The Cold War and Camelot

The Cold War

Most Americans would say that the Cold War ended when the Berlin Wall came down. One of the early crises in the Cold War had been the Soviet blockade of Berlin in 1948 - 49, which resulted in the Berlin Airlift to resupply the people of West Berlin. The wall to keep East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin went up in August, 1961 and it remained for 28 years.  It came down on November 9, 1989. Barely a month later Soviet Union formally dissolved.   So America's adversary in the Cold War is no more. That means that the Cold War is over, right?

Well, Russians-who-were-Soviets see that their Cold War enemy remains standing. If the United States was the enemy of the Soviet Union, then the United States must be the enemy of Russia. Bear with me on this logic. Actually, you can forget about logic. Call this an unquestioned assumption from which you try to build logic. I'll show where this can lead you...

Michael Bohm wrote in the Moscow Times on October 11 about a program he had just viewed on a government-supported television station.  He said, "In an interview that borders on delirium, political analyst Veronika Krasheninnikova explains how the U.S. has an interest in seeing fascists — a veiled hint at Udaltsov and his comrades-in-arms — come to power so it could have a pretext to invade Russia, extinguish the fascist threat to global peace, and presumably take over the country."

Do many Russians believe that the United States wants to invade Russia and take over the country?  I doubt it.  Do many Russians believe that nevertheless the United States wants harm to come to Russia?  Yes.  The president of the country keeps telling the people that "outsiders" are responsible for one trouble after another inside Russia.

I'm writing this on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a defining event during the Cold War.  Both Russians and Americans are looking back on that era, seeing the misunderstandings behind it.  And although we aren't faced with the consequences of a nuclear weapon exchange today, I'm troubled by the persistence of communication problems.

Camelot

We are commemorating more than the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Just one month ago was the 50th anniversary of a famous speech given by President John F. Kennedy at Rice University.  Kennedy had announced to Congress just a few months earlier his decision to initiate a project to land a man on the moon.  At Rice University he spoke eloquently of the reasons for this project.  Anyone who wonders why the Kennedy administration was glorified as the Camelot era need only read this one speech for its sense of idealism and adventure.  Kennedy was blessed with having Ted Sorensen as his speechwriter, a wordsmith whose phraseology is best read aloud.

 "We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three," Kennedy said, "for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.
Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation¹s own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension."

"... the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding."

"... space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war."

President Kennedy didn't live to see how it all turned out.  Looking back, we can imagine the alternative that worried him -- outer space as a new theater of war.  Kennedy would be surprised, but I think he would be pleased, to know of U.S. - Russian cooperation on the space shuttle project.

Moscow Today

Any big city provides a jumble of impressions. Moscow has always looked exotic, with tsarist era buildings in candy-colored stucco next to Communist era construction, next to glitsy modern office buildings. Yet today the attention-getter is the automobile.  Traffic is at a standstill during rush hour, effectively making the roads into giant parking lots.   I can imagine stopping at an intersection, jumping out to do some shopping, and coming back before the traffic started to move.  

Curbside parking can be creative. In one area with parallel parking I saw a large SUV in a space half its size, put at right angle to the other cars, over the curb and onto the sidewalk. In areas with wide sidewalks entire blocks are crowded with cars parked this way. Only once did I see an open parking place. I suspect that automobile owners tend to leave their cars in one place as long as possible, because there's not likely to be open parking where they intend to go, and the place they vacate won't be available when they come back.   Besides, on street parking amounts to free storage. There's not a parking meter anywhere. 

On my way to the airport, the first 45 minutes of the 1 1/2 hour journey was at a pace that I could have beaten by walking.  Yet the scandal of the week was a drunk driver who streaked down a side street going 200 kilometers per hour, then crashed into a bus stop and killed seven people.   The dead included five youngsters from an orphanage who had just been honored for artistic talent.  Also  killed were the teacher and her husband. 

A second major problem in Moscow today is housing. Property rights are vague and in some cases are determined on the basis that might makes right. The only property safe from stealing is undesirable land. 

I could give many examples, but I'll give just one. A person with a nice country's dacha that has been used in the filming of television shows and movies  has just found out that ten 17-story buildings are going up on adjacent land. They are being built right against the property lines, and this person says that if a resident of one of these new buildings drops something from her balcony it will land in his garden.   The buildings look like their intended inhabitants will be poor and perhaps undocumented immigrants from the Asian republics. Although the area will soon house an additional 5,000 - 10,000 people, there don't seem to be plans to build new schools, roads, hospitals and other facilities.   What was once quiet country living will become " like living in a zoo," he says.   All this happened without notification. 

In the city apartment buildings are dotted with room air conditioners hanging out some windows, and small satellite dishes mounted nearby.   Individual flats in older buildings may have Soviet era rotting windows or European style replacements, but as far as I know everyone complains about building maintenance.   

Although flats may be privately owned, residents know that taking ownership of an entire building would make them responsible for long- neglected repairs of piping, roofing, and to deteriorated stairwells.  Residents pay monthly ever-increasing amounts to monopolistic companies, and what they get in return is an occasional paint job. 

Let me admit that it's always easier to point out problems than to fix them. I'm not providing a news scoop to say that Moscow has problems with traffic and housing. I just wish that we could see some evidence that Moscovites will have a less stressful life in the very near future.  

Chemiakin / Shemyakin

Mihail Chemiakin is an internationally known artist who has metamor-phosed in style over 40 years, and his recent works, shown here, are entirely different from the blasts of color that first made him famous.  The transliteration of his name from Russian is best represented as "Shemyakin," but when he was kicked out of the Soviet Union in 1971 for failing to conform to Soviet Realism norms, he went to Paris and was known there as "Chemiakin."  Although he later went to to New York City and became famous there, he is back in Paris, with occasional visits to Russia.  The current exhibit of his work in Moscow is entirely in tones of brown and black.

Chemiakin's work is frequently called "surreal grotesque."  The giclee shown above is entitled, if I remember correctly, "Phantasm."  It was the title he gave to a number of his works done since 2000.

 This one is called "Two Spies."  I love how much he conveys with a few spare lines.  It is another giclee, numbered 1 of 2.

 My favorite.  It is of a man and his shadow.  The shadow seems to be wearing a hat that the man does not have on.  And are we looking through the body of the man, or only at pieces of his clothing?  If I ever meet Mihail Chemiakin, I need to ask him about this.