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.

Too Good To Be True

See how far you get in this before you say, "Too good to be true."  I must warn you that the perpetrator of this particular plan is Sergey Mavrodi, notorious in Russia for an earlier Ponzi scheme called MMM.  In the early 1990's he bilked millions of Russians out of their life savings.  When MMM collapsed, Mavrodi was punished. He was sent to some sort of prison for 4 1/2 years and fined the equivalent of $390. 

Anyway, Mavrodi has a new scheme, which he calls MMM-2012. Similar to social networks, Mavrodi says, he has created a financial network. "Can you imagine Facebook, but purely financial?" he asks on his website.  "Participants help each other, " he says, "by sending money to who needs it the most, but after a while the money is returned with high interest."

The plan is 100 percent legal, he says, and currently has 35 million participants. Mavrodi invites you to imagine how many participants there will be once the plan is available in Europe and the United States. "It is spreading across the globe at a faster rate than any network in the world."

As Mavrodi explains, "The current world's financial system is built by banks that are loaning us our own money. Contrary to that Social Financial Network allows to create direct mutual financial relationships between the participants. In essence the network is a pure, open financial pyramid like banks, pension funds etc. You "lend" the money to the network and it is used for payouts to other other participants. The deposited money is returned with very high monthly interest - 30%."

Note that Mavrodi admits he's running a financial pyramid. He says it's "a pure, open financial pyramid like banks, pension funds, etc." To many Russians banks don't seem any safer than Mavrodi's rather risky business. Older Russians remember the shock of bank closings in 1998 without deposit insurance to protect them.  There has been some payback since then, starting with the oldest depositors first, but 14 years later, as those in their 40s are getting some money back, it would need to be at least four times their original deposit to account for what inflation has done to purchasing power.  What they're getting instead is a pittance.

 Russians today still put little trust in private banks.  The state bank is safe but is perceived as paying less interest than the rate of inflation.  It's best to spend whatever money you have; however, what happens if an emergency comes up and you don't have savings?  Take your valuables to a pawnshop.  I saw one advertising a rate that was .4 percent per day.  You better hope to redeem your valuables quickly at that compounded rate!

The Russian stock market is highly volatile and corporate financial reporting opaque.  So given all the unsatisfactory alternatives, there is a real attraction to trying to get in early into a Ponzi scheme.  Those who missed out on MMM-2011 now have a chance to get into MMM-2012.

There's something wrong about MMM being 100 percent legal. The Duma appears to be too busy with other matters to address the continuing fleecing of Russian citizens. Yet I seriously doubt that Mavrodi has fooled 35 million people in MMM-2012.  His original Ponzi scheme is thought to have caught 5 - 15 million before it collapsed or was shut down. (Many Russians blamed the authorities for shutting it down, sure that the were about to receive big payoffs.  The authorities may have saved Mavrodi from being tarred and feathered.)

Igor Ogorodnev, a writer for the government-funded RT network, looked at MMM last year and said,  "Many see MMM-2011 as either an indictment of a hopelessly flawed people prepared to spend their life savings on magic beans, or a social system in which many would rather trust a convicted criminal than a bank."

Ogorodnev added, "And until there is a better way for Mavrodi’s misguided flock, there is every chance we will live to see MMM-2021."  So if you don't get into MMM-2012 you will probably have an opportunity to get into MMM-2013.

An Infomercial for a B & B

Consider this an infomercial for a bed and breakfast in Moscow. I'm passing on this information with some secrecy, because those of us in the know don't like to share our discovery.  Accordingly you will not get an address or telephone number here. We make recommendations directly to friends and to friends of friends, but not to the general public. The reason is that we are protective of our hostess.

Marina, as we shall call her, is two decades past retirement age in Russia. As she observes, a pensioner in Russia without additional income cannot afford something as simple as fresh fruit other than from her own garden in summer. Marina likes fresh fruit. She also likes to travel internationally. She can afford both indulgences by providing B and B services to select clients.

Marina has a regular client from Italy who comes on monthly business trips. She also gets referrals from some embassies because of her prime location, modern accommodations, and gracious hostessing.   A Spanish travel writer who stayed with Marina said that he would not publish a review of her place because she wouldn't want all the bother that would come with the publicity.  The business she has is enough for her.

I must admit than even better than being a client of Marina is to be her friend. Together we've gone to  several art exhibitions, traveled around central Moscow, and attended a wonderful concert at the New Opera Theatre.  Marina has fed me not only breakfast but also dinner and supper.

Here is a description of the first meal of the day:  an offering of homemade muesli, several types of yogurt, a basket of breads with a selection of toppings including smoked salmon, a pate, two kinds of cheese, and fresh red caviar. (I'm Russian enough to appreciate caviar any time of day.). After that comes Marina's unique interpretation of the Russian classic cirniki, cheese pancakes.  (I'm going home with the recipe.). Marina also had on the table an apple tarte she had prepared the day before, and a selection of vareniye, homemade jams.  In addition to Russian standard tea she also offered coffee -- Turkish style, or French, with chicory.

For lavish attention it's hard to beat what you get at this B and B.

When a Rose is Not a Rose

A rose is a rose, except when it is not.  In an alternate reality a rose might be… a Romanov.

Here is some history that didn’t happen.

Tsar Nikolas II was so happy upon the birth of his first born in 1895 that he declared her to be tsarevna.  (For this story I had to make up a word in Russian for a concept that never existed: future empress of Russia).  Little Olga Nikolaevna would one day be the ruler of Russia, whose title would be after his, making her Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias.

The people were surprised but also joyful.  After all, Catherine the Great had shown how well a woman can wield power, although in her case it was after she wrested the crown from her husband Peter III (Her grandson, Paul I, issued a decree that women could never be in line to become ruler, and it was this decree that Nikolas reversed).  The people eagerly passed on stories they heard about pretty little Olga as she grew up.

During her early childhood Olga was sheltered with her younger sisters, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and little brother Alexei (who in real life was known as tsarevich, future tsar of Russia).  The family tragedy was that Alexei was hemophiliac, a disorder known as “the royal disease” having come down from Queen Victoria of England through the bloodline of Alexei’s mother, Tsaritsa Alexandra.  The tsaritsa was understandably preoccupied with the precarious health of her youngest, and unfortunately fell under the influence of a rogue monk by the name of Gregory Rasputin who claimed himself to be more important than doctors in preserving the life of Alexei (“do not let the doctors bother him too much”  -- actually often good advice for that era). Finally Rasputin’s spell was broken by a church bishop, who disciplined Rasputin for his profligate ways, and sent him off to a monastery.

As we can find written today in Wikipedia, “Olga loved to read and, unlike her four siblings, enjoyed school work.”  Her French tutor, Pierre Gilliard said "She had good reasoning powers as well as initiative, a very independent manner, and a gift for swift and entertaining repartee." She enjoyed reading about politics and read newspapers. Olga also reportedly enjoyed choosing from her mother's book selection. When she was caught taking a book before her mother read it, Olga would jokingly tell her mother that Alexandra must wait to read the novel until Olga had determined whether it was an appropriate book for her to read.”

When Olga was 18 it was decided that she was old enough to think about marriage.  Although the tradition had been that Russian princes would look to Europe to find a consort, with both love and politics being involved in the decision, the circumstances for Olga looked different.  Besides, it was her desire to marry a Russian.  Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was suggested, but since a long trip for educational purposes was always an important part of training for members of the Romanov imperial house, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna decided to seek her future husband during a long tour around Russia. 

The grand duchess traveled with a large entourage, and at each stop there were cotillion dances and concerts and other social occasions in the evening where young people could mingle under proper supervision.  During the day Olga met with local officials, who were impressed when she sent their concerns by telegram to her father Tsar Nicholas II.  A court official, Alexander Mossolov, said that Olga was a person with an almost “angelic kindness.”

Olga met the man who would become her husband while she was in Bashkortostan.  Yusuf Arsal was the son of a prominent Tatar family, of high enough position to be worthy of being her escort.  But as a Sunni Muslim he was expected to convert to Russian Orthodoxy before marriage.  In an arrangement not dissimilar to what had been worked out for her German Lutheran mother, Olga allowed Yusuf to be converted to Orthodoxy without having to renounce his former faith.  As a consequence, Yusuf was seen regularly going to church with Olga, but at the time of Ramadan went back to Bashkortostan to visit his family of origin.

It was widely known around Russia, that unlike her arch-conservative father, Grand Duchess Olga supported the idea of Russia becoming a constitutional monarchy like the United Kingdom.  As a consequence when her father’s reign got in trouble, there were increasingly strident calls for his abdication and her elevation to the throne. 

Under great pressure Nikolas II did abdicate in 1914 in favor of his daughter, who at the time was just 18 and recently married.  Tsarista Olga Nikolaevna immediately had to deal with the consequences of the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  As Count Witte told the French Ambassador Paleologue, “from Russia's point of view the war was madness, Slav solidarity was simply nonsense and Russia could hope for nothing from the war.”  The tsarista informed her French and English allies that Russia would not rush precipitously to war.  And although Russia did eventually enter into the Great War, millions of Russian lives were saved by Tsarista Olga’s decision to build up Russian strengths first.

FOOTNOTE:  The above account is correct in the small details and wrong on all the big points.  
1.  Olga was never considered to be named successor to her father. Her invalid brother was next in line.
2.   Rasputin controlled the woman who controlled the tsar until the night of his murder.
3.  Neither Rasputin nor Empress Alexandra nor Tsar Nikolas II showed competence in running the country.
4.   Nikolas II didn't abdicate until 1917 when he was absolutely forced to do so.  By then his ruinous military campaign in World War I staggered the country with huge losses. Out of 15.5 million men mobilized, over half were killed or became casualties or prisoners of war.
5.  Olga and the rest of her family were assassinated by Bolshevik Communists while under house arrest in Yekaterinburg in 1917.  Olga never had the chance to be married.

I leave it to the reader to imagine how different 20th Century history around the world might have been if Olga Nikolaevna had become constitutional monarch of Russia.

Views of Yekaterinburg

One of the many new Othodox churches here

Before concluding this blog of time in Yekaterinburg, I will use it as a record of the menu for the big dinner I prepared for seven this weekend.  It was Russian in style, with some American elements.

The table was set with platters of zakuski, or appetizers. These included poached salmon with dill and lemon, salted mushrooms, avocado slices and cucumber spears, tri-color pepper rings, wedges of brie with toasted lavash, black bean-corn-tomato relish, ratatouille, quail eggs dipped in toasted sesame seeds, and two kinds of canapes.  After an hour or so came the hot dishes:  sliced pork tenderloin studded with cloves, buckwheat kasha with vermicelli, and sauteed Chinese cabbage.  For dessert we had bakery pastries, chocolate covered cherries, and a platter of grapes and plums.

My guests had never split lavash and toasted it, I learned, or had toasted bread of any kind -- Russians eat bread fresh.  The black beans were totally unfamiliar to my guests because they had come from the U.S. in dried form a couple of years ago, and I found them in a cabinet.   Vermicelli mixed into buckwheat kasha was different but acceptable.  The hit was the quail eggs. They are difficult to peel, and I was asked, "How did you peel them?"  The answer:  "Very carefully."  (It's important not to shatter the shell, and to try to get it off in just two or three pieces.)

A dinner party always means left-overs.  Tonight I don't have to cook!

Bronze statues in a pedestrian area

The sign says, "Legendarni vopper na gril"