t really get how people live here,” said Lebedeva, a linguistics student. For visitors without a guide, getting around can still be a challenge. Over the past year, the city has posted some English-language signs indicating historical sights, but metro and street signs remain in Cyrillic. “Coming here, it’s very hard to get oriented,” said Irina Tripapina, 25, the organizer of WowLocal. “We decided to compensate for the lack of infrastructure with a community of people who are ready to help.” After passing language and navigation tests, WowLocal volunteers are given T-shirts and

Navigation games on the streets and conversation clubs in hostels are all part of the fun of figuring out Moscow when you’re young at heart.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Valentina Lebedeva

Mila Kudinova

STUDENT IN A LINGUISTICS PROGRAM, MOSCOW GREETER VOLUNTEER

MARKETING MANAGER FOR MICROSOFT, WOWLOCAL VOLUNTEER

When most people come to Moscow, they visit the Kremlin and everything, but they go back and they still don’t really get how people live here. This is a good way to get a whole impression of Russia, not just see something.”

pins emblazoned with the phrase “Ask Me, I’m Local.” Rather than being stationed around Red Square, they simply wear “Local” gear as they go about their day. “Tourists can meet WowLocal at any part of the city and at any time — even at night in Butovo,” she said, referring to the suburb south of Moscow. Tripapina says the program has drawn around 400 volunteers. She wears her pin every day on her way to work, and says she’s frequently stopped by foreigners asking for directions

(as well as Russians looking for the metro). WowLocal also brings together locals and tourists through conversation clubs at hostels. “We bring volunteers who want to help travelers in Moscow, so they can share with each other,” she said.

Wearing the T-shirt which reads: “Ask Me I’m Local” allows me to help visitors. When I hear a foreigner ask for directions, I always come and help with advice. I have foreign colleagues who don’t like Moscow because they can’t find anything here.”

This article was prepared in cooperation with Moscow’s Committee for Tourism and Hotel Industry. Read the full article at rbth.ru/20169

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

JOY NEUMEYER

could not find,” said Vera Baranova, 25, who participated in a quest in southeast Moscow’s Tsaritsyno Park. “When we asked someone, it turned out that we were actually right on top of it.” Convincing visitors to sign up for an unconventional tour can be a challenge. Bogdanov also operates Moscow Free Tour, a gratis overview of major sites between Kitai Gorod and the Kremlin. In peak season, this more traditional tour attracts between a dozen and 40 people every day; the game tour, in contrast, meets only once or twice a week, and usually draws between five and 10 participants. “The free tour is more popular because it’s more understandable for people,” Bog-

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Tours by and for young people use games, gear and beer to give Moscow a fresh face and help young visitors get to know the local scene.

Check out Russia’s travel destinations

Contemporary Art The Hermitage Foundation supports the museum’s greatest adventure

EXPAT FILES

A 21st century Hermitage

PLEASE MITT, COME TO SOCHI

The Hermitage Foundation awarded Jeff Koons and Erik Bulatov for their pioneering careers, though Bulatov is still a well-kept secret. AYANO HODOUCHI

Oleg Vassiliev’s “Artistic Vision 2009” was donated to the museum last month.

IN FIGURES

years ago The State Hermitage Museum launched its contemporary art program. Since then there have been 19 exhibitions.

KOMMERSANT

With its 250th anniversary only two years away, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is determined to celebrate 21st century art by filling its new wing, which faces the Winter Palace, with contemporary art. The world-renowned museum is relying completely on donations for this push, and the nascent collection so far includes Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Robert Rauschenberg and a handful of other prominent artists. The New York-based Hermitage Museum Foundation recently launched the “Art from America” program in the hopes of bringing more American contemporary artists to the collection, a move that might seem controversial to Russians. At a gala earlier this month, the foundation honored two pioneering artists, Jeff Koons and Erik Bulatov, for their contributions to contemporary art. American collector and philanthropist Neik K. Rector was also recognized for his gift to the museum’s contemporary art collection, Russian artist Oleg Vassiliev’s “Artistic Vision 2009.” While Bulatov and Vassiliev are not as well known as Koons, they are among the most significant living artists from Russia and pioneers of the Soviet nonconformist art movement. Their large-scale works explore powerful symbols, language, dreamscapes and other visions. The Hermitage Museum is one of the largest and oldest in the

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SPECIAL TO RN

Read the full article at rbth.ru/20173

The Hemitage Museum is in the process of renovating a wing of the General Staff Building for new art.

world, with about three million items in its collection, of which only a small percentage are on display. But it is not just the lack of space that the museum is grappling with; it is catching up with the rest of the world. That said, the foundation is not pushing for radical changes at the Hermitage — something Russians might not tolerate anyway. “Yes, there are a lot of classics there. But there are impressionists there too. And Catherine the Great was collecting a lot of

stuff that passed for contemporary art in her day. So what’s the difference?” asked Paul Rodzianko, the foundation’s chairman. He explained that nothing happens in isolation; artists, even contemporary ones, take inspiration from the great masters, such as the ones housed in the Hermitage. “It’s a continuity; [what we’re trying to do] is not something different, something alien. It can look pretty alien, but it’s still relevant. We don’t try to replace; we try to complement.”

By acquiring late 20th century and 21st century art, the Hermitage is playing catch up. Contemporary art curator for The Hermitage, Dmitry Ozerkov, told Russia Now in an earlier interview that the museum wants “to develop principles for contemporary art. We want a collection, and we understand we can’t have it tomorrow,” he said. Contemporary shows at the Hermitage have been acclaimed by critics, but not always by viewers, he said. Besides the Vassiliev gifted by Rector, it is yet undecided what works will be given to the Her-

mitage as part of the Art from America initiative. Without having an unrestrained budget, choosing the works and bringing them to the Hermitage is a mission of diplomacy. Getting the right works for the Hermitage is largely a matter of networking, something the museum is not experienced in. The foundation’s task and aim is to identify people who are interested in the Hermitage having an American presence. (There is another strong foundation operating in the U.K.) Bulatov said that of course, for the young generation of artists living in Russia, what goes on in the art world in America has great significance for them and is considered part of their education. But personally, he hopes that the foundation will focus its resources not only on Art from America, but that it will continue bringing the Hermitage and Russian art to the United States. The painter, whose large-scale paintings gave new meaning to language and perspective, laments that Russian art isn’t appreciated on the same level as European or American art. In the U.S., “they don’t know anything about Russian art, whether it’s contemporary or not, or understand it, or anything. They think it simply doesn’t exist – they know only some things from the 1920s – and nothing before, or after.” For now, though, the foundation is focused on the ambitious project of bringing America to the Hermitage. Rodzianko said: “The Hermitage has three million visitors, most of them from Russia. Let’s share a part of ourselves... Let’s resonate on a cultural level.”

Jennifer Eremeeva SPECIAL TO RN

emocrats are still sighing with relief about the recent election. It was so close that Mitt Romney did not even seem to have a concession speech prepared and the Romney camp is still scratching its head as to how they let the White House slip through their fingers. What’s next for Mitt? Will he return to the stripping assets/ job destroyer racket, or just drive off in one of his numerous vehicles with a domestic animal tied to the roof to one of his many homes? I may not have wanted Mitt to be in charge of things like the U.S. economy and my reproductive health, but I do recognize that he is a talented manager of large-scale projects teetering on the verge of financial and logistic failure. As such, he is ideally suited to take on what is shaping up to be one of the biggest messes. I refer of course to the Sochi Olympics. I know what you’re thinking: Possibly not the most comfortable fit for Mitt. He’s not “na tiy” (chummy, informal) with the Russians. It was awkward when he backpedaled on the idea that Russia represented the biggest geopolitical threat to the United States. Then he said that Iran was a much bigger threat than Russia. This enraged the Russians, who do not acknowledge silver or bronze medals in any sport, let alone geopolitical domination. Mitt ran the 2002 Salt Lake

City Olympics. David Cameron noted that this was in “the middle of nowhere” which is a perfect description of Sochi. Mitt might think that after coming pretty close to becoming the leader of the free world, running the Sochi Olympics could be considered a step down. I beg to differ and urge him to consider the following upsides: 1. Russia is a country where more than 99.999% of the citizens know they are entitled to government handouts. 2. In Russia, natural disasters such as Super Storm Sandy have no effect on election races. 3. In Russia, a $10,000 bet, such as Mitt suggested to Rick Perry in the primaries, is considered getting the ball rolling on a dull Wednesday night. 4. Persons in charge of running things like the Sochi Olympics who don’t hand out lucrative construction and municipal contracts to their Tabernacle type buddies are regarded as supremely ill mannered. 5. While it is imperative to deliver the Sochi Olympics on time, recent construction activity down there suggests there is no urgency to bring it in on budget. 6. Finally, as anyone who has ever joined the phalanx of traffic heading out of Moscow on any Friday night from May to September knows, no one in Russia gives a damn what you put on your car roof. Jennifer Eremeeva is a a freelance writer and longtime resident of Moscow. She is the curator of the culinary blog, www.moscovore. com, and the humor blog www. russialite.com.

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Books As Chekhov once said, “Literature is my mistress”

From translated classics to postmodern forays, from travelogues to coffee-table tomes, here is a roundup of the finest in print. PHOEBE TAPLIN SPECIAL TO RN

A charming translation of Alexander Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” (Pushkin Press, November 2012) includes plays and verses alongside the classic tale of gambling and madness, creating an ideal introduction to the famous poet’s work. Poetry is notoriously hard to translate, but here Pushkin’s poems find an accessible context with Pushkin’s verse-narrative about the founding of St. Petersburg, “The Bronze Horseman” or the short tragedy of “Mozart and Salieri” that inspired Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus.” There are also fragments from the play “Boris Godunov” and the rhyming novel “Eugene Onegin” now both best known as operas. The selected poems tend toward the narrative, and as in the stories, translator Anthony Briggs’ skillful rendering of colloquial speech is invaluable. Some super stocking-fillers are also available from Alma Classics, an elegant series of rebranded masterpieces from authors around the world. Two recent additions are short novels by Ivan Turgenev, “Faust” and “Rudin” (Alma Classics, 2012). Hemingway called Turgenev “the greatest writer there ever was” and certainly these tales show a masterful control of character and emotion. “Faust” is a novella in letters about the relationship between a married woman who has been protected from fiction and poetry all her life and the man who finally introduces her to the joys and perils of literature. Like Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray, Vera Nikolayevna seems artificially

youthful, but her innocence is lost when she encounters Goethe’s “Faust.” “Rudin,” Turgenev’s littleknown first novel written in 1856, also centers on a typically drifting “superfluous man” and his doomed relationship with the daughter of his aristocratic hostess. Turgenev’s complex psychology, subtle characterization and detailed evocation of 19th-century Russian life make a refreshing change from the brutality of many contemporary novels.

The lyrical “Molotov’s Magic Lantern” begins with the library of Stalin’s henchman. Another lost treasure, this time from the embattled ranks of Soviet modernism, is Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s “The Letter Killers Club” (NYRB, 2012). The surrealism of this short novel about a mysterious circle of intellectuals, who tell each other stories that they have decided never to write down, is a response to life in Stalin’s Moscow. Like the pilgrims in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, each member of the group tells a story. The range of styles, from folk fable to apocalyptic sci-fi to Roman myth is deliciously bewildering. With a versatile and evocative use of language, the author celebrates the multiplicity of experiences in the “polyglot, patchwork world.” Eduard Kochergin’s awardwinning memoir “Christened with Crosses” (Glagoslav, 2012) tells the story of his epic escape from the brutal life of a social orphan in Siberia and return to his native St. Petersburg, where he is now a successful set designer. Kochergin’s parents were

imprisoned as “enemies of the people.” Traveling thousands of miles home, he works as a tattoo artist, maker of playingcards, even a thief. Part of Kochergin’s skill is to make his carefully crafted memoir seem artless and wandering. Despite the horrors he sees, the author retains his humanity in a world which tyranny and war have rendered almost uninhabitable. Toward the end he finds himself tattooing Stalin’s face onto the chest of an Estonian gangster, all in a day’s work for “a thief, an inmate, a runaway, a hobo.” Sarah Quigley was New Zealand’s best-selling author for several months with her mesmerizing tale in wartime Leningrad, “The Conductor” (Head of Zeus, 2012). The novel tells the story of the Leningrad Symphony in the freezing winter of 1941-1942. Quigley has risen to the challenge of creating an emotionally realistic historical novel. Shostakovich struggles to write music against the backdrop of roaring planes. Yet the novel’s hero is not Shostakovich, but the lonely conductor of the struggling Radio Orchestra, Karl Eliasberg. Son of a cobbler, living with his dying mother, he drags himself through the starving streets to rehearsals. This thoroughly readable novel would be an excellent gift for anyone who loves books or music. You could couple it with a Shostakovich CD for maximum impact. The New Zealand edition of the book was actually sold with a recording of the seventh (Leningrad) Symphony. For a rich panorama of fabric and design, the hand-printed blouses of medieval peasants or the jewel-encrusted gowns of tsarinas, check out “Russian Elegance” (Vivays, 2011). The authors, Luisa Yefi-

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A holiday wish list of the best Russian books

mova and Tatyana Aleshina, of the State Historical Museum, have produced a survey of “country and city fashion from the 15th to the early 20th century.” These clothes are a celebration of undervalued, traditionally female crafts like weaving and lace-making. It is also a reflection of historical trends, like Peter the Great’s uncompromising fondness for European garb or Catherine’s preference for Russian-style dresses at court. The authors’ style is reminiscent of museum tours in Russia, with an over-fondness for pedantic detail, but the lovely photos are the real point of this tome, which would make a good coffee-table book as well as an authoritative guide. Rachel Polonsky is a Cam-

VIEWPOINT

bridge-based lecturer who planned a few months’ academic research in Moscow and ended up with a ten-year, several-thousand-mile Russian odyssey. “Molotov’s Magic Lantern” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012) is the result, a book that encompasses innumerable strands of Russian life and literature, from the ornate, intimate bathhouse to sunset over the

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Mention Pussy Riot or Anna Politkovskaya, and foreigners will read your book Zakhar Prilepin SPECIAL TO RN

n Europe and the United States, contemporary Russian literature, by which I mean a continuation of the Russian classical tradition, is notable only by its absence. Recently, a prominent German newspaper published an interesting list – the most significant works of the past seven decades, the so-called “literary canon.” This canon seems to include pretty much everyone you can think of: However Russia is represented by only two very wellknown works, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago” and Boris Pasternak’s “Doctor Zhivago.” Both were published decades ago, and neither of them will ever be seen as pivotal moments in modern Russian literature. On the whole, contempo-

rary Russian writers are only of peripheral interest to foreign readers. And actually Russia itself is peripheral and uninteresting too, but very big. Whatever the case, in terms of culture, Russia appears to have been placed in the same category as some underdeveloped, backwater country. My books have been translated into 14 different languages, but I would never dream of calling myself a writer of European renown – the fact that I am published abroad seems like some sort of ongoing mistake, albeit one that is interesting for a narrow circle of academics and the few intellectuals who are still interested in Russia. But after observing the Western publishing industry and how Russian literature is promoted, I have some idea how Russian

writers might appeal to a mass audience. Whatever the book is about, the blurb on the back cover needs to include sentences along the lines of: “This writer is the son of Alyosha Karamazov.” “He is the brother of the Pussy Riot girls.” “Anna Politkovskaya loved this book.” I am not saying success would be completely guaranteed, but the cover would certainly catch the eyes of hundreds if not thousands of potential readers who would then flick through the pages to find something about Pussy Riot and how Putin killed Politkovskaya. I apologize for any offense this may cause – but a few things need to be put straight. Anna Politkovskaya is an absolutely wonderful woman – a genius. We worked at the same newspaper. Her death was a tragedy for me personally, and modern Russia is much worse off without her. She set an al-

most unattainable benchmark in terms of honesty, determination and the relentless pursuit of justice. But Politkovskaya is better known in the West than she is in Russia, and it is very odd that Politkovskaya’s opinion should

Contemporary Russian writers are only of peripheral interest to foreign readers. be a criterion by which a Western reader gauges the importance of a book by a Russian writer. The story of Pussy Riot is even sadder. I’m bound to offend you even more, but, while being fully aware that the harsh punishment was grossly out of proportion to the crime that was committed, most citizens of Rus-

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sia genuinely consider the action to be disgusting from both the ethical and aesthetic point of view. I doubt very much that there would have been so many fearless advocates of their behavior had they staged a deliberately inflammatory dance and taken their clothes off in front of the Pope. But I repeat – this does not justify the brutality of the Russian courts in any way, shape or form. Today Russian literature is tormented by premonitions of the apocalypse, and is trying to reinstate a literary tradition that has now been almost completely lost. Russian readers (and also Russian writers) are sick and tired of mockery and unrelenting parody. There is something really horrible about having all our national flaws and foibles laid bare for all to see. The aesthetics of destruction have ceased to be attractive.

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Barents Sea, from Dostoevsky’s daughter playing Chinese billiards to prostitutes smoking in a bar by the River Don; the mix of sensory experiences (steam and birch twigs, pike and boiled potatoes, or “the scent of dried herbs, vodka and old wood”) with digressions on the history of the Sandunovsky baths or Siberian ethnography is pleasantly overwhelming. Polonsky’s

beautifully written book offers a kaleidoscope of images that spread out from the morally perplexing library of Stalin’s henchman, Vyacheslav Molotov, on the floor above her Moscow flat. This is a book to savor slowly, to enjoy the journey through glimpses of the Russian past and present that Polonsky summons “as if by magic out of the surrounding dark.”

Western readers loved classic Russian literature for the world it portrays: A place where there is an inexplicable yet resolute sense of the divine; idealism free of dogma and didacticism; and a firm conviction as to the existence of good and evil. There are several contemporary authors, however, who are inspired by Great Russian literature and interested in continuity. A number of writers born around 1970 seem to be doing great things: Mikhail Tarkovsky with his Siberian stories; Alex-

Bitov, Valentin Rasputin and Eduard Limonov should be very serious contenders for the Nobel Prize for Literature. But of course this is not for us to decide, and these things are always easier said than done. Historically, Russian literature has always come to Europe propelled by Russia’s more bombastic and expansionist policies. First the Cossacks in Paris, the partition of Poland and Russia’s reputation as the “gendarme of Europe” – and then along came Dostoevsky and Turgenev. Then there was the Russian space drive, the Gulags and Russian tanks in Hungary – which was then followed by Mikhail Bulgakov and Mikhail Sholokhov’s appearance on the European literary scene. It would be nice, of course, to be able to do without tanks and Cossacks – it would be good if we could read each other just because we like each other, and because we write quite good books.

Today Russian literature is trying to recapture a literary tradition that has been lost. ander Terekhov who wrote the great novel “The Stone Bridge”; Dmitry Bykov who brought us the epic works “Justification” and “Ostromov”; and Alexander Kuznetsov-Tulyanin, who wrote what is undoubtedly a classic saga, “Pagan.” I am more than certain that Russian masters of an older generation, including Andrei

Zakhar Prilepin, who served in Chechnya, is an investigative journalist and the author of several books. Read the full opinion rbth.ru/19477