Russia: Moscow Half a Century Ago

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, December 27, 2006

LJ user fool_4_lifetime found a rare photo album in a Moscow dump - Im Flug nach Moskau, by Erich Einhorn, ARTIA, 1959 - and scanned and posted 60 spreads of Moscow photos from it in the moya_moskva (My Moscow) LJ community. (Warning: bandwidth intensive!)

Here is one of the photos:



And here are some comments from other bloggers:

[...]

angel_y: A golden dump you've got! Would you mind sharing the address? )))))

[...]

onair: We used to have an amazingly beautiful city. A huge thanks to you, you've done a great deed.

gr_s: We used to have a diverse city. The photos that were allowed to be included in the album are beautiful, yes.

[...]

psych_dima: Thank you! The [woman] with a cow is especially good (is that the area of Leninsky Prospekt?), it reminded me of my childhood, when the villages began almost next to the [subway station Leninsky Prospekt] (that used to be the edge of Moscow until 1960). =)))

[...]

bogantsev: It's incredible how everyone's [overexcited about the photos]. We have fountains, and the athletes, and the wonderful, smiling faces!

And it's true that if you need to and when you need to, you can turn Moscow into Paris. But [these are pure lies!] This is what propaganda is! So why are you [so credulous]? [At that time], we had just rolled our tanks out of Budapest, half the country had just been released from prison camps - and you're asking for the smiling Moscow.

And the most amazing thing about it is that if you got hold of the literature from those times and of similar content, you'd turn your noses and take [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn] instead. But with the photos, everyone's feeling nostalgic!

Russia: "The Dissenters' March"

Global Voices Online
Saturday, December 16, 2006


Marsh Nesoglasnykh ("The Dissenters' March" or "The March of Those Who Disagree") - screenshot from the rally's website, www.namarsh.ru

According to news reports, over 2,000 people showed up at a "rare" anti-government rally in Moscow today.

LJ user rifleman_sa has posted a photo report (RUS) from the Marsh Nesoglasnykh ("The Dissenters' March" or "The March of Those Who Disagree"):

[...] By my estimates, there were 2,000-2,500 people. I started counting cops' cars and buses, reached 60 and gave up - there were many more of them. I have mixed feelings about the rally - but the conclusion that's obvious is that the regime is definitely [scared]. [Scared] of any political activity, regardless of which flank it is coming from.

2007-2008 promise to be interesting.

Below are another blogger's quick thoughts on the rally (LJ user sapojnik, RUS):

"The Misanthropes' March"

A strange action has taken place, really. What does "those who disagree" mean? Disagree with what? Quite a lot of people gathered - if you, of course, measure by today's frail standards, not by the million-strong demonstrations of the late 1980s. But now, 2,500 people is a lot. It means that at least 2,000 people came on their own, without having been paid in any way. With money, it's possible to gather 300-400 people at most, and all the Kremlin media tales, according to which, for example, [the Maidan in Ukraine] had been "bought," are absolute nonsense.

But - all the worse. Slogans have to be coherent and specific: these are the basics of public politics. So here's the question: why didn't they find anything coherent? "They are sawing Russia." Who are these "they"?? Why didn't they reveal their last names? It ended up being "the march against bad weather" [it was sunny in Moscow today] [...]. [...]

Such rallies are actually turning NORMAL people away from public protest, and, on the other hand, they envigorate the "jerks." If this is a protest "in general" - then why not blow up bombs? Wouldn't that, too, be "protest"?

Russia: Caucasus Hatreds, and Peace

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The First Chechen War began twelve years ago, in December 1994; the Second Chechen War followed five years later. Still, Chechnya remains part of the Russian Federation.

Timur Aliev - LJ user timur_aliev, a native of Grozny, an ethnic Chechen, a journalist, editor-in-chief of The Chechen Society newspaper, the Chechnya editor of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) - muses (RUS) on why it is possible that after all the suffering and bloodshed of the recent years, Chechens and Russians manage to continue to co-exist; in his musings, timur_aliev reaches well beyond the issue of the Russo-Chechen relationship and, among other things, touches upon a largely ignored issue of the Ingush-Ossetian confrontation:

Why Chechens and Russians do not hate each other

Went to [the capital of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania] [Vladikavkaz] the other day. Stayed there [...] till it got dark - till 5:30 pm. Came to the bus station - turned out there were neither marshrutkas [mini-buses], now taxis left. Asked one of my local friends to order a taxi for me, but only to the checkpoint at the border with [Ingushetia] - no taxi driver agrees to go further.

The taxi arrived, we set out [to the border]. I got to know the driver - an ethnic Georgian from Kazbeg district, works in Ossetia, as there's nothing to do in the mountains in winter. I offered him to take me to [Ingushetia's former capital Nazran]. He agreed, called the headquarters on his portable radio transmitter, to find out how much he should charge for this trip. They asked him if he was sick of being alive that he was going to Ingushetia. One of the taxi drivers from that company must've heard the conversation and offered advice: they were taking 5,000 rubles [about $200] for a trip like this yesterday (a totally inappropriate price - normally, cab drivers from the bus station charge 350-400 rubles [about $15] for this trip, and a marshrutka ride would have cost 20 rubles [less than a dollar]). My driver smiles and comments: "Ossetians are scared to take this trip, and me, I don't care."

He ended up getting me off [...] at the border with Ingushetia, though - the company's bosses categorically refused to let him cross, fearing that the cops in Ingushetia would take away his unregistered radio transmitter.

Same situation with cab drivers in Ingushetia, when you're trying to go to Ossetia. All cab companies refuse to take you to the airport outside Beslan, for example. So one has to get to that same checkpoint [...], pass it on foot, and hitchhike from there. [...] Every time a trip to the Beslan airport turns into a big headache. Taxi drivers from Ingushetia either refuse to go there [...] - "we don't go there after the events" (meaning the Beslan school siege) - or ask too much money.

Having visited [Armenia's capital Yerevan] recently, I learned that they have the same situation there. As a rule, Armenians don't go to Azerbaijan, and Azeris don't go to Armenia. One Azeri friend from [Azerbaijan's capital Baku] told me that when he was visiting Yerevan, they were giving him bodyguards, one or two special services agents who are following him everywhere.

I've been thinking it all over: these people have a really long negative memory. [...] It would seem that Chechens, after the last two wars, should be [avoiding] Russia completely, and Russians should be [staying away] from Chechnya. But this isn't the case. Quite the opposite. You could run into a Chechen at the most unexpected places in Russia, and many Russians are going to [Chechnya's capital Grozny], either with pleasure, or with curiousity.

Why is this happening? Have the cultures become too common after years of Soviet cohabitation? I don't think so. For example, Ingushs and Ossetians share a lot of last names, and I often notice many similarities in their behaviour. But the confrontation between them does exist.

Or is it because Chechnya - and, above all, Grozny - used to be multinational? Again, I'm not sure - before the conflict, there were plenty of Armenians living in Baku and quite a number of Azeris in Yerevan. And what do they have now?

I think it has to do with the mentalities of Chechens and Russians. They probably share some mildness of character, we can't remember the evil done to us for too long. Peacefulness and good-neighbourliness - this, no matter how overused the terms are, is what allows us to live next to each other and visit each other.

Many might not agree with me. And explain it some other way. Along the lines of "it's profitable to people, that's why they behave the way they do." Like, Chechens go to Russia to make money, and Russians go to Chechnya for the same reason, only they have orders to do so. And that on the surface, we pretend to be cordial towards one another, but inside, there is hatred. Perhaps, it is true to some extent. But I know many people of different ethnicities all over the world, and more than anyone else, I know Russians and Chechens. I interact with people and I can tell the truth from hypocrisy. And I see - there is no hatred inside us, but a desire to live, live [life to its fullest] - openly, lightly, joyfully, generously. And this aspiration isn't giving us time [...] to hate and fear. We're too busy with other things.

Below are some comments and some of timur_aliev's responses - generalizations and attempts to avoid generalizations:

[...]

hippy55: [...] In general, the attitude [towards Chechens] is negative. Like the attitude towards cops, actually: in general, they are [scorned], but if you know one closely, he's an ordinary guy, just like you are. [2006 ethnic tensions in the town of Kondopoga] have shown that it's not the specific offender that becomes the enemy, but a whole nation. Or even race. The Germans weren't born fascists, and a Russian person wasn't born Soviet: a leader appeared who [allowed] the disturbances to go ahead, and that's it - a human being disappears.

piligrim: [...] It's hard for me to talk about what and who causes you to hate "in general" and "in particular" - but in my circles, there is no hatred towards cops or Chechens. Neither to the occupation, nor to an ethnic group, nor to any other group. [...] A specific person is judged, not those social groups he belongs to. As for Kondopoga, the enemy there wasn't "a nation in general," but a very specific group of people.

hippy55: [...] I agree on Kondopoga: yes, not a whole nation, but in general ALL Caucasus natives.

[...]

piligrim: As for lack of trust toward Chechens, this, I guess, is because they (you) have very strong [tribal] ties. That is, some Aslan may be a decent and law-abiding citizen, but there's always a chance that among his numerous relatives there's a criminal that he will never surrender, and in some cases will have to help him in some illegal business, because of the familial relationship.

By the way, Timur, a while ago, an interview with a [Chechen journalist and former NTV host] Aset Vatsuyeva was being widely discussed here. She said that even when she lived in Moscow, she'd never consider marrying a Russian, because it's a great shame for a Chechen woman. Leaving her personal life aside, how common is this point of view in the Chechen society?

timur_aliev: [...] [not tribal] but familial relationships. There won't be a [preferential] attitude like this towards a relative three times removed, that's for sure. But it depends on a specific person, of course.

I do remember this interview. I remember it being read in Grozny, too. I think that the absolute majority of [Chechens] supports her view. This isn't even something to be discussed [among them].

piligrim: That is, not hatred, but contempt towards Russians is widespread among Chechens?

timur_aliev: No, it's more complex... Men do get married to women of other ethnicities... There used to be cases when men from other ethnic groups were accepted in the Chechen society - they were married to Chechen women... It's more of a fear to lose a member of society - a woman, when she marries someone outside her ethnic group, unlike a man, leaved her society almost completely... while a man draws more members into it...

[...]

avrom: Armenians and Azeris, Ingushs and Ossetians - they are fighting as equals. Same weight category.

[...]

bratanishe: Your words are made of gold! I have many Chechen friends and there are no problems. But what's happening in Ingushetia and Ossetia is really a nightmare. And it seems to me that it's not Ossetians who take the initiative. Hatred seems to be manic, like some disease. [...]

timur_aliev: I have many friends among Ossetians and even more among Ingushs... This is why this situation is making me very sad...

bratanishe: Maybe it's because people have nothing to do in Ingushetia - there are no jobs. Many aren't used to working in principle. But the situation is horrible. To learn about it, it's enough to read the forum at www.ingushetiya.ru - any topic, even the weather, concludes with [pronouncing Ossetians bad people]. It's scary to read it, when you stop to think what's going on in people's heads. There's a good recipe for getting rid of [such mental nonsense], although it doesn't sound too politically correct: Arbeit macht frei.

[...]

random_2005: It'd be good if this was [the way you described it]. I don't know firsthand what Chechens think of Russians, but it's hard to believe there is no hatred. Maybe I [compare with my own attitudes]. Personally, I have a bad attitude towards Caucasus natives in general, and to Chechens in particular. I admit that some of them may be wonderful people. But in general, when they come to the Russian regions, people from the Caucasus show disrespect and unwillingness to obey local rules and customs. The cult of physical force so popular with the Caucausus people is not accidental and reflects their worldview (the one who is stronger is right). Actually, people from the Caucasus acts like savages here, not like civilized people. There are exceptions, but it doesn't change the general picture. Arrival of the Caucasus natives to the Russian regions is perceived as the aggressive expansion of the criminals - and moreover, the criminals who are ethnically and culturally alien. Chechens seems to me as the people in whom the negative features described above are pronounced to the utmost degree.

timur_aliev: I've come across with quite a few people who acted the way you describe it... but for some reason, I never thought it was because of their ethnicity, but always looked at their age and the certain social groups they belonged to...

[...]

conchis: Too generalized [...] and terminology is too loose. You should be more careful when analyzing "hatred" and avoid using ethnographic stereotypes. If one does an adequate statistical research, I'm afraid the results would be quite gloomy. Both Chechens and Russians, it seems to me, are very vindictive nations. But they are both a very far cry from Ingushs :-) About Russians going to Grozny "with either pleasure or curiousity" - that's a joke, right?

timur_aliev: No one's pretending to be doing a sociological research here - it's just a short commentary... [...] [No, it's not a joke], I know plenty of such people - even in the LJ...

conchis: I welcome your optimism, of course. It seems to me that your perceptions are based on wishful thinking. It'd be nice if life were better than it really is.

Russia: A Letter to Putin

Global Voices Online
Sunday, December 10, 2006

It's a letter-writing season in Russia.

LJ user yashin posted an appeal (translated here) to the judge who had given a harsh sentence to an activist for placing a banner saying “Putin, go away on your own” on Hotel Rossiya in Moscow.

LJ user aneta_spb has come up with a letter (RUS) to president Vladimir Putin himself, and for a while, it was one of the highest-ranked posts at the Yangex Blogs portal. Below is a rough translation:

Here, I've written a letter to the president.

Gospodin [Mr.] Putin!

Or, Gospodin President of [the Russian Federation].

I, a rank-and-file citizen of the Russian Federation, Gavrilina Svetlana Dmitrievna, have started writing this letter to you and became puzzled right away.

For some reason, addressing you the way I did is considered impolite. The polite way is "Vladimir Vladimirovich." Or "[dear] respected Vladimir Vladimirovich." This takes aback right away. Because I can use the first name and patronymic to address an uncle twice removed or an old high school teacher, etc. But when I'm writing to the head of the state - that is, to a person who is not related to me in any way personally, but is placed in this position by the will of the people and lives on the people's money, and I'm part of this people (even though I didn't vote for this character)... In Great Britain, I wouldn't write "dear Tony," right, or in the States, "dear George"? And in the times of the Czar, so beloved by many of your brothers-in-arms, they didn't write "Nikolay Aleksandrovich" or "Aleksandr Nikolaevich" - but "Your Majesty" or "Sovereign." Title, function...

In any case, there is something in the word gospodin... But we're talking about a form of address here - wouldn't fit to call you tovarishch [comrade], right?..

Whatever, done with the addressing part, sort of. Now, on to the essence.

As I've stated above, I didn't vote for you. But it absolutely doesn't matter. Let's have flies and cutlets separately. Those who vote or not, those who [make big money] or not, those who [get their salaries from the state budget] or work for private [entities] or for themselves - in any case, we are the tax-payers. We buy a loaf of bread - [and pay a value-added tax]. And if not a loaf of bread, then a piece of meat, [clothing], a fridge, a tram ticket, a cell phone operator's services... Everyone has the right to vote or not vote. Because we are all humans, alive, and for now it is not up to you to deprive us of the right to live and breathe.

Anyway, since you've been installed into your position on our money, I'm writing you. Because in a normal country, it would have been enough for me to address a municipal elected official with the issues I'm concerned about. But [you know] what a farce has the so-called local self-government turned into.

[...] I actually this that you impressed the great Russia with, above all, your pure, St. Petersburg, pronunciation, without hek-ing and ok-ing, after all the previous Leonid Ilyichs [Brezhnev], Yeltsins and [Chernomyrdins]... Though, at one point, [Andropov] conquered many weak souls with the same thing, too. Ah well, [I digress] again.

Here's why I'm writing to you. I find you annoying. Not really you, the person, but all this disgusting pharisaism, improprieties and the lies that literally get under one's skin - and everywhere, there's corruption of society worse than during the Soviet times.

I live in the city of St. Petersburg, at [Okhta].

And here, they are going to dig a tunnel and build a skyscraper. Your faithful [...] [Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko], has once again totally ignored the city residents' protest. [...] They are going to worsen the people's life quality, which is already not too good. I'm sorry, but I don't believe that you aren't aware of it. One reason [I don't believe it] is because you haven't yet refuted the rumors that for a while, after you've installed the "successor," you're planning to have some rest at the post of [Gazprom]'s head...

This is really interesting. Excuse me, are you an expert in gas extraction? A professional? Or is there a putsch going on now, invisible to the world, when this Gazprom is basically seizing power in the country? While the majority of the villages are not equipped to receive gas?

Do you know what people are talking about? They are saying that the government's goal is to just destroy the population, because they don't need so many people to serve the pipe... Some people, out of stupidity, see [non-Russians] behind it, others see "the hand of America," but despite this, people do have intuition.

You know, I left the big politics a long time ago. I'm not interested in the party hustle, I'm a modest person and have never been too interested in my own career. And if they didn't try to get me right by the door of my own apartment, I'd be quietly reading good books and listening to good music.

But I'm annoyed by the billboards at the St. Petersburg-Moscow highway: [UNITED RUSSIA] TOGETHER WITH THE PRESIDENT! ([I'm annoyed] because it's like "Long live the [CPSU]!") I don't like it when there's a public transportation paralysis in my favorite city. I don't like it when [towns and villages] in the European part of the Russian Federation are cut off from the civilized world - roads are broken down, phone connection is terrible, and there is no internet whatsoever... I don't like the disgusting bootlicking in the media. Do you really think that people pray to you as they do in front of an icon? If every type of official has your portrait in his study, it doesn't mean that your portraits hang in people's homes... If you find one idiot like this, I think all the central media would show up and do stories...

Do you think that people pile up in big cities voluntarily? Deprive themselves of fresh air and nature? Look into the federal laws that you've signed - and then you'll understand why only thanks to autostores [...] there's still some life out there... And the money being thrown into the construction of the tunnel and Gazprom-City would suffice, for example, to build a new bridge in Veliky Novgorod and to mend the roads in the north-west...

I understand perfectly well that all my questions and exclamations are rhetorical. [...] Because [...] in the first years of your rule, I was still trying to find a compromise... And thus I learned all the mechanisms and the style of your regime.

...And also, your rhetoric drives me mad. The theme of the "czar" and "master" is being beaten into the country's conscience. [...]

Things like this don't end well, I'd like to remind you. [...]

Anyway, leave us alone with your Gazprom. You're a person of age [Putin is 54]. Lenin was already a "dedushka" [old man] at your age. It's time to think of your soul.

I end this halfway through. Please note that I haven't used the words "democracy," "human rights," "free enterprise," etc. Because it's not nice to use the words unfamiliar to the person you're talking to.

Here are a couple comments:

mgtverskoy: Svetlana, "dedushka" Lenin didn't survive to this age. He died before turning 54, and VVP has already passed that.

Are we sending this by regular mail?

aneta_spb: I emailed it. Would be too much honor to bother about an envelope.

[...]

lgdanko: You are wonderful in your genuine naivete or naive ingenuousness. I'll distribute this. Even if the Colonel [Putin] doesn't read it - let the people read it.

Russia: Stunt Protests and the Law

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

On Nov. 17, the Russian Duma approved a bill that abolished minimum voter turnout (20 percent) for all elections in Russia. Today, president Vladimir Putin has signed it into law.

On Nov. 23, two young political activists - Ilya Yashin and Maria Gaidar - protested the imminent change by spending an hour and a half suspended on ropes from a Moscow bridge facing the Kremlin and flying a 10-meter banner, which said: "GIVE THE ELECTION BACK TO THE PEOPLE, BASTARDS!"

Yashin (LJ user yashin) and Gaidar (LJ user m-gaidar) were taken off the bridge by the emergency services, detained by the police and fined 500 rubles (about $20) each by the court.

LJ user 50x50 posted a photo report on the stunt protest; Very Russian provided a link to the video on RuTube.ru.

Gaidar - coordinator of the Da! ("Yes!") movement and daughter of former acting premier Yegor Gaidar - posted a brief note on the court's decision to fine her and Yashin, and here're some of the responses she got (RUS):

[...]

kreatiff: You should've dealt with them on the spot - would've cost you 200... and you'd have avoided having your driver's license punched ))))

prava3: You can start a business. 1,000 rubles for the right to hang over the Moscow River, 500 to the state, the rest to the businessman. :) A joke. In reality, all's well that ends well.

mendkovich: Well, you're lucky. Certain people had a criminal case opened against them for similar actions.

nah42: Oh great. [Spoiled, overfed] kids of the famous parents get a free ride. And for the ordinary mortals - jail. Everything's as always. [...]

domohozjayka: Do they all have to be sent to jail or what? In your anger and jealousy you forget that if you personally don't need the election, there are others who think differently.

harding1989: Right. Of course, the election would come back on its own because two members of the "golden youth" decided to hang over the river. Like waving a magic wand. The law is the same for everyone.

In the discussion above, two LJ users hint at another case, in which the components were the same and the outcome different: in May 2006, Olga Kudrina, a member of Eduard Limonov's National Bolshevik Party, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for climbing the Rossiya Hotel and hanging a banner saying "Putin, go away on your own" on the side facing the Kremlin.

Yashin - who heads the youth wing of the Yabloko Party - pointed out the injustice by writing an emotional open letter (RUS) to Sergei Podoprigorov, the judge who had sentenced Kudrina:

[...]

I'm not going to raise the morality side of the issue - there's no point, I'm sure. If it's so easy for you to ruin the young people's lives just because of their civil position, then calling to your conscience is a waste of time.

[...]

It's obvious that Judge Pugachev [who fined Yashin and Gaidar] made his decision on the basis of the law and common sense. But what was guiding you, Sergei Gennadievich, when you didn't think twice before sending people my age behind bars for a similar violation?

What was happening in your head when you were signing the verdict?

I can see one and only reason for your decision: you are nothing but a coward. Of course, they were calling you and demanding to jail Kudrina [...]. Of course, you were shaking over the verdict in your tiny [study]. Of course, you realized that by sending the guys to jail you'd commit a crime, but letting them go would deprive you of your warm chair.

I demand that you admit publicly that you were wrong and resign. People like you are a shame to Russia's judicial corps. And if you think that your Kremlin bosses would safe you from inevitable responsibility for your crime - don't count on that.

You'll get as much as you deserve.

[...]

Below are a few reactions (RUS):

[...]

arkashamos: Perhaps the reason is that you, Ilya, are the leader of the youth "Yabloko" and Masha Gaidar is Yegor Gaidar's daughter. If they sent you to jail for three years, there'd be lots of noise in Russia and the world. And who knows [...] that girl? Only her party comrades and Edichka Limonov, who, absolutely obviously, doesn't give a crap about those boys and girls that he had attracted [to his party].

yashin: This is what selective use of law is.

sorex: I agree. By the way, are you ready to [go to jail]?

[...]

newreft: Khodorkovsky has been sent to the colony for eight years. There was noise in Russia (meetings took place in almost all big cities, although not too many people attended). There was even more noise [outside Russia]. So what? Has it had any effect? It would have been the same with Ilya and Masha. So this is not the reason.

Russia: Abortion Politics

Global Voices Online
Friday, December 1, 2006

In response to the grim economic situation, abortion was made legal in the Soviet Union in 1920. From 1936 to 1955 - under Joseph Stalin and until after his death - abortion was outlawed. In today's Russia, according to some data, abortions outnumber live births; for many women, abortion is still the primary method of birth control.

A Wikipedia article on the Russian demographics cites a 2005 Moscow News story on abortion - namely, the figures provided by Vladimir Kulakov, vice president of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences: "About 1.6 million women had an abortion last year [in 2004], a fifth of them under the age of 18, and about 1.5 million gave birth [...]. “Many more” abortions weren’t reported."

A few weeks ago, two Russian lawmakers (Aleksandr Krutov and Nikolay Leonov of the Rodina political faction) proposed a law (RUS) that would require spousal consent before a married woman can have an abortion. The Russian blogosphere's response to the news was, quite predictably, overwhelming. Below is just a fraction of reactions, translated from Russian.

A discussion hosted by LJ user anastasija-kara:

It's outrageous.

Lawmakers have reacted to the president's call to increase birth rates in the country: a bill has been proposed at the State Duma that would make it illegal for a married woman to have an abortion without her husband's consent.

This is violation of women's rights, and I personally would come out to rally against this law in case they pass it. And along with me, real_whitecoffe will come out, and, I think, we won't be the only ones.

Men, what do you have to say?

---

[...]

kinoersh: If one considers it a reaction to the president's call to improve birth rates, that it is indeed outrageous. And extremely silly.

anastasija_kara: [...] But in general, do you think that it's the man who gets the last word?

kinoersh: The child is supposed to get it. Only who's gonna give it to him.

Listen, I can't come to an agreement with myself on the issue of abortion. And I wrote what's obvious. The last word here isn't with the man, of course. But still... who the hell knows...

[...]

vvp_fuck: Just another idiocy. Though I've known it for a long time that there are only fascists and sexists in the Duma, so it's not surprising. Soon they'll prohibit women from getting an education, to make them have more children. Bastards...

But actually, could someone explain to me why the hell there should be higher birth rates? No one's gonna live on the fringes, and Moscow and St. Pete are overcrowded anyway... If you ask me, the fewer the people, the more oxygen. There are enough of workers, and there'll be enough of qualified professionals once they cancel the draft... Or do they want our girls to give birth to more soldiers for them??? If they raise birth rates, we'll have unemployment in 20 years and overpopulation like in China in 50 years.

My opinion is that birth is such a natural process that NO ONE should have the right to regulate it, and especially not the president who, I'm sure, doesn't give a damn about my family and whether my kids would starve or not, etc.

Well, and the right to decide to have an abortion belongs to the woman - because she has to carry and give birth to the child, and if the husband really wants the child so badly, let him discuss it all with his wife in advance...

[...]

skotic: It has nothing to do with increasing birth rates, obviously. No one's ever going to keep the woman from getting divorced and then having an abortion. I understand it correctly, don't I: they are talking about a "husband" - not a "biological father"? If this is so, then this bill has nothing whatsoever to do with common sense. [...]

anastasija_kara: While the woman is getting divorced with her husband, the term during which she can have an abortion will be up.

[...]

arnaut_katalan: To every supporter of abortion - a free euthanasia as a gift!

nadkathegreat: To every opponent - a child from an orphanage to bring up.

[...]

inelgerdis: To give birth or not. It's important, but there's another significant aspect that makes me mad more than others. Yet again, they are trying to solve an important problem by following the simplest [...] path - the path of bans and restrictions.

Take the kids' financial aid as an example. Hello, you, those who are arguing here, do you remember how much we receive? A friend of mine, for instance, became a widowlast year, with a 10-year-old daughter to raise. And how much money do you think she was given? Bear in mind that it's he pension given due to "the loss of a bread-winner" - no less. Slightly more than 2,000 rubles ($75) a month. Is that serious?

And so instead of working on implementation of such truly important things as normal aid, benefits, [...], etc. - all that would be helpful to mothers - this imbecile just proposes a ban. [...] It's easier to ban [...]. And those long-term mother-and-child programs - they are tiresome.

If the social sector was developed normally here, there wouldn't be reasons to have abortions. There won't be as many of them, that is. So few that such disgusting bills wouldn't be able to reach the surface.

[...]

boozsel: The Middle Ages. [...] I'm for women and their rights because I myself would be scared to give birth [...].

[...]

Another discussion at journalist Natalya Radulova's blog (LJ user radulova):

vasinamama: I "admire" our State Duma. Uneducated, irresponsible, cynical - but so proactive.

radulova: We have what we've elected.

vasinamama: Something's telling me that you didn't vote for Rodina. Nor did I. The cruel laws of democracy are working against us.

darlya: Our votes - do they have influence on anything? Don't make me laugh.
а разве наши голоса на что-то влияют? не смешите.

[...]

ximerka: The only thing they'd increase this way would be the number of illegal abortions.

prosto_alyssa: And the number of divorces!

prosto_alyssa: I wonder - and what if the husband wants his wife to have an abortion - would they be forcing her to?

[...]

LJ user mar-palna's blog:

rushana: They'll never adopt it. Like the Middle Ages, really. Though, of course, it's easier to ban abortions than pay normal salaries and give apartments to new families.

[...]

***

LJ community ru_politics, LJ user zebra24:

[Inspired by] by the latest news [...], I propose a national project of fighting fools.

We can start with the Duma - with PM Krutov, for example: I propose to castrate him. It won't, of course, solve the problem of fools right away, but at least we can expect that in the next generation, there'll be fewer fools.

The advantages are obvious and expenses minimal, and though the problem with human rights remains, PM Krutov knows nothing about [human rights], so it'll be a shame if we don't use it.

And in general, since our Duma isn't a place for discussions, I propose to castrate legislators for the silly things they say. It'll be especially relevant for [LDPR] and Rodina factions, but the [United Russia] won't be left too far behind.

By the way, there's one more option - not to elect [politicians] like that anymore, but I'm afraid that since our democracy is so very sovereign, the Kremlin's "democrats" aren't going to ask us who to elect and who not to elect.

---

perceptron: But the essence of Krutov's proposal is such that if you use it with your proposal, it'll turn out that it's only be possible to castrate him with his wife's permission.

vasimv: It's okay. We'll hold a referendum. They've cancelled the minimal turnout requirement, so if you alone show up - there's a chance [for the vote to be considered legitimate] :)

[...]

Ukraine: Famine Recognized As Genocide

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, November 29, 2006


Kyiv, Nov. 25: Remembering Holodomor (Famine) Victims - by Veronica Khokhlova

At the Holodomor Remembrance ceremony held in Kyiv on Saturday, Nov. 25, a big board listed the countries that have recognized the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 as genocide: Australia, Argentina, Georgia, Estonia, Italy, Canada, Lithuania, Poland, USA, Hungary. Next to the list was a question: "[What about] Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada [the parliament]???"

It didn't take long for the Rada to follow suit: on Tuesday, 233 out of 450 PMs voted in favor of the bill (UKR) recognizing the Soviet-era man-made famine, which took millions of lives, as genocide against the Ukrainian people. Not a single Communist PM took part in the vote, and only two members of prime minister Victor Yanukovych's parliamentary faction (186 seats) supported the bill.

As hundreds of other Ukrainians, LJ user eagle_x came to Kyiv's Mykhailivska Square on Saturday to light a candle in honor of the Holodomor's dead. He posted photos from the mournful ceremony - here and here - and discussed the subject of Holodomor with two LJ users from Russia.

On Nov. 24, LJ user l_mel of Moscow asked (RUS) eagle_x about the meaning of a Ukrainian-language note he posted on his blog as a reminder that Nov. 25 was to be marked as Holodomor Remembrance Day :

l_mel: ? What`s this? [sic]

eagle_x: In 1932-33, the Soviet regime starved to death about 4 million people in Ukraine, and until the late 1980s it was prohibited to talk about it - otherwise you were sent to Siberia... The day to remember all the innocent dead is the 25th of this month - tomorrow, that is...

l_mel: Well, yes, I'm aware of this! There are also rumors that your current president intends to accuse Russia of genocide... IMHO, it wouldn't be too smart of him.

eagle_x: Hmmm... This is the first time I hear about it... No one is accusing anyone of anything... It's just that Putin and those with him don't want to admit the fact and are denying everything... I don't understand how he benefits from it...

Maybe Putin is ashamed to admit that the Soviet authorities of the time were transporting food over to Russia? or that they didn't let the train cars filled with grain in (aid from Europe)?.. It's all strange... What does Putin have to do with the Soviet authorities of that time and with Stalin? [...]

It's still making me shudder when I think of my great-grandmother and other elderly people talk about those gloomy times with tears in their eyes... How they managed to survive... :( Because of hunger, people were eating one another...

l_mel: A popular opinion here is that Yushchenko is bent on accusing Russia of the genocide of the Ukrainian people. But I'll agree with this: both Putin and Yushchenko should admit that WE shared one country then (and now and forever). But the government was different: radically different from the current one. And to compare the Soviet regime with the current one (and especially with the current Russian one) - is really way too much! But you see, if Putin begins to recognize this fact just a little bit, then the Ukrainian side will really have the reason to accuse our country of genocide. Because this is politics [...]. And you are aware, I guess, what an official genocide charge means: it's a significant addition to the Ukrainian budget from the Russian pockets. And not from oil or aluminum, but from the ordinary people [...]. And (now, obviously, separated forever) [your side and our side] will only hate each other more. [...]

eagle_x: I don't think that adequate, reasonable people of the two coutnries would be accusing each other - this is "one." I'll reveal (or maybe it's not news to you) that our Yushch is soft :) he won't have the courage to accuse anyone - this is "two". I hope you remember that Stalin was an ethnic Georgian? Maybe we should accuse Georgia of genocide as well? :)))))))... - this is "three." I don't think there'll ever be reparation demands... Most of the real culprits of this cruel extermination are already dead and many have been left in obscurity... [...] And the moral of this is that the dead are not going to rise in order to demand some compensations - and not a single compensation is going to bring them back... Their memory should be honored with silence and a candle... And history's lessons should be remembered always and not allowed to happen again, neither at [your side, nor at ours].

LJ user loop83, a native of Krasnodar, liked eagle_x's photos, but not the reality depicted on them:

[...]

loop83: What, were you afraid of the Soviet regime in the past ten years, too? What, have you just remembered?! To show off and incite interethnic hatred by exploiting such a sacred thing as the memory of the dead... [...]

I've received an objective education in politology. And I'm not inclined to defend [...] anyone, but in 1930-32, not only Ukrainians were starving to death.

eagle_x: And who else? I think they are also honoring their dead on a certain remembrance day...

By the way, even in the Soviet times, quietly, at night to avoid getting arrested and sent off to Siberia, relatives and those who cared gathered at graves of those who died of hunger... They brought flowers, candles, and prayed... They also planted lilac and snowball trees to mark the burial sites and not to forget the tragedy...

And one more "by the way" - about inciting interethnic hatred... While I was there, I didn't hear anyone say anything about Russia or its citizens... Mainly, I only heard the old women talk about how people were swelling from hunger and dying... And they were also telling about mothers who were either killing their children or themselves... Or how to make pancakes out of [inedible grass]... And how [soldiers] would come and were taking the house apart, looking for some negligible particles of food to be taken away... I don't know what they are telling you over there, but I think it's not the right thing...

And some more on showing off: I think that a remembrance day isn't some showing-off action... People used to come in great numbers to the Holodomor Victims Memorial to honor the dead without hiding... And that the President was there as well - it shows that in our country it's not that bad yet... Extermination of millions of people isn't like mourning one person - it's HORROR!!! Maybe you want to repeat your words to the old women who are still alive, who survived that and lost their relatives?

[...]

Russia: Litvinenko's Death

Global Voices Online
Friday, November 24, 2006

Aleksandr Litvinenko, a 43-year-old ex-KGB/FSB lieutenant-colonel and a harsh opponent of the Kremlin, died Thursday night of radiation poisoning in London, where he lived under asylum since 2000. In his deathbed statement read out by his friends, Litvinenko was addressing (and implicating) Vladimir Putin:

[...] You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed.

You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value.

You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilised men and women.

You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life.

May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people.

LJ user dolboeb (Anton Nossik, whose entry on journalist Anna Politkovskaya's assassination was translated here a month and a half ago) posts a reaction (RUS) that's nowhere near as straightforward as Litvinenko's last statement - but as telling:

A Conspiracy: Theory and Practice

Sasha Litvinenko died last night at a London hospital. While he was alive, all he was interested in talking about were special services' conspiracies, murder attempts, secret plots. It sounded like pure paranoia, acquired as a result of too many years of work in the organs. But he ended up being right. A pity.

I've slowly gotten used to pessimists winning all the bets. This time it's a paranoiac who has won the main bet of his life (and death). I feel like saying this again: "But no, Sasha, you are wrong, it can't be so." But there's no one to say it to.

Here're some of the comments to dolboeb's post:

otry: It all resembles the [Soviet times]. Russians, aren't you scared to live??

iterentyev: No.

andronic: A deserter died, a subject of Her Majesty. Why should Russian citizens be scared?

otry: Think of the USSR and the dissidents. It's much easier to live when [the Communist Party] is leading and directing you. [...]

[...]

baijarak: What does it have to do with Litvinenko's death? Or do you have evidence proving he was killed by the [secret service]?

otry: What I said isn't just about Litvinenko. Turn and look around.

baijarak: Well, everything's not too bad around me. At least, it's not as you are describing it. The regime makes many [mistakes], there's [plenty of] crap in society - as in the majority of countries, by the way. But I wouldn't say that special services aren't letting anyone live and are doing away with all people who have their own position. [I wouldn't say] there "no oxygen." It's all quite normal.

varera: [What secret services?] He poisoned himself on purpose, to [spite] Russia.

almish: I thought about it, too, by the way. [...]

varera: What's to be done for people to see the irony? What smiley to insert?

[...]

jerom: Oh, but there are many countries that aren't shy about eliminating criminals in foreign countries (Israel, USA). Litvinenko is a KGB officer, with access to secrets, a traitor. Maybe [he deserved it]? Let's watch [Oleg Kalugin]'s health, and that of [Victor Rezun-Suvorov], let's wait and see...

[...]

___mic___: He got what he wanted.

vasya22: When one works in the organs for too long, one acquires realism, not paranoia...

[...]

object: Those who support the arguments "No one cared about him" and "Why harm your own prestige?" should first tackle the questions of whose prestige was benefiting from [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]'s deportation or [Andrei Sakharov]'s exile in Gorky. I remember how a teacher of history of the CPSU at the institute was saying that Sakharov was a worm that no normal people would pay attention to. This was his argument in favor of the exile.

In any case, [FSB director Nikolay Patrushev] said honestly: "We didn't reject our past, we've said it honestly: [Lubyanka]'s history of the past century is our history..."

smolenski: [...] Is it bad - to remember your country's history?

object: We are talking of different things.

[...]

kondratiy: It looks like [Mr. Yelenin] has begun to get rid of those extra mouthes to feed.

[...]

Ukraine: Maidan's Second Anniversary

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, November 22, 2006


Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kyiv, Ukraine: two years since the beginning of the Orange Revolution - by Veronica Khokhlova

Nov. 22 marks the second anniversary of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, but little orange has been visible on the streets of Kyiv today. A crowd gathered at Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti), but it was nowhere near as numerous as last year.

Victor Yushchenko, who became Ukraine's president largely thanks to the peaceful protests of 2004, celebrated this day away from Maidan. He invited Ukraine's current prime minister Victor Yanukovych to the reception at Mariyinsky Palace; Yanukovych, who might have stolen the 2004 election if it hadn't been for the mass protests, didn't show up.

Below is what one Ukrainian blogger - LJ user didaio of Dnipropetrovsk - has been thinking (UKR) today:

Freedom Day

I opened the closet today and hesitated for a very long time as to whether to put on an orange ribbon or not. I ended up wearing it.

Spent the whole day in doubts over whether I should send greetings via SMS.

And only in the evening, as I turned on the music of THOSE days [...] and turned off the lights in the room, did I realize how important this day was for me. I began sending instant messages to friends, and each name in my address book brought about memories from THOSE days. Many of my today's friends appeared only thanks to THOSE days. And nearly half of these contacts oppose those events.

Sending instant messages helped me understand one important thing - Ukraine is indeed one. People with different worldviews live in it, with different views on their own future and the future of their country, but this shouldn't disunite them to the point when they become enemies.

[...] Supporters of Yanukovych, among my dear ones and my friends, were not supporting falsifications, they were for another path for Ukraine. Same as we were at Maidan not because of Yushchenko, but because we wanted changes for Ukraine.

I don't know how long this confrontation between Ukrainians is going to last. I wish each of us gave others the right to have their own opinion. I'd like Ukrainian politicians not to ruin my country. But all this, unfortunately, is more like fantasy, dreams, not something that's possible, reality.

One thing I know for sure - this day is the dearest of all the rest for me. And no politician will manage to ruin my memories of the Orange revolution! I hold these days dear because they united millions of people. Nothing like this had ever happened in Ukraine's history.

P.S. Yesterday, in his TV interview, Yushchenko said that Maidan's main achievement, Freedom, cannot be stopped. Unfortunately, it can be stopped. Ukraine still can go back, and slowly is moving back, to the pre-Maidan times. Today, it's not just the old faces that have come to power - they have brought the old politics with them.

Today, head of President Yushchenko's press service has refused to accredit [Ukrainska Pravda], explaining that an Internet publication is [not considered legitimate]. Yushchenko invited Victor Yanukovych to the celebration of Freedom Day - and [Yanukovych] didn't come.

All this is taking us back to yesterday. And we keep silent and once again get disappointed in our leaders. ENOUGH!

[...]

Moscow, Now and Then

Global Voices Online
Friday, November 17, 2006

On Oct. 31, LJ user dolboeb was at his Moscow office, taking pictures (RUS) of a huge traffic jam down below:


MosGorProbka [Moscow City Jam], across the street from the Russian Foreign Ministry - by Anton Nossik/LJ user dolboeb: "Although my photos are covered by the Creative Commons license, there's still the [Internet charity] fund Pomogi.org, and neither money, nor publicity would hurt it, even if I myself am not charging for my photos."

***

English Russia has just posted a Moscow subway video shot with a cell phone camera during rush hour:



***

Back in May 2005, LJ user valkorn came up with a nostalgic postcard tour (RUS) of Russia's capital: the city looks eerily - or blissfully - deserted on some of these photos, scanned from the 1980 edition of Moscow encyclopedia:


"Hi, I'm the daytime traffic flow on Gorky Street."

Below are the translations of the captions from the rest of this interactive, talkative series:

[photo omitted]

Hi, we are the Intourist Hotel, Moscow Hotel and the empty space in front of the Manege. We no longer exist.

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm [Karl Marx Avenue]. Today, I've a different name and have turned into a traffic jam.

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm the Kursk Train Station. Today, you can't see me from behind the shopping mall.

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm the clock with mechanical fairy tale characters from the Central Children's World [store]. We no longer exist.

[photo omitted]

Hi, we are street signs. We no longer exist.

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm the administrative building of the Lenin Komsomol car factory. There's nothing to administer here anymore now, and I've been partly leased and partly deserted.

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm the movie theater "Rossiya." I've a different name now and there's a casino inside me.

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm Taganskaya Square without the casino.

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm [Yuri] Gagarin Square without the ads.

[photo omitted]

Hi, we are the buildings of the Belgrade Hotel. We used to be the same once.

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm the spacious October Square.

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm the subway station "Textilshchiki" without the gambling pavilions.

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm the Building-on-the-Embankment, with no ads. And behind me is the "Udarnik" movie theater without the casino.

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm "Wanda" store, where goods from [the People's Republic of Poland] are sold. I'm one of the few stores in the city that has gained the right to have Latin script on the sign.

[photo omitted]

[...]

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm the Planetarium, a monument of Constructivist architecture. Under the "restoration" disguise, they are rebuilding me now.

[photo omitted]

Hi, we are Vera Mukhina's "The Worker and the Kolkhoz Woman." They've dismantled us and taken away for restoration, and they are promising to install us on the roof of a shopping center.

[photo omitted]

[...]

[photo omitted]

Hi, I'm the "VDNKh" subways station without vending pavilions.

Good bye.

There are 14 pages of comments to this entry. Here's part of one (RUS), picked almost at random:

oniku_san: Photos are beautiful and interesting. But it's silly to get nostalgic. Yes, there were no traffic jams - but that's because only a few could afford to buy a car. Yes, there were no ads. But because of that, the city was dark and not cosy in the evenings. [...]

Russia: Lenin's Mausoleum

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, November 15, 2006


Lenin's Tomb, Moscow, USSR, 1985 - by JoeBlogger

Three months before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the legendary "sound-manipulator" Sergei Kuryokhin proved quite convincingly (albeit facetiously) that Vladimir Lenin had been a mushroom and a radio wave.

Kuryokhin died on July 9, 1996, at the age of 42. His widow explained what had inspired him to expose "the leader of the world proletariat" the way he did (RUS, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Aug. 18, 2005):

[...] Sergei [Kuryokhin] once saw a program on [Sergei Yesenin]'s death. The author of the program was supporting his claim that the poet had been assassinated with some absolutely absurd things. They were showing photos from Yesenin's funeral and saying this: "Look where this man is looking, and this one is looking in the opposite direction, and this means that Yesenin was murdered..." Sergei watched the show and told me: "This way, you can prove just about anything." [...]

On Nov. 7, 2006, eighty-nine years since the 1917 Lenin/mushroom-led revolution, which resulted in the birth of the Soviet Union, LJ user valkorn posted links to the 32-minute video of Kuryokhin's famous prank (RUS, here and here), originally broadcast on May 17, 1991, on the Pyatoye Koleso ("The Fifth Wheel") TV show, in the city whose name would change from Leningrad to St. Petersburg on Sept. 6, 1991.

Like Leningrad, cities and streets have been renamed, some of the Soviet history got erased, but Lenin still lies in his Mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square, in relative obscurity most of the time. Recently, however, a little bit of a spotlight fell on him due to the renovations about to take place in his abode.

LJ user warsh writes (RUS):

Interesting fact #2088

[Radio] Ekho Moskvy reports that Lenin's Mausoleum is closing down for a month and a half for [restoration work]. Experts say that "scheduled biochemical work" would be carried out in order to preserve the leader's mummy. Thanks to the newest scientific achievements, Lenin's body, embalmed in 1924, can last many more years. The revolutionary leader only needs to have his suit changed. The state used to fund [preservation work] at the Mausoleum, but now the money comes from one of the scientific funds.

Reminds me of Knyshev: "on this day many years ago, the brain of the Secretary General of the CPSU's [Central Committee] refused to cooperate with the organs."

Since the state can no longer support Lenin, bloggers suggest ways to make the Mausoleum profitable:

stereobase: Lenin's Mausoleum is closing down for a month and a half and will be temporarily re-equipped to provide tire replacement services to drivers, due to the enormous workload that such services are currently suffering.

warsh: ...and due to the high death rates on the roads.

tchnr: They should make the Mausoleum self-reliant. [One way] is to borrow suits from popular boutiques and fashion designers, and charge them for advertisement. Change suits almost every day, using imagination. People will no doubt queue to see [Lenin] dressed like Elvis or in a [civil war military outfit]. There should be an entrance fee.

Or they should finally bury the corpse like human beings do.

warsh: Why don't you draw up a business plan. And toss it over the cogged [Kremlin] wall.

LJ user larinax is also wondering (RUS) what could be done with Lenin and his tomb:

Kuryokhin proved that Lenin was a mushroom and a radio wave (a masterpiece of a show with Sholokhov in 1991!).

Stas Namin's idea was to take Lenin's mummy around the world like that of Tutankhamun, before he is buried (real income for the Motherland! we'd earn billions).

Marat Guelman (if I'm not mistaken) served Lenin as an 80-kg cake (by Yuri Shabelnikov), which was devoured with pleasure with spoons by those who were invited for the act (in 2000, I guess, and Marat should correct me if I'm wrong).

It was Yeltsin who was supposed to bury him - at that time, no one would have made a sound. Though no one knew where [to bury him] - Volkovo cemetery didn't want him then and doesn't want him now. [...] "When a decade and a half ago they first began talking about burying [Lenin] at Literatorskie Mostki," writes Ogonyok, "the then head of the [cemetery] rebelled. 'Do you want him to keep getting exhumed all the time?" Mr. Mishchenko kept asking rhetorically. "Do you want us to begin every morning with searches for the body: where is it today?"

Bulgarians did away with their corpse (Dimitrov's Mausoleum) immediately and without referendums - leveled it, period. And Dimitrov's body was cremated and re-buried in his parents' grave.

After the "velvet revolution" in Czechoslovakia, the mausoleum was closed and the bodies (there was a bunch of them in there) were re-buried.

In Albania, they re-did the mausoleum into an international cultural center.

Hungary: Paprika in Szentes

Global Voices Online
Friday, November 10, 2006


"Some like it hot" - Photo by Kris of Little Town in Hungary, a blog featuring daily photos "from Szentes, a small town located on the southern Great Plain of Hungary."

Kris writes about this photo:

I saw this scene yesterday. Does the owner of this flat like paprika so much? or it is a way to gain additional income? Whatever it is, the sure thing is, these wonderfully garland paprika (paprikafuzer) will ended up as the "ultimate spice" for many kitchens in Szentes.

The photo reminds one reader, Lachezar Karadjov, of his native Bulgaria:

A beautiful image of a very old tradition.

Reminds me of my own country. In autumn they would be all over windows and balconies in big cities, small towns and villages. People would pride themselves of who's paprika (in Bulgarian "liuti chushleta) is the hottest. Mostly they would use them at home but some will sell...

Kris also provides a link to one of her favorite paprika recipes - Hungarian Mushroom Chicken (Gombes Csirke), which is posted at her other blog - Kitchen at no. Nineteen: food junkie finally gets cooking:

Eating out for us means fast food, pizzas, burgers, chinese, Indonesian, Indian [...], etc. We hardly try-out Hungarian food in restaurants. Reason being, we get to eat home-made Hungarian dishes cooked by B's (my partner) parents. Most of them are quite tasty and suit to my taste. [...]

Russia: Covering the "Russian March"

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, November 8, 2006


The "Russian March" rally by the Leo Tolstoy monument at Devichye Polye in Moscow. (Photo by LJ user hegtor, taken from the staircase of a 16-storied apartment building nearby. More of hegtor's Nov. 4 photos are here, here, and here.)

A few thousand ultranationalists rallied at Devichye Polye in Moscow Saturday morning. About 1,000 anti-fascist demonstrators counter-rallied at Bolotnaya Square later that day. Both events were heavily guarded by riot police.

Due to the worldwide LJ outage, live blog coverage of the controversial "Russian March" (which took place not just in Moscow but in other Russian cities as well) was scarce. The mainstream media, however, seem to have done even worse. Below is part of a discussion on Russian journalism that took place on the blog of LJ user plushev, a Radio Ekho Moskvy host (RUS):

plushev:

Freedom of Speech

Information blockade of the "Russian March" has been declared on federal TV channels. At least, until the evening news, when they'll tell us how a "provocation by a few nationalists" has failed.

I was watching Vesti-24 channel (at which I'd been lucky [to work]) at 6 pm. The whole newscast - not a word about the marches, only the celebrations all around, and Putin. There was an excellent intro to the video about [the president]: "After laying flowers, Putin answered questions of the cadets." But on the video, it's the cadets who are answering Putin's questions. This isn't the funnest part, though. As they talk about celebrations, they are using a quote from [Moscow mayor Yuri] Luzhkov, who is speaking about possible disturbances, "all those instigators" and "provocations" - and it totally looks like Luzhkov has gone nuts: everyone's celebrating, and he is talking some nonsense.

wombatik: [...] Let's imagine a semi-ideal situation. The ideal would be for you to produce a newscast at an absolutely independent channel, where there is no editorial policy in favor of these or those [political] forces. And you have an event - the "Russian March." Will you include a story about it? It seems as if you have to, since there is the fact of it, which belongs in the informational picture of the day. But how can you do it so that the viewers, after watching the piece about the march, don't come running to join the demonstrators? Should history segments be included? I really can't imagine what to do in a situation like this. What would you do?

plushev: Are you serious? Imagine that a few thousand people took to the streets in London. Doesn't matter what for. In any case - it's an event. I'd like to see a TV company that would decide against showing it.

Me, I'm telling about it at Ekho Moskvy anyway, without editing the information out. Why should TV be any different?

wombatik: What do you mean, am I serious? That I don't know how to present it and under what dressing? The problem is I understand that it is an event. But I wouldn't want to [advertise] the "March." At "my" TV station, this item would be given with some kind of analytical supplement. Like, this is this and that, this is where [the origins] are, and this is what the result of something like this was in certain countries. And would you present it just like it is, the way, say, it's presented on Ekho now?

plushev: Yes, I would present it the way it's presented on Ekho.

The problem is you treat news as PR. You've said it yourself. And you're not the first one who is genuinely surprised: on TV, they're good at beating this attitude into you, I've seen it already. And here are the results: a PR person is always thinking whether to include or not what's considered a news item. A news person, on the other hand, thinks only about whether something is news or not.

I don't understand at all why this issue is raised at all: "to say it in a way that wouldn't [inspire] people to rush to the march." This is not the goal of the news, to think if people will rush there or not. The main thing is to tell about what's going on.

Just imagine that today many people were walking next to a mob of potentially dangerous, unbalanced, aggressive persons. If someone (let's say with the wrong skin color) got injured because, for example, he unknowingly happened at Komsomolskaya [subway station, where the "Russian March" was supposed to begin), those who hadn't told him about the potential danger would share some blame for his sufferings.

[...]

***


A very short video of the "Russian March" participants; their slogans: "Russians onward!", "Long live Russia!" and "Death to the occupants!" - by yakovlev106.

***

There was plenty of inflammatory content at the Moscow rally, and a little bit of actual violence, with at least two cases that involved photojournalists.

One of them, Oleg Klimov, is also a blogger, and he mentions the attack in part 2 of his three-part photo report (RUS, Antifa and Fascists, Journalists and Fascists, Leo Tolstoy and Fascists):

[photo omitted]

I did end up getting punched in the nose. By the fascists. One was just passing by, approached me from behind and did a hook right into the camera while I was shooting. It didn't really hurt, but was disgusting. [...] When there's no one to beat, it seems, they are beating journalists. [...]

[photo omitted: three young demonstrators urinating under a tree]

In part 1, Klimov writes (RUS) about the antifascist counter-rally that he attended as well:

[photo omitted: "Nuremberg is a hero-city."

I've always thought that we don't have fascists. Turns out we don't have anti-fascists. The rally at Bolotnaya Square was a worthless event. Journalists, not understanding the difference between "antifa" and "fa" fighters, attacked the masked teenagers, assuming that they were fascists. But they turned out to be nothing more than a militant group of antifascists, and many were surprised when they began to chant: "Fascism won't come through!" Our anti-fascists are elderly people, liberals and demagogues, but they are being replaced by the generation of antifascists of "direct action," as it has already happened in the West.

[photo omitted: "Fascism won't come through."

LJ user karimova witnessed an attack on another photojournalist - and got verbally assaulted herself (RUS):

Yesterday, at the [well-known disgusting event] some Russian [Cossack] beat up a female photojournalist - because she was photographing him.

When the riot police was seizing the Cossack, he was yelling that the girl attacked him first. A choir of [elderly women] was echoing him. When I interfered with the words "You are lying," the [elderly women] choir switched over to me and diagnosed me right away: "[female Jew]" (!!!) and "prostitute" (!).

Organizers tried to look decent. [Sergei Baburin]'s phrase that "you shouldn't raise your arms in a pseudo-Roman greeting because there are journalists here" characterizes the spirit of the event very well. Baburin didn't say that it's shameful IN GENERAL for a Russian person to do it - he said it shouldn't be done when journalists are around.

Crazy [old women]. My God, it seems as if it was a revelation for them yesterday that the poets who had made a huge contribution to the Russian culture, [Osip Mandelshtam] and [Joseph Brodsky], were ethnic Jews. They refuse to accept it. Just as they refuse to come to terms with a simple thought that all Tatars, Bashkirs, Jews, Chechens, Dagestanis living in Russia - are as Russian as the majority of us, because they speak the same language, read the same literature and obey the same laws. [...]

Anyway, people who gathered at the so-called "Russian March" hate Russia and refuse to accept it the way it is, and instead they are [obsessed with their own genes and genealogy].

I'm sorry that my acquaintances took part in [this], too. I hope they'll change their minds.

And yes. Luckily, the [disgusting] event was a failure, basically. The pathetic 1,000-1,500 of those who showed up, and of them at least a third were journalists and another third were totally sick and mentally unbalanced elderly people. Here's all of your "Russian rebellion."

Russia: Moscow's (In)Accessibility

Global Voices Online
Friday, November 3, 2006


Perekhod: an underground walkway in Moscow - by Digenis.org

The hype surrounding the Russian blogosphere's fate has subsided, and the collective attention has shifted to the fate of tomorrow's Russian March.

One Moscow blogger, however, is concerned about something quite different: LJ user kmaka (quoted in a recent translation) and her 4-month-old daughter in a pram are doomed to stay on one side of Tverskaya St. only. Here is why (RUS):

My patience is up

People with prams in the city center get abused systematically and quietly. From [Okhotnyi Ryad] to [Mayakovskaya], there is not a single [underground walkway equipped with a] ramp that would allow to cross Tverskaya with a pram. It's okay, though, we are used to it by now and walk on our side of the street.

There are practically no grocery stores anymore, and the only one left, Eliseevskiy, had a surprise for us: I approached the check-out counter with the pram today, but failed to get out. For security purpose, the store has installed additional scanners that have devoured 5 cm of the aisle, and as a result, no standard-sized pram can pass through. Mine was being carried out manually today, like [Lenin's corpse], by compassionate customers. Security guards stayed unmoved.

Tomorrow, I'll go talk with the store's management about violation of the Law of the City of Moscow #3, of Jan. 17, 2001, on citizens with impaired mobility.

I wonder if my journalist [LJ] friends would be interested in writing about it all. I'm ready to supply tons of material on "One day in the life of a young mother with a pram in the center of Moscow."

Judging by the comments to this post, kmaka is not the only one frustrated - and her reasons for frustration aren't the only ones, either:

prudi: By the way, only once have I seen a public bathroom [that could be accessed by] people with disabilities. [...]

ssspring: [...] Even when there are ramps, they don't fit strollers, and parents of 2-3-year-old kids have to drag both strollers and the kids in their hands through all underground walkways.

anya_anya_anya: I sympathize! I know what it feels like. It's no different outside city center. But motherhood is happiness. Imagine, however, what life for someone in a wheelchair is like in our wondrous city... Our state doesn't like its citizens.

kmaka: Honestly, I don't care who is happy or not. There is a store that I frequent and where I leave - believe me - a lot of money. And if my pram can't get through in there, I'll send an inspection and fines their way.

[...]

kmaka: And it's not making me feel better at all to know that someone's having it even worse.

[...]

miumau: [...] In Germany, most stores have a wide check-out counter [...] that has those extra 5 cm for strollers, etc...

And often it does help to intimidate them with journalists. Maybe you should promise that if they move [the scanners], they'll get some praise and promotion in an article? ;-)

kmaka: I've already been there today and talked to them. They've found a wide check-out :)

[...]

fasilitator: [...] In our [small town near Moscow], stores have this note on their doors: "Do not enter with prams!" And only in the past two years, other stores have appeared, only you have to drive through a potato field there.

[...]

alisezus: There was time when I dreamed of walking down the streets of Moscow with a baseball bat, smashing to hell the windows of all cars parked on sidewalks.

Russia: "The Abduction of Europa"

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, November 1, 2006

LJ user kuzma-diary - Alexei Zimin, editor-in-chief of Afisha-Mir travel magazine, former editor-in-chief of GQ's Russian edition - reports (RUS):

The Abduction of Europa

Afisha-Mir magazine has been receiving alarming signals.

It appears as if consulates of European countries are using the slightest pretext this fall to refuse issuing [Schengen visas] to Russian citizens.

They say that no one is even trying to obtain a one-year, multiple-entry visa anymore. Problems arise even when attempts are being made to request a month-long entry stamp.

They say that the fiercest at it is the consulate of France.

They say that multiple one-year visas in the passport mean nothing to the French anymore, even when they were the ones who issued those visas.

They say that the French are ruthlessly stamping rejections into passports with three earlier one-year Schengens.

Due to this drama, Afisha-Mir has decided to carry out its own investigation of this harmful activity.

Editors are interested in all rejection stories and other recent cases of consulate genocide.

Perhaps someone knows the reasons for this toughening up?

Here are some comments to this post:

lalamey: I got a rejection from the Greeks, along with two other girls. We were flying to Athens for a conference, some 70 people. But then boom, and the three of us got rejected - with this note: "the embassy reserves the right not to explain the reasons." And I've traveled around Europe for 12 years without any problems, I can't even count all these Schengen visas. Anyway, I'm confused.

[...]

tornwave: Insider information

There's a new consul at the French embassy, and he began his work by [introducing some tough measures]. A few people were fired because they allegedly used to provide help in obtaining visas. Some left without waiting to be fired. But it seems to have calmed down now.

[...]

calabaxa: It is getting tougher, definitely, and not just with the French. Since I get my invitation from Hachette, usually we don't have problems getting a multiple-entry, work visa through the French consulate. But this year, after two one-year visas in a row, the French gave me only a half-year one. (And I've been told I'm lucky - many of our employees have been given visas only for three months. With no explanation.)

Italians are now demanding a confirmation that there's at least 3,000 euros on your bank account (for a one-year visa - 6,000 euros). A year ago, they were not asking for any confirmation.

Germans have refused to issue a visa to my friend, explaining that last year she "visited Germany twice on a multi-entry work French visa issued in Italy and not France, as the rules require."

msmetana: And you really give them your bank info?!

calabaxa: No, I get my work visa through the French and they aren't asking for any of it yet (though for some reason they demanded a copy of my press card this time, something that never happened before!). But my colleague - a very law-abiding miss - she really did accumulate 3,000 euros on her card and then did a print-out for the embassy.

Is there a way to do without this paper? I was assuming it's required.

msmetana: I don't know if it's possible to do without it and I'm not planning to find out ))) It's just too humiliating.

[...]

And here is a rejection story (RUS) from kuzma-diary's colleague, LJ user mxl (Maxim Balabin, art director of Afisha magazine):

i hate france // je deteste la france

I've got two visa rejections stamped into my passport - by the French embassy )

The first time, we came there as honest citizens with all the papers, a pile of certificates, bookings, tickets.

Rejection.

The second time, we came with a press note.

I have to admit that it's been a long time since someone was so outright rude to me - the way that woman behind the window [in the wall] spoke with me.

"You've got a press note, are you a journalist or what?" she asks me. I give her my press card.

"You're an art director! And what if you work as a cleaner in the press - are we supposed to give you a visa, too?"

I told her politely that photography and a photographer are as related to the press as a journalist.

"A journalist is the one who writes," she tells us.

Then at some point, as she is thoroughly examining my passports, the old one and the new, she all of a sudden starts turning the passport around, checking against the light the hologram on one of my five Indonesian visas.

At the end, she tells us solemnly to stop by after lunch break: "We'll be checking your documents."

After lunch break, they stamped another rejection into my passport.

And a few comments:

horsey: That's because they had a few of their people arrested, for visa fraud - for bribes and theft, right before the World Cup. Nothing to do about it - wait half a year, change your passport and hire professionals who will have you a visa issued - and before that, they'll erase your [name] from the computers.

mxl: It's easier for me to forget about the existence of the European Union, you know.

[...]

iren: So there's no way for cleaners to get to France, right?

Russia: LJ and Politics

Global Voices Online
Saturday, October 28, 2006

On October 25, International Herald Tribune published Evgeny Morozov's opinion piece on the recent developments in the Russian blogosphere. On his blog - Sharp & Sound: Perspectives On Modern Politics - Morozov wrote:

[...] I’ve been surprised how little coverage the story has received in the Western media…Hm, virtually none…

Russian bloggers, unlike the world media, have been all over the controversial Six Apart-Sup deal in the past few weeks - and some, including Maxim Kononenko (LJ user mrparker, creator of Vladimir Vladimirovich™ spoofs on Vladimir Putin), have also been monitoring what little is being written outside Russia. Never too congenial, Kononenko passed an extremely harsh judgment (RUS) on Morozov's piece - and Morozov provided a translation:

I’m honoured: Mr Parker, one of the most odious figures on the Russian blogosphere, has just awarded with “prize of the month” for “the most clinical idiotism, which can only be reached in analytic journalism”.

Coming from him, it’s equivalent to Nobel Prize in literature… ;-)

I’m anxious to see other prizes from the Russian bloggers.

[...]

What unnerved Kononenko was Morozov's assertion that Anton Nossik - LJ user dolboeb, "a former associate of Gleb Pavlovsky, the Kremlin's spindoctor" and the "chief blogging officer" of the company taking over LJ's Cyrillic sector - may be aiding the Kremlin "in destroying a viable and vibrant public forum."

But Nossik is not alone in the Russian blogosphere when it comes to having ties to one of Putin's chief image-shapers: Kononenko co-hosts a political TV show with him, and there are also Marina Litvinovich (LJ user abstract2001) and Marat Guelman (LJ user galerist), who were both closely linked to the Kremlin and Pavlovsky in the past - and are in opposition now, to various degrees.

Guelman - a gallery owner, among other things - founded the Foundation for Effective Politics think tank together with Pavlovsky in 1995 (and Pavlovsky is still its president). Litvinovich - founder of PravdaBeslana.ru, among other things - served as the head of the Foundation's Internet department (Pavlovsky doesn't seem to have a blog).

Guelman has been having an eventful time lately. First, on Oct. 20, Russian customs officials at Sheremetyevo-2 airport seized 11 photo collages by Blue Noses that were being transported from the Guelman Gallery in Moscow to Matthew Bown's gallery in London. On his blog, Guelman posted reproductions of two collages created five years ago and depicting Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden lounging together in underwear (here and here). He also wrote (RUS) that the authorities were threatening to persecute him for offending the Russian president, and noted that some media, both local and international, were using his blog to gather information:

[...] Others called me and Matthew, but one way or another, 13 publications[,] two radio stations and [R]euters - [their] source was LJ. Who needs press conferences ;))

The following day, on Oct. 21, a group of men described as skinheads burst into Guelman's gallery, destroying paintings by an ethnic Georgian artist Aleksandr Dzhikia and beating Guelman up. In his journal, he later posted a brief note (RUS), which received 287 comments, most of them "get well" wishes:

;alive and in one piece)

LJ user mnog posted photos of the gallery after the pogrom (150 comments, RUS).

Litvinovich, like Guelman, had been attacked and badly beaten earlier this year; like Guelman, she posted a brief update on her blog shortly after the incident took place in March and received some 500 "get well" comments from her readers.

Lyndon of Scraps of Moscow was following the story at the time and, among other things, he provided some background information on Litvinovich and her involvement with Gleb Pavlovsky:

Perhaps the powers-that-be are even more angry at Litvinovich because, years before her recent attempt to get possible Putin successor Sergei Ivanov booted from his job as Defense Minister, she seemed to be on their side. Without wanting to call her opposition cred into question, it seems relevant to mention that she got her start working for Kremlin spin-doctor Gleb Pavlovsky's Fond Effektivnoi Politiki, though, to be fair, I think back in '99 Pavlovsky wasn't considered to have gone over to the dark side - actually, back in '99, concern about the Putin administration becoming a "dark side" was rather muted overall.

Recently, Litvinovich has posted photos from her visit to Chechnya soon after the beating - here, here and here: ruins again and again, ads calling people to "come out of the shade" and pay taxes, Ahmad Kadyrov's monument in Grozny - "The only monument I know of a man with prayer beads." On several photos, one can still see scars on Litvinovich's face.

Also recently, Litvinovich posted photos from her visit to the Korallovo children’s home and lyceum, founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. She wrote (RUS):

Have been to the birthday party of the Podmoskovny Lyceum in Korallovo. As you know, orphans live and study there. Including many children from [Beslan], orphans of [Nord-Ost], the fallen planes, children of the border guards, etc.

The lyceum is still under arrest. Nevertheless, they exist and continue to develop. Few people know, but the lyceum's motto is "Duty. Honor. Fatherland." They say it as part of the lyceum student's oath, too.

Last I was there was three years ago, with Mikhail Borisovich [Khodorkovsky], a week before his arrest. Today, only [Khodorkovsky's mother] Marina Filippovna was there. [Khodorkovsky's fahter] Boris Moiseyevich was in the hospital.

The children performed a wonderful concert. If you are interested, you can see the photos I took (part 1 and part 2).

God willing, all should be good for them and the lyceum.