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20 years after the constitutional crisis

Hamm, Radcliffe, Bulgakov

Wayne Merry, diplomat and eyewitness, recalls shelling of parliament

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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (left) high-fives Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (right) during a recent Russian Foreign Ministry briefing.

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

TAKING THE U.S. RUSSIA FRAMEWORK SERIOUSLY Cooperation between the White House and Kremlin may even bear fruit

REUTERS

T

here is a long journey ahead to audit and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons program, anlaysts agree, and there are many concerns and inevitable delays in the days and weeks ahead. Yet the international community is closer than it has ever been to eradicating one of the world’s largest arsenals. And the diplomatic solution gave the U.S. a constructive alternative to military action.

The diplomacy of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during the most critical moment of the Syrian crisis marked something of a first: The two countries worked together to prevent the escalation of a major international crisis.

It is a signal moment in bilateral relations, however the next several months of inspections in Syria unfold. Even American political observers are cautiously optimistic that the agreement, now backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution, will bear fruit.

Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger said in an interview that “There could be quite a good outcome, because if we get the chemical weapons, if this then becomes a basis for a transition in Syria that leads to relative peace, then at the end of the day, however torturously we arrive at this conclusion, it will have served the interests of the world,” he told CBS News.

Advocates of better U.S.- Russia relations are also pondering whether this period of

It looks like Russia and the United States so far have managed to transcend their Cold War-style stereotypes and suspicions, at least as far as Syria is concerned.

intense and very public negotiations will change the dynamic between Washington and Moscow.

“The Kerry-Lavrov agreement on Syria’s chemical weapons is important in two respects--as the first clear U.S.-Russia cooperation on Syria, which has been a very divisive issue, and also as a source of positive momentum in a bilateral relationship that has beeen deteriorating for most of the last two years,” said Paul Saunders, executive director for the Center for the National Interest in Washington, D.C. “I think indeed one has to say that time will tell whether this will effort could improve bilateral relations,” John Evans, longtime Russia analyst and U.S. Ambassador to Armenia (2004-2006), told RBTH. “We already cooperate in a number of ways….If this framework produces a positive result it will lead to a more productive relationship between Russia and the U.S.—which the world needs.”

Evans acknowledged that some observers are skeptical that the current round of diplomacy will end well. “Russia has insisted that chemical weapons have also been used by rebels,” he noted. “We need to see evidence of that.”

Some conservatives on Capitol Hill have labeled the agreement a Moscow-orchestrated public relations campaign, designed not to avert a unilateral strike as much as to undermine U.S. influence in the region. U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) issued a statement:

“Assad will use the months and months afforded to him to delay and deceive the world.”

Sources close to the Russian government said that the idea of joint Russian-American cooperation in dismantling Syrian WMD stockpiles had been floated for months privately before President Vladimir Putin went public.

U.S. officials said the two presidents first discussed Syria’s chemical stockpile at a summit in Mexico in 2012, and again on the sidelines of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg.

Even if the U.S.-Russia partnership on Syrian weapons succeeds, irritants in relationship will still exist.

“If it works reasonably well, the U.S.-Russia framework can certainly have a positive effect on the bilateral relationship. But there will be challenges,” said Robert Nurick, senior fellow of translatlantic security at The Altantic Council. “First of all, the CW process will be complex and demanding, and even under the best of circumstances can be expected to produce glitches and complications that the two sides will need to manage. Secondly, the agreement will not address other difficult isses in the relationship--such as domestic trends in Russia, and Russia’s policies toward its near neighbors--that have important constituencies in Washington and are neuralgic for the Kremlin.”

■ALEXANDER GASYUK ■NORA FITZGERALD SPECIAL TO RBTH

Politics & Society P2 // rbth.ru // October 9, 2013 1993 IN PHOTOS Check our multimedia section and see more photos from October 1993.

A reporter recalls deadly days

Russian Film Week in New York Since its launch in 2000, Russian Film Week has introduced New York to the latest and most significant works of Russian filmmakers, actors and producers.

After a year-long hiatus, the beloved festival returns Oct. 9 and runs through Oct. 13.

This year’s program will also feature Q&A sessions, panel discussions, and master classes led by the participating filmmakers and actors, as well as Hollywood directors, producers, and film critics. Renowned film critic Anton Dolin will head us this year’s event as program director. All films will be shown with English subtitles.

ITAR-TASS

Gregory Nekhoroshev, former Moscow correspondent for the BBC (1988-1995), tells the dramatic story of his kidnapping and the fate of his peers during the crisis.

Watching the shelling of the Russian White House.

Riot miliatamen cover their lines with shields trying to stop thousands of pro-communist activists in Moscow on Oct. 3, 1993. center. I remember how Reuters stringer Zurab Kodalashvili and AFP correspondent Stephen Bentura tried to help AFP correspondent Pierre Celerier to his feet. I tried to make my way to them, but couldn’t get through the crowd. Celerier had been wounded – a bullet went under his body armor and into his back. Among the dead were Rory Peck, a German stringer for ARD, and Yvan Skopan,

cameraman for France’s TF1 television station.

After a sleepless night, most of the journalists returned to the White House because we had heard there would be an assault at dawn. And indeed, at 6 o’clock a column of tanks began to come from the direction of Kutuzovsky Prospekt. The shelling began. Around noon, after calling in dozens of reports from phone booths, I thought I would collapse from exhaustion. Suddenly I remembered that an American friend was renting a one-room apartment on the top floor of one of the high-rise buildings on Novy Arbat. I found Paul Klebnikov, a reporter for Forbes, in my friend’s apartment sitting in a chair by the window. We sat by the window for a few hours in silence, as if watching a performance in the theater. Klebnikov occasionally wrote something down in a notebook, I went to the kitchen every half hour to call in my reports. The White House was in full view. At about 3 o’clock, Novy Arbat was filled with armored vehicles. Here and there on the roofs some people appeared with rifles and machine guns. The armored vehicles began to shoot from machine guns. Suddenly, we heard retaliatory gunfire ring out from the roof of our building. We ran out of the apartment into the hallway, and threw ourselves to the floor. Just then, a bullet flew through the corridor window, ricocheted off the ceiling to the tile floor, and tile fragments broke the frontal bone in my skull. Blood began to gush out of my forehead. The door of the next apartment opened and the neighbors told us to come inside. A man, woman and small boy had been sitting in the hall, the safest part of the apartment. We sat there huddled together, and the boy saw the blood and shouted, “They killed this guy, mom, they killed him!” Somehow I just said automatically, “They didn’t kill me, I was just drunk, and I slipped and fell.” The boy smiled. Klebnikov said, “Here is the end of Soviet power.”

This son of a Russian emigrant returned to Russia a few years later to become the editor of Forbes. He was later killed in the new, non-Soviet Russia.

READ MORE AND SEE TRAILERS at rbth.ru/30031 Moscow joins Shake Shack cult The Shake Shack, an old-fashioned burger joint where fast food is supposed to be slow, is coming to Russia by the end of the year, according to the company.

The chain started in New York as a hot dog stand. After several years, it became so popular the owner had to make it into a “shack.” The smalltown style fare ar-

$16 million raised for flood victims

■GREGORY NEKHOROSHEV SPECIAL TO RBTH

TIMELINE March 1993 • Deputies try to impeach Boris Yeltsin, who is already losing popularity. However they are not successful — they don’t have two thirds of the votes. Their referendum on a lack of trust in the president also fails.

Sept. 21, 1993 • President Boris Yeltsin signs a decree to dissolve Parliament. The next day, deputies declare the decree to be against the Constitution and dismiss Yeltsin.

Supporters of both sides head to Moscow’s White House.

September 23, 1993 • An extra-legal congress votes for appointing Alexander Rutskoi as president. The White House is disconnected from electricity and water supply, and is surrounded by the army compelling deputies to disperse.

rived in Washington, D.C., where it also has an obsessive following, but its chief executive officer said the Shack never set out to be an expanding chain. According to CEO Randy Garutti, “The bigger we get the smaller we need to act.” The first Shake Shack will open on Novy Arbat. Zealots recommend the shake shack sauce.

SERGEY SAVOSTIANOV / RG

AFP/EASTNEWS

Twenty years ago, I was sitting on the floor of a corridor in Moscow’s White House, the home of the Russian parliament, waiting for fate to take its course. Young people in their twenties wearing camouflage and holding Kalashnikovs were at both ends of the corridor at makeshift military posts a hundred steps from me. They were soldiers of Alexander Barkashov’s ultra-nationalist movement, Russian National Unity (RNU), which fought President Boris Yeltsin’s forces and is still in existence today.

I had been captured at about two in the morning when I was leaving the White House go to the BBC bureau to hand in my report on the fourth day of the confrontation between Yeltsin and the parliament, still known at the time as the Supreme Soviet. Mobile phones were rare, and land lines in the building had been cut off. I had to leave and go to the nearest phone booth or to the bureau if I needed to send a transcript of an interview with someone from the rebellious parliament to London.

There were no problems for the first four days. But on the evening of Sept. 25, hundreds of RNU armed fighters appeared in the corridors of parliament and began to enforce new rules. “Hey, a BBC correspondent,” said one of the fighters, looking at my accreditation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “We’ll have to shoot him. You are an enemy and, moreover, a dangerous one.”

No one listened to my explanations. I was searched; the fighters seized my bag with my voice recorder and documents, and ordered me to sit against the wall within sight of the two soldiers. I sat there for about an hour and a half, under the dim light of the emergency lights.

The electricity had also been turned off. The water had been cut off too, so a smell was coming from the toilets.

At about four in the morning a soldier came back and said, “Rutskoi [Alexander Rutskoi, then the vice president of Russia] told us to let you go in the morning. Lucky, you will live awhile longer.” He led me to some office where two soldiers were sleeping among scattered papers with parliament logos. I didn’t feel like sleeping. He asked why I, a Russian, would work for the enemy, the English. “The Americans and the British are the main enemies of Russia. They have been trying for many years to break the age-old communal way of life in Russia, because they are afraid of her great Orthodox mission in the world. They are trying to pervert us with porn and permissiveness,” he said.

I was scared and didn’t want to argue, so I said that I was just a reporter, and didn’t pose philosophical questions. My job is to write about what I see. I was not the only journalist treated this way. RNU fighters arrested Danil Galperovich, the JJ Press Japanese agency correspondent, three times.

As the tragic outcome of the events came closer, the aggression towards journalists escalated: representatives of both sides saw us not as observers, but as active participants. Even the many ordinary onlookers who were milling around outside the White House were aggressive towards us.

On the evening of Oct. 3, the main action moved to the Ostankino television center, which armed supporters of the Supreme Council tried to capture. More than a hundred journalists were among the crowd of attackers.

Special forces units began to fire from the roof of the TV

NEWS IN BRIEF

October 3, 1993 • Communists and nationalists break through a cordon and occupy the White house and the worst street violence in Moscow since the Revolution begins. The next morning army loyal to Yeltsin shells the White House.

At the end of September, Russia’s First Channel broadcast a 10-hour TV marathon in support of flood victims in the Russian Far East. The marathon consisted of talking heads discussing the disaster, a newsroom with live coverage from the region and well-known artists and public figures who talked by phone on the air with people affected by the flooding.

Early numbers show that TV viewers donated more than $15.9 million via phone calls and text messages while the program was on the air. The money will be used to build new homes in the disaster-stricken region.

READ MORE at rbth.ru/flood_in_far_east

In solidarity, a day without photos for online media IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Denis Sinyakov

Vsevolod Bogdanov

FREELANCE JOURNALIST (SPEECH FROM MURMANSK COURTROOM)

HEAD OF THE RUSSIAN UNION OF JOURNALISTS, (QUOTE FROM RIA NOVOSTI NEWS AGENCY)

"

"

My criminal activity is journalism. I will continue to be engaged in it. The camera is my weapon. Greenpeace is an organization with a 40-year history. But I am not an employee, I am a journalist. You can see my photos in Russia and international media.”

ITAR-TASS

On Sept. 27, several Russian Internet media outlets refused to publish photos on their sites to protest the arrest of Denis Sinyakov, the well-known photographer who was on board the icebreaker Arctic Sunrise to cover the Greenpeace protest for Lenta.ru. Last week, on Oct. 3, Sinyakov was one of 30 activists charged with piracy now in pretrial detention. They may face up to 15 years in prison.

Sinyakov was arrested along with the activists who were refused bail and have been remanded by a court in Murmansk.

Several media outlets did not publish images for most of the day in solidarity with Sinyakov. These included the Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru websites; the websites of television channels Dozhd and NTV; the website of Ekho Moskvy radio; and the online versions of magazines Russky Reporter; Snob, Bolshoi Gorod. The publications posted black rectangles in place of photos and wrote an appeal to readers.

Russian journalists wrote an open letter calling for Sinyakov to be released and all charges against him dropped. “We appeal to the leaders of the state to respect the rule

A photographer at the meeting in support of Sinyakov.

READ MORE at rbth.ru/greenpeace

of law, and urge them to draw attention to this issue,” the letter stated. It was posted on Lenta.ru.

Tatyana Felgenhauer, assistant editor at Ekho Moskvy, which is still collecting signatures for the petition, said that the day without images attracted a great deal of attention to Sinyakov’s case. “This is very important for us,” she said. “We know it is not easy for

Any legal interpretation regarding the law can be handed down in the Greenpeace action. But he didn’t break the law, he tried to cover the story. We must do everything possible to make it clear that the Prosecutor General’s Office interfered. We must manage to protect him.”

journalists to work in Russia, and it is important that we do not interfere in their work.

For example, one of us may find ourselves in Sinyakov’s place tomorrow simply because our job has taken us to an event or meeting that is not sanctioned by the government.

We want to show how the media would look if photojournalists were not permitted to work.”

Nikolai Svanidze, a well-known journalist and member of Russia’s Public Chamber, which analyzes legislation, said that the protest set an important precedent. “It may not always properly manifest itself, but here we see journalists joining together,” Svanidze said.

Internet comments ranged from support to disdain: “[Sinyakov] wanted glory, money, and now he has time to think,” stated one commentor.

TV presenter Sergei Dorenko accused Sinyakov of being an activist, not a journalist.

“He is a fighter, he isn’t a journalist. He fights on the party of the powers of good from his point of view,” Dorenko said. John Novis, who has worked with Sinyakov, wrote about him on the Greenpeace website last week.

“Well-liked among the Greenpeace international crew and activsits on board, he showed himself to be a tough and tenacious freelancer. This has been echoed in, what I see, as his clarity of mind in the Murmansk Court.

He is a journalist and he will continue to be.”

■MARINA OBRAZKOVA RBTH

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The Soviet Union as seen by a Pin Up artist rbth.ru/29923

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Why American students still go to Russia rbth.ru/29551

90 volumes of Tolstoy in a single click rbth.ru/29651

We’ll be your Sochi Olympic sherpas and offer analysis of Russia’s greatest hockey players.

Business rbth.ru // October 9, 2013 // P3

No love for the Russian SOPA law Making heads and tails of the enhanced antipiracy law

Unpopular solutions to piracy The need to protect intellectual property rights in Russia has long been acknowledged. The huge volumes of losses to copyright holders from illegal downloading in the country cannot be accurately calculated, but statistics show that Russian Internet users annually install about $3 billion worth of counterfeit software. The U.S. film industry has said its losses from piracy in Russia amounted to $250 million so far in 2013.

Despite these facts, few were happy with the solution developed by the Russian government. The law was written in such a way to protect major film and music companies, but not software firms. More than 100,000 signatures were collected against the law. Most Russian online companies joined the protest, and some sites placed protest messages on their home pages, as Wikipedia had done to protest SOPA. Nevertheless, the law quickly went into effect. Websites kinozal.tv and opensharing.org were forced to take down illegal uploads of popular TV series, including

“Game of Thrones” within the first month after the law was adopted.

One group that was more or less satisfied were big publishers. According to Yuri Ammosov, head of the Directorate for Innovation at the Analytical Center of the Russian Government, torrents deprive publishers of the revenue from major new book releases. “A bestseller, uploaded on the Internet, greatly decreases the sales of paper books, from 40 percent to 80 percent, according to my estimates,” Ammosov said. “Contrary to the claims of pirate supporters, their activities cannot be considered as advertising of paper and legitimate e-books — a rare book is favored with re-reading.”

But even publishers and writers have protested that

GAIA RUSSO

Over the summer, a new anti-piracy law was passed in Russia that was dubbed the Russian SOPA law after the United States’ ill-fated Stop Online Piracy Act. Under the new law, copyright holders who request that a file-sharing or torrent site block access to copyrighted content can file a court case for violation of intellectual property if site owners and hosting providers do not close access to the information within twenty-four hours of the request.

The debate over the SOPA law in the U.S. Congress provoked protests and blackouts of major websites, and the response of Russians to their country’s new drive against online piracy was no different. The day Russia’s anti-piracy law went into effect, widespread protests erupted, led by Russia’s large community of users of torrent sites.

Many Russian Internet users believe that content creators should be grateful to those who upload content in violation of copyrights since the copyright holders are all-powerful corporations that are simply fleecing artists and preventing large swathes of the population from enjoying films and music.

Don’t like this law? Wait for the next one.

As if the original anti-piracy law wasn’t controversial enough, Russia’s parliament introduced a new bill to expand or “enhance” the law on Sept. 17. The new bill would allow websites containing any content suspected of copyright infringement to be blocked.

The new draft is also earning con-

siderable public backlash. The earlier law, which came into force on Aug. 1, targets the unauthorized distribution of movies and TV shows. It allows copyright holders to seek to blacklist websites they accuse of hosting pirated films and shows without contacting the uploader or obtaining a

formal court ruling on the legality of the content.The draft law also seeks to require copyright holders to contact uploaders of questioned content before requesting that the site be blacklisted. Russia has separately tried to ban sites it says promote suicide, drugs and child pornography.

cases involving books were not accepted for accelerated processing under the new law, unlike films and music. “Translation is real intellectual property,” said Anna Lomteva of the TransLink Translation Bureau. “Those who read Shakespeare in the original and in translation know that [the translation] is an independent work of art. However, the practice of protecting the rights of such intellectual property is a rare exception.”

Amendments to the law are currently making their way through the State Duma, but Alexander Khegay, deputy head of Information Security Department at LANIT Network Integration, doubts that the changes will affect the rights of software producers. “The draft law is directly connected with the companies involved in producing or distributing of multimedia content. If we, as a system integrator, can benefit from it, this help will be insignificant,” Khegay said.

The experience of the United States notwithstanding, other countries have used anti-piracy laws to make a serious dent in illegal downloading of books, films and music — but the end of illegal downloading actually had an unexpected effect. According to a study by the Munich School of Management and the Copenhagen Business School, after the closing of the popular file host Megaupload, an increase in box-office receipts was only noticed by major blockbusters. In most cases, ticket sales remained consistent with what they had been when the site was operation, and for independent films, box office revenue actually decreased. It seems that for these films, illegal downloads had acted as a kind of publicity that then drove viewers to the big screen.

Sewn in Russia: fashion startup inspired by Ikea the usual trial and error. Launched in 2009, the collection of feminine dresses, which cost $150–200, was too expensive to manufacture and implement.

Meanwhile, sales in multi-brand online stores and through corner stores in shopping malls scared potential consumers off and were not good for the brand either, given the high commission rates and the small volume of sales. As a result, Kovelenov decided to concentrate on developing the brand’s own online store and marketing through social networks.

The online store, ohmyltd.ru, was launched in spring 2010. The first products were Tshirts and sweatshirts in black, white and gray.

Today, the brand sells about 50 designs of everyday basics for women and men. Designs are available in long-sleeve tops, T-shirts and sweatshirts.

Kovelenov said that the initial capital amounted to $20,000 of their own funds and about $20,000 of loans. The majority of buyers are from Moscow (70 percent) and St. Petersburg (20 percent). The most active

SPECIAL TO RBTH

IN FIGURES

$40,000 was the initial capital of the business.

One half came from Kovelenov’s personal savings and the other from bank loans and loans from friends.

$50,000

PRESS PHOTO

Sergei Kovelenov had the idea of starting his own brand five years ago. Three years later, he turned this concept into a fashion startup called “Oh, my”— a basic apparel brand with ambitious plans to become a leader in this area of the Russian market. The brand is largely inspired by Ikea and focuses on simplicity, warmth and comfort.

“The Russian market did not have enough clothing manufacturers specializing in simplicity, let alone promoting it. At the same time, well-informed young people had already taken up Western fashion blogs’ ideas and realized the importance of the basic elements in creating an image. However, to find something suitable in Russia was often very difficult. The second trend that we have realized is the patriotic mood. There was a real interest in everything that is produced in Russia and is handmade,” said Kovelenov.

He decided to create a brand for Russia’s “Westerners” — residents of large cities with Western values based on private property, family and education.

In its first years, the startup experienced

■ILYA DASHKOVSKY

The “Oh my” brand focuses on simplicity, warmth and comfort. buyers are Muscovites between the ages of 26 and 28.

Within two years of its existence, the company brought in monthly sales of $50,000, with an average purchase of $80. Each garment sells on the website for prices ranging between $16 and $80. The clothes are sewn in Russia — in St. Petersburg and in the Leningrad and Moscow regions. Seasonal wool designs are produced in Latvia.

“We do not manufacture the garments, we only design and sell them,” said Kovelenov. “We order the fabric from abroad

RBTH for iPad® For each Gazprom there is a new startup.

For each metropolis there is an off-the-beaten-track village.

For each bottle of vodka there is a glass of kvas.

For each of you there is a Russia of your choice.

through intermediaries, because, otherwise, there will be a lot of red tape with customs, and, in the end, it will cost us more. We import mainly from Estonia and Turkey. We would be glad to purchase Russian goods, but the country simply does not have any normal, high-tech [or textile] industries. We can recall, of course, Ivanovo textile. You can make bed linen using it, for example, but its quality is too poor to sew clothes from it. “ Over the past year, the team has doubled, and now consists of 10 people, however only one of these actually develops and designs

is how much the brand earns in monthly sales after two years in existence. The average purchase at the store’s website is $80. concepts for the clothes. The other nine people work on the way the product and the brand are perceived.

The “Oh, my” brand has a few experiments planned for the future. Currently, all the garments only come in black, gray and white. But they will slowly add new colors ot the collections. The company is slated to open stores in Estonia, Turkey and Italy by next year.

■CAMILLA SHIN RBTH

Comment & Analysis P4 // rbth.ru // October 9, 2013

AUTUMN 1993 THROUGH AMERICAN EYES WAYNE MERRY SPECIAL TO RBTH

NIYAZ KARIM

O

ct. 3, 1993, in Moscow was a beautiful autumn Sunday. It was also the day when domestic political debate collapsed into urban warfare.

The crisis dated at least from the previous November with the expiration of President Yeltsin’s emergency powers plus the determination of the national legislature to reassert its authority and to restrain the country’s dominating national leader. The confrontation had nearly turned violent in the spring, but was averted into a national referendum and the drafting of a new constitution. This process bogged down in September.

Despite his considerable virtues, Boris Yeltsin lacked patience. He chose to cut the political Gordian Knot by proroguing the legislature. Whatever the merits of the competing sides, Yeltsin’s action was extra-constitutional and provoked what followed. Prominent pro-democracy advocates — like Constitutional Court chairman Valery Zorkin and constitutional scholar Oleg Rumyantsev — sided with the opposition on the basis of legality and constitutional legitimacy. For the opposition

leadership — Vice President Alexander Rutskoi and parliament chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov — the conflict was about power and unhappiness with Yeltsin’s pro-Western policies.

The opposition also attracted many of the ugliest and most extreme elements in Russia, both from the Red left and the Brown right. One bit of graffiti from those days illustrates this point: “Death to the Jew Yeltsin!” The opposition leadership within the Russia White House exercised little control over the masses who rallied to oppose Yeltsin.

After ten days of standoff, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II hosted mediation efforts that led many people to believe Sunday would be a day of peace. That expectation was shattered by riots literally below my kitchen window on October Square, where antiYeltsin protestors took events into their own hands. This started the urban warfare that raged through the night and resulted on Monday in the tank and infantry battles across Moscow which retook the White House, imprisoned the opposition leaders, and restored Yeltsin’s authority but not his legitimacy.

I was an official eyewitness both to

the events themselves and to the outlook and role of the United States toward developments in Russia.

During the Oct. 3-4 crisis itself, Washington’s attention was on the “Black Hawk Down” episode in Mogadishu. The loss of American lives in Somalia was a higher priority for policymakers than fighting in Moscow.

Throughout, the Clinton Administration perceived events in Russia in highly simplistic terms, despite efforts by the Embassy and Washington analysts to explain their complexities. The Administration was committed to two things in its Russia policy: Boris Yeltsin and the neo-liberal program of macroeconomic reform known as the “Washington consensus.” It was largely deaf to questions of legality and constitutional legitimacy. Along with most of the American media, the Russian crisis was portrayed in Washington as good guys versus bad guys, with Yeltsin preventing a return of Communist rule, which was never a serious threat.

The Clinton Administration interpreted the outcome of Oct. 4 as a triumph both for Yeltsin and for the Treasury/ IMF/World Bank program of economic “shock therapy.” It did not appreciate Yeltsin’s profound loss of political legitimacy nor the growing alienation of the Russian public caused by the economic austerity imposed by his Western-sponsored finance minister, Boris Fyodorov.

Washington assumed the December elections for a new constitution and new legislature would be an unalloyed victory for Yeltsin, his policies, and the “Washington consensus.” Repeated and detailed warnings from the Embassy to the contrary were ignored.

When the December elections proved an overwhelming popular rejection of the Yeltsin program — with the urban blue-collar proletariat giving neo-fascist Vladimir Zhirinovskiy almost a quarter of the total vote — Washington faced a choice. It could respond to the will of the Russian people expressed in the most open, free and fair elections the country has ever had or it could pursue the neo-liberal program through mechanisms inconsistent with Yeltsin’s own brand-new constitution.

Washington encouraged Yeltsin and his team to the latter response.

Make no mistake: The path Russia took, both political and economic, was chosen by Russians, not by Americans.

Washington advised and advocated policies for Russia, but Yeltsin and others could have taken a different course.

Nonetheless, Washington did actively take sides. It consistently preferred economic ideology to the development of participatory democracy and the rule of law. Thus, some of the blame for the era of the oligarchs and all that followed must attach to our policy, though Washington remains in denial on this point. Doubtless, in twenty years Washington will be in denial about recent events in Cairo as well.

A MUSICIAN’S RIFF ON PIRACY VASILY SHUMOV SPECIAL TO RBTH

I

n the past fifteen years, every developed country has gone through the difficult process of adopting new so-called Internet Anti-Piracy laws. Now it’s Russia’s turn. It’s time for the “new and improved” expanded version of anti-piracy laws in Russia, which will include rules and regulations for sharing and downloading all types of digital media.

So what does this mean for Russian musicians?

Music piracy in Russia has come a long way in the past thirty years. It started after the collapse of the Soviet Union as the wild, free market economy emerged. When we talk about music piracy in Russia we mean an underground industry which produces, distributes and sells counterfeit CDs and DVDs. Now we are dealing with laws that address a new type of situation in which music pirates are invisible in cyberspace and they don’t have any secret headquarters in shady suburbs. This is why many musicians and music critics in Russia don’t see people who use music sharing and torrent websites (sites where peers share large files) as pirates or criminals. Some musicians actually use torrent sites as valuable promotional tools, and use them to link with the millions of fans who visit the sites daily.

Well-known music critic Artemy Troitsky of Moscow is a supporter of free Internet music sharing and the abolishment of existing ancient “cave man” copyright laws, considering them obsolete in the 21st century. On Russian radio, he asked rhetorically, “Who is get-

ting all the money? Not musicians. They are getting just a very small percentage. All the money goes to the rights owners, which are giant companies obtaining all these rights and later inflating their values and so it goes. I am actually a pirate in this sense. If we have a strong Pirate party I will join it,” Troitsky said.

Andrei Makarevich, whose band Mashina Vremeni (Time Machine) has been popular in Russia since the late 1970s, is a supporter of current Anti-Piracy Internet laws. In the August 2013 issue of the popular weekly magazine Afisha, Makarevich expressed his views and concerns about Internet music pirates and free music sharing in Russia.

“Any type of industry needs money to function. Money left the music business because musicians lost the opportunity to get paid for their recordings, compared to how it was 15 years ago,” Makarevich wrote.

Members of a grassroots movement against the law collected 100,000 signatures of Russian citizens in protest. The goal of the movement is not just to abolish the law, but also to start a public discussion.

A few adjustments and compromises were recently made to the expanded Anti-Piracy law to reflect the concerns of Internet companies. Now rights holders can file in court for the violation of intellectual property rights only after they have requested that a file sharing or torrent site remove illegal content and by proving that they hold exclusive rights to this content.

For more than a decade in Russia, music has been free for sharing and downloading.

Now times are changing but as Mick Jagger sings, “old habits die hard,” if ever.

Muscovite Vasily Shumov is a musician and producer. A resident of L.A. from 1990-2008, he holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR KEEP IT UP RBTH Dear Colleagues: Thanks so much for including another issue of ‘Russia Beyond the Headlines’ in [the Sept. 11 edition of] the Washington Post. I really appreciate that your insert appears in the paper, and would only ask that you continue its inclusion.

As a former Russian language teacher and editor of the ACTR (Ameri-

can Council of Teachers of Russian) Newsletter, I often find interesting things in the RBTH insert.

When I was still teaching Russian, I would always bring the insert to school with me so that kids could learn more about what was going on in Russia.

The cultural information was particularly valuable, as students loved reading about Russian ballet,

dance, theater, movies, etc.

Your insert has improved so much in quality over the past several years, and it’s the first thing I go to when it appears in the paper. Keep up the good work, and I hope that we can see many more issues to come in the future.

Best wishes, Jim Sweigert Rockville, Maryland

E. Wayne Merry was in charge of reporting of Russian domestic political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow 1991-1994.

EXCLUSIVELY AT RUSSIA-DIRECT.ORG

A MOMENT OF OPENNESS WITH PUTIN

RD monthly memo focuses on Central Asia

JEFFREY MANKOFF

The October issue of the Russia Direct monthly memo analyzes three competing integration strategies for Central Asia — one each from Russia, the U.S. and China.

SPECIAL TO RUSSIA DIRECT

RD Weekly: Best stories of the week

T

he tenth annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Russia has come and gone. Originally a forum for a small number of Western experts to debate among themselves and interact with top Russian officials, this year’s meeting of the Valdai Club included more than 200 experts from around the globe. This new, bigger Valdai seems aimed at addressing some of the persistent criticisms leveled at past gatherings: that Valdai is too closed and too divorced from the realities of Russian politics.

One major difference this year was the participation of several members of Russia’s “non-systemic” opposition, members of opposition parties that do not have any seats in the State Duma. Such figures included newly elected Yekaterinburg mayor Yevgeny Roizman (who spoke on a panel about regional diversity) and television host/activist Ksenia Sobchak. According to organizers, Moscow mayoral candidate and activist blogger Alexei Navalny was also invited but did not attend. The presence of leading opposition figures, especially at the culminating discussion with President Vladimir Putin, gave this year’s meeting an air of openness and unpredictability lacking in the past.

So, too, did the fact that the meeting with Putin was open to the press and broadcast on Russian television. For the first time, ordinary Russians got to see Putin face off with his critics, both domestic and foreign. While polite, some of the criticism was pointed. Former German Defense Minister Völker Rühe departed from the moderator’s script, instead emphasizing directly to Putin the need for Russia to open up its political system to a new generation. Opposition activist Vladimir Ryzhkov asked Putin whether he would consider amnesty for protestors jailed following the May 2012 demonstrations on Bolotnaya Square — something Putin said he “did not exclude.”

This greater openness represents a calculated gamble by the Kremlin, part of which seems like a new strategy of giving the opposition a safety valve rather than relying solely on repression. With Putin’s return to the presidency secured and the protest movement of 2011-12 on the wane, the Kremlin has reason to feel more confident now, even if the systemic challenges posed by a growing middle class and a stagnating economy still loom.

At the same time, the changed format of this year’s conference helped to shift the narrative in the West — about Valdai and about Russia itself. Coverage of this year’s Valdai has tended to focus on the increased openness, rather than

on the substantive discussion of Russian identity that provided the main theme. From the Kremlin’s perspective, that is no doubt a positive development, since much of what Putin said in his remarks will grate on Western audiences.

Discussing his own view of Russian identity, Putin criticized the West for abandoning its Christian roots, and “placing on the same level families with many children and single-sex partnerships, belief in God and belief in Satan.” This cultural relativity, according to Putin, is “a direct path to degradation and primitivization, to a deep demographic and ethical crisis.”

Many Western experts have been, and remain, critical of the entire Valdai Club endeavor. They argue that Valdai aims to co-opt Western analysts and political figures, reducing them to supplicants for the Kremlin’s favor and lending international respectability to Putin’s rule. For that reason, many top U.S. and European figures have long refused to come.

Of course, these critics have a point. While it always has been a two-way exchange of views, the main point of Valdai remains to shape foreign coverage of Russia to the Kremlin’s advantage. Even the decision to open Valdai up to the opposition helps reinforce the narrative of greater openness that the Kremlin is trying to craft both at home and abroad.

Most of the Western participants are smart enough to understand the game, though proximity to power creates ethical dilemmas for journalists and analysts in any country, especially Russia, where access to top officials is restricted.

Whatever the qualms, they — we — still come precisely because of the access to top officials Valdai provides, a group that this year included among others Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergeo Shoigu, Dagestan Governor Ramazan Abdulatipov, and Kremlin Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov, in addition to Putin. Moreover, since this access is not one-on-one, but in front of a group, the officials face greater pressure to at least feign candidness, and to actually answer difficult questions.

The presence of the opposition and the television cameras this year ratcheted that pressure even higher. In a country where officials rarely even have to face unscripted questions, Valdai provides a rare, if highly limited, moment of accountability. All the better then that Russians themselves had an opportunity to demand that accountability this year.

Jeffrey Mankoff is a deputy director and fellow with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program in Washington, D.C. and a visiting scholar at Columbia University.

Get the best content from the Russia Direct website in one easy mailout. Stories are selected each week by the editors and appear with a preview of upcoming stories.

Putin wants a stronger Obama

Putin’s Syria proposal is part of a broader strategy to strengthen Obama against the increasingly vocal Russia skeptics in the U.S. What the shutdown means for Russia

Although the U.S. government shutdown over domestic policy issues, the decision has implications abroad, and not just for those seeking American visas.

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Culture rbth.ru // October 9, 2013 // P5

‘Harry Potter’ takes on Bulgakov’s doctor

READ RUSSIA

LOSTFILM.TV

A TV series based on the Russian writer’s work stars Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe

Gothic tales to haunt the imagination PHOEBE TAPLIN SPECIAL TO RBTH

TITLE: “RED SPECTRES” EDITOR: MUIREANN MAGUIRE

O

If the opinion of UK viewers are any indication, the television series “A Young Doctor’s Notebook,” which premiered this month in the United States on the Ovation channel, has the potential to become the next “Downton Abbey.” The series, based on stories by Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov stars Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame and Man Men’s Jon Hamm as younger and older versions of a Russian country doctor in the early 20th century. “A Young Doctor’s Notebook,” which played out over four 24-minute episodes, was the most watched series ever on British channel Sky Arts.

Discovering Bulgakov through TV Mikhail Bulgakov began his career as a doctor. He graduated from the medical school of Kiev University with distinction in 1916. After graduation, Bulgakov worked for a while as a surgeon at a hospital in western Ukraine before being appointed provincial physician for Smolensk Province, about 200 miles from Moscow, just before the Revolution of 1917. It is this experience that is recreated in “A Young Doctor’s Notebook.”

Bulgakov began publishing semiautobiographical stories about the life of a rural doctor in an obscure journal called Medical Worker in the 1920s. The tales — which sometimes featured trips to emergencies at night by troika through mounds of snow — seemed to take place in a completely different world from that known by most of the literati of the

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Daniel Radcliffe PLAYS THE YOUNG DOCTOR. ( QUOTE FROM THE SKY ARTS WEBSITE)

"

I have been an obsessive Bulgakov reader for a couple of years now so when the opportunity to become involved in this project came up, I could barely contain my excitement. The book is funny, grotesque and heartfelt in equal measure and I look forward to working with a great group of people to help bring it to life.”

Jon Hamm PLAYS THE ROLE OF OLDER DOCTOR. (QUOTE FROM THE OVATION WEBSITE)

"

Like our UK benefactor Sky Arts, Ovation TV has proven to be a singular champion of unique, artistic projects that often remain unseen in the current commercial broadcast landscape. I hope everyone enjoys “A Young Doctor’s Notebook” as much as we enjoyed making it.”

time. But the stories were mostly unknown to them anyway. The seven stories were published together only in 1963, long after Bulgakov’s death.

Bulgakov left the practice of medicine and devoted himself to literature full time in 1919. He was mostly known as a playwright and a satirist, although early in his career he also worked in journalism. His literary career went through a series of ups and downs. While much of Bulgakov’s work found popular acclaim, it was torn apart by critics and often accused of being anti-Communist. Ironically, Josef Stalin was a fan of Bulgakov’s work, and often protected him from the ire of other notable writers and directors. But Bulgakov’s plays and novels were banned by the censors in 1929. The situation drove Bulgakov into a deep depression. As he wrote to his friend and fellow author Maxim Gorky, “They’ve hounded my plays off the stage... not a jot of my poetry’s in print anywhere... I’ve got no current work on the go, and not a brass kopek in royalties. There’s not an organization or individual who’ll reply to my letters. You know what it means? That all the work I’ve produced for the last ten years has just been flushed away. The only thing left to get rid of now is my own self.”

Bulgakov’s most famous work, The Master and Margarita, was published only twenty-six years after his death.

Doctor’s Notebook” in some translations, begins with a young, inexperienced doctor who goes to work in a village in the middle of nowhere.

Immediately, he is called upon to extract teeth, supervise complicated births and treat syphilis. The script for the TV series mostly follows the book. As the young doctor, Radcliffe masterfully depicts the panic of the protagonist, who scurries from the patient in agony back to his room to consult his medical textbooks.

Bulgakov’s stories feature an inner monologue in which the young doctor longs for the advice of his older self. In the television series, the screenwriters have brought this monologue to life, presenting the “older self” in the form of Jon Hamm.

The additional character actually feeds into Bulgakov’s signature style of blending the realistic and the fantastical. Although Bulgakov’s experiences in World War I and the Russian Revolution feature in the doctor stories, the screenwriters opted to remove these scenes, but did pick up some parts of a separate book, “Morphine.”

The first episode of “A Young Doctor’s Notebook” aired on Oct. 2, and the series will run on consecutive Wednesdays. Rebroadcasts are available frequently on Ovation. UK channel Sky Arts has already commissioned a second season of the show.

From the page to the screen “A Young Doctor’s Notebook,” which is also known as “A Country

■ALEXANDRA GUZEVA, ■YAN SHENKMAN RBTH

bsession, possession, insanity, incest and horror wander through the pages of “Red Spectres,” an erratically brilliant collection of Gothic short stories from 20th-century Russia.

In the opening tale, a woman’s reflection in a mirror “seized me by both hands and wrenched me towards her,” plunging the unhinged narrator into a terrifying world of shadows. These stories do the same to their readers, haunting the imagination on many different levels.

Valery Bryusov’s pre-revolutionary gem “In the Mirror” (1903) shows that the genre was not only a response to the nightmarish phantoms of Soviet life. But most of the other stories here were written the 1920s and use images of supernatural or psychological disturbance to reflect the contemporary world. Only two of them have appeared in English before.

In her introduction, Muireann Maguire explores historical and literary contexts and observes that Gothic stories often appear at times of cultural upheaval: “Russia by the mid-1920’s had endured two revolutions…and a

shattering civil war…” But — as responses to living in a time of frightening change — these tales also “transcend the specificities of the Soviet era.”

Mikhail Bulgakov is the only writer represented here who is already well known in the West and several of the tales are reminiscent of his disturbing, mid-1920’s scifi. The compelling images of tortured, murderous rat-men, in “Professor Knop’s Experiment” by Pavel Perov, prefigure Bulgakov’s novella, “Heart of a Dog,” written the following year. More profoundly, Aleksandr Chayanov’s “Venediktov,” published here for the first time in English, directly influenced Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita.”

Anxiety about technological developments is a theme whose relevance has only increased as the world speeds headlong into an unknown future. Aleksandr Grin’s “The Grey Motor Car” grapples deliriously with what Virginia Woolf called “the crowded dance of modern life.” Through the narrator’s eyes, we experience a Kafkaesque world of metallic monsters, “gigantic beetles…nightmarish machines,” “blank-faced people in bowler hats” and “repulsive automotive swiftness.” The city is alive and malign, violating the senses.

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PAST TENSE

New film relives the adventures of Soviet satirists who traveled across America

■DARIA DONINA RBTH

GEORGE BUTCHARD SPECIAL TO RBTH

Director Roman Liberov

ITAR-TASS

Petrov (real name Yevgeny Kataev) were both born in Odessa, but they met in Moscow in 1926 in the editorial offices of the Gudok newspaper.

In 1927, Ilf and Petrov, inspired by a story told to them by Petrov’s brother (Valentin Kataev, a famous Soviet writer who was inspired b y S i r Arthur Conan Doyle’s story “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons”), began writing their first book. A year later, the satirical adventure novel “The Twelve Chairs” started appearing in installments in the monthly magazine Thirty Days.

“The Twelve Chairs” centers on two con artists who go on the hunt for diamonds sewn by one Madame Petukhova into the upholstery of some chairs that are sold off at auction. Two years later, the authors teamed up again to write “The Golden Calf”— a sequel to the story that was so loved

by Soviet readers.

As has been the case for all of Liberov’s previous films, filming “Ilfipetrov” was as much of an adventure as the quest for the diamonds in the upholstery of the old chairs.

PRESS PHOTO

In 1935, the Soviet Union’s most beloved satire writers Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov took a road trip across America and wrote down what they saw and heard. The amazing result, “Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip: The 1935 Travelogue of Two Soviet Writers” is available in English translation.

Originally, it was written for the Pravda newspaper and Ogonyok magazine. The duo came away from the trip with wry commentary on everything from California’s “fascist” tendencies to the plight of the American Indian.

The two also co-authored “The Twelve Chairs,” a brilliant work that director Mel Brooks immortalized in film with a young Frank Langella in 1970.

Nearly 80 years later after they crossed the United States, and 40 years after Mel Brooks gave them a voice here, director Roman Liverov has paid tribute to them in a poignant independent film called “Ilfipetrov.”

The movie is the fifth in Liberov’s “Writers” series. Liberov has also directed films about Yuri Olesha, Joseph Brodsky, Zhora Vladimov and Sergei Dovlatov.

The new film is based on primary documents, including books, letters, notebooks, recollections of eyewitnesses of the period.

According to the director, shooting films about Russian writers is “a dubious endeavor” and not in great demand: “It would seem that no one needs it, but I need it.”

The deeply ironic work of the Soviet writers is still relevant today. But both Ilf and Petrov’s books and the films based on them have been reduced to quotations, including: “The cause of helping the drowning is in the hands of the drowning themselves.”

“How much is opium for the people?”

These sentences have had long lives of their own, and, unfortunately, there are few people who know who wrote them. “I want people to remember that there was a person named Ilya Ilf who lived his life, and that there was a person called Evgeny Petrov who lived his. And there is a third person named ‘Ilfipetrov,’” the film maker said.

Ilya Ilf (real name Ilya Faynzilberg) and Evgeny

A leviathan of Soviet radio

Soviet writers Evgeny Petrov (left) and Ilya Ilf (right)

On the Road — Soviet style Well into the era of Soviet communism, Russian satirical writers Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov came to the U.S as special correspondents for the Russian newspaper Pravda.

They drove across the country and back on a ten-week trip in 1935, recording images of American life through hu-

merous texts and the lens of a Leica camera. When they returned home, they published their work in Ogonyok, the Soviet equivalent of Time magazine, and later in the book Odnoetazhnaia Amerika (One-Level America). The book was published in the United States in 1937.

In 2006, post-Soviet Russian TV personality Vladimir Pozner and American journalist Brian Kahn followed in the footsteps of Ilf and Petrov, recreating the famous journey. A TV series about their travels was broadcast In 2008 on Russian television’s First Channel.

Yuri Levitan was born in Oct. 2, 1914. He became the voice of Soviet radio by the time he was in his early twenties; in his later years, he announced Gagarin’s space flight.

I

t is thirty years this month since the so-called “Voice of the War,” Yuri Levitan, passed away at the age of 69. Blessed with a naturally powerful and commanding voice, he unified the huge Soviet Union in the face of the Nazi threat.

“Attention, this is Moscow calling” were the words with which, embodying the capital and carrying the expectations of the country on his shoulders, the bespectacled presenter would calmly begin his wartime announcements.

Across the country, ordinary Russians and military men alike would listen for the news of which cities had fallen, which regions had been retaken, and whether there were imminent air raids.

Nina Trifonova, a native of Orenburg, remembers the impact Levitan’s broadcasts had: “In those days we couldn’t afford a radio, but there were loudspeakers mounted on certain streets, and people would flock to them at a defined time to listen to news from the front.”

This communal experience brought people closer together, and Trifonova describes it as “like being part of one big family – with Yuri Levitan at the head.”

The son of a tailor in Vladimir, a city 120 miles to the east of Moscow, Levitan was keen to escape his humble origins. Intent on becoming an actor, he moved to the capital, where, having failed in his first endeavor, he applied to join the radio.

At first he was told that his “provincial” Vladimir accent was too strong, so he worked for hours to perfect the Moscow pronunciation. Then, during his first ever broadcast — a nighttime reading of a Pravda article – Stalin happened to tune in. The authoritarian leader declared that this was who should read the report of the following day’s Communist Party congress, and Levitan was on his way to stardom.

He was just 19. Hitler, that arch manipulator of propaganda, recognized Levitan’s enormous impact on morale and designated him “Public Enemy Number 1.”

The bounty on his head was 250,000 Reichsmarks — about $1.3 million today. Levitan was given his own security detail and relocated to the Ural Mountains.

George Butchard is a freelance journalist fascinated by Russia and currently living in Moscow.

Feature P6 // rbth.ru // October 9, 2013

Russian style renaissance AP

RUSSIAN STYLE Khokhloma This hand-painted style dates from the 17th century and is one of the bestknown expressions of Russian folk art; it is known for its vivid flower patterns in red and gold on a black background.

Designers have been known to use the color scheme for coat and purse linings.

Pavlovsky Posad shawls

Even Julia Roberts (left) and Lady GaGa (right) are influenced by style a la Rus.

Russian-inspired styles are of enduring interest to the glitterati influences on fashion today. Suzy Menkes in the New York Times “T” magazine has also commented on the Russian street style phenomenon: “When fashion mavens like Elena Perminova, Miroslava Duma or Dasha Zhukova get dressed for the evening, the whole world is watching.”

At the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, fashion observers were surprised when actress Julia Roberts, known for her love of pantsuits and the color black, appeared at the premiere of the film “August: Osage County” in a red Dolce & Gabbana dress that offered a nod to traditional Russian fashion. The dress’s red lace, Dolman sleeves and short hemline coupled with Roberts’ vintage hairstyle recalled the 1983 film “Gorky Park.”

Last year, pop diva Lady Gaga appeared in public in outfits by Sergeenko that offered a contemporary riff on Anna Karenina mixed with Eugene Onegin’s Tatyana.

What is Russian style?

The basics of Russian style include feminine silhouettes with lush skirts (often

1

2

GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK

Perminova, partner of billionaire Alexander Lebedev and Miroslava Duma, fashion consultant and the former editor of the Russian edition of Harper’s Bazaar, are prominent not only on the streets of London and Paris, but also on social media. “From Dasha Zukhova and Miroslava Duma to Ulyana Sergeenko, Russian fashionistas have become favorite subjects of style chroniclers from New York to Milan and Paris, and their willingness to take risks with their clothes and embrace the high-end is sure to filter down through not only the designers imagination, but the consumer one as well,” said Vanessa Friedman, international style maven and longtime fashion editor at the Financial Times.

And there are other pop culture influences. Last year’s film version of “Anna Karenina” film may not have been a huge hit at the box office, but its intense and sumptuous style had a huge fashion impact on both couture and mass-market designers, including Banana Republic’s successful “Anna Karenina” collection.

American Friedman states that the “Russian street style” and designer Ulyana Sergeenko are the biggest Russian

1) Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2013 collection.

2)The Ulyana Sergeenko Haute Couture show on July 3, 2012 in Paris.

Gzhel This blue-and-white porcelain takes its name from the village of Gzhel not far from Moscow, where it has been produced since 1802. Gzhel designs are available on vases, and small animals sculptures as well as dinnerware and tea sets.

long), an emphasized waistline, fur hats (a la “Doctor Zhivago”), scarves, floral prints, lace and embroidery. Elements are also taken from Russian folk art. Popular sources of inspiration include Pavlovsky Posad scarves, which are large with bright floral patterns and fringe; and Khokhloma designs — the red and gold painting of flowers and vegetables common on Russian lacquerware.

Historically, Russian culture becomes popular internationally whenever there are upheavals at home, whether it is a change of ruler, war, revolution or perestroika.

In the 18th century, Peter the Great stirred the imaginations of Europeans and brought European influence into Russian culture, bringing the two closer together. Interest in Russian style came back with full force in Europe in 1909, with the arrival of Serge Diaghilev’s selfexiled “Ballets Russes” in Paris.

Two years later, in 1911, famous French fashion designer Paul Poiret introduced Ukrainian embroidery and Cossack boots into Parisian fashion after a trip to Russia. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, immigration from the former Russian Empire to France, Germa-

ny, the U.S., and the UK generated an interest for all things Russian. In this way, the Boyarsky collar (a tall collar that stands straight up), the northern kokoshnik (a traditional Russian headdress) and shawls with tassels became firmly entrenched in European fashion.

In the second half of the 20th century, interest in Russian fashions was revived by Yves Saint Laurent, who created a Russian collection that included fur hats, boots, layered skirts and embroidered blouses. Russian style again became popular in the mid-2000s, when Russian-inspired collections were launched, including Roberto Cavalli and “Paris-Moscow” by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel and “The Russian Line” by Marras for Kenzo.

■INNA FEDOROVA SPECIAL TO RBTH

FASHION ADDICT Discover the world of Russian style and its colorful stars at rbth.ru/ tag/fashion

CUISINE A LA RUSSE

STUFFED EGGPLANT TO GO It’s funny the things Russia does — and doesn’t — adopt from abroad. The continued absence of “Downton Abbey” from the prime time line up disappoints me. Then there the things that make me shake my head, like Ivan Urgant’s latenight talk show, “Vecherniy Urgant,” an uncanny fusion of “Late Night with David Letterman” and more recent versions of late-night TV. Everything is copied from the Western models! I’m addicted to it.

I was seriously distressed, however, when the progressive dinner party made its insidious way to Moscow. I’ve been to four already this year, and I am ready to wave my white damask dinner napkin in surrender.

This practice of moving to different houses for each course has to be the most barbaric Western import since Peter the Great introduced keelhauling. No one wins at a progressive dinner party: Everyone has to clean up, and no one gets the kudos for producing a three-course meal. At the latest, and I hope last, progressive dinner, my soon-to-be-ex best friend, Jesus (pronounced, as he would be the first to tell you: ”Hey, Zeus!”) and I were in charge of appetizers. Je-

JENNIFER EREMEEVA

In the most recent issue of Vanity Fair, a celebration of 100 years of the magazine, the Blackglama brand took out a four-page narrative advertisement featuring a Julie Christie look-alike wearing a hooded black fur. The setting of the ad could only be described as a “Doctor Zhivago” dreamscape: A once-opulent Siberian estate palace. The model, poised to resemble Zhivago’s lover, Lara, leans on a marble fireplace dusted with snow and ice.

Interest in Russian culture and fashion in the West historically has gone up and down, but it never fades for long. It seems that a few times a decade, fashionistas turn to Russia, or at least a Western ideal of Russia, for inspiration. In the 1990’s, Valentin Yudashkin carried the style with his fabulous Faberge egg dresses. In the 2000’s, Denis Simachev brought out dresses inspired by the blueand-white Gzhel porcelain and fur hats.

Today’s “Russian moment” is partially driven by the increased visibility on the international scene of women like Dasha Zhukova, a patron of the arts and partner of billionaire Roman Abramovich, known for her sense of style. Elena

SHUTTERSTOCK/LEGION-MEDIA (3)

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK

These colorful woolen shawls are produced at the Pavlovo Posad factory, just 42 miles from Moscow. A Pavlovsky shawl is of such artistic quality that the flower, vegetable and ornamental patterns take on a three-dimensional effect.

sus upstaged me by going to Dorogomilovskiy market and buying a kilo of black caviar they keep under the counter. I cried foul. He just shrugged his Armani-clad shoulders. Eggplant to the rescue! This pungent autumn staple is another borrowed treasure. It found its way into Russia’s culinary canon from the Caucasus, where eggplant is practically a separate food group. I gave serious thought to making “eggplant caviar,” just to spite Jesus. This delightful riff on ratatouille combines grilled eggplant, tomato, onion. The pomegranates at the market, however, gave me a different idea: Georgian stuffed eggplants with walnuts and cilantro, garnished with pomegranate seeds.

Grilled or sautéed eggplants are stuffed with a tangy mixture of walnuts, cilantro, lemon, onion and pomegranate syrup.

The addition of bulgur is a departure, but it keeps the filling together. The combination of southern colors and musky flavors was a hit!

At least I think it was. We had to eat fast, grab our coats and head to the main course. Next time, I’ll just make stuffed eggplants and watch “Vecherniy Urgant” at home.

JENNIFER EREMEEVA SPECIAL TO RBTH

Ingredients: • 6 small, firm eggplants • 1 cup of walnuts • 1 bunch of cilantro • 4 Tbl of fresh tarragon • ⅓ cup of fresh parsley • 4 garlic cloves • 4 Tbl of fresh lemon juice • 2 tsp of fresh lemon zest • 4 Tbl of pomegranate syrup • 1/2 cup yellow onions, finely diced • 1 celery rib, peeled and finely diced • ⅔ cup of cooked bulgur wheat (⅓ cup uncooked) • 1 tsp of sumac • 1 tsp of hot paprika • 1 tsp of salt • ⅓ cup of olive oil Garnish: ½ cup of fresh pomegranate seeds • Fresh cilantro sprigs • Scallions Instructions: 1. Remove the stems from the eggplants and slice them in half. Sprinkle with salt and stack in a colander placed over a draining board or bowl. Let sit for 45-75 minutes.

2. Combine ⅓ cup uncooked bulgur wheat with ⅓ cup of water in a small saucepan and cook, covered for 10 minutes. Let stand covered for an additional 15 minutes to steam.

3. Combine the walnuts, cilantro, tarragon, lemon zest, pomegranate syrup, and garlic in a food processor fit-

ted with a steel blade and process for 2 minutes or until it is the consistency of dough. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl.

4. Add the onions, celery, cooked bulgur, sumac, paprika, and lemon juice. Toss to combine. Adjust seasonings to taste with additional salt and pepper.

5. Pat the eggplants dry with paper towels, then place them on a plate, cover with a paper towel and microwave for 90 seconds.

6. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat.

Place the eggplant flesh side down and sauté for ten minutes. Remove to a cookie sheet lined with paper towel to cool.

7. Use a small, sharp knife and a teaspoon to create a shallow cavity in the middle of the cooked eggplant — leave at least ½-inch of the flesh.

8. Arrange the eggplant on a serving platter, then spoon the walnut mixture into the cavity. Cover the platter with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight.

9. Garnish with pomegranate seeds, cilantro, and scallions just before serving.

Jennifer Eremeeva is an American freelance writer. She is the author of the humor blog, Russia Lite and curator of the culinary website The Moscovore. Her book, “Lenin’s Bathtub,” is scheduled for publication in November.