RussianMind #04 (2011) 16-29 June

TIME TRAVEL PAGE 16-17

RussianMind №4 (04), 16-29 June 2011, www.RussianMind.com

The Press Baron Page 6-7

National Comparisons: The People Page 14-15

One-Man Band Page 10-11

Catchy Monuments Page 18-19

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Contents

Acting Editor Olga Kudriavtseva olga@russianmind.com Head of Editorial Board Mark Hollingsworth mark@russianmind.com Managing Director Azamat Sultanov md@russianmind.com Business Development Director Alina Blinova alina@russianmind.com Art Director Yuri Nor ynor@russianmind.com Front Page Design Elizabeth Yurieva info@russianmind.com Special Project Department Daria Alyukova d.alyukova@russianmind.com IT Director Oleksii Vyshnikov it@russianmind.com Sub Editor Julia Gobert julia@russianmind.com Distribution Olga Tsvetkova distribution@russianmind.com In print: Ecaterina Kilian, Vadim Nikitin, Anatoly Karlin, Xanthi Skoulariki, Ivan Kolpakov, Tatiana Irodova, Ekaterina Petukhova, Victor Boyko.

Address United Kingdom 40 Langham Street, London W1W 7AS United Kingdom Tel: +44(0) 207 637 1374 E-mail: info@russianmind.com France 6 Rue du Docteur Finlay 75015 Paris, France Tel: +33(0) 981 147 395 E-mail: france@russianmind.com

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6-7 The Press Baron 8-9 ‘Ded’ Men Talking: Lethal Army Bullying Exposed

14-15

10-11 One-Man Band 12-13 Russian “Capital Style” 14-15 National Comparisons: The People

10-11

16-17 Time Travel

№4(04) 16-29 June 2011

Contents

18-19 Catchy Monuments

18-19 24-25

20-21 Khokloma Identity 22 Stress Management for Managers 24-25 Memories of a Decade and a Half 26 Richard Long’s Comeback 27 New Sculpture Exhibition 28 – Blog 29 – Event Guide

20-21 №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

30 – Bartender

What Time Is It Now? Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than a ninth of the Earth's land area, extending across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe.

Moreover Russia spans nine time zones. One could say it is rather confusing. Perhaps it is, but since 2009 the Russian government has been working on reducing the number of time zones in the country. In 2010 two time zones (3 & 11) were abolished. In 2011 all clocks in Russia were advanced one hour to Summer Time but will not change back this coming October.

Nevertheless, there are certain advantages in having that many time zones. For instance you can celebrate New Year several times over.

In Vladivostok (the Eastern part of the country) when the New Year has arrived, in Kaliningrad (the Western part) people are only starting their preparations for the holiday. Sometimes it is a good idea to catch up the time and experience the pleasant moments once again. Turn to pages16-17 to read more about time travel.

Best Olga Kudriavtseva, Acting Editor

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Profile

The Press Baron Mark HOLLINGSWORTH Last month Alexander Lebedev, the owner of the 'London Evening Standard' and 'The Independent' newspapers and a key player in the interface between Russia and the United Kingdom, announced that he was retiring from business to concentrate on his media and political activities. But very little is known about Lebedev's early life before he made his fortune.

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lexander Evgenievich Lebedev was born in Moscow on 16 December 1959, into a family of the ‘Moscow intelligentsia’. His late father, Evgeny Lebedev was a Professor of optical engineering at Bauman Moscow Technical University. He had previously been an athlete and a brilliant member of the Soviet national water polo team. But he could never get a senior administrative position because he refused to join the Communist Party. This dissident mentality ran through the family - his paternal grandfather Nikolai Lebedev was on a KGB death list.

By contrast, Lebedev’s mother Maria Sergeyevna, believed in the ideals of the Communists. She used to say that you should never join the KGB because your views are not entirely Soviet and you will get yourself into trouble. In recent years she has

UK's favourite foreign press baron

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criticised her son for speaking out against Putin. An intelligent woman, she graduated from the Moscow Pedagogic Institute and still lives in the small apartment where they grew up. “She doesn't want a big house, she would never take a car instead of public transport", said Lebedev. "If you offer her more than a $100 bill there will be a serious lecture about throwing money around”.

In 1977 at the age of 18, Lebedev entered the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. After his graduation in 1982, he worked at the Institute of Economics of the World Socialist System researching for his Kandidat (PhD). His dissertation was ‘The problems of foreign debt and the challenges of globalization’.

His detailed knowledge of foreign affairs led Lebedev to join the First Chief Directorate of the KGB in 1984, aged 25. His first foreign posting was Switzerland and four years later he was sent to London. There he operated out of a flat on Kensington High Street - just across the street from the offices of the London Evening Standard. He was mainly involved in monitoring of the British press. Every morning Lebedev would read the Financial Times, the Guardian and the tabloids and then walk across to the Soviet Embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens. His KGB cover was as the embassy's economic attaché and Lebedev is adamant that he was №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

Profile

not really a spy but an analyst of financial markets. He later told 'The Spectator': “Unfortunately, studies of the debt markets by foreign economists were kept in a closed institute. So I was invited to join the KGB's economic analysis unit, to be able to study these sources. Don’t confuse foreign intelligence with KGB. The KGB was a notorious organisation linked to the gulags. That’s nothing to do with foreign intelligence”.

Lebedev regarded himself as "an intelligence officer, not a KGB man". “The state was looking for people with a talent to make others feel well disposed towards them. Tennis was encouraged, so you could move easily in high society in the West.”

Lebedev has suggested that he made connections in the financial world. “All my economic education was acquired in London in the late 80s. I had a load of friends in the City who I didn't even think about recruiting [to the KGB]”, he said Lebedev also made important Russian commercial connections during this time. At the Soviet embassy in London he met Andrei Kostin, later head of Vnesheconombank, one of Russia's largest state banks. He also met oligarchs Vladimir Potanin and Alexander Prokhorov. He was friendly with Putin during this time, but it is unclear how close they were.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the First Chief Directorate of the KGB became the Foreign Intelligence Service and Lebedev worked there until 1992. According to his own account, he left ‘The Department’ with savings worth £400 and then from 1992 to 1993 was ‘Representative in the CIS, Financier Tradition (Switzerland)’.

After leaving government service Lebedev became Chairman of the Russian Investment-Finance Company which was set up in cooperation with Andrei Kostin who described it being "a very active securities and debt markets maker". In essence it was a private bank and Lebedev's political connections proved vital while Russia's stateowned economy was privatised, although he regarded himself as an entrepreneur.

“I tried selling computers, barbed wire", he recalled. "It was tough.”

However, in two years Lebedev had built up capital worth $50,000 and he invested all of it in a rundown building №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

in central Moscow. The plan was to refurbish and make a quick return and it would probably have worked, he said, if an official from the Ministry of the Interior hadn't thrown him out of his own building as soon as renovations were finished. “He just took it,” Lebedev says. “I still see that man, even now. I call him over for a chat but he runs away”. His language and business skills enabled him to earn money as a consultant as foreign firms moved into Russia. He advised on deals to buy bonds and made $500,000 on his own account.

From 1993 to 1995 Lebedev was Head of the Foreign Investments Directorate at Imperial Bank. This Bank became the focus of the financial assets of LUKoil (the oil equivalent of Gazprom). Along with LUKoil, Gazprom also became a major shareholder in the bank, with each company holding

around 12 per cent of the total shares. It was at Imperial Bank, with Kostin as his Deputy, that Lebedev made his “real money”. He later recalled: “Now the real money I made was in a bank, the Bank of Imperial. [I got] involved in a very high risk, high reward operation buying Venezuelan, Mexican, Nigerian, Argentinean, Polish, Brady bonds, which were secondary market, especially traded securities invented by the US to deal with the crisis of third world countries. I had some quite good contacts in the City and I convinced the bank to take a risk. They made 200%".

Lebedev was on his way to becoming a multi-millionaire and 12 years later he returned to Kensington and negotiated to buy the London Evening Standard - a newspaper he loved to read while he was a KGB officer in the early 1980s.

Alexander Lebedev

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OPINION

‘Ded’ Men Talking: Lethal Army Bullying Exposed

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A

Vadim NIKITIN The Russian military has finally achieved a quantitative edge over its erstwhile Cold War enemy. Whilst America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have claimed the lives of some 6000 troops over the last 7 years, Russia has managed to lose nearly double that number of soldiers in peacetime!

ccording to NGOs cited in a recent distressing BBC documentary, between 2000-3000 Russian conscripts die each year without a shot being fired – driven to suicide or killed outright by bullying via the notorious system of hazing (humiliation) called Dedovschina or the Grandaddy system. Dedovschina involves officers and ‘graduating’ recruits – known as Deds, or Grandaddies, brutally humiliating new arrivals in ways that make American military history look like Sesame Street. Most of it is so horrific that You-Tube requires users to sign in and verify their age before being allowed to see the candid videos uploaded by Russian conscripts.

While the US has been accused of glorifying the number of enemies it kills, Russia has always had a kind of grim pride in its own death rates. Indeed, Russians frequently justify their country’s role in WWII in terms of the number of Soviet dead: a rare case of a victorious power suffering more losses than its adversary.

However, deaths from Dedovschina are far from a source of pride. In 2006, 69% of Russians polled by the Levada Center said they would not like a loved one or relative to serve in the army. Of those, 32% cited a fear of death in

Chechnya but a whopping 73% named Dedovschina and abuse by officers as the key factor in their lack of confidence in the military.

The moving BBC story describes how the Mother’s Rights Foundation has created an internet campaign against the terrible practice of Dedovschina, featuring first hand descriptions of bullying by soldiers who have since died.

A heart-wrenching example: Nikolay Ishimov from the village of Mezhozernyj, not far from Chelyabinsk tells his story.

“On 20 August 2007, in front of 47 fellow soldiers, I was shot by a drunken officer, Vladimir Bazelev, just like that, for no reason.

The bullet hit me right between the eyes; I died instantly.

After three court cases and with the help of the Mother’s Rights, my mum managed to get my killer jailed for five years and eight months.

But my mum still cries, every day… Sometimes my parents see me in their dreams.” №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

OPINION Today, despite a perception that Putin has cleaned things up, having your child sent to the Army remains perhaps the number one nightmare of every Russian parent. People are willing to go into serious debt, amounting to several thousand dollars, to bribe their way out of military service altogether or have their kids stationed at cushier postings.

Every time I visit Russia, I pray that some cop doesn’t stop me and ask to see documents indicating whether I’ve served in the army, something that happens №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

to hundreds of ‘military age’ young men in every Russian city. Lack of papers can get you sent immediately to the Voenkomat – the feared Military Commission, and then straight to a barracks.

Though Medvedev has been making noises about a US style ‘professional army’ for some time, conscription, and the attendant Dedovschina, remain.

However, while the more horrible aspects of Dedovschina are condemned, Russian society continues

to accept a high amount of violence, machismo and exaggerated culture of ‘respect’ in the armed forces as inevitable and even desirable.

One Naval officer recently became an internet hero after his profanity-strewn tirade directed at a political officer for perceived disrespect went viral. One commenter wrote: “You deserve a medal.

It’s people like you that are keeping Russia together”.

Last month, a conservative Kuwaiti politician who supports Sharia Law was condemned for advocating

Muslim men take captured Russian soldiers imported into the Gulf from Chechnya as sex slaves.

Tragically, however, Russian soldiers are at a much higher risk of being taken into sexual slavery by their own commanders - a recent investigation found officers running a prostitution ring composed of recruits.

As history has so often proved, we Russians are our own worst enemies.

Read more: www.russia.foreignpolicyblogs.com 9

Person

One-Man Band Ekaterina PETUKHOVA

the country in 1998, after a short courageous and fascinating époque which inspired the hope for change that sadly faded away. I was disillusioned with Russia every time I went back, I felt charnel hopelessness and desperation. I don’t have the feelings for Russia that her Messiahs expressed, from Peter the Great to Mikhail Bulgakov.

The difference is that I’m not a Messiah!

“OM” magazine is still a

Igor Grigoriev is a true legend even after all these years. Do you think it legend of modern could possibly work today? times. He emerged IG: OM magazine would look from a Russian pathetic today with all the village and during cover characters. The 1990s the controversial had real characters and that 1990s, brought up a was precisely the magic of forward thinking new the magazine’s success. Last generation with his summer I accidentally visited cult magazine “OM”. one of the picnics organized When the magazine by the Russian magazine was riding its wave Afisha which was hosting the of success, he left the contemporary progressive chief-editor’s position elite under their brand. The and is now a rock hero, image impressed me with its having vanished for 10 dullness. I remember us having first big Moscow picnic years to live the life of the in 1997 in Nakhabino with a spiritual man. Today all the prominent characters Igor Grigoriev is back who brought along their in Russia, but this time mates. Generally, the mates as a singer. In his songs were unnoticeable people he combines pop hits accompanying the lords and decadent Russian and providing them a social cushion during the outing. poetry of the 1920s.

Afisha’s picnic took place 10 Ambiguous as ever, he is definitely back to years after the OM one and make his mark again. reminded me of a feast for What did you feel on your come back to Russia?

IG: I had lost all hope for Russia which is why I left 10

servants in the absence of their kings.

Do you have nostalgic feelings for the 1990s?

IG: I don’t feel nostalgia for the 1990s; I never look at the

photos from “OM” magazine.

The three-years of back issues are left in someone’s garage.

That period is divorced from my life today. Sometimes I can’t distinguish the truth from the falsehoods of that time as I don’t remember much of it. I still receive thank you letters for OM which remind me that was 12 years ago. I don’t even know how to react to it now.

What is Russia’s cultural diagnosis today?

IG: It’s depressing what happened to Russia during those 12 years. Peter the Great’s words would be poignant today: “I’d like to reform secular goats, i.e. the citizens and clergy, the monks and popes.

The first would resemble Europeans without beards for the better and the latter, albeit with beards, could teach their flock Christian virtues the way I heard and saw in Germany”.

I’m interested in Peter’s époque for the cultural environment in Russia as the past 12 years fell back 300 years to pre-Peter times – the same chaos and

total isolation of the general civilization in context. I have no hope for a Russian Renaissance, no way! I have been watching the immigration statistics and it claims that one and a half million people left Russia in the last three years and I suspect these are the best of Russian people and I’m both happy and sad for them - sad because they are unlikely to find a new homeland in another country but happy that they will live their lives humanely and not like cattle.

Why don’t you work in journalism anymore?

IG: I stopped working as a journalist professionally in 1998 when I left “OM” magazine but I did spend time writing for various other publications. In December 2008 I declared in my blog that I put the final dot on my journalistic career to focus on music. I felt relieved because I didn’t enjoy my previous occupation.

What message are you trying to deliver to your audience?

№4(04) 16-29 June 2011

IG: Messages and audiences are taboos for me. I don’t allow my management team to talk about this in my presence because they always try to put me into some sort of business plan. I create and perform songs that I like. I try to identify myself and find my niche amongst other musicians but this is difficult for me to do. Sometimes on the internet there are options of researching similar artists.

I’m trying to figure out who I resemble as a musician but it feels endless, as I feel more like a mere translator of global ideas which are flowing all around us. I’ve just managed to catch some of these themes with my music and that’s it!

Your activities have always reminded me of some sacred act. Do you feel related to the Dalai Lama?

IG: Well, sometimes… sometimes when I’m creating, I start trembling as if I were vibrating in unison with all the global electricity in the world, as if it is going through me.

It looks as follows: I am chain smoking, not even finishing

one, wandering about my room like a bear in its cage, music playing, usually a sad song, but I don’t hear it, my hands are shaking. From time to time I rush to clean the carpet or scrub the rust on the pipe under the sink. I’m kind of running from work. It usually happens at night. And finally I drink a bottle or two of wine and get drunk. Then I feel like something is falling on me, like something is about to crush me, it’s a bit like Alef by Borges when the main hero descends into the basement and sees a glowing ball, a microcosm of the whole, the centre of everything. I sometimes see people from the past, I see their faces but they are not faces from today, I don’t know who they are but what they say links me to everything that was, is and will be. I continue drinking to fall asleep, because what I hear is worrying and very sad. Maybe these are the spiritual feelings you’re asking me about?

What can you say about the Russian youth of today?

IG: Scapegoats, licentiousness, longing and melancholy. A flock without a shepherd.

What symbolises Russia to you?

IG: Russia’s symbol for me was this year’s representative at Eurovision. A fair haired guy with empty blue eyes, charming smile and waving the tricolour in his hands, crying out “This is f**cking Russia!” ordering Europe to look him in the eyes. This way he wants to make sure that Europe understands who he is and where he is from. Then he congratulates Europe on their Victory Day. It happened in Germany on May 9, the day when one of the world’s greatest nations is reminded of what it did a mere 66 years ago. This symbol would seem ridiculous or funny if

it were not a wild symbol of contemporary redneck Russia compiled by senseless and ruthless idiots who you should be wary of.

And what is Russian mind?

IG: Russian mind is a Russian skill for thinking. There were always only a few of them in Russia, that you could basically count on your fingers. They were always dissatisfied with their origin, tired of finding reasons and the specifics of their weird positions, they got lost and finally left us a heritage more puzzling than before. The Big Three – Chekhov, Tolstoy and Dostoevskiy are responsible for Russia’s vertical culture forming the image of a mysterious Russian soul and a specific Russian spirit.

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Culture

Ivan KOLPAKOV

Arbat, Moscow

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At the beginning of June 2011 the pedestrian street in the Russian city Perm was finally opened. One of the local bloggers made a witty comment saying that we have been waiting for this to open for 20 years, but it took only two weeks to build the local “Broadway”. Apart from joking, this subject has been the main topic of serious discussions for quite some time.

There has always been some kind of inferiority complex in Perm as there are pedestrian streets in Yekaterinburg, Moscow and two of them in Kazan. Why can’t the poor Permyaks have such a street? They can’t because the city is ugly and it does not really deserve such an honour? All that is left for its citizens is to stay at home!

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s for the “built in two weeks” it is the absolute truth. In June the grand festival “White Nights” was established in Perm. For the whole month there will be plenty of concerts, exhibitions, theatrical and circus performances. The organizers mentioned that “White Nights” is an attempt to live “the European life”.

It is curious, as somehow it is considered in Russia that a European life is all about festivals, holidays and joy. By the way, “White Nights” hasn’t ended as I write this article but has influenced Perm and its citizens in a good way. The exhibition and concert halls are full, the centre is crowded and the best thing is that the roads in Perm have finally been well-reconstructed. Now they do not shame the city.

Finally the dream of Perm citizens has come true - they got their pedestrian street.

It is not long, but there is a fountain, benches and street-art objects along it.

In contrast to the new artobjects which were created especially for the “White Nights” festival, the street was welcomed by Perm’s citizens.

Only the motorists were upset and some pedestrian street lobbyists, as they did not really like the location.

Nevertheless, the general impression of the street was triumphal, over all it is different. It is obvious that the organizers of “White Nights” and the “Perm cultural revolution” adore the street as well as it being popular with the residents. It seems that the pedestrian street belongs to the list of inevitable attributes for “a successful Russian city” and this fact causes a wave of satisfaction amongst the people. №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

Culture

Russian “Capital Style” Photographer: Ivan Kozlov

Pedestrian street, Perm

What is meant by “a successful Russian city”? Of course it is Moscow, because frankly other Russian cities have failed to become independent projects of the 20th century. St. Petersburg is actually doomed, in the way that there is no actual life in this monumental city.

Even local news that comes from Russia’s “Northern Capital” is mostly creepy. Big industrial cities (like Perm, for instance) still remain huge villages, weirdly located and enormously big. The Russian city culture (not in Moscow) is basically the №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

“yard-aesthetics”: guitar, beer, friends and barbeque. Not a café with a patio, not a street theatre, not playgrounds or sport centres. The average street has a rather hostile environment. Not rural, but not yet urban, the epoch of feudal division.

A Russian province would not be that miserable if there was no Moscow, where you can have everything: Arbat (the long pedestrian street in the historical centre of the city), money and even black-jack!

When a Permyak comes to Moscow he says: “Wow, what a subway! What an Arbat!

The local "Broadway", Perm

What a delicious McDonalds snack!” No one really cares that the Moscow environment is also hostile and very far from European.

Therefore these are the main attributes of “a successful Russian city”. Living the capital style, in a provincials’ understanding, means walking along Arbat, riding the subway and eating hamburgers. This is pathetic. But just think how aggressively each big Russian city fights for its own subway, a pedestrian street and McDonalds.

However, judging Russia for that is rather cruel. Yes, there should be a McDonalds and a subway is convenient. When you walk down pedestrian Permskaya Street you think how great it is and the capital style it has, you do not think about Europe, you think about Moscow. Damn Moscow! Who loves Moscow in Russia?

One day every Russian city will have McDonalds, a subway and a pedestrian street and than Russia will drown in such agonizing pensiveness, that is a terrifying thought.

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NATIONAL COMPARISONS: USA, UK, RUSSIA 14

The People Regional Stereotypes n the UK: London and the South is viewed as rich, effete and unconcerned with the rest of the country; Wales as a quaint land of castles and sheep-shaggers; and Northerners as hard-drinking coal miners. The biggest national rivalry is between England and Scotland, where the latter seem always fated to lose. I was unimpressed by my (short) visit to Northern Ireland, it seems that its economy is about two decades behind the rest of the country, e.g. things look run-down; bad roads; petrol stations don’t accept credit cards (this was in stark contrast to the Republic of Ireland in the south, which struck me as being very modern, shiny clean, and efficient; though granted, I visited it at the height of the boom, which has since turned into a huge bust).

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Anatoly KARLIN The second part of my series comparing Russia, Britain, and the US focuses on the people themselves.

What are their strengths and foibles? How do they vary by class, region, race, and religion? How do they view each other and other countries and people? What do they eat, drink, and watch? Where do they travel and against which groups do they discriminate?

You can't get much more stereotypically Ukrainian than this

In Russia: Moscow is viewed as rich, privileged and uncaring to the rest of the country; St. Petersburg is regarded as more intellectual and cultured; the people of the Urals and Siberia are seen as being wilder and tougher, and more criminal; and the North Caucasus – because of its society being vastly different from that of ethnic Russians (very religious, based on clan loyalties, hyper-patriarchal, a different language, culture and religion) is viewed as another country.

Further afield, Georgians are the butt of jokes on account of their accents, rural nature, oversexed men and goat-shagging! Central Asia is viewed as a land of oriental exoticism; Ukraine is regarded as the poor cousin who speaks mangled Russian. To Russian jokers, Ukrainians are “khokhly”, which refers to a stereotypical Cossack hairstyle, while to Ukrainian jokers, Russians are “moskali” which refers to

Muscovites, with their reputation for being conceited and arrogant.

In the US: New York is the big city of money and arrogance; Los Angeles is the big city of money and air-brushed decadence; the Bay Area are is full of liberals, stoners and open-source IT geeks (not mutually exclusive); the “South” is full of religious nuts and inbreeds (Q: What do you call an Okie girl who can run faster than her brothers? A: A virgin); the people of the Rockies are men of asperity, libertarian independence and paranoid antigovernment survivalism; Texas has oilmen and cowboys; the Plains have wholesome American homesteaders who fear God; the Mid-West has decrepit deserted towns full of rusting factories and criminals (it’s called the “Rustbelt”); while the East Coast is full of elitists, bankers, and mocha-sipping liberals.

Religion bout half of Americans deny evolution and believe in the literal truth of the Bible, a figure that elicits smirks among Europeans; including

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№4(04) 16-29 June 2011

Britons and Russians, amongst whom such people constitute no more than 20% of the population. Interestingly, many Christian fundamentalists in the US are polite, generous, middle-class, frequently young professionals; but then your ears wilt as they move onto topics like gay marriage or the moral decline of society.

In some of the conservative states, there have been attempts to teach “intelligent design” (a lightly disguised form of creationism) on an equal footing with the theory of evolution.

In recent years, Britain has experienced an inflow of the kind of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity so popular in the US, and in contrast to the patterns of previous decades, it is now the young people and denizens of London – traditionally the most secular of groups – that are becoming the most fundamentalist. That said most Britons and Russians remain mostly agnostic, atheistic or mystical-pagan in a way

that sidesteps traditional dogma. Go into a typical Orthodox Church in Russia and practically the whole congregation will consist of elderly women in skirts and shawls.

There is no separation of Church and state in Russia and the UK, unlike in the US; their governments subsidise the churches, mosques, etc.

In Russia, the state considers four religions to be traditional to Russia and supports them financially; they are Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. Other faiths are ignored (e.g. Roman Catholics, pagans) or harassed (e.g. evangelical proselytizers, Wahhabi preachers) or in the case of Scientology banned as a cult. In the past two years there has been a big scandal when the Education Ministry decided to begin teaching classes on “The Foundations of Orthodoxy” and on other religions.

Critics have argued that this represents undue religious influence in secular schools; as someone who had mandatory

classes in religion (mostly on Christianity) at a British state school, and being aware of the Sunday Bible classes common in the US, I find their concern hard to understand.

There are two major groups that are exceptions to secularity in Russia and the UK. Firstly, Britain’s Muslim community is seen as very religious by British Christians and also by European Muslim standards. In fact, a high percentage of them are outright fundamentalists, e.g. more than a third support the death penalty for apostasy.

Secondly, the Muslims in Russia’s Caucasus, such as the Chechens, Ingushetians, and Daghestanis, few are fundamentalist, however their religiosity is well above that of ethnic Russians (as well as of Muslim ethnicities in the centre of Russia, like the Tatars or Bashkirs) but comparable to that of the conservative US states. They largely follow Sufi Islam, which is moderate; however, since the mid-1990′s there have appeared to be more extremist Islamists emerging.

NATIONAL COMPARISONS: USA, UK, RUSSIA

The Creation Museum in Kentucky features exhibits of humans coexisting with dinosaurs

Daria ALYUKOVA

Russia in Detail

From Thursday back to Wednesday Big Diomede Island (aka Ratmanov Island) and Little Diomede (aka Krusenstern Island).

The islands are sometimes called Tomorrow Island (Big Diomede) and Yesterday Isle (Little Diomede). The two islands located in the middle of the Bering Strait between mainland Alaska and Siberia are separated by just 4 km of water.

A standard motor boat could accomplish this distance in 15-20 minutes, but they are not as close as it seems. According to Greenwich Time, the islands are separated by 21 hours, when it’s Thursday afternoon at Russian Big Diomede, it is Wednesday, 3 p.m. at American Little Diomede.

Satellite view of the Bering Strait.

Russia (left), the USA (right)

Diomede Islands

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â„–4(04) 16-29 June 2011

Time Travel The Land of the Rising Sun Magadan It is widely thought that the Japanese are the first to see the dawn of every new day. This is why Japan is often called the Land of the Rising Sun. In sober fact, Russian Magadan sees the rising sun two hours earlier. On 27 March 2011, Russia moved to year-round daylight saving time. Instead of switching between UTC+11 in winter and UTC+12 in summer, Magadan Time became fixed at UTC+12, while Japan standard time is UTC+9.

Magadan, by Alexey Gnezdilov

Separated

Tripartite meeting

Novosibirsk,

by Viktor Biryuk

Novosibirsk In the early 1920’s Novosibirsk consisted of two parts divided by the river Ob’. As the zone meridian followed the river, Novosibirsk had two time zones. Nevertheless, this did not cause their city-folk much inconvenience. There was no road bridge to connect them at that time and both sides lived separately, even marriages between citizens from the different banks of the river were rare.

№4(04) 16-29 June 2011

Tripoint between Finland, Norway, and Russia Although being just a small inhabited locality in Pechengsky District of Murmansk Oblast, Russia, Rayakoski is a time machine. At noon in Russia, it’s 11 a.m. in Finland and 10 a.m. in Norway. Seems like this is the perfect location to hold a New Year celebration as you can do it three times.

Hope is that tourist agencies will not scuttle a golden opportunity!

First sun rays in Rayakoski,

by Kirill Konovalov

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Photo Blog

Catchy Monuments Street Sticker, Nizhniy Novgorod

Anton Chekhov, Tomsk

Pelmen, Izhevsk

Whisper your wish, and it comes true, Vyatka

Photo Blog Lamplighter, St Petersburg

Faucet, Petrozavodsk

Crocodile, Izhevsk Soviet Actor Evgeny Leonov as Docent, Moscow

Traffic Light, Novosibirsk Plumber, Omsk

â„–4(04) 16-29 June 2011

Rouble, Tomsk

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Fashion Insider

Khokloma Identity J

Ekaterina PETUKHOVA Was it published in Vogue? That is what Russian magazine readers have been asking themselves for the past year since Alena Doletskaya quit her editor-inchief’s position after a brilliant 10-year career which she had with the magazine, since its foundation in Russia. She left but remained a Russian fashion icon. After that the breakneck period began, provoked not by content, but by mere covers. From sports girls in Cosmostyle to the exquisite Demarchelier’s shoot, it just looked hit or miss.

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une’s publication was edited by the specially invited guest Dasha Zhukova who does not need an introduction, particularly in London. Owner of a gallery and a brand, ex-editor of Pop magazine, but this time working on Vogue. Let us confess the result does deserve interest as it is quite a challenge to speculate on fashion and art on that many pages and with the number of publications on these topics, doesn’t leave much space for other opinions.

This cooperative project produced a unique cover, a limited edition of 500 copies were published to be sold exclusively in a modern art centre Garage in Moscow.

The cover where Madonna is modelling with a baby Jesus was pictured by Francesco Vezzoli. Attracting the artist whose name equals kitsch is an unmistaken provocation, which attempts to flirt with the media and to bite art. What is surprising is the fact that people take it seriously and undoubtedly, none of the 500 copies will be in stock for very long.

However, the question is different, why can’t Russian artists work on Vogue’s cover referencing it to Russia? Why is fashion that is closer to art, never Russian? It is taken for granted in other countries to turn back to local roots, to a background in creative spirit. The Russian designers’ Nina Donis Collection

reluctance in respect could be explained by fear of not falling in line with the global context. Russia has been out of the global way for a long time and it is especially true for the fashion market. However the idea of globalization per se means strong friendship, with each country getting better at preserving its identity, contributing its own values. Russian art is certainly very difficult with its visual attributes deeply interwoven in text. Maybe the most popular reference to Russian visuals is Denis Simachev.

Gzhel and Khokloma king of the world, Simachev sold his collections the same way matryoshka dolls are selling out in Red Square. The only difference is that Simachev’s matryoshka had a cynical smile like Joconda with a large bank account in Switzerland.

Fashion is an entertainment for expats, a bit of nostalgia for emigrants, Abramovich and oil as a new asset – all this is for the domestic market and those who want to stay au courant.

Free of estimates, it was an attempt, albeit kitsch, to transfer cultural references to another product. It could be showing a Porsche Cayenne in gzhel – just as Vogue’s cover is taken seriously by some.

British film director Peter Greenaway says that people cannot contemplate pictures in the same way they see in art what Rembrandt initially intended to reveal. The objective of people related to the visual sphere is to show №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

Ania Nebrenchina, Art-Director of French-Russian brand Roi et Moi. Why Russian designers do so few references to Russian art?

The problem is that Russia has no culture of preserving heritage. We’ve been looking at the West for so long thinking there was something revealing behind the iron curtain. The grass Ania Nebrenchina is always greener on the other side. There might be another aspect as well – you need specific circumstances and another culture to be fascinated, so that the eye can notice the difference. For instance, when you visit Eastern countries we’re literally stricken by different visuals, it is a kind of colour shock. People are born there, live there and work day-to-day in this environment and it’s the norm for them. I think art cannot be born in a certain culture and not be understood by it.

Isn’t art a commonplace thing today, if we can put it that way?

I’ve been thinking about it myself lately. I have a feeling that art has become very commercial today. In the past everyone seemed inspired by music, its style and energy. Today everybody is in to art. However there is still a difference to merely using a picture you’ve heard about and applying knowledge where you can use it beneficially. Another thing is to be fascinated with art and then it means far more to you.

Nina Donis Collection

this heritage from another angle and light, to deliver the initial idea and maybe to reflect his or her own vision. Local art reflection on fashion could be a promising starting point for Russian designers. Moreover it’s done continuously and persistently by Nina Donis, interpreting for instance Kazimir Malevich. Smaller brands such as Dictatura Estetica do well thanks to big companies’ top-managers wearing their unique shirts with modern Russian artists’ №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

printed paintings. They have not lost their charm striving for a global context.

By the way, Dasha Zhukova has recently presented a new art magazine in Venice, created in cooperation with Mike Meire, art-director from Germany. It is a kind of reincarnation of his first Apart magazine. He could never be blamed for kitsch and knows how best to make a single country’s and a town’s heritage veritably appealing to the whole global community.

What is Russian in your brand?

It’s difficult to answer your question definitively. All Russian references of the brand fled to Paris during a certain historic period which is why the brand is biculturally inspired.

Have you ever Roi et Moi worked in AW 11/12 collaboration with collection Russian artists within your brand?

Yes, we have, and it was a challenge. When it is about collaboration it should be cooperation.

Virtually any one can bring a new touch to something existing. It might change soon but now nobody wants to look inside, everyone seems to do something superficial. If I like an artist or a sculptor, I try to figure out what is behind them, how and why they do it. It’s not a two-dimensional picture for me but rather what is behind the work. The art attracts not per se but of the person, their ideas and capacity.

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Business Lunch

Stress Management for Managers guessing what might cause a stressful situation at work. As a manager/leader you must have a good solid understanding of risk implications for employees and the organisation.

Remember that stress management is a proactive process. Create a positive environment for your employees where they can get all the necessary training and support. Give them more control over how they do their tasks.

Your employees should be clear about their roles and responsibilities within the organisation. As a manager, ensure that these roles are not conflicting or unreasonable.

Everyone has to know what is expected of them.

Make sure the workload and deadlines are fair for each and every employee. High demands and expectations should be rewarded accordingly. The last thing you want is for your employees to burnout and have to take sick leave.

Motivate your employees.

Start with getting to know them, set smart goals and deadlines, involve them in the decision-making process, applaud them, create worthy job titles, invest in their training, support and reward them – do whatever it takes to keep motivation levels high.

Have faith in your employees. If you have hired the right people, then you should be able to trust them.

When teams are small and time is limited, do not be afraid to give some tasks to junior staff.

They will be more than happy to accept an opportunity to show off their skills and talents.

3

Tatiana IRODOVA Work related stress is an evergreen topic of occupational health psychology. Costs involved, both human and financial, in resolving this issue are ridiculously high. Even though it is impossible to be completely stress-free, effective management plays a vital role in reducing and preventing job stress. You can make a big difference when taking on board these simple stress management tips:

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Be content with yourself and act as a role model at all times. During the most difficult times, be able to use your Emotional Intelligence and leadership qualities. As a leader, you should differentiate between stress and pressure.

Never let your staff see you panic.

Be able to identify the signs of stress in your team members. Communicate with your team on a regular basis as you will save time

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4 5 6

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Share information and listen to concerns. Uncertainty, especially during change, causes unnecessary stress. Talk to your team members on a regular basis, know and be willing to explain what is going on. Hold formal and informal meetings.

Let your people know that you take health and safety seriously. Provide stress management education to employees. Make sure they know that you care and understand when you suggest stress management tools.

Try to implement different techniques.

Provide opportunities for career development.

Offer your employees both monetary and non-monetary rewards. Let them know they are valued – praise good performance. Never blame or get extremely emotional. Be willing to listen, compromise and find a solution together.

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Treat all employees equally. Make your rules clear – you should not allow nor tolerate harassment and bullying; your staff should know they will not get away with it, or there will be serious consequences.

Encourage your people to take coffee breaks, lunches and full holiday entitlement. You want your staff to take well deserved time off work. The opposite of stress is relaxation. Socialise with your staff informally. Do not talk about work during corporate parties!

When you are concerned about a specific employee, discuss various sources of help within/ outside your organisation with them. If stress is affecting an employee’s performance and is beyond your control, speak with your HR advisor.

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www.lifeskillsemporium.com №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

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Flower Carpet, Grande Place, Brussels

Memories of a Decade and a Half Coast

Even though we are a tiny country, we have it all, fields, mountains, houses, and even the sea. The two most popular cities are Knokke and Oostende. I have marvelous memories of both, yet they are so different, like Turkey and the French Riviera. Knokke bursts with chic boutiques, â‚Ź5 espressos and expensive Oostende

24

cars. Oostende on the other hand has families, seafood, and wheels. My last visit to Knokke was with a friend, we didn’t drink or eat anything, we were students, but we did frolic in the sea, but be careful if you try this as the North Sea is incredibly cold. In the summer, there are usually plenty of animations, as most of the radio and TV stations

relocate over there for different events. Oostende however is a lot simpler but enjoyable.

The entire coast is filled with seafood restaurants, Michelin starred and not, a seafood market and booths with ready to eat seafood. It is very easy to rent a bungalow or an apartment there for weeks or months. I have been going there for 14 years and to this

Traveller’s Diary Belgium is a place where I grew up, it is a place that I have known under different lights and as I grew, it grew with me. Years go by, interests develop and new facets are discovered very naturally. I don’t have enough space to write about a country bursting with history and so many things I want people to know about it. We have beaten the world record for a country with no goverment. We still make most of our beer in abbeys and have more than 5,000 different brands. The pissing boy has two legends and there is a pissing girl too! day my best memory is hiring a bike and riding along the coast and around the city.

Bruges

Bruges is the most touristic place in Belgium. It is smaller, more beautiful and romantic than any words written in the travel guides. For me it has always been a burden, as I was sent to Bruges by my parents with every person that came to visit us and they still do.

The best memory I have of Bruges is a ride that I’ve did with my mother in a horse drawn carriage and the driver telling us about the city. It felt good for once, as I was not the one guiding and telling everything about the city.

Bruges is a magical city, full of history and beauty. Even if you don’t know anything about the buildings that surround you and you don’t want to go into anywhere, it is worth just walking around and seeing that not everything in the world is evil and replaceable.

Brussels

My memories of Brussels break down into four parts, up to about 12 years old, it was the

place where I lived and we used to go to Grande Place (the main square in Brussels and every single city and town in Belgium has one) for hot chocolate and to shop. Afterwards we moved to the outskirts and going to Brussels became more of an adventure, with the bus then the tram and finally meet up with friends on Av Louise, which is the main shopping street, but it also has cafes and a cinema.

Then from about 16 years old Brussels became the night place, this is where we would go clubbing, Le You was the only club that was ‘cool’ to go to and with knowing parents or not, we were there almost every weekend, the best experience after clubbing was to go to Pita Street (Only Pita places) and eat at four in the morning then wait till the first train at 6:06am. Then it all stopped and we got driving licenses so now Brussels became the place of discoveries, the museums, restaurants, parks, bars and cafes. Respectively my latest findings are the Museum of Musical Instruments, Le Balmoral, My Garden, The Delirium and anything along the Place St Katherine.

Horse Carriage Excursions, Bruges

Waterloo

Waterloo is home. By now I probably know every single stone and why it’s there. If you ever do come to our humble place, only 20 minutes away from central Brussels by train or car there are a few things you need to know. Waterloo does actually belong to the UK because of some law that no one seems to be able to explain. Waterloo is indeed the place where Wellington La Butte du Lion, Waterloo

№4(04) 16-29 June 2011

Ecaterina KILIAN

defeated Napoleon. Waterloo is indeed a mega polis of 30,000 habitants. It does indeed have a very long shopping street and yes, this is where most of the English speakers live.

Nevertheless something you need to know but might not, is Oscar’s the new Irish Bar has the friendliest staff and a lot of whisky! The Waterloo Panorama is great, so is the view from the lion. They reenact the battle every year.

Le bivouac du Napoleon still holds the chair in which Napoleon was concocting his battle plans and in front of the building there is a life-size statue of him, honestly no one believes that because it is way too small, but it’s a fact.

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Art Xanthi SKOULARIKI

Two of the most prestigious London galleries have opened their exhibitions, the Saatchi gallery puts on a show on international contemporary sculpture, shortly after the sculpture exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and Haunch of Venison presents a selection of new works by British artist Richard Long, one of them being made out of mud especially for the gallery space.

Richard Long’s Comeback

H

aunch of Venison has announced its fourth exhibition with Richard Long, a British artist widely recognised as one of the most important artists to have emerged since the 1960s and a pioneer of Land and Conceptual art. Human Nature is Richard Long’s first exhibition in London since his acclaimed retrospective at Tate Britain in 2009. The exhibition features new works made in Spain, Switzerland, China and South Africa, as well as in Long’s ‘home’ landscape of Dartmoor. Long’s work is rooted in his deep affinity with nature, developed during solitary walks.

Walking in the landscape is the basis of Long’s practice but over the past 40 years he has extended his concerns to encompass photographic and text-based work, sculptures made in stone and wood, small-scale works using handprints and fingerprints on paper and driftwood, and monumental wall drawings made using mud and clay.

Richard Long, Untitled, 2010, white China clay on black card

His works articulate ideas about time and space, relativity, natural forces and human experience. The exhibition features two new large stone works including North South (2011) a seven meter sculpture Richard Long, Fibonacci Walk 2010, text work consisting of a circle of white Portland stone bisected on the magnetic axis by a jagged line of bleach slate from Delabole in Cornwall.

A dramatic mud work Human Nature (2011) will be made directly on to the walls for the show and Long will show a selection of

new works based on one of the artist’s signatory motifs, his own handprint.

The exhibition will include a group of recent photographic and text-based works relating to walks made in China, Spain, Greece, UK and France. Human Nature reflects the distinctive themes and interests in Richard Long’s work as well as providing an opportunity to understand his thinking of the relationship between art and landscape.

Richard Long represented Britain in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1976 and was awarded the Turner Prize in 1989. In 1990 he became a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

27 May – 20 August www.haunchofvenison.com №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

New Sculpture Exhibition A

nother major opening taking place this week is the Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. This is an exhibition of 20 leading and emerging international artists working in sculpture today and is also the first time that the gallery space has been devoted entirely to three-dimensional works. The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture provides an unprecedented look at some of the most exciting sculptural works created in recent years. From granite monoliths to neon structures, buckled cars to stuffed horse hide, the exhibition demonstrates the diversity and dynamism of the medium.

Composed, assembled, sewn, nailed, glued, stacked or layered from materials

as varied as clay, polished metal, fabric, plywood, dirt, horse hide, styrofoam and found objects, the works in the exhibition push the notions of the already expanded field of sculpture. The pieces here are united in the strength of their formal innovations and force of their engagement with contemporary issues. Running from the monumental to the miniature, many of the works play with scale creating a disorienting and charged space between viewer and work.

The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture features a selection of works

by David Altmejd, John Baldessari, David Batchelor, Peter Buggenhout, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Matthew Brannon, Bjorn Dahlem, Folkert de Jong, Roger Hiorns, Martin Honert, Thomas Houseago, Joanna Malinowska, Kris Martin, Matthew Monahan, Dirk Skreber, Anselm Reyle, Sterling Ruby, David Thorpe, Oscar Tuazon and Rebecca Warren.

27 May – 16 October www.saatchigallery.com David Batchelor, Brick Lane Remix I 2003, Courtesy the Saatchi Gallery, London

Thomas Houseago, Joanne 2005, Courtesy the Saatchi Gallery, London

â„–4(04) 16-29 June 2011

27

Blog Letters to YOU:

“How to Escape the Rat Race and Improve your Financial Future Today” PART I

Dear You, Are you of one those people who works long hours, misses family dinners, takes work home, gets very tired and feels like there is nothing you can do? Are you one of those people who desire to achieve a good work/life balance? Are you tired of the rat race and want to get out? If you want to stop wandering around the maze, then these tips are for you. In order to improve your financial situation, you have to leave the rat race at least mentally first. Stop working hard and start working smart!

The most important part of escaping the rat race is having big, bold and daring dreams.

Set yourself big life goals e.g. finding the right life partner, living in a castle in France, having fancy cars etc. In a dream world everything goes.

Activate your imagination and start channelling energy towards achieving these dreams. If you feel like you are stuck in the rat race, then you must have given up on your dreams. Think back of the life you’ve had before and remind yourself of your big goals and plans you’ve had. Get excited about all the things you want to have and write a list of at least a hundred things that you would like to do/have.

Imagine you already have all of these things in your life.

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How do they make you feel – happy, complete and satisfied?

If not, then add more things that would make you feel completely satisfied. Make sure you associate words/dreams/ goals with the images.

Stop working hard and start working smart. The most common mistake is thinking that longer working hours will bring more money. It’s not true! Look at people, who don’t seem to work at all and all you see them do is travelling or shopping. Don’t hate these people! Learn from them. They must know something you still don’t. I’m not suggesting you should quit your job today. Just start thinking of your talents and abilities you’ve never used before. These could be the source of your passive income in future. Make a list of the qualities you have and how you could possibly use these to bring you closer to financial freedom.

Make changes to the way you think. Start thinking what your beliefs are about money and about people who have money. Most of our beliefs about everything in this world come from childhood. If these beliefs haven’t made us happy so far, then what’s the point continuing to believe in something destructive? If you think that “money doesn’t grow on trees, you have to work hard to earn money, people with big money are thieves, money doesn’t buy happiness,

rich people are evil etc.”, then you have to change the way you think about money. Your unconscious beliefs about money might be holding you back. Start forming and developing a new relationship with money! Think of money as a tool to reaching your goals faster and more easily.

Whatever you used to think about wealth/rich people, it’s time to let it go.

If you really want to escape out rat race, you must use your talents to become your own boss. Very few people become wealthy by working for someone else. Being an employee simple means an exchange of your skills and experience for a salary.

Financial freedom comes from profits, not wages. Start

appreciating yourself and write down all the skills, talents and experience that you have.

Think what you could do with these attributes. Look for business opportunities that require little investment or risk.

Start it on a part-time basis.

If you decided that you no longer wish to be a part of the rat race, start acting now! Do some research and attend workshops to acquire missing life skills (e.g. to gain confidence, fight fears or stop procrastinating). Don’t just live your life – create it!

Be healthy, happy and wealthy…. and Remember: “Lack of money is the root of all evil” Always by your side, Tati Irodova www.lifeskillsemporium.com №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

Event Guide

Stalin Vladivostok to Moscow and the World of Culture Performance Tue 21 June 2011 – 7.30pm Language: In English

Reading with jazz accompaniment: “Vladivostok to Moscow” by Jehane Markham.

In July 2007, poet Jehane Markham took the TransSiberian Express across Russia from the Pacific to the Capital. The journey had a powerful effect on her personally, as well as bringing vividly alive a sense of Russian history and its people. Part journal, part dream, this oral piece evokes an unforgettable journey with jazz accompaniment by internationally regarded musicians Robin Phillips (piano) and Jonny Gee (double bass).

Tickets: £7, conc. £5 (students and OAPs), free for Friends of Pushkin House

Poyekhali! Yuri Gagarin and the Dawn of Space Exploration Talk by Sheila Fitzpatrick Wed 22 June 2011 – 7.00pm Language: In English

Stalin intimidated the Russian intelligentsia, but the converse was also true.

Members of Stalinist faction envied the ease with which political opponents like Kamenev and Bukharin interacted with intellectuals and artists in the 1920s. In the 1930s, many of Stalin’s associates established their own patronage networks with the cultural élite, though Stalin remained aloof, cultivating an air of mystery which made his periodic interventions all the more notable. After the war, the leaders – Stalin included – found that their grown-up children were not only marrying into the intelligentsia but had become intellectuals themselves. The talk focuses on the complex and multi-faceted relationship of Soviet political leaders to the world of culture as it evolved from the beginning of the 1930s to the 1950s.

Sheila Fitzpatrick is the Bernadotte E. Schmitt Distinguished Service Professor in Modern Russian History at the University of Chicago. Her recent books include Everyday Stalinism. Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Russia in the 1930s (2000), Tear off the Masks! Identity and Imposture in Twentieth-Century Russia (2005) and Political Tourists: Travellers from Australia to the Soviet Union from the 1920s-1940s (2008). She is currently working on two books: Stalin and his Team, a political ethnography of the top Soviet leadership from the late 1920s to the mid 1950s and A Spy in the Archives, a memoir of life in Moscow as a British exchange student in the 1960s.

Tickets: £5 Book Tickets

№4(04) 16-29 June 2011

Rare Photo Exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall 9th June - 4th July 2011

Science Photo Library, the world's leading provider of scientifically themed imagery, presents a set of rarely seen photographs from the archives of RIA Novosti.

The collection tells the story of Yuri Gagarin's life.

This intimate exhibition runs at London’s Royal Albert Hall and features a wealth of iconic and previously unseen images.

There are three FREE public viewing days: Saturday 25th June: 11.00am to 3.00pm Saturday 2nd July: 10.00am to 2.00pm Sunday 3rd July: 11.00am to 3.00pm People visiting the Royal Albert Hall for other events between 9th June and 4th July will also be able to view the exhibition.

Wine and Talk: 'The First Man in Space...and the Man That Put Him There' There is also an exclusive event being held on the evening of Sunday 26th June.

Piers Bizony, author of 'Starman: The Truth Behind The Legend of Yuri Gagarin', will explore the complex relationship between Gagarin and Sergei Korolev - the brilliant and mysterious scientist behind the Soviet space programme.

Tickets: £10, including a glass of wine.

Book online at www.royalalberthall.com or call +44(0)20 7589 8212.

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Bartender

Introducing Afternoon Tea at the Wellington Lounge

T

he world-class InterContinental London Park Lane hotel has revealed a brand new take on afternoon tea, to be taken exclusively in the recently and very beautifully transformed Wellington Lounge.

Set on the ground floor of the luxury hotel at Number One Park Lane, the aptly named Wellington Lounge offers a luxury afternoon tea experience in a relaxed contemporary setting with views of London’s iconic Wellington Arch from every seat. And what could be more British than afternoon tea against such a backdrop?

Inspired by the grand parks that surround this award-winning hotel, The Wellington Tea created by the hotel’s Executive Chef Paul Bates – will evolve seasonally to showcase some of the very best ingredients the British Isles has to offer.

As well as Incorporating Bates’ favourite elements of a traditional afternoon tea, the summer

menu at The Wellington Lounge features West Coast lobster open sandwiches with the brightest baby red stalk sorrel from Worcestershire and not-to-beoverlooked the warm, home-baked scones with Kentish strawberry jam and Cornish clotted cream.

In developing the new afternoon tea concept at the hotel, Chef Bates has worked alongside famed modern tea emporium The Tea Palace to develop a special blend of black tea that perfectly compliments the delicate flavours of the menu: a blend of Assam, Chinese black teas and Earl Grey blue flowers softened by English cornflowers and mallow blossoms.

Traditional afternoon tea costs £25 per person. A champagne afternoon tea is available at £35 per person and includes complimentary top-ups.

Reservations are recommended.

The Wellington Lounge can be contacted on 020 7318 8649.

Royal Ascot Takes the Lead at Number One Park Lane

A

s the world’s most famous racecourse, Royal Ascot, celebrates 300 years of racing, the InterContinental London Park Lane has announced a fun-filled incentive to mark this significant occasion.

For the duration of Royal Ascot, 14-18th June, any guests arriving for afternoon tea at the Wellington Lounge wearing a fascinator or hat - top hats for the gentlemen of course - will be immediately upgraded from a traditional afternoon tea (£25 per person) to a decadent 30

Champagne afternoon tea (£35 per person), with complimentary Champagne top-ups.

For the person wearing the most stunningly outrageous hat during the four-day period, Inte rContinental London Park Lane is offering a weekend overnight stay in its iconic Wellington suite with brunch and Spa treatment for two.

The Wellington Lounge Royal Ascot afternoon tea will run from 14th to the 18th June. To book, please call 020 7318 8649 №4(04) 16-29 June 2011

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