Culture
Feature
Russia’s Benny Goodman brings his big band to D.C.
Pioneering ‘Diaghilev and Ballets Russes’
Virtuosic saxophonist talks about music in Soviet times and new emerging artists P5
NGA show reveals the powerful role Russian group played in modernism P6 VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
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THE MAKING OF A CULTURAL COLD WAR R
Anti-gay propaganda law causes new wrinkle in the reset and overshadows Olympics
A crowd in Moscow supports the LGBT community and protests the new law.
Fears about safety Lyudmila Alexeyeva, former Soviet dissident and co-founder of the human-rights watchdog the Moscow Helsinki Group, has called the legislation “a step toward the Middle Ages.” Russia’s most prominent LGBT activist, Nikolai Alexeyev, was frequently detained even before the law was passed. But now, according to Alexeyev, more gay people want to emigrate because of the measure. “They ask me to help them get political asylum, fearing for their safety,” he told NBC news in Moscow. In the past month, Russia’s investigative committee has summoned Alex-
eyev, for questions concerning his Twitter account. Kirill Kobrin, a historian at Radio Free Europe’s Russia Service, takes a long-term look at the effect of the law on Russian society. “It was unthinkable to even discuss these issues twenty years ago in Russia,” he told RBTH. Kobrin said there has been a major shift in public consciousness and that now, LGBT rights are the focus of public debate in Russia — albeit a censored debate. Others suggest Russia is at a point the United States was at 25 years ago, when there were many efforts to censor or criminalize gaythemed art or expression.
to protect children from information that rejects “traditional family values.” Specifically, the bill prohibits “the spreading of information” which aims to: (1) create non-traditional sexual attitudes among children, (2) make non-traditional sexual relations seem attractive, (3) give “a distorted perception about the social equality between traditional and non-traditional sexual relations” or (4) enforce information about non-traditional sexual relations that evokes interest in such relations. The Russian Orthodox Church has been a force behind anti-gay sentiment. The head of the Church, Patriarch Kirill, is well known for expressing homophobic opinions. Kirill told a congregation this July that samesex marriage is a “dangerous sign of the apocalypse.” Private individuals promoting “non-traditional relations among minors” may face fines of up to 5,000 rubles ($155). Officials could be fined up to 200,000 rubles ($6,115). Organizations can be fined up to 1 million rubles (over $30,000) and closed down for up to 90 days, while foreigners can be detained for up to 15 days and deported.
ITAR-TASS
ussia’s anti-gay propaganda law, which was passed unanimously by Russia’s upper and lower houses of parliament and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin this summer, has unleashed fierce criticism and international concern about the law’s implications for the country’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) communities. The new law appears to have significantly widened the cultural gap between Russia and the United States as groups in the United States began boycotts against Russian products. Others threatened to protest the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, leading to recent assurances by Russian officials that foreign athletes and spectators would not be subject to the law. Bars and restaurants in cities across the world have stopped serving Russian vodka. However, in the face of popular and official criticism, the Kremlin appears to stand resolute. Many Russians don’t understand the emotional response the legislation has provoked in the United States, insisting that the law isn’t anti-gay but antipropaganda. President Putin has expressed his support for the new law, saying its purpose is to “protect children.” He has also said that homosexuals are “not being discriminated against in any way.” But how, critics respond, is this legislation anything but discriminatory? In August, President Barack Obama harshly criticized the law, but later added that boycotting the 2014 Olympics was not the right move. A number of celebrities have caused controversy in Russia by speaking out on the topic. In June, a photograph of actress Tilda Swinton holding a rainbow flag in front of Moscow’s Kremlin went viral on social media outlets.
Russian journalist Lena Klimova’s initiative “404-Kids” has called for tolerance and recognition of LGBT youth in Russia. According to Klimova, “our society thinks that homosexual teens don’t exist in nature, as if gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders fly in from Mars as adults. These 404-Kids are invisible to society…” she writes on the group’s Facebook page. Pushing traditional family values Elena Mizulina, the deputy who co-authored the legislation and heads Russia’s State Duma Committee on Family, Women, and Children, has said that the law aims
REUTERS
Mainstream homophobia Same-sex relations were decriminalized in Russia in 1993, when Russia’s “anti-sodomy law,” which dated back to 1934, was revoked. In 1999, homosexuality was removed from Russia’s official code of mental illness. However, anti-gay sentiment remains high. No political parties in Russia support rights for sexual minorities and there are no statistics that indicate how many people identify as gay. Not long after the adoption of the anti-propaganda law, Putin signed an amendment to the Russian Family Code banning gay and lesbian couples in foreign countries from adopting Russian children. Some groups in the U.S. have called for a boycott of the Russian Winter Olympic Games in Sochi next February. Others suggest that the Olympics be used as an opportunity to put pressure on the Kremlin. The Olympic Committee has released a statement saying it will “work to ensure” no discrimination against LGBT participants occurs at the Games. ■YAROSLAVA KIRYUKHINA RBTH
Politics & Society P2 // rbth.ru // September 11, 2013
NEWS IN BRIEF
Obama no-show not a trend U.S. President Barack Obama’s cancellation of his one-on-one meeting with President Vladimir Putin is a “one-off” and not the beginning of a trend, said political analysts. The deci-
sion, a response to Edward Snowden’s residency, does not reflect a desire to stop talking: “Both Washington and Moscow have saved face,” RBTH contributor Fyodor Lukyanov said.
READ MORE at rbth.ru/politics My Own Private Moon
MIKHAIL MORDASOV
The Other Sochi: A tale of disrepair
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
waited at a bus stop on Kurortny prospect, the only main street in Sochi. Tourists complained of the slow traffic, high prices and dust from the construction. “We thought of coming here we would escape Moscow traffic jams; I dreamt of walks in the Dendrarium park, but Sochi is not the same any more – the road is jammed and our favorite park is closed,” said Lyubov Zakurova, a pensioner from Moscow and lifelong admirer of the resort.
The girls on the stairs shared their feelings about the most recent changes to their city of 368,00 people. “We document the environmental issues in Sochi on our social network web pages,” Valeria Smirnova, 19, explained. “It is sad to see the most beautiful things disappear, so we hope that if we capture pictures of dead dolphins on city beaches, write about dying trees and fish trout poisoned in our Mzymta river, the authorities would pay attention and think of people who will continue living in this town after two weeks of Olympic games,” Smirnova, a student of journalism, added. Two years ago authorities closed the Ordzhonikidze hotel for reconstruction, built a high metal fence around it and put a “stop” sign at the entrance. No one knows when it will open. The funicular that once brought both tourists and local people to the beach also stopped functioning. Humidity and wild nature took over the old Sochi’s walls. Also troubling, authorities continue to demolish hundreds of illegally built and public homes that happen to be in the way of construction. This summer, 400 homes were in the path of the bulldozers. ■ANNA NEMTSOVA SPECIAL TO RBTH
Valeria Smirnova A STUDENT OF JOURNALISM, SOCHI NATIVE
"
We document the environmental issues in Sochi on our social network web pages. We hope that the authorities would pay attention and think of people who will continue living in this town after two weeks of Olympic games.
Lyubov Zakurova MOSCOW PENSIONER AND ADMIRER OF THE RESORT
"
We thought of coming here we would escape Moscow traffic jams; I dreamt of walks in the Dendrarium park, but Sochi is not the same any more – the road is jammed and our favorite park is closed.
Alyona Haladzha SOCHI RESIDENT
"
I am totally shocked [that the home she is living in is set for demolition]. My home has been on the list for privatization of the last 20 years. I am number 88 on the list.”
FROM THE PUBLISHER After five years of appearing within the pages of your Washington Post as Russia Now, we are pleased to present to you this redesigned supplement, which will now appear under our corporate name, Russia Beyond the Headlines. In addition to the insight and analysis, news and commentary about Russia and the U.S.-Russia relationship, the new RBTH features a fresh, open design that emphasizes more space and more graphics. It also allows for longer texts that offer a deeper exploration of the themes that you, our Washington
Post readers, have told us are of interest to you. As always, we welcome feedback from you, our readers. Write to us at US@rbth.ru. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions for our new product. Sincerely, Eugene Abov Publisher, Russia Beyond the Headlines
Formidable gender gap in Russian politics despite recent gains Russia is known for being a patriarchal country, but despite considerable barriers, a few women leaders have managed to reach high levels in the political hierarchy. Women make up only 13 percent of deputies in the Russian State Duma (61 seats out of 450, following the 2012 national elections), and at the federal level, their representation is even lower - at 6 percent. In 2012, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Russian was ranked 96th in terms of women’s participation in politics and decision-making processes, along with Somalia and Swaziland, with only 13 female senators out of a total of 163. Russia’s women politicians aren’t portrayed as having a lot of influence, and none of them were listed in Forbes’ rankings of “the world’s most powerful women.” Olga Kryshtanovskaya, an expert on the Russian political elite and a member of Putin’s United Russia Party, said that the patriarchal nature of Russian society is to blame for the low levels of participation. She said that high-profile male politicians only “let in” women politicians who don’t have their own opinions, look good and are essentially puppets. However, Kryshtanovskaya believes that strong and independently minded women leaders are starting to emerge in Russia. One recent example is Elvira Nabiullina, former Minister for Economics, who was hand-picked by President Vladimir Putin to lead Russia’s Central Bank. Nabiulina is the first woman to head a G8 monetary authority. The Russian Federation has never been ruled by a female prime minister or president, but it’s not out of the question, according to Kryshtanovskaya, who thinks that Valentina Matvienko may be a contender. The former governor of Russia’s “second capital” St. Petersburg, Matvienko now chairs the Federation Council – the upper house of the Russian Parliament,
ITAR-TASS (3)
ANNA NEMTSOVA
Valeria Smirnova, the activist of the “Disappearing Beauty” project.
http://leonid-tishkov.blogspot.com/
Abandoned Ordzhonikidze spa hotel in Sochi.
With construction, Sochi landmarks are neglected On a recent summer morning, a group of students gathered on the half-ruined stairs to the Ordzhonikidze spa hotel, once the architectural pride of Sochi. Built by Stalin’s commissars in the 1930s, it is now an abandoned palace. The students posed in front of a fountain decorated with three nude statues, the highlight of Soviet Sochi attractions that for years served as a visual business card for Russia’s only tropical resort. It is now empty with dry leaves piling up around the foundations. The students have been working on a photo project they call “Disappearing Beauty.” Marble walls and massive columns decimated by disrepair symbolized for them the neglect of their once peaceful tropical city. Until recently, thousands of tourists and local visitors enjoyed the colorful variety of Sochi’s beautiful parks and gardens, marveled at gorgeous flowerbeds and water splashing in the fountains; couples kissed on terraces overlooking the Black Sea. But the Olympic rush has taken the place over – bringing crowds of contract workers, cranes and bulldozers to every corner of Sochi. The remains of Stalin’s dream, the Soviet Riviera, has been lost in the construction chaos, among glass and concrete emerging in place of once romantic magnolia gardens and grape gazebos. Outside Ordzhonikidze’s gate people
Leonid Tishkov, one of Moscow’s most accomplished avant-garde artists, has been working on his Private Moon series of photographs in Baltimore (at the Edgar Allen Poe house, and at the National Mall). Tishov’s illuminated, portable moon has been all over the world. His most recent work, “PRIVATE MOON: AMERICA” will be shown Thursday September 12 at the Handprint Workshop International in Alexandria, Va.
1) Valentina Matvienko, chairman of the Federation Council and St. Petersburg’s ex-governor 2) Valentina Tereshkova, first cosmonaut and state Duma deputy 3) Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Central Bank and former minister. having become the third highest-ranking politician in the country, after Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. According to a 2011 poll from VTsIOM (the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion), 14 percent of respondents thought that Russia has too many female politicians, 37 percent thought that their number should be increased, while
There are 10 million more women than men in Russia, yet the country doesn’t have political parties that support the rights of women. 33 percent thought the number should stay the same. Half of the respondents supported the idea of quotas for women politicians, and only 5 percent strongly opposed the idea. Currently Russia doesn’t have any prominent political parties which support the rights of women. Following the collapse of the U.S.S.R, the Women of Russia Party emerged, and - initially - had some electoral success. The conservative and essentially communist group, which positioned itself as promoting the interests of women
and children, won 8.1 percent of the vote and 23 seats in the 1993 elections. However, the party is no longer a force in Russian politics and it hasn’t changed its political platform in a decade. Last year, however, the Russian Justice Ministry registered the new For Women of Russia Party, which positions itself as non-feminist but promoting equal gender participation. The party has around 100,000 members and promotes the “restoration of family values.” The Western feminist movement bypassed Soviet women and after the fall of communism, feminism didn’t get a good rap in Russia and has remained a fringe movement. There have, however, been calls for the implementation of quotas for women politicians and Deputy Elena Mizulina is one prominent MP who promotes the idea. Kryshtanovskaya, however, doesn’t believe in preferential policies for women. She says it should be equal for all, and adds somewhat ironically: “Russian men are dying out at a rapid pace.” And she has a point: There are 10 million more women (76,275,000) than men (65,639,000) in Russia. ■YAROSLAVA KIRYUKHINA RBTH
Business rbth.ru // September 11, 2013 // P3
Startup market mythbusting InCube business director debunks misconceptions of foreign investors To sum up, the shortage of actual projects is so acute that investors occasionally put up with things international startup projects cannot hope for in their wildest dreams. I have witnessed an official $100,000 angel investment in a project that lacked even a basic financial plan. What is that if not an investment out of desperation?
Misconception No. 1. “Startups are vying for investors’ attention.” The startup fad coupled with private capital accumulation has led to the emergence of many angel investors and various venture funds, from consulting companies to IT corporations. More than 50 such funds sprang up in Russia in 2012 alone. The funds’ desire to attract new players as quickly as possible has resulted in an abundance of halfbaked, deficient startups. Typical examples include yet another social network devised by college students or graduates to get on the popular bandwagon. At the same time, key “idea holders” (researchers, engineers, university graduates) are not even thinking about starting up companies − even if they have innovative ideas of their own.
2. Misconception No. 2. “The most lucrative venture deals happen in the earliest stages.” This works for the United States and Europe, because of the acute shortage of hi-tech ideas there. Of course, there are more in absolute terms than in Russia, but there is constant competition, too. Any high-potential idea is quickly seized upon by a well-developed infrastructure of startups and entire funds and turns into a venture project. Accordingly, the investor’s task is to beat others to such a project. The situation in Russia is somewhat different. Over the last 30 years or so, research institutes and universities have been accumulating ideas that could have become successful venture projects but failed to move in that direction (despite all the efforts by
two weeks, including opening bank accounts and notifying social security funds. For InCube, it is not the amount of the investment but the accompanying participation by the investor in running the company’s business that has the most serious impact on startup growth and scaling. All the above challenges taken into account, there is an open field of attractive opportunities for foreign partners. Those niches include skilled pre-investment advisory, independent examination and deal support. Russian startups need smart money, professionally drafted investment-use terms and conditions and participation by the foreign investor. Many of Russia’s best startups travel to Singapore or Silicon Valley to compete there successfully. If you would like to invest early and shape a project, ignore large-scale startup events and visit student and young scientist conferences instead, or look for projects online. Persuasive projects can be found on new Russian crowdfunding websites and specialized blogs where active projects share solutions.
Soros and federal foundations responsible for supporting innovation in Russia). The accumulated ideas could still become innovative products but their architects possess little knowledge of doing business in the early stages. The success ratio of preseed investments in Russia is extremely low. This suggests that the idea that investing early is good for you is wrong.
PRESS PHOTO
The majority of Russian venture funds are not even five years old, so there are no investment campaign user manuals like those found in the United States or Europe. On the basis of our experience of working with foreign investors, we have compiled a list of the most widespread misconceptions of what works abroad but not in Russia.
Maxim Godzi is a director of the InCube business incubator in Moscow.
3. Misconception No. 3. “Startup growth rates increase with investments proportionally.” In Russia, money can buy solutions to many more problems than elsewhere. Why would it be wrong, then, to expect a project to be scaled quickly to match the investment? The Russian mentality and, more importantly, the environment for interaction with government bodies, suppliers, and customers affect business activity. Market players are more passive than is generally believed. Foreign businesspeople cannot get their heads around some Russia-specific challenges, such as why, even after all the simplifications, incorporating a company takes at least
■MAXIM GODZI SPECIAL TO RBTH
From Russia with startups Speaktoit - an award-winning Android app with up to 10 million downloads on Play Market. It began in 2010 with a team of shy Russian guys, who were crazy enough to propose a smartphone app which not only recognizes your voice but also voice commands for a wide range of automated actions one can do on a smartphone. Round A investment by Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment was announced on May 25, 2012, by Speaktoit.
SHUTTERSTOCK/LEGION-MEDIA
Russia is well known for its programmers and scientists, and many of these young people are attracted to startups.
Zingaya - a company with a software development team in Russia that provides a web-based alternative to toll-free numbers. In 2011, the company got its first investment of more $1 million from Russian investors and angel Esther Dyson, who provided $50,000. ZeptoLab - is a gaming company best known for developing the hit game Cut the Rope, which has been downloaded more than 300 million times by users around the world.
Top 10: Russia’s most compelling entrepreneurs Russians consider Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of Onexim Group and founder of the Civic Platform political party, to be the most lovable domestic entrepreneur, according to the Superjob.ru research center’s opinion poll commissioned by the newspaper Vedomosti. The poll was conducted on Aug. 2–5 and involved 3,000 adult respondents in 303 Russian cities and towns. Respondents were asked to choose from among 20 or so prominent Russian entrepreneurs (those most frequently mentioned by the media) or to propose their own candidates. Onexim Group founder Mikhail Prokhorov is favored by 13 percent of respondents. Billionaire Roman Abramovich, who owns Chelsea football club, ranked second with 8 percent. Well-known data security expert Eugene Kaspersky, the founder of Kaspersky Lab, placed third with 7 percent. Former YUKOS owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky finished in a distant fourth (4 percent). Oleg Tinkov, founder of the Tinkoff beer brewery, Tinkoff Credit Systems bank
IN FIGURES
27% 5% of Russians didn’t like any of the businesspeople listed in the poll; 18% found the question difficult to answer.
of Russians only have their own business, while 26 percent would like to start one and 52 percent do not want to be businesspeople.
and the Darya dumplings brand came in under Khodorkovsky with 3 percent. Pavel Durov of the VKontakte social network, Yevroset founder Yevgeny Chichvarkin and Interros owner Vladimir Potanin also made it into the top 10 with 3 percent each. The top 10 was rounded out by Basic Element owner Oleg Deripaska, and media tycoon and Metalloinvest owner Alisher Usmanov (2 percent each). According to the Superjob.ru poll, Prokhorov was the only person admired across the board by men and women of all age groups. Abramovich was popular among the younger demographic (14 percent of respondents 24 years old or younger, and only 4 percent of those 45 or older), with a majority citing his support for football as the reason for liking him. Kaspersky is liked more by men (8 percent among men and 5 percent among women), who view him as a “self-made” intellectual. Khodorkovsky is a hero for older folks (6 percent of those over 45 and only 2 percent of those 24 years old and younger).
According to the same Superjob.ru poll, 27 percent of Russians do not like any of the above people. The director of the VTsIOM All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center, Valery Fedorov, is confident that most Russians harbor negative attitudes toward big business figures. “Opinions about entrepreneurs were formed in the 1990s, amid privatization and political influence peddling. Both factors caused only negative feelings,” Fedorov said. “Many have [since] accepted the status quo, and the removal of big business from politics has played a positive role. But the majority think that huge fortunes have been made by divvying up the Soviet industrial legacy.” ■MIKHAIL MALYKHIN VEDOMOSTI.RU
READ MORE at rbth.ru/28753
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Comment & Analysis P4 // rbth.ru // September 11, 2013
IS SNOWDEN’S ASYLUM T A RED LINE? OLEG DEMIDOV
The Russian government will not lose interest in obtaining the information Snowden is holding in reserve.
SPECIAL TO RBTH
NATALIA MIKHAYLENKO
he news that Russia granted temporary asylum to Edward Snowden is often discussed in the context of the decision’s potential effects on RussianAmerican relations: No doubt, the Snowden case has set off a chain of adverse effects. Noting the former CIA operative’s revelations, Russian prosecutors are investigating Russian Google and Facebook services; authorities suspect both of violating international agreements on processing personal data. The ongoing development of the Snowden affair risks giving rise to a longterm toxic atmosphere for bilateral talks on a number of sensitive, single-point issues. These could include the exchange of exposed agents, the consideration of requests for the disclosure of information on cybercriminals and suspected terrorists or the exchange of Russian and U.S. intelligence agencies’ most effective practices in working with Big Data. Moreover, Russia can now forget about prospects of the return of Viktor Bout or others facing court proceedings in the United States. The White House, in turn, is on the brink of chaos with regard to advancing its core values – Internet freedom and the protection of users’ rights, which have already been severely compromised by Snowden’s revelations – in Russia. Who knows how many more secrets the former “prisoner of Sheremetyevo” has in reserve, or how much more difficult it will be for him to resist the temptation to share them with Russian intelligence services? But is it all so dramatic, and does granting Snowden asylum really risk crossing a red line in Russian-American relations? First of all, the Russian decision to give Snowden temporary asylum sends the White House a clear signal that Russia is willing to bargain further: “We can shelter him temporarily, but let us think beyond that.” Also noteworthy is the condition, announced by President Vladimir Putin on the same day when the rumor about the possibility of asylum first surfaced, that the fugitive must “cease harming the interests of the United States.” Snowden’s consent to follow this rule is implicit in his acceptance of asylum. The Russian government almost certainly will not lose interest in accessing the information Snowden is holding, though the current agreement at least suggests that such information will remain an ace up the Russian diplomatic sleeve--to be used in a difficult hour in bilateral talks with Washington--but not to be shared with the international community.
It is even more important to keep in mind that Russian-American relations are too diversified and strategic to be bogged down by a single scandal, no matter how loud it may resonate. Despite the downward trend in bilateral relations with the end of the “reset,” a number of matters demonstrates the enormous capacity for lasting cooperation and constructive development on issues closely related to Snowden. The Russian-American record on confidence-building measures in cyberspace is a strong example of such cooperation. This cooperation has recently made substantial progress. On June 17, as one of the talking points of the G8 Summit in Ireland, Putin and Obama issued a joint statement on confidence-building measures in cyberspace that included three agreements. Russia and the United States are now obliged to keep each other informed around the clock about cyberincidents and (attempts at) cyberattacks, to bolster national cooperation in responding to such incidents, and to make use of a hotline to warn each other about an emergency. Symbolically, the mechanisms of mutual notification will be partially implemented through the existing Moscow-Washington hotline for reporting incidents involving nuclear weapons that was in use during the Cold War. Such continuity exemplifies the growing strategic significance of Russian-American cooperation in cyberspace. For this reason, both sides reached agreement on cyberspace, even amidst unfavorable conditions in bilateral relations (although there might be questions as to where cooperation can be sacrificed due to the ongoing crisis and diplomatic scandal). This diplomatic rule of continuity works in regard to Snowden; despite the enormous effect of the former CIA operative’s revelations, the United States and Russia still must engage in good-neighborliness and collaborate in cyberspace, regardless of the heavy load of back-and-forth criticism and accusations. Collaboration may be contracted or suspended in some aspects, but the history of technical, bilateral confidence-building measures must be developed as one of the viable mechanisms for preventing cyberwarfare. This is something that the Kremlin and the White House understand well. Oleg Demidov is a project coordinator in security and governance at The Russian Center for Policy Studies (PIR Center).
DIRECT FROM RUSSIA
Ekaterina Zabrovskaya Editor-in-Chief Russia Direct
The United States and Russia have had a long relationship with an impact far beyond just their borders. Take any major international issue and chances are that both Washington and Moscow have a vested interest in it, which sometimes aligns and other times puts these countries at odds with each other. In June, Russia Beyond the Headlines launched Russia Direct, a project whose mission is to improve U.S.-Russian relations on the interpersonal, inter-agency and intergovernmental levels. The Russia Direct team in Moscow works with ex-
perts and journalists worldwide to bring readers the critical analysis they need to better understand not only exactly what is happening, but also why. The articles and opinion pieces available at Russia-direct.org provide the kind of nuanced understanding required by those with a profound involvement and interest in U.S. and Russian foreign policy. The project also offers monthly analytical reports, written by leading experts, that provide readers with insights into topics that drive the agenda for decisionmakers from both nations.
Additionally, Russia Direct publishes quarterly white papers, available to subscribers only, that dig into a major topic in Russian-U.S. relations. The first white paper, which was released on Sept. 3, focused on soft power initiatives. Long term, we hope that Russia Direct will serve as a platform for experts and senior decision makers from both countries to discuss, debate and understand the issues that affect U.S.-Russian relations. Subscribe now at russia-direct.org/subscribe!
EXCLUSIVELY AT RUSSIA-DIRECT.ORG
PRESS REVIEW
Explore Soft Power with RD Quarterly
Syria: is the tail wagging the dog?
Want to know more about Russia’s soft power? Read the first RD white paper, released Sept. 3. Available free to subscribers. Go to russia-direct.org/subscribe.
YULIA PONOMAREVA Russia Direct
RD Monthly Memo gives insight into Syria
This month’s analytical report looks at how Moscow and Washington are approaching the ever-changing situation in the Middle East on both the policy and practical levels.
History cannot be rewritten in the Caucasus
In an exclusive interview with RD, deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin describes Russia’s relations with its southern neighbors. What influences Russia’s foreign policy?
Russia Direct explores seven often overlooked players who determine how Moscow reacts to global events. Find out who they are at russia-direct.org.
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It has become commonplace in the Russian media to draw parallels between a looming war in Syria and the 1997 movie “Wag the Dog,” in which a spin doctor working for the White House (Robert De Niro) and a Hollywood filmmaker (Dustin Hoffman) staged a fake war against Albania to divert public attention from a sex scandal in which the U.S. president was embroiled. Likewise, commentators in Russia are claiming that political wrangling over Syria is meant to take Americans’ attention away from more pressing domestic problems. “Everything happening around the war in Syria, including stove-piping, efforts to incite public indignation, and diplomatic equilibristics, resonates with what we saw on the screen 15 years ago and what has been largely forgotten,” said an editorial in Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK), a popular daily broadsheet. “One is getting the impression that the tail is wagging the dog, which is especially lamentable given that there is a real civil war raging in Syria.” A columnist with MK and another daily broadsheet Izvestia, Melor Sturua, who has covered international politics since the 1950s, is using an impressive arsenal of tropes to build up suspense when writing about Syria. “Clouds are coming down
over Syria, and a diplomatic thunder is rumbling. Will that be followed by military lightning?” Sturua wrote in a column. His description of Obama’s relationships with allies reads like a family drama where pretty much everyone is turning their backs on the main character. In a column titled “Allies leaving Washington face to face with Syria?” Sturua called the results of voting in the House of Commons on Britain’s possible involvement in the Syrian conflict “a staggering defeat for Prime Minister Cameron.” “The voting in British parliament landed a blow not even as much on Cameron but rather on U.S. President Barack Obama – all American presidents have been backed by their closest ally, London, since the war in Vietnam, and in every major military conflict the U.S. and Britain stood shoulder to shoulder,” Sturua wrote. “But this time British MPs were haunted by the shadows of former British PM Tony Blair and Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein with his nuclear weapons concocted by American intelligence.” Washington, Sturua added, has received another blow from the U.N., whose Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Obama to abandon plans for a military strike until all opportunities to rectify the situation using procedures prescribed in the U.N. Charter have been exhausted. “Internationally, Obama has found him-
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self in isolation, and not a splendid one,” Sturua wrote. “Importantly, the voting in British parliament and the position of the U.N. Secretary General have had a certain impact on U.S. Congressmen.” Nezavisimaya Gazeta (NG), a liberal publication that usually delivers a thorough analysis of political developments, is being everything but pro-American. “America seeks to strangle Syria with opposition’s hands,” “The U.S. prepares a Yugoslavia scenario for Syria,” “American Tomahawks on the warpath” are among the latest NG headlines. NG author Vladimir Mukhin warns that a strike against Syria will freeze military contacts between Russia and the United States for years ahead, just like the military operation in the Balkans did in 1999. “When the news broke that the U.N. refused to sanction the bombing of Yugoslavia, then Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who was on his way to Washington, had his jet turn around over the Atlantic and headed home,” Mukhin wrote. Statements made by President Assad in a recent interview with Izvestia leave little doubt that he will largely use Russian arms to repel a possible attack of the U.S. military and that Moscow must have completed re-equipping the Syrian army with modern short and mid-range air defense systems. Moscow itself, Mukhin assumes, is preparing “an asymmetrical response” to the Pentagon’s operation.
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Culture rbth.ru // September 11, 2013 // P5
READ RUSSIA
Jazz great Butman on Northeast tour
POETS UNVEILED ONLINE PHOEBE TAPLIN
Russia’s Benny Goodman brings his big band of first-class performers back to Washington, D.C.
“Today he plays jazz, tomorrow he’ll sell out the motherland” According to the virtuosic musician, the U.S. and Russia are much closer to each other in their understanding of jazz than either country is with Eu-
PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO
Jazz great Igor Butman is still in love with America. His feelings toward the U.S. have not changed since he first moved to Boston when he was a student at the Berklee School of Music more than 25 years ago. Butman later lived in New York, but has been back in Russia for many years. He has continued to tour and collaborate with Wynton Marsalis and Grover Washington Jr., both of whom championed Butman and his meteoric rise in jazz. When he arrives in the United States to tour— as he will this month—he says he feels at home. “I begin to breathe the same way I breathe back in my native St. Petersburg,” he said in an interview with RBTH. “The U.S. remains the country that’s very valuable for me. I have my own circle. And with friends, one can never be bored,” he said, chuckling. “To attempt to surprise the audience is a very big responsibility, especially for a Russian jazz orchestra. I’m very pleased that we seem to succeed,” he added. The New York Times describes Butman for American readers: “a Russian saxophonist of ironclad self-assurance and technique, [who] leads a big band stocked with his fellow countrymen — musicians of similarly strong foundation, but limited exposure in the United States.” On September 20, Butman begins a Northeast tour when he plays with his band in Philadelphia’s famed Chris’ Jazz Café. The tour moves to New Jersey and then New York to the historic Village Underground. On Oct. 8, Butman will appear at the Library of Congress, as part of the presentation of the U.S.-Russia Rising Stars Jazz Band. According to Susan Carmel Lehrman, Chair of American University’s Initiative for Russian Culture (AU IRC) and one of the organizers of the event: “Our third annual event at the Library of Congress is an American-Russian tribute to jazz diplomacy that spotlights the special cultural relationship that exists through jazz between Russia and the United States. This Initiative will help promote a greater understanding of the richness and diversity of Russian culture to over 10,000 students and guests throughout the Washington Metropolitan area.”
SPECIAL TO RBTH
Butman grew up in the U.S.S.R. when jazz was still subversive. He trained himself with jazz broadcast on Voice of America. rope, which has its own distinct perceptions of jazz, the musician said. When Butman grew up in the Soviet Union, jazz was still considered somewhat subversive. Born in 1961, Russia’s jazz great studied music in the turbulent 1970s. There was an expression that crystallized the prevailing Soviet sentiment about jazz music: “Today he plays jazz, tomorrow he’ll sell out his motherland.” “The situation wasn’t that simple,” Butman said in an interview with RBTH on the cusp of his September U.S. tour. “On one hand there were repressions, while on the other, there were a few jazz bands in Russia that toured quite a lot, especially during World War II, to raise spirits of those fighting the enemy far from home. We all remember the great orchestra of the famous Soviet singer Leonid Utesov. But as soon as the Soviet-U.S. relationship worsened, jazz would become a scapegoat.” Yet in the last 20 years, jazz has proliferated in Russia’s urban centers. Jazz departments were opened in conservatories. There is a lack of trained jazz trumpeters and saxophone players in Russia of Butman’s generation. However he said there
are at least a dozen emerging great musicians. “It’s Dmitry Moshko, Konstantin Safyanov, Ilya Morozov, Sergey Golovnya and others,” he said. “And they are all from different parts of Russia, different schools and different backgrounds, between the ages of 20 and 30...It feels like there is enough talent to form another big jazz orchestra, made completely out of those young, very gifted people.” Supporting jazz prodigies is important to Butman, clearly. He organizes festivals, most notably the Aqua Jazz Festival in Sochi every August, where he “invites young very gifted people.” Observers say that Butman, a longtime performer at the Olympics, was insturmental as a liaison with the Olympics committee when Sochi was being considered for 2014. He is slated to perform during the Sochi WInter Olympics that begin in February 2014. Butman owns two jazz clubs in Moscow, one in the Clean Ponds “Chistye Prudy” neighborhood, and another in the nearly pastoral Sokol district. Both venues are known to draw large crowds to standing room only. His current program is an “all hits” program. “One of our hits is a potpourri of Benny Goodman’s music,” Butman said, adding with a smile: “People often refer to me as as the Russian Goodman. Our last names even sound similar.” ■ XENIA GRUBSTEIN SPECIAL TO RBTH
TITLE: “TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY RUSSIAN POETRY” EDITOR: LARISSA SHMAILO
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oetry is not well represented in the global view of Russian literature, in part because linguistic nuances make poems harder to translate than a story or a novel. New Yorkbased Larissa Shmailo, editor of a groundbreaking anthology, hopes to change all that. “Twenty-first Century Russian Poetry” tantalizes English-speaking readers with selected poems from 50 writers. New York-based Shmailo first approached the webzine “Big Bridge” in June 2012 “with the idea of an ultra-contemporary anthology of Russian poetry.” The resulting collection is reaching international audiences and there are plans to extend into a more comprehensive, bilingual print edition. The anthology celebrates the arts of translation as well as poetry. Shmailo told RBTH: “the poem needed to be beautiful in English as well as a good reflection of the original Russian.” She detects a new excitement about Russian writing in the United States and believes “we are all falling in love with literary Russia all over again.” Shmailo has included “émigré voices with still-strong Russian roots.” Moscow and New York
HIS STORY Igor Butman was born in 1961 in Leningrad (now St.Petersburg). He started playing the clarinet at the age of 11. In 1976 he entered the Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music, where during his second year he dropped the classical clarinet for the jazz saxophone. Besides being taught by the remarkable musician and brilliant teacher Gennady Goldstein, he took unofficial lessons from nightly broadcasts of jazz from 11:15 p.m. to
midnight on Voice of America. In 1983, Igor Butman played in Oleg Lundstrem`s big band; the next year he was invited by Nick Levinovsky to join the most well known jazz group named Allegro. After Igor Butman immigrated to America in 1987, he went on to major in Performance and Composition at Berklee College of Music. After he moved to New York in 1989, Butman worked with The Lionel Hampton Orchestra. In 1993, he returned
to Russia and became “a jazz bridge between Moscow and New York,” playing in Russia with Eddie Gomez, Lenny White, John Abercrombie, Joe Lock and many others. Butman`s great melding of soul, sound and technique drew praise from American President and saxophonist Bill Clinton, who stated, that Igor Butman is “may be the greatest living jazz saxophone player, who happens to be a Russian.”
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PAST TENSE
When the Russian Navy sailed into New York
American dancers engage in bicultural ‘Turning Point’ For the past month, 17-year-old July Yinger of Denver has been in Moscow, training at the world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet. Her day begins formally at 9 a.m. with three hours of ballet and gymnastics, followed by four hours of Russian language study. Afternoons and evenings are full of excursions around Moscow. Despite the rigorous schedule, Yinger and 14 other American students studying at the Bolshoi summer program said they are inspired and highly motivated by this oncein-a-lifetime opportunity. “Some Russian ballet dancers came to the United States and they inspired me: Natalia Osipova, Svetlana Zakharova, Julia Gorchakova – they are very famous in the United States,” Yinger said. Seeing those dancers inspired her to apply for the prestigious youth scholarship to Study Language Abroad Program for Youth (NSLI-Y) funded by the U.S. Department of State and administrated by the New York-based Russian-American Foundation (RAF). Yinger has been studying ballet for about 12 years. As a U.S. citizen, she is eager to learn more about Russian culture and “become more openminded….My ballet teacher is Russian. I might be more around Rus-
are home to many of the anthology’s poets and translators, but there is a rich geographical diversity too, including writers from Israel, Kyrgyzstan or Colorado. The poems are recent, written since the year 2000, but the range of writers’ ages is remarkable. Some poets’ lives span the eras, like Arkadii Dragomoschenko who died last year, or 77-yearold Natalya Gorbanevskaya, a veteran Soviet dissident, one of eight courageous protestors in the 1968 “Red Square Demonstration.” Others represent a new generation, like Ruslan Komadey, born in 1990 in Kamchatka, whose thoughtful poetry reflects the slow “cycles of the earth.” There are formal experiments, free or fragmented verse, and poetic prose. But the themes echo through the centuries: Love, death, pain and religion, the inner world of dreams, the external realities of new homes. Shmailo writes in her preface: “what Russians from Rurik to post-post perestroika have always done … is wrestle with the prokliatye voprosy, the ‘accursed questions’…” Big, abstract themes may underlie them, but the subtlest poems focus on barely visible details. The selected poems are brief, sweet tasters from a Russian feast; Shmailo and her team have produced something unusual and fascinating: a contemporary anthology translated by poets.
15 American students studied in Moscow in the summer ballet program. sian dancers in the future when I dance and this experience will definitely be very helpful,” she explained. Strengthening Cultural Ties During the weekend, the participants of the program live with their Russian host families who give them an opportunity to experience how ordinary Russians live. “My host mother doesn’t speak English at all,” said Erickson. “I speak very little Russian. So, it’s a challenge for me. At the same time it’s a very great experience. It’s very difficult
to talk but sometimes we use sign language.” According to Rina Kirshner, vice president of the RussianAmerican Foundation, such cultural exchanges are crucial for U.S.-Russia relations because they “bring American youth to Moscow not as ‘visitors’ but as locals - so they understand modern-day Russia, so they live with actual Russian families and most importantly so they learn the language.” The RAF also endeavors to strengthen cultural ties. Many of the students said the language training helped them under-
stand the nuances of Russian ballet training—and that ballet training helps them with the language as well. “There are some similarities between language learning and dance – both have hard techniques you have to learn and it takes a lot of practice,” said Anna Pearson, 17, from Michigan. “The only way to do it is to immerse into the culture. So, being here in Russia is very helpful! A class with Russian teachers speaking in Russian…creates a new atmosphere and a new approach,” she explained. “What we are missing out on in the U.S. is that we don’t have the purity of the Russian technique. Yet studying the Russian language we feel like we get the authenticity of ballet.” She said that for her the Russian technique offers more expressive movements with the arms, head and upper body. “I feel sometimes other ballet techniques lose this kind of artistry while the Russian ballet technique maintains this artistry and this is one of the reasons why I love it.” ■ PAVEL KOSHKIN RBTH
SEE THE VIDEO at rbth.ru/28947
C.DOUGLAS KROLL SPECIAL TO RBTH
On Oct. 7, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Washington, D.C., will host the annual gala of the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation. This year’s event will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Russian Navy’s goodwill visits to New York and San Francisco. In this new history column, Professor C. Douglas Kroll talks about the visits and their significance.
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any Americans are surprised to learn that until the early 20th century, the United States had better relations with Russia than with Britain or France. The United States stood alone by Russia in 1854 and 1855 during the Crimean War, and American doctors helped care for Russian solders. During the darkest hour of the Civil War, in the fall of 1863, when Britain and France were presumably threatening armed intervention, Russia’s fleets arrived at the ports of New York and San Francisco. The first group came in September, and the second in October. There were 12 ships in total. While the Russians never said why they had come, their arrival was interpreted by many Americans as a concrete expression of Russian friendship. The North seemed to be urgently in need of friends; the arrival of Russian warships dramatically highlighted the fact that not only was Alexander II – sometimes known as Russia’s Lincoln – was the North’s one true friend,
but that he was seemingly prepared to fight on its side. “God bless the Russians!” exclaimed Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, and this sentiment was echoed throughout the country. The welcome the Russians received in New York and San Francisco was overwhelming, and included elaborate balls. The New York squadron also visited Washington and Boston, and were feted with galas in those cities as well. Sailing on the “Almaz” clipper was the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Legend has it that he wrote “Flight of the Bumblebee” because of that trip. He wrote in a letter home: “I’m bored and hear buzzing wind all the time.” Some believe that buzzing became the sound of the bees in his famous composition. The squadrons remained in the U.S. almost a year before returning home. Dr. C. Douglas Kroll is an associate professor of history at the College of the Desert in Palm Desert, California.
Culture P6 // rbth.ru // September 11, 2013
Diaghilev’s lush genius revealed
1909 1910
But the overt, if dancerly, eroticism and sexy, diaphanous costumes of “Scheherazade” also caused a mighty sensation. Women started wearing turbans and feathers and harem pants and hosted themed parties. The Russian stars of Ballets Russes cultivated and exploited a certain Orientalism and exoticism in their early works. They also introduced the West to textiles and folk culture from places like Uzbekistan and Ukraine. In many ways, the company, from its choreographers to its set designers and costume artists, was also in search of a new Russian identity in the world at a time of great upheaval at home. Life in Perm and a Letter to Tolstoy The exhibit and catalogue pay due attention to Serge Diaghilev the man. He was raised in Perm within an aristocratic family that eventually lost its fortune. But during his childhood, his stepmother created a cultural biosphere for him in the Northern Urals. “The Diaghilevs did everything possible to reassure themselves there that they were not living in the Wild East but in a province of Europe,” Sjeng Sheijen writes in the catalogue. On his 21st birthday, Diaghilev wrote a letter to Leo Tolstoy, who he had met that same year. In this poignant letter, Diaghilev tells Tolstoy that the first question that “af-
HIS STORY Serge Diaghilev Serge Diaghilev was born in 1872 in Novgorod and spent much of his childhood in Perm. In 1890 Diaghilev arrived in St. Petersburg to study law but threw himself into a cultural renaissance. He co-founded Russia’s first fine arts magazine called World of Art, and in 1905 curated an influential exhibition of Russian Historical Portraits. Diaghilev organized an exhibition of 200 years of Russian paintings at the Salon d’Automne in Paris that caused a sensation. But he lost government financing in 1909. Remarking “From opera to ballet is but a step,” he turned to ballet, in part because it was less costly. Diaghilev created a new ballet company: the Ballets Russes was born. His biggest secret was that he was often “just a step ahead of financial ruin.”
flicted me was connected to sexuality. I tried to solve that question…by finding a sense of direction as best I could.” But more agonizing for Diaghilev than his sexual identity—he eventually was accepting of and happy with his homosexuality—was his fear of death. His passions seem to fly in the face of his fear of the ‘total and irrevocable discontinuity of my existence.’” As he gained confidence in his role as a producer and innovator, he also became more confident in his homosexuality. But not everyone was as happy with his “coming out.” Among his friends, especially those in the U.K., there was a level of puritan disapproval. But ultimately, he brought the same showmanship and desire to shock to his personal life as he did to his artistic life. The Ballets Russes Revolution Watching recreations of the 1917 ballet “Parade,” one cannot be less than awestruck by Pablo Picasso’s costumes, the tight choreography, and Stravinsky’s music. The ballet appears crisp and contemporary. It’s clear that what Sarah Kennel writes is true: “The signal achievement of the Ballets Russes was the spirit of open collaboration it fostered. For twenty years, the company produced dazzling and innovative spectacles born of the robust dialogues between choreographers, dancers, artists and musicians.” Diaghilev had always planned to take his Ballets Russes back home to Russia for a triumphant tour, but each time his efforts were met with bad luck or turmoil at home. In one instance the theater in St. Petersburg where they were slated to perform burned down. After the Russian Revolution, there was little to no chance for a celebratory return. His was an itinerary Russian company, first spawned from the Imperial Ballet of Russia, but Europe was to be their base. What this show at the NGA drives home most colorfully is the huge contribution Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes made to modernism. Looking at Leger’s painting “Exit the Ballets Russes,” one sees clearly that the dancers’ explorations had a profound impact on the Cubists as well. The company’s search for identity found something much more universal: a modernist language that all the arts began to share. ■NORA FITZGERALD RBTH
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
Impresario Serge Diaghilev had a storied career chock full of memorable evenings and maverick productions, yet one night still stands out a century later. “The Rite of Spring,” with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, caused a rare riot of tuxedo-clad patrons when it was first performed in 1913 at the Theater des Champs-Elysees. Dissonant harmonies inspired by a deconstruction of folk melodies and uncomfortable, staccato steps based on peasant dances shocked the audience out of submission. Later, many celebrated the pioneering work while some critics referred to “Rite of Spring” as barbaric. Still, today, no one knows how much Diaghilev knew or hoped the sensational opening night would lead to a scandal. We do know that audiences had never seen anything like this before. Diaghilev had secured his place at the center of a new Russian art movement--outside of Russia. What began as an exploration of the arts as exotic, foreign and sumptuous transformed into an experimental, avant-garde movement led by Diaghilev, with his many partners: Nijinsky, Stravinsky, Debussy, Satie, and Picasso, Fokine and Massine, as well as dancers like Nijinska and Pavlova. It embodied a new and restless Russia yet had an impact on the art that has come since. Diaghilev’s magnificent career, and the ways in which he advanced the aesthetic of the times he lived in is captured in vivid and exhilarating detail at the National Gallery of Art’s (NGA) exhibit “Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes 1909-1929.” NGA associate curator of photographs Sarah Kennel said that while Cubism had already originated in visual arts, “‘The Rite of Spring’ was the first public declaration of modernist aesthetics. Here all of a sudden you had a public rupture with past traditions.” The show at the NGA has recently been extended until October 6. “We always felt the run time was too short,” said Kennel. “Every institution lending [artwork] agreed to extend for another month, which was a nice vote of confidence,” she said. No dance company has been as influential since, and it’s arguable that no impresario has inspired such a fusion of revolutionary artists. Diaghilev secured money from influential patrons to not only produce cutting edge shows, but to tour them in the most and least metropolitan of cities, from New York to Birmingham Alabama, where the ballet, “Scheherazade” was considered obscene.
Vaslav Nijinsky as the Golden Slave from Scheherazade, 1910. Scheherazade was among the most succesful ballets, thanks to Nijinsky, whose charisma was matched by his athleticism.
NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA
In search of a new Russian identity, the Ballets Russes created a universal language
Léon Bakst, Costume (made by Marie Muelle) for the Scheherazade ballet, 1910. Premiere of first ballets took place in Paris in 1909; from the beginning Ballets Russes was an amazing fusion of choreography, music and visual arts.
1916 1917
U.S. tour of Diaghilev company, 1916. traveled to cities not The company toured the United States from known for their cultural openness. They January to May: They traveled from Albany performed to packed all the way to Birminghouses in Washingham, and stopped ton, D.C., and Manin Detroit, Tulsa and hattan, New Haven and Boston. They also Wichita.
1924
Pablo Picasso, Costume for the Chinese Conjuror from Parade, 1917. Libretto of Parade was written by Jean Cocteau, while the pioneering costumes were created by Picasso. That year the company toured South America. BALLETS RUSSES View the gallery on Diaghilev’s groundbreaking Ballets Russes on your tablet.
Triumph of The Blue Train, 1924. Diaghilev engaged a wide circle of artists — including such well-known cultural figures as Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, and Coco Chanel, all of whom worked on The Blue Train.
1929 Giorgio de Chirico, Costume for a Sylph from The Ball, 1929. The Ball was one of the last premieres of the company, which sadly unraveled after Diaghilev’s death on August 19, 1929. V& A MUSEUM / (ARS) NEW YORK/ ADAGP, PARIS
CUISINE A LA RUSSE
MUSHROOM MADNESS: A QUEST I take pride in many things I’ve accomplished during my 20 years in Russia, but inventing a succinct description of Russia’s favorite pastime is right up there. Like many lightning bolts of genius, it was a mistake. I knew that “going fishing” in Russian was “na ribalku” so I assumed that “mushroom hunting” had to be “na gribalku.” Makes sense, right? Wrong. Russians refer to mushroom picking as “khodit’ po gribi,” but HRH, (my Handsome Russian Husband) who does not squander compliments, says my version is much better. Russians, like J.R.R. Tolkien’s hobbits, are passionate about mushrooms. As late summer rolls into autumn, Russians feel the visceral stirring of their primal hunter instincts. Armed with walking sticks and wicker baskets, they follow the umami into the woods to gather nature’s crop of boletus, white buttons, and golden chanterelles. If you are out for a stroll on a Sunday evening in September, you are almost certain to encounter weary, but victorious mushroom hunters making their way back from suburban train stations, baskets and buckets filled with pungent quarry. Where does this signature Russian passion come from? Young and old, rich and poor, men and women, city slickers and country mice—Russians throughout the centuries approach “gribalku” with a frantic energy, which these days is matched only by a visit to T.J. MAXX. In a way, mushrooms are like T.J. MAXX: you get designer food at rock bottom prices. Perhaps it is the thrill of the chase? Vladimir Nabokov described his mother’s mushroom madness in “Speak, Memory.” “As she came nearer from under the dripping trees and caught sight of me, her face would show an odd, cheerless expression...the tense, jealously contained beatitude of the successful hunter.” Nabokov’s mother never spent any time in the kitchen with her mushrooms: “…they were bundled away by a servant to a place she knew nothing about,” but don’t let that deter you! While mushrooms are fresh and plentiful, try this modern take on a hearty mushroom soup. Happy hunting!
JENNIFER EREMEEVA SPECIAL TO RBTH
Ingredients» • 6 Tbl butter • 4 cups of white button mushrooms – cleaned and sliced thinly • 2 cups of boletus, portabella or chanterelle mushrooms – cleaned and cubed into ½-inch cubes • 1 cup of dried mushrooms – rinsed • 2 cups of Marsala or Madeira wine • 1 cup of hot water • 1 yellow onion • 3 Tbl of garlic – mashed and finely diced • 1 tsp of sea salt • 2 Tbl of tomato paste • 8 cups of stock – chicken, mushroom, or vegetable • 3 celery stalks – peeled and finely diced • 1 cup of uncooked barley • 2 russet potatoes and 2 large carrots – peeled and cubed • 1 Tbl of fresh thyme buds • 3 Tbl of soy sauce • Salt and pepper to taste • Sour cream and more fresh thyme to garnish Instructions: 1. Rinse dried mushrooms in cold water. Place them in a shallow bowl and submerge them in wine and hot water. Let stand 20-30 minutes. 2. In a heavy-bottomed pot, melt 3 Tbl of butter until it bubbles. Add the sliced white button mushrooms. Toss gently so that the butter coats the mushrooms, then cover and adjust heat to medium low. Cook for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally until the mushooms “sweat” their moisture out, then reabsorb it. Set
aside. 3. In a large Dutch oven, melt the remaining butter. Gently sauté the onions and garlic until translucent. Add the celery, carrots, potato and barley and cook 5-7 minutes until vegetables begin to soften. 4. Add the tomato paste and soy sauce and stir through to coat the vegetables. Add the cooked mushrooms and toss to combine. 5. Line a sieve or small colander with a clean cheesecloth or paper towel, then set over a clean bowl. Use a slotted spoon to remove the now reconstituted dried mushrooms from the wine and water mixture, then carefully strain the liquid through the sieve to remove the grit from the mixture. Add the mushrooms and the liquid to the pot. Simmer gently for 5-7 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon so that the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pot. 6. Add the stock, cubed mushrooms and thyme to the pot. Cover and cook for 25 minutes. The starch from the barley and potatoes should thicken the soup considerably; add more stock to thin to desired consistency. Adjust seasoning, adding more soy sauce or salt and pepper. 7. Serve in shallow soup bowls, garnished with a dollop of sour cream and more fresh thyme. Jennifer Eremeeva is an American freelance writer. She is the author of the humor blog, Russia Lite and curator of the culinary website The Moscovore. Her book, “Lenin’s Bathtub,” is scheduled for publication in November.