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| Jul 15, 2001 |
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| Few Signs of a Russian Revival |
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA - Going to Russia is always an emotional rollercoaster. Since my first visit, in 1988, when my friend crazy Andrei and I woke up the chairman of KGB at four am, until the present, every voyage to Russia has been a combination of high adventure, fear, awe, frustration, and discovery. Listening to the famed Kirov opera's sumptuous production of 'Mazeppa,' or standing reverently before the graves of the great Russian composers Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Glinka, are very nearly religious experiences. Seeing once again Russia's superb 19th-century painters, such as Repin, lvanov, Shishkin, and Vereshchagin, who are largely unknown in the west, felt like a pilgrimage to a holy site, as indeed St.Petersburg's Russian Museum is. But unseen by tourists from the west, behind the grandiose settings in the Potemkin village of post-communist Russia is also pervasive poverty and suffering. Western tour groups in St.Petersburg are usually shown only the best streets and buildings. The 'meet an ordinary Russian family' tour goes to a chic couple in a three-bedroom apartment with spacious rooms, instead of dingy, pre-fab, two room apartments in crumbling buildings, as is the norm. Welcome back to the old days. And there are also sudden stabs of fear, as when one passes the city's sinister KGB headquarters, or parries questions from KGB watchers about family background and 'why do you know so much about Russia?' or 'why did you mention the year 1912?' Speech in post-communist Russia is much freer than in the past, but people are still cautious, never knowing when the political winds will shift. Everything has changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but nothing has changed. One stage setting has simply replaced another. Russia has not developed into a free market democracy, as the west had hoped, in spite of the infusion of nearly $100 billion dollars, half alone from Germany. Instead, the mutant society that grew out of the wreckage of the old communist state far more resembles the 1960's vintage bogus 'democracies' of Latin America than western Europe: an tiny elite, 'richer than god;' corrupt police and ubiquitous intelligence agents; tame media; rigged elections; bread and circuses to calm the penniless populace. On one side, the government of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer named president by the intelligence services and military kicked out Boris Yeltsin in a palace coup. On the other, a handful of robber barons and a galaxy of gangster chiefdoms that control over 80% of Russia's economy and bleed the nation white. The Putin government has launched a major campaign against organized crime, but the hugely rich and notoriously vicious Russian mafiosi are holding their own. Almost all the foreign aid being poured into Russia continues to be stolen and stashed away in foreign tax havens. Russia is said to have suffered a catastrophic economic contraction over the past decade that exceeded America's 1930's Great Depression by 25-30%. This may be true, but before 1990, at least 40% of the Soviet Union's economic output went to military programs. Take away defense, and the decline does not look so drastic. Even so, Russia's economy remains below the communist days and shows few signs of revival. A major reason is that the economic elite continues to rape, pillage and plunder Russia's enormous riches, hiding their swag abroad rather than investing to rebuild the comatose economy. Ordinary Russians get by today in the traditional way: growing food in communal plots or on their own little country bungalows, bartering, using connections, or holding multiple jobs. Life in the big cities has somewhat improved, but the rural population remains condemned to Third World conditions. A rich nouveau elite, with the latest foreign cars and Italian suits, flout their usually illicit wealth heedless of the growing anger of those who have not. The world's leading Mercedes dealership is in Moscow. Some Russians still want to return to their communist past, mainly teachers, civil servants, and pensioners. Interestingly, in the west, the very same occupations form the bedrock of socialist and other leftwing parties that support big government and public spending. Many younger urban Russians, however, sense the enormous opportunities in Russia's future and want no return to the days when the communist party ran everything from baby-sitting to burial. Russia has the world's largest reserves of oil, minerals, gemstones, timber, hydro power, and fresh water. It has an intelligent, well-educated population that often makes North Americans look like intellectual and cultural simpletons. Russia is one of the world's treasure houses of science, art, music, and literature. The Russian people, who have suffered more than almost any other nation in the past ten centuries, have shown themselves capable of the greatest heroism, legendary endurance, and mighty deeds. But centuries of serfdom and seven decades of communism also left them brutalized, deeply suspicious, and, at times, capable of great cruelty, as their current vicious repression of Chechnya shows. Someday, Russians will get themselves organized. Alas, the last national leader who managed to harness Russia's enormous talents and latent might was the tyrant Stalin, a point not lost on most Russians, or on President Putin, who is struggling to chart a middle course between totalitarian rule and chaos. Copyright eric s. margolis 2001
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