Russia's New Mellennium
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GF-1 EUROPE/RUSSIA Gregory Feifer is an Institute Donors’ Fellow studying the current political ICWA and cultural reshaping of Russia. LETTERS Russia’s New Millennium By Gregory Feifer Since 1925 the Institute of January 2000 Current World Affairs (the Crane- MOSCOW—Dense clouds smothering the vast central plains stretch as far as Rogers Foundation) has provided one can see on most winter days. The afternoon I returned to Russia was no ex- long-term fellowships to enable ception, starting with the mist rising from the sodden ground of Moscow’s outstanding young professionals Sheremyetevo Airport. Outside my window, scrap metal covered in damp snow lay at the foot of a concrete wall, behind which rose thick, tall firs dotted with to live outside the United States white birch trees. and write about international areas and issues. An exempt But even the typically Russian view (the sight of industrial waste befouling operating foundation endowed by an otherwise pristine, rugged landscape) the late Charles R. Crane, the didn’t alter the sense that something had Institute is also supported by changed upon my return. Inside the air- Russia’s Political Players: contributions from like-minded port, the atmosphere felt more tense than Who’s on Top and Who’s individuals and foundations. usual. for Whom Perhaps the reason was that the line TRUSTEES for foreigners waiting to pass through the Unity Party — Kremlin-founded cen- trist party, supports Acting Presi- Bryn Barnard airport’s passport control had grown to dent Vladimir Putin, appointed by Carole Beaulieu double its usual length, with most of the BorisYeltsin Mary Lynne Bird flight forced to shuffle through a line William F. Foote manned by only one agent. Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) Peter Geithner — Bloc of liberal ex-“young reform- Pramila Jayapal “It’s because of Clinton’s speech,” ers” headed by former Prime Min- Peter Bird Martin hissed someone in line behind me. “They ister Sergei Kiriyenko initially allied Judith Mayer want to show you what you’re in for com- with Unity, now cooperating with Dorothy S. Patterson ing to Russia.” Yabloko and OVR Paul A. Rahe Communist Party — Joined with Carol Rose Indeed, it was immediately clear this Unity after parliamentary elections] John Spencer was not simply the usual bureaucratic to elect Gennady Seleznev as Edmund Sutton bungling. The U.S. president had criticized Duma Speaker Dirk J. Vandewalle Russia’s policy in its campaign in the Sally Wriggins breakaway Caucasus republic of Chechnya, Fatherland-All-Russia (OVR) — and the airport congestion was meant to Center-left, headed by Moscow HONORARY TRUSTEES show the West in exemplary Soviet fash- Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and Yevgeny David Elliot ion that such views weren’t appreciated. It Primakov David Hapgood was harder to explain another sign of pro- Yabloko Party — Social Democratic, Pat M. Holt test (by way of making life difficult): that Refusing to vote with Unity and Edwin S. Munger only one door leading out from the airport theCommunist Party for Speaker Richard H. Nolte now remained open. Presumably Russians Sekeznev, its members stormed Albert Ravenholt exit there, too. out of Parliament with OVR and Phillips Talbot SPS More changes were coming. By the end of the month, a new parliament would re- Institute of Current World Affairs flect a realigned balance of power in the country. The surprise was matched The Crane-Rogers Foundation only by the year’s top shocker: the president’s momentous resignation on New Four West Wheelock Street Year’s Eve. Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 U.S.A. Out of the rubble of failed opposition election campaigns and ensuing recriminations rose one towering figure: Vladimir Putin, Russia’s wildly popular new acting president. The steely About the Author politician, more youthful-looking than his 47 years, was a welcome sight to Russians tired of the stumbling, incoher- “Whereas most observers ent Boris Yeltsin. Dour even in a photo-op in which a smil- in Russia and the West ing Yeltsin magnanimously handed over his Kremlin office, blamed the country’s Putin spoke succinctly and self-confidently, projecting an seeming slide backward image of political professionalism. The Kremlin’s public- from reform and global in- relations machine helped by duly illustrating Putin’s words tegration on the failure of with footage of his judo bouts with fellow black-belters, who Russia’s reformers and put on a good show but inevitably let the new boss win. their Western advisers over the past decade, the Putin’s appointment sent politicians, political analysts, change in Russian atti- economist, and journalists around the world, not to men- tudes in fact reflects a tion the Russian public at large, scrambling to make out much larger cyclical swing the man behind the seamless mask of Russia’s smooth new that is itself rooted in cen- chief executive. turies of the country’s col- lective consciousness.” While temperatures dropped, freezing slush that soon taxed the balance of even the most agile on Moscow’s So wrote Gregory unshoveled streets, I set out to investigate the Putin phe- Feifer in his fellowship application. “In an attempt to un- nomenon. As with most information-gathering in Russia, derstand the direction of Russian popular and political however, I quickly found the task no easier than catching a attitudes, I propose to study the current re-shaping of glimpse of the capital through mid-winter clouds overhead. the country’s cultural identity precisely in the intersec- But that may go far in showing that Putin is carrying out tion of popular (and artistic) culture and the dominant his appointed tasks faultlessly. political culture. The two have traditionally been tied to each other — witness avant-garde Revolutionary pro- BORIS NIKOLAEVICH BOWS OUT paganda in the 1920s and 1930s — and one cannot be understood without the other. Americans might now be used to the spectacle of humble apologies issued by their state’s chief executives. “The recent blossom of political science called tran- Russian’s aren’t. Boris Yeltsin’s speech on national televi- sition theory, here applying to Russia’s current transi- sion in the early morning of December 31 was an unprec- tion, is still in full bloom. In its nearly complete inattention edented sight. to — some might say purposeful neglect of — everyday life, it is not wholly unlike its predecessor, ‘kremlinology.’ Not that anyone was watching. New Year’s is Russia’s I would want to take a different approach… My Christmas, and those not sleeping in on the eve of “the mil- overarching theme would be the dynamics of continuity lennium,” the mother of all days-of-rest, were frantically and change, with special focus on Westernization. running to whatever stores remained open to buy last- minute presents. Even the down-and-out treated them- “From the time of Peter the Great, Westernizing re- selves to a bottle of Sovetskaya (Soviet) Champagne and a form has been imposed upon Russian society from box of ice-cream. above. As I see it, however, circumstance — often mean- ing everything that formed the country’s political and cul- “I want to beg forgiveness for your dreams that never tural consciousness —always transformed them into came true,” slurred a bloated, grim-looking Yeltsin. “I beg something less Western and clearly more Russian, your forgiveness for having failed to jump in one leap from maybe even uniquely so. The examples are legion, from the gray, stagnant, totalitarian past to the clear, rich and Catherine’s Laws — from which she omitted the key el- civilized future.” ements of Enlightenment thought — to Soviet Commu- nism, which might have dumbfounded Marx.” Following the speech, state-run television stations showed beloved Soviet-era films, as if to reinforce a sense E-mailing his first newsletter, Gregory wrote a pre- that all was calm, and nothing unusual had happened de- cede: “I chose political analysis since I couldn’t not write spite the momentous change. It smacked of Communist Party about the Yeltsin resignation and the appointment of tactics — during the 1991 attempted coup d’état, some of Putin — it will probably overshadow everything I write the same films were shown, as well as idyllic scenes of as it looms over all aspects of Russian life. I'm itching to swans paddling around lily-peppered ponds — and rein- go out into the field, but there's so much going on in forced the politically brilliant resignation, which made Moscow that I don't want to miss this historic time here Putin’s rise seem almost inevitable. in Russia’s nerve center.” Most politicians had left the capital. Media outlets re- 2 GF-1 A Moscow city poster featuring an image of Yuri Dolgorukii, the city’s supposed 12th-century founder, echoes a theme popular with politicians: “We’ll Resurrect Russia— It’s our Common Goal!” Stalin erected the pictured statue of Dolgorukii, in whose image the powerful Moscow mayor now likes to dress up. In the background stands the crisis-stricken Duma lower house of parliament. tained only skeleton staffs, anticipating two weeks of dead the surprise wore off quickly. “Oh well, in any case, Putin’s news time in which national vodka consumption is boosted better than Yeltsin. How are you celebrating tonight?” as much as U.S. retail sales after Thanksgiving. Wire ser- vices desperately cut-and-pasted from the Yeltsin obituar- That reaction typified many others I encountered, all ies written during down time over the past several years. echoing the same sentiment produced by the tapping of Yevgeny Primakov as prime minister a little over a year By evening, however, the airwaves were abuzz with ago.