- The Moscow Times
Transcription
- The Moscow Times
| | Since 1992 No. 5753 May LOOKING BACK 5-11 | 2016 WWW.THEMOSCOW TIMES.COM LOOKING FORWARD LIVING HERE Hacked Chopped Divided Opposition and regime figures Taxi conglomerate Uber cuts Authorities hijack grassroots security flaws → Page 3 technology giant Yandex → Page 4 World War II veterans → Pages 12-13 find themselves exposed by fares in price war with Russian movement designed to remember No Goodbye, Lenin How science and the state keep the Soviet forefather looking fresh → Pages 6, 11 18+ 2 Looking Back “We have yet to establish the identity of [Bellingcat.] I don’t know how believable this information is.” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman. The Moscow Times No. 5753 3 The [Russian Defense Ministry] is lying to the families of those who have been killed. It’s really quite disgusting.” Elliot Higgins, speaking in a BBC documentary. Vehicles in a typical Buk surface-to-air missile unit. The Devil in the Details 4 Missiles can be carried by a Buk launcher. By Matthew Bodner [email protected] | Twitter: @mattb0401 A new report by citizen investigative journalist outfit Bellingcat has presented new claims about the anti-aircraft missile launcher supposedly responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014. Building on earlier work, the investigation identified superficial qualities of a Buk anti-aircraft launcher seen in the region, and matched it with a unit stationed in the city of Kursk in southwest Russia. The question of who shot down MH17 is one of the most controversial aspects of the Ukraine crisis, with all parties to the conflict accusing the others of destroying the civilian airliner. It has generated a huge number of theories and counter-theories. Ukraine and the West have maintained that Russian-backed separatists fired the missile. Russia has consistently contested such claims, and forwarded a myriad of alternate explanations pointing to Ukrainian forces. An official Dutch-led investigation is working to identify the culprits, but results are not expected until later this year. Bellingcat, a group of semi-amateur investigators, have for almost two years labored to reach their own conclusions. They have focused on hardware details, comparing types of equipment in use by Ukrainian and Russian forces, and searching for open-source images of missiles and missile launchers known to have been operating in east Ukraine the day MH17 was VALERY MELNIKOV / RIA NOVOSTI Activist investigators claim to have identified Russian missile launcher responsible for downing MH17. A Buk-M1, comparable to the one suspected of downing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. shot down. Russian officials have consistently questioned the competence of Bellingcat’s investigators to conduct this kind of work. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded on May 4 by claiming the identity of the Bellingcat group was “unknown,” and therefore suspect. Furthermore, he deferred questions about Buk designations to the Defense Ministry. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that an official statement would be made only after Russian experts have time to study the latest Bellingcat report. In their evidence, published on May 3, the Bellingcat team claimed to have identified the specific Buk as unit 332. Images of the unknown Buk in east Ukraine showed a three and a two painted on the side, separated by an obfuscated number. Bellingcat scoured Russian social media networks to find older photos of Buks in Kursk with designations 312, 322 and 332. Beyond the numbers three and two, the mystery Buk had unique dents on the protective skirt lining its chassis, and one wheel that didn’t match the others. The team also noticed that all Buk launchers have unique arrangements of cables connecting the chassis to the rotating turret. By comparing these features to known Ukrainian Buk launchers, and the Russian units in Kursk, the team concluded that it was a match to Russian Buk number 332. While the activist investigators have raised the technical sophistication of the MH17 debates, Russia has been keen to compete on technical detail. Last year, Buk missile manufacturer Almaz-Antey held press conferences in which they claimed a Soviet-built Buk missile, no longer in service with the Russian military, was the only weapon type that could have produced the damage patterns seen on the aircraft body. When photos of those missiles in service with the Russian military were found online, Almaz-Antey then denied Buk-specific damage patterns were even present on the MH17 hull. The latest Bellingcat report is unlikely to change either side’s position on who shot down MH17. The question is whether, by increasing the level of technical detail and expertise, they are also pushing the case beyond public comprehension. TMT The Moscow Times No. 5753 (17) May 5 – 11, 2016 — Editor-in-Chief Mikhail Fishman Production Manager Igor Grishin Advertising Director Maria Kamenskaya [email protected] Director Elena Stepanova © Copyright 2016, The Moscow Times. All Rights Reserved. This publication is registered by the Federal Service for Media Law Compliance and Cultural Heritage, ПИ No. ФС77-62664 — Founder and publisher OOO Moscowtimes — Founder’s, publisher’s and editorial address 3 Polkovaya Ul., Bldg. 1, Moscow 127018 Editorial telephone +7 (495) 234 3223 Fax +7 (495) 232 6529 Advertising Sales telephone +7 (495) 232 4774 Fax +7 (495) 232 1764 Distribution telephone +7 (495) 232 1750 Internet www.themoscowtimes.com — The views expressed in the opinion columns do not necessarily reflect the position of The Moscow Times. — Любое воспроизведение материалов или их фрагментов на любом языке возможно только с письменного разрешения редакции. — Время подписания в печать по графику 19:30, фактическое 18:38. Заказ № 161025. — Отпечатано в ООО «Первый полиграфический комбинат», 143405, Московская область, Красногорский район, п/о «Красногорск-5», Ильинское шоссе, 4 км — Тираж 55 000 Цена свободная — Cover photo by AP Kremlin Operates on Its Most Demoralized Patient – The Media F ive years ago, then-President Dmitry Medvedev met with leading representatives of Russia’s online media community — digital entrepreneurs, executives, scholars, authors and some opposition-minded bloggers. The gathering took place in a refurbished Moscow City Youth Library, and it had the look and style of a U.S. town hall meeting. Back then, exactly one year before President Vladimir Putin’s return to Kremlin, the reality of Russian media seemed so different. The participants addressed matters of the future, they spoke about innovation and openness, competitiveness and globalization. Of course, they talked about the problems: about free speech, media development and excessive state participation. But the assumption was that government was open for discussion. After all, Medvedev had promised an innovation economy. Today, however, Russian media has been transformed from head to toe. Over five difficult years, state doctors have taken a scalpel to any “organs” non-compliant to the new rules — like RIA Novosti in December 2013. They applied “legal chemotherapy” to the rest, literally expelling foreign capital from media business. Aesculapian authorities practiced laparoscopic manipulations to remove undesirable journalists and editors from news outlets. And under a “genetic” treatment, the principles of editorial independence and freedom of expression were replaced by values of censorship, loyalty, manipulative propaganda and agenda-setting. Roughly half of the participants of the famous Medvedev meeting in May 2011 are now either expelled from mass media, or live under scrutiny and legal persecution. Svetlana Mironyuk works for a bank, Anton Nossik had been charged for supposed “extremism” in a blog post, while the Russian startup leaders are now mostly based in California’s Silicon Valley. An even bigger change occurred outside the media business. Over those five years, the Kremlin learned a trick or two about its public. It now understood that propaganda works only when you have reframed and primed your audience. Academics have yet to study the mass social manipulation that took place between 2012 and 2016. But we can say with some certainly that Russia has witnessed a shift from relatively pluralistic and open media to a new form altogether. Today Russian media channels a “besieged fortress” mind-set, and represents a jingoistic and socially conservative tribe that negates any kind of “foreign values.” The demand for neutral journalism has all but disappeared. This transformation could not have happened without pressure from above. But it has also taken on an energy of its own. In order to “satisfy” the demand for a conservative mind-set, major Russian news outlets have became even more nationalistic, antiWestern and conservative than required. There are few truly independent media companies operating in Russia today, and even fewer influential ones. Within dependent — controlled by state or its oligarch-agents — newspapers and television stations, laparoscopic exercises continue. This is the case with RBC (RosBusinessConsulting), arguably Russia’s most thorough and independent news organization, but ultimately dependent on the wider business interests of its billion- By Vasily Gatov Media researcher, analyst, media investment expert and board member of WAN-IFRA aire owner, Mikhail Prokhorov. Whatever the reasons that have been given regarding the departure of editor-in-chief Yelizaveta Osetinskaya, it is safe to assume the Kremlin pushed Prokhorov to appoint a less combative editor to head the publication. Putin’s five-year plan to conquer the media and free speech is celebrating an undoubted success across all traditional, broadcast and digital media. The commercial press, whether pro-government, oppositional or neutral, has been forced to adopt his agenda. It is an agenda that considers Russia to be more important then Russians, the state to be superior to citizens and power to be better then freedom. You may pray for it or you may condemn it. But you can’t avoid it. As journalist, author or editor in Russia you act under the scenario of Putin’s playbook, leading down a road of no return, right up to the media cemetery. Yet, with all such apocalyptic pictures in mind, there is a professional resurgence in some distinct areas — like the Latviabased Meduza news website, the advocacy-based Takie Dela and Mediazona, and the education-based Arzamas.Academy, Open Lectures and Open University. Those startups feature innovative ideas, advanced journalism and creative use of content — and employ the creme de la creme of modern Russian journalists. Smaller and less ambitious in scale then earlier democratic media, these experiments, in fact, secure the future of socially responsible communication in Russian society. When society will ask for it again, however, is another question. TMT GALINA GUBCHENKO SPIN DOCTORS Looking Back “We’re going to wage a true information war against MTS — one of those Kiselyov talks about in his programs.” Georgy Alburov. May 5 – 11, 2016 11GB Size of anonymous International’s latest leak. In 2014, anonymous International supposedly hacked Dmitry Medvedev’s Twitter account, sending out a tweet: “I’m resigning. I am ashamed of this government’s actions. Forgive me.” 2 1/2 hours 3 amount of time oleg kozlovsky’s SMS service was disconnected by MTS. One Day, Two Hack Jobs By Eva Hartog [email protected], Twitter: @EvaHartog | Illustration by Galina Gubchenko Russians from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum find their communications exposed in the space of 24 hours. I t was 2:25 a.m. on Friday when the SMS function on Oleg Kozlovsky’s mobile phone was silently disabled. Fifteen minutes later, an unknown device requested access to Kozlovsky’s account on Telegram, the messaging service with a claim to airtight security. Telegram sent Kozlovsky’s mobile number a verification code by SMS. That would’ve alerted him to the intrusion. But, of course, the text message never arrived. Instead, a third party intercepted the code. It was then used to log into Kozlovsky’s Telegram account with another device. Elsewhere in the Russian capital, opposition activist Georgy Alburov fell victim to a similar scam. It would have been the perfect crime had the intruder not left behind two trails. First, Telegram had sent the men another notification message through its own app, which they saw later that morning. And when Kozlovsky and Alburov checked their Telegram accounts, they could see a spook second user was still logged in. “It was like coming home to your apartment only to find the door open and your clothes scattered across the floor,” Kozlovsky, a civic activist, told The Moscow Times. When the men asked MTS, one of Russia’s largest mobile operators, to explain how Telegram’s text messages could have disappeared into thin air, employees initially admitted the men’s phone settings had been tampered with by its “security department.” Since then, in statements to Russian media, the MTS spokesman has denied any “deliberate attempts” of interference. He has blamed external hackers or technical failure. But Pavel Durov, the Russian founder of Telegram who has been in exile following his own clashes with the Russian authorities over user privacy several years ago, cried foul play. “It looks like Russia’s security services have started pressuring mobile operators,” he told the liberal Ekho Moskvy radio station. “Such interference is typical for cannibalistic regimes that don’t care about their reputation, in Central Asia, sometimes the Middle East,” he said. “Now it’s happened in Russia.” A political motive looks plausible. Alburov is an active member of opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund, which regularly pesters Russia’s elite with their investigations into corruption. Kozlovsky mostly works with charities and he describes his work as “civic, not political.” But he has also organized several trips for journalists and activists to Ukraine to mend ties between the two countries. Now, he thinks that might have drawn unwanted attention. The past week’s events have united Alburov and Kozlovsky in a crusade to find those responsible for the security breaches. They’ve threatened to sue MTS and have launched a social media campaign calling upon Russians to switch operators. Local Moscow deputy Maxim Katz has responded to that call. In 2014, while he was participating in local elections, two years’ worth of his private text messages were leaked to the press. At that time, MTS also blamed hackers and investigators never followed up on his complaint, he said. “There are too many coincidences, it’s becoming a pattern,” he says. “Probably all Russian operators are somehow controlled [by the authorities] but at least my new operator doesn’t have such precedents yet.” MTS had not responded to a request for comment from The Moscow Times at the time of publication. Turning the Tables While spooks were reportedly digging through the private correspondence of opposition-minded activists, Anonymous International, also known as Shaltai-Boltai, was waging its own war. In a blog post on April 29, the group claimed to have broken into the Whatsapp messaging account of propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov. All 11 gigabytes of private correspondence — including data from two email accounts, one of which reportedly belongs to Kiselyov’s wife — will be sold at a Bitcoin auction in mid-May, with bids starting at the virtual currency’s equivalent of about $33,000, the group said. The hackers did not explain why they targeted Kiselyov and they did not respond to a request for comment. But Kiselyov is a central figure in Russia’s state-dominated media landscape and the group is clearly aiming to embarrass him. Previews of the leaked correspondence allegedly show Kiselyov employed a legal team to contest the inclusion of his name on a blacklist of figures close to Putin in response to Russia’s role in the Ukraine conflict. Such actions contradict Kiselyov’s rabidly anti-Western public persona. He famously once said Russia could reduce the United States to “radioactive ash.” Other leaks show that Kiselyov reportedly bought a $4.6-million home in central Moscow in 2014. Navalny has confirmed the purchase in a blog post, citing previously publicly available records, but added he did not know whether the other claims were real. Meanwhile, ShaltaiBoltai’s website has been blocked in Russia. Ring, Ring The use of technology as an instrument in the political standoff between pro-Kremlin forces and opposition activists has become widespread, says prominent media and security analyst Andrei Soldatov. But that doesn’t make the fight a fair one. In Russia, where the abuse of power by the authorities largely goes unpunished, there are simpler ways to people’s private data than through complicated technology hacks. Under the law on System for Operative Investigative Activities, or SORM, authorities can freely access Russians’ phone and online communication. And when that law fails, or is seen as too time-consuming, there’s always the tried and tested method of applying personal pressure on company employees to cast aside their clients’ privacy. “One phone call [from the FSB] is all it takes,” says Soldatov. “Nothing more.” TMT 4 Looking Forward “There is no sign that we could lose our leadership position.” Tigran Khudaverdyan, head of Yandex.Taxi. The Moscow Times No. 5753 99 rubles Minimum fare in Moscow of both Uber and Yandex.Taxi. 557 Bln rubles “We are seeing very rapid growth in Russia.” Dmitry Izmailov, head of Uber in Russia. Total annual revenues from Russia’s taxi market. Uber Takes Fight to Russian Rivals By Peter Hobson [email protected], Twitter: @peterhobson15 | Illustration by Evgeny Tonkonogy Californian startup drops prices in attempt to increase market share. 3 ,200 rubles to the center,” says a stocky, middle-aged man in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, quoting a taxi fare equal to about one-and-a-half times the average Muscovite’s daily wage. He pauses to register amazement on the face of his potential ride. “Alright, alright,” he says. “Special offer then, just for you: 3,000 and you’re done.” Souk-style bargaining is still par for the course at most Russian airport arrivals halls, with few bargains on offer. But elsewhere in the country, technology is king. Today, three big taxi smartphone applications are battling for position in a large and growing taxi market, worth an estimated $8.5 billion per year. It is unclear which of Israel’s Gett, Russia’s Yandex.Taxi, and California-based upstart Uber will eventually win out. In late April, Uber made its latest move to capture more Russian customers by undercutting its rivals significantly. It announced that trips to and from Moscow airports would begin at a fixed rate of only 700 rubles ($11), up to a third lower than the competition. Since entering Russia in 2013 with just a few cars signed up to its service, Uber has expanded rapidly. In April alone, it entered two new Russian cities, Ufa and Nizhny Novgorod, taking the total to 10. It aims to cover some 40 major Russian cities in the near future. Valued at some $60 billion, Uber has been accused of using its massive financial advantage to crush the competition. When it arrives in a new market, it lures drivers to its platform with bonus paychecks and minimal commissions. Since beginning in 2010, Uber has entered a new city every five-and-a-bit days and reportedly run up losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. Its billionaire investors foot the bill without batting an eye, banking on future profits once the company has conquered the world. Russia appears to be no exception. Two days after the airport price cut, Uber announced that over the long Russian May holidays, fares in the popular Black Sea resort of Sochi would fall by up to 25 percent. Yet Uber in Russia is still trailing the competition, and by some distance. Its biggest rival is Yandex.Taxi, an offshoot of one of Russia’s biggest tech companies. Yandex got into the taxi app revolution early, launching in 2011. Like Uber, it offers safe, clean, modern cars — no chance of riding in a beat-up Lada. It now has 40,000 drivers in 17 Russian cities, and boasts more than half a million users each month. Gett, which also quickly expanded into Russia, lags only slightly behind with some 36,000 registered drivers. Uber refuses to reveal data on its drivers or finances, but a year ago it had only one-fifth of Yandex’s fleet. Dmitry Izmailov, Uber’s chief in Russia, would say only that the company is witnessing “very rapid growth.” So far, Yandex is matching Uber’s aggression with its own. “We don’t plan on giving up,” says Tigran Khudaverdyan, Yandex.Taxi’s chief executive. Khudaverdyan suggested his company was “perhaps even more aggressive” than Uber. Uber and Yandex.Taxi offer a minimum fare price of 99 rubles ($1.50) for short trips. But Uber undercuts on longer journeys. It takes 8 rubles ($0.12) for each minute and each kilometer in Moscow on longer routes, compared to Yandex’s 9-ruble charge. Yandex.Taxi claims to offer better quality service, but that pricing policy has helped Uber improve its position in the Russian capital. It now has orders and drivers in droves. “Uber’s are definitely the lowest rates,” says Mikhail, a goldtoothed Uber driver originally from Ukraine. “But the biggest plus is that you always get orders.” The longest Mikhail has ever had to wait between Uber orders is 35 minutes. In the city center, ride requests arrive much faster. That is a far cry from five years ago, when taxi drivers would often wait hours between fares. “A taxi in Moscow would take no less than 30-40 minutes to reach you and the ride would cost at least 500 or 600 rubles,” says Bogdan Konoshenko, a cab company director and member of Moscow’s chamber of commerce. Despite some protest, Russian authorities have proved surprisingly open to Yandex, Uber and similar taxi newcomers. One reason for this is the disorganization of potential opposition. Unlike in Europe, Moscow has no taxi lobby that traces its history to the era of the horse-drawn carriage driver. It has nothing like London’s “The Knowledge,” in which cabbies memorized city maps for years to gain admission to the trade. In Moscow the best way to hail a taxi was to stick out a thumb and haggle a fee with a driver who might not even have a driving license. It is hardly surprising that ordinary Russians have taken to the new technology in such numbers. The arrival of apps has also prompted a taxi industry boom by increasing efficiency. Average call-out times in Moscow are now around five minutes, giving drivers more productive hours. According to government research published in March, the average Moscow taxi driver brings in 7,300 rubles ($110) per day — a respectable income by Moscow standards. Meanwhile, a constellation of smaller companies has popped up to use the application architecture, offering vehicles and drivers for hire. The taxi market has grown by 85 percent in the five years since Yandex.Taxi pioneered its app, the government research found. There are one-fifth more vehicles giving rides, and the number of taxi companies has doubled. Moscow authorities fired a warning shot over Uber’s bows earlier this year, threatening to ban the service if it did not employ only drivers with taxi licenses and share with City Hall the details of routes traveled. Other services had already agreed to the regulations. Employing licensed drivers is something Yandex.Taxi says sets its service apart from Uber. Under pressure, Uber agreed to the new rules. But both companies say their relations with Russian authorities are generally smooth. It seems to be accepted wisdom that the new industry will be dominated by applications. “Those who don’t work with apps are disappearing from the market,” says Konoshenko. Meanwhile, the battle between Uber and its rivals is moving to the regions. There, says Yandex.Taxi’s Khudaverdyan, Yandex’s lead is bigger — “and we are developing faster than our competitors.” Uber has overtaken rivals before, and it’s value is 10 times Yandex’s capitalization of around $6.5 billion. But Khudaverdyan says he is not scared by Uber’s financial firepower. They may have deep pockets, but, he says “we have very good brains.” TMT Looking Forward May 5 – 11, 2016 2% “We are tired of waiting! We will change this system with or without the current government!” Governor Mikheil Saakashvili. of Ukrainians “fully support” Poroshenko as president. The profitability of President Poroshenko’s confectionary company Roshen increased ninefold over the first year of his presidency. 20% 5 Hit to Ukrainian GDP following Crimea annexation and war in the east. Last Chance for Poroshenko Two years after his election, the Ukrainian president drifts toward an inglorious finale. T his month marks the two-year anniversary of Petro Poroshenko being elected president of Ukraine. The elevation of the chocolate magnate to the top chair came following tragic events at Maidan, the flight of former President Viktor Yanukovych and the annexation of parts of Ukrainian territory by Russia. Poroshenko was eventually elected president in one round, but this was only made possible after a clever media campaign and deals with leading politicians and oligarchic clans. The results of such deals continue to undermine Poroshenko’s presidency. The oligarchs are as strong as ever, parliament remains riddled with corruption, and the president still can’t decide who he is: statesman or businessman. All the while, Poroshenko’s task has been weighed down by peace negotiations for eastern Ukraine. The Minsk agreements, which contain his signature, have become a black mark in Ukrainian politics. Indeed, the very first stage of their implementation — the adoption of amendments to the constitution — was marked by live grenades, bloodshed and the death of four national guardsmen on the square in front of parliament. Today, the Minsk agreements have become so unpopular in Ukraine that their only real purpose could be to exacerbate internal conflict and bring forward early parliamentary elections. It is impossible to believe that parliament will vote for the necessary laws while Russia has not played its role in implementing a full cease-fire in the Donbass, the withdrawal of heavy weaponry and the handover of border control back to Ukraine. The two-year mark of Poroshenko’s rule coincides with the forming of a new Cabinet. Headed by Volodymyr Groysman, MykOLa LazaREnkO / REUTERS Op-Ed by Sergii Leshchenko Former investigative journalist and MP in Petro Poroshenko’s parliamentary bloc Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko inspects a Dozor armored vehicle in Kiev, January 2015. considered a Poroshenko ally, it is the president’s last chance for a loyal government. The new coalition controls 226 votes in parliament, a narrow arithmetic majority. Groysman’s government finds itself having to scrape together votes from outside parties to pass important bills. His only real allies in this mission are the oligarchic factions Vidrodzhennya (Renaissance) and Volya Narodov (People’s Will). Meanwhile, Groysman has turned out to be more cunning than Poroshenko expected. During the course of negotiations, the prime-minister-to-be issued an unexpected ultimatum: He would only agree if the president removed several loyal ministerial underlings from the Cabinet. I witnessed Poroshenko’s anger during internal meetings of his parliamentary bloc. Sparks flew between the president and prime minister. In the end, Groysman emerged the victor, and demonstrated that he was unprepared to be a blind executioner. He has his own ambitions, and his statements to the effect of him not intending to ballot for the presidency seem no more than platitudes to calm the jealousy of Poroshenko. The main takeaway from two years of Poroshenko’s presidency has been the defeat of reform at the gates of oligarchic consensus. Not one of Ukraine’s main oligarchs has suffered serious losses. Igor Kolomoisky remains strong as ever, and even supported Groysman’s bid for prime minister. Rinat Akhmetov, who for many years acted as a parasite around government tenders, still holds key influence, albeit less than was once assumed. Sixty percent of Ukrainians consider the president personally responsible for the continued high levels of corruption. This figure shows just how much post-revolutionary Ukraine has raised its expectations of its politicians. The demand from society today couldn’t be clearer: It wants zero tolerance for corruption and the complete rejection of oligarchic clans. The anti-corruption rhetoric of the former Georgian president, current governor of Odessa, Mikheil Saakashvili, most clearly answers this call. It has made him one of the most popular politicians in the country — despite very modest breakthroughs in Odessa itself. Saakashvili plans to bring young reformers together and to demand early parliamentary elections. The final word on whether parliament is dismissed early is left to Poroshenko, who is uninterested in strengthening Saakashvili’s position. In this the president is helped by Groysman’s new government, which has pushed back early elections by at least a year. In Ukraine, that’s a lifetime — preferences may change many times over 12 months. Further delays in fighting corruption will make things even worse for the president. Poroshenko and his entourage cannot continue to make their fortunes with impunity. Journalists and politicians of the new generation will simply not allow it. If Poroshenko decides to ignore the warnings, the outcome is clear. It will lead to the further decimation of his rating, and, with it, a most inglorious end to his presidential career. TMT 6 Russian Tales “Do you seriously think it’s possible to preserve Vladimir’s body?” Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin’s wife. The Moscow Times No. 5753 55 kg estimated weight of Lenin’s body in the mausoleum. Jan. 21, 1924 at first, the soviet government considered freezing Lenin’s body. several months after his death, they decided to embalm it. The day of Vladimir Lenin’s death. He was 53 years old. peTer anDrews / reuTers Over the years, all internal organs, including the brain, have been removed from Lenin’s embalmed body. A team of dedicated scientists attend the the remaining mass of skin, skeleton and muscle. In the Flesh By Daria Litvinova [email protected] | Twitter: @dashalitvinovv It started out as an accidental experiment, but 92 years on, Vladimir Lenin’s embalmed body is no closer to soil. H e lies in a glass sarcophagus. His eyes are closed, reddish beard and mustache trimmed, and his hands rest calmly on his thighs. Dressed in an austere black suit, Vladimir Lenin, the first Soviet leader, looks, on first impressions, to be sleeping. His image is so lifelike that it often scares children. Many adults assume it is a waxwork, rather than the actual body of someone who died 92 years ago. And yet, it is Lenin’s body, at least in part. If carefully monitored, nurtured and re-embalmed regularly, scientists believe it can last for centuries. During Soviet times, an extensive infrastructure was developed to ensure this happened. The public may be divided over such a prospect, but for the time being the authorities seem committed to Lenin’s care and keeping. Last month, the Federal Guard Service — territory near the Kremlin, including the mausoleum, falls into their jurisdiction — announced a tender for “medical and biological works to maintain Lenin’s body” in 2016. The sum advertised was 13 million rubles ($197,000). Life and Death When Lenin died in January 1924, no one planned to preserve his body for this long. A renowned pathologist Alexei Abrikosov performed the usual autopsy on the body, and, among other things, cut its major arteries. “Later he would say that if he had known they would embalm the body, he wouldn’t have done it,” says Alexei Yurchak, professor of social anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. “The blood-vascular system could have been used to deliver embalming chemicals to the tissue.” After the autopsy, Lenin’s body was temporarily embalmed to prevent it from immediately decomposing, so that it could be put on display to give people a chance to pay their respects to the beloved Soviet leader. It was anticipated Lenin would then be buried on Red Square. For four days, the corpse was kept in an open casket at the Union House (Dom Soyuzov) in the center of Moscow. People from all over the Soviet Union lined up to say their final goodbyes. Crowds of 50,000 people passed through the hall where the casket was placed. It was exceptionally cold outside, and, even inside, the temperature was minus 7 degrees Celsius. Contemporary accounts recall bonfires kept burning nearby to prevent visitors from freezing. Despite the cold, more and more people, including foreign delegations, wanted to pay their respects to the deceased leader. So four days after Lenin’s death, the government moved the casket to a temporary wooden mausoleum on Red Square and made it available for visitors. The corpse was kept cold and had not started to rot. It was 56 days after Lenin’s death that Soviet officials decided to preserve the body. The first idea didn’t involve embalming, but deep freezing the body. Leonid Krasin, the international trade minister at the time, was granted permission to acquire special freezing equipment in Germany. Yet in early March 1924, when preparations for freezing were gaining momentum, two wellknown chemists Vladimir Vorobyov and Boris Zbarsky suggested embalming the body. They proposed using a chemical mixture that would prevent the corpse from decomposing, drying up and changing color and shape. Zbarsky argued that freezing was not the best option — decomposing would still continue even in low temperatures, he said. At first, Vorobyov was reluctant to take part in the project. He was out of the Bolshevik government’s good graces and was afraid to fail such a high-profile assignment and face retribution. However, he was one of the best in the field and had already successfully preserved several bodies using embalming techniques. Eventually, after a series of government meetings and inspections of the body, the decision was made to give embalming a try. It was already late March — the weather was improving, temperatures were rising, and waiting longer could have caused permanent damage to the body. The corpse had, in fact, already suffered damage by that point. Dark spots had begun to appear on the skin, including Continued on Page 11 → Weekly round-up of all that’s new, delicious and fun in Moscow. The Balalaika bar is set to participate in the Moscow festival “Cocktail Mania,” May 16 to June 16. This year, bars will create cocktails inspired by legends of international cinema. BALALAIKA Out & About 7 May 5 – 11, 2016 Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out By Fraser Barr [email protected] W A quirky musical bar opens on the Arbat, serving traditional Russian fare. ith its open plan and minimalist design, Balalaika offers a refreshing break from the Arbat’s usual coffee chains, souvenir shops and kebab kiosks. The brainchild of Valerie Dorodnykh and Yekaterina Nesterova — the same duo responsible for Ukulele on Ulitsa Pokrovka — this designer den of exposed wiring and bare lightbulbs uses balalaikas as wall decorations. Musicians take note: The instruments are available to purchase. Head barman Dmitry Urusov has a wide variety of infused vodkas, spirits and specialty cocktails. For beer lovers there’s a range on offer from Russian craft brewery Jaws, able to hold its own against international brews in taste and design. Head upstairs into the vaulted mezzanine dining area and you’ll be able to peruse the menu. Balalaika specializes solely in Russian cuisine and offers hungry diners a plethora of traditional, high-quality dishes. Hearty salads with simple hors oeuvres make an appetizing starter or a light bite for tourists on the run. While the mains are hardly the most exciting or inventive dishes in Moscow, they are full of fla- vor and proudly Russian. Be wary, however, the waiters’ keen desire to offer you tea before you glance at the menu is not necessarily good customer service, but perhaps to stop you noticing it is by far one of the more expensive options on the drinks menu. With its clean and trendy interior, Balalaika doesn’t offer any innovative décor. If not for the balalaikas mounted on the wall, it would be indistinguishable from the array of new eateries in the capital attempting to channel the latest in European hipster chic. It is the authentic Russian menu that sets it apart, and with its central location, Balalaika gives visitors and Muscovites a perfectly pleasant place to have either a meal or a drink with little pretense of offering otherwise. Who its clientele will be remains to be seen, but for anyone wishing to escape the generic burger joints of Moscow and get a real taste of what Russian cuisine has to offer, this place will be nothing less than perfectly satisfactory. TMT +7 (495) 740 9061 balaykabar.ru 23 Ulitsa Arbat Metro Arbatskaya VAPORT BOTTEGA VENTUNO KAFANA TRUE COST NEWS & OPENINGS True Cost The cheapest restaurant in Moscow? Kafana Serbian eatery with generous portions Bottega Ventuno Hearty food in an upmarket neighborhood Vaport +7 (499) 750 0050 facebook.com/Truecostbar 23/3 Ulitsa Lva Tolstogo Metro Park Kultury +7 (925) 570 7300 kafana.ru 12 Dobrovolcheskaya Ulitsa Metro Taganskaya +7 (968) 377 5005 facebook.com/BottegaVentuno-1566781750318643 21/13 Ulitsa Malaya Bronnaya Metro Pushkinskaya, Tverskaya +7 (495) 665 2321 vaport.club 1 Krasnokholmskaya Naberezhnaya, Bldg. 3 Metro Taganskaya True Cost has a totally new concept: You pay an entrance fee (150 rubles in the day, 500 rubles in the evening) and each dish costs market price. The menu displays the average Moscow price alongside. An espresso costs 14.8 rubles, the tasty Viennese schnitzel is 138.20 rubles and the ubiquitous salad Olivier costs 74.05 rubles. Generally excellent food quality compensates for slow service. Kafana may mean bistro, but this Taganka joint is more of a restaurant. Serbian pop music blares from the speakers while the kitchen serves up traditional Serbian dishes. Try the Kafana platter (780 rubles), with its grilled peppers in yogurt, sausages, kaymak cheese and duck pate. The servings are huge — you’ll struggle to finish more than one dish. Bring cash as Kafana doesn’t accept cards. Take it and go! Bottega is the latest addition to the restaurant scene around Patriarch’s Ponds. The menu covers all the Italian basics. Try the crostini with chicken liver (340 rubles) risotto with taleggio cheese (610 rubles) or the fregola with calamari (680 rubles) and polenta. Order a chilled Peroni or bring a bottle of your favorite red — there’s no corkage fee. Vaping hangout by the river E-cigarette smokers are spoiled for choice at Vaport, a new bar packed with an array of e-liquids. There is no rental service (prices for e-liquids are around 3,000 rubles and other equipment considerably more), so newcomers might want to opt for a classic shisha. Vaport has a reasonably priced bar, knowledgeable staff and stays open until the early hours on the weekend. Four pages packed with the best places in Moscow to eat, drink, walk, shop, listen, watch, dance and sightsee. A new walking route and listings every week! Take it, use it, save it! 8 Walking Route The Moscow Times No. 5753 Honor Russia’s Past Learn about the War of 1812 and the Great Patriotic War By Michele A. Berdy [email protected] | Illustration by Ilya Kutoboy On Poklonnaya Gora, see exhibits from the first Patriotic War of 1812 and the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 3. The Monument to Victory and Museum of the Great Patriotic War Take one of the underpasses to the other side of Kutuzovsky Prospekt. After decades of problems, Victory Park was completed and opened on the 50th anniversary of Victory Day in 1995. Walk down the main alley with 225 fountains — the number of weeks of the war — to the monument designed by Zurab Tsereteli. It is 141.8 meters tall (one decimeter for each day of war) and covered with bronze bas-reliefs. At the 104-meter mark is a 25-ton bronze sculptural group with the goddess of victory, Nika, and two cupids announcing the joyous news through horns. Opposite the monument is the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, which may be the most comprehensive museum about the war in Russia. Various halls show the progression of the war with documents, artifacts, photographs, film clips, letters, and memorabilia, while dioramas and other exhibitions give you a vivid sense of some of the key battles of the war. There is also a 3-D show called “The Road to Victory.” Poklonnaya Gora This area has long been called Poklonnaya Gora (“bowingdown hill”), although no one is sure why — perhaps because travelers stopped here to pay their respects before entering the city, or maybe because they paid poklon — a fee for temporary residence — here. Now the name is understood as a place of homage to those who fought and died in the Great Patriotic War — as World War II is known in Russia. 3 5. Museum of Judaica and the Holocaust Behind the war museum is a synagogue and the Museum of the Holocaust, opened in 1998 as the first museum of Jewish history in Russia. The small but moving exhibition shows the life of Jews in pre-Revolutionary Russia — the Settlements of the Pale, pogroms, and more than 400 laws that limited Jewish people’s rights to live, study and work where they wanted and to practice their religion. Another section tells of the horrors of the Holocaust, and about the role of Jews in the resistance movement during the war, as well as their contribution to culture, art, economic and state development of the Russian Empire, the U.S.S.R., and the Russian Federation. 3 5 6 On Poklonnaya Gora 4-hour walk 1 9 1. Battle of Borodino Panorama Museum This walk begins outside the Kutuzovskaya metro station; walk away from the center on the right side of street until you see a round building. That’s the Battle of Borodino Panorama Museum, which was built in 1962 on the spot where FieldMarshal Kutuzov held his council of war in a peasant hut in 1812. The best part of the museum is the enormous panorama of the battle: 115 meters around and 15 meters high, painted by Franz Roubaud to show the French and Russian armies at Borodino on Sept. 7, 1812. Three-dimensional soldiers slide seamlessly into the two-dimensional painting as the sounds of battle ring out. Listen to the guided tour in English and be sure to ask where Pierre Bezukhov — Tolstoy’s character in “War and Peace” — fought. The tour guides love that question! 38 Kutuzovsky Prospekt 2 Kutuzovsky Prospekt 2. Triumphal Gates When you leave the Borodino Museum, continue to walk away from the center and use the underground passage to cross the street to Victory Square, the area in the middle of the highway with the enormous Triumphal Gates. The original gates were designed by Osip Bove and put up in 1834 on Ploshchad Tverskaya Zastava — then the outer gates of the city — in honor of Russia’s victory over Napoleon in 1812. When Josef Stalin’s first General Plan for the city went into effect in the mid-1930s, the gates were dismantled and put in storage. Alas, little remained in the 1960s when the authorities wanted to put them up again. So what you see is a beautiful reproduction from 1968 that was recently restored for the anniversary of the war in 2012. 4 4. Church of St. George the Victorious To the left of the monument is the Church of St. George the Victorious, consecrated in 1995 and a fine and surprising example of a slightly modern take on traditional Russian church architecture. It is dedicated to St. George, revered for his strength and bravery for slaying a dragon, and much beloved in Russia. He is the patron saint of Moscow and is one of the emblems of the Russian state. It is no wonder that the church here, in Victory Park, was dedicated to this warrior-saint. 6. Outdoor Exhibition of Military Equipment If you visit the park with children, chances are they will be tugging at your sleeves to get to the outdoor exhibition — over 300 pieces of equipment, tanks, artillery, cars, transport vehicles and weaponry from the war years. While most of the pieces are from the Red Army, there are also examples of equipment captured from Germany and Japan, as well as fighter planes and other equipment provided by the United States under the Lend-Lease program. Kids are welcome to scramble all over them. In other parts of Victory Park you can rent bikes or segways, grab a bite to eat, or simply sit on a bench and watch kids zip by on their skateboards and rollerblades, sipping sodas and flirting, as mothers chase after toddlers, fathers help young cyclists, and grandparents cluck over everyone. This festive family atmosphere, at first unexpected, is truly the best way to celebrate victory. The Moscow Times No. 5753 City of Chekhov: Where to see The Seagull in Moscow If any city has the right to call itself the city of Chekhov, it’s Moscow. Although the great playwright and short story writer was born in the south of Russia, he spent most of his adult life in Moscow and it was here that he solidified his status as one of the pillars of modern theater. “Chaika” (The Seagull) is probably Chekhov’s best-known work. It focuses on the relationships and conflicts — both artistic and romantic — between Arkadina, an aging actress, her lover celebrity writer Trigorin, her son Treplev, and their neighbor Zarechnaya. An enduringly popular play, “The Seagull” has recently acquired a new subtext due to allegations of criminal activity concerning Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and his family. The connection became obvious when opposition pranksters installed a fake Seagull billboard in front of the Sovremennik Theater building. In another incident at the premier of “Theatrical Insomnia: The Seagull” at the Stanislavsky Electrotheater, Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova wore a seagull mask advertising her new video about the prosecutor. Whether you’re a traditionalist, or a fan of modern interpretations, Chekhov’s seminal play can be seen at many of Moscow’s theaters. Here are our top picks. Experimental production by 3 talented directors Treplev’s argument with his mother about the “new forms” versus “routine theater” is taken very literally in this avant-garde performance. The “new forms,” of course, win. The production is experimental in more ways than one. Firstly, you can only see the performance late at night — hence the insomnia. The play starts after midnight and during the breaks you see additional performances, including some Chekhov-inspired rap music. Secondly, each of the three acts is the work of a different director, and all three of them are up and coming talents: Yury Muravitsky, Yury Kvyatkovsky and Kirill Vytoptov. Finally, each act in itself is an experiment. Muravitsky’s interpretation of “The Seagull” is a catwalk where each of the characters is a model repeating his or her key lines from the play. Kvyatkovsky’s act is a series of improvisations in which actors adopt and shed identities faster than you would have thought possible. Vytoptov’s final act is set at a bar, where Chekhov’s characters meet their contemporary equivalents. These include Elvis Presley and Amy Winehouse lookalikes. It’s in many ways a surreal experience, but an invigorating one. electrotheatre.ru 23 Tverskaya Ulitsa Metro Pushkinskaya, Tverskaya MOST Theater Satirikon “Theatrical Insomnia: The Seagull” at the Stanislavsky Electrotheater “Chekhov” at the MOST Theater An amalgamation of Chekhov’s best works MOST stands for Moscow United Student Theater. While it may have started out as a student-led initiative, most of the actors nowadays are either semi-professional or working at the theater full time. “Chekhov” is not one but three plays: “The Seagull,” “Three Sisters” and “Cherry Orchard.” All three plots take place on the stage simultaneously. Director Georgiy Dolmazyan put together a jigsaw puzzle of scenes taken to conjure up a whole new Chekhov’s universe. Of course, there is no time for all the scenes from all 3 plays in one performance, but MOST’s production manages to capture the central themes of each in an imaginative way. If you know Chekhov’s lines well enough you will be able to distinguish where one ends and the other one begins. If not, it will look like a single seamless performance. Gradually, you come to realize that the main character is not one of the numerous people crowding the stage at any given moment, but the master himself, Chekhov. Familiar characters, problems and scenarios as well as the search for answers to life’s fundamental questions invite you to delve deeper into Chekhov’s creative world. teatrmost.ru 6 Bolshaya Sadovaya. Metro Mayakovskaya Satirikon Charlotte Tasktzar, freelance English tutor and student of Russian “A regular haunt for when I’m craving genuine Vietnamese food is Cafe Saigon. The interior isn’t anything extravagant, but the dishes are the most authentic I have found outside Vietnam. And it’s not bad value either!” “The Seagull” at the Satirikon Theater Vast in proportion and possibility One of the best-known interpretations of “The Seagull” is by the critically acclaimed director Yury Butusov from St. Petersburg, played at the Satirikon Theater. A peculiarity of Butusov’s performances is the repetition of the same scene, each time performed in a different mood. This technique is used generously in “The Seagull.” Zarechnaya’s monologue when she meets Treplev after being gone for two years goes from psychotic to calm, from tragic to cheery, all played one after the other. Butusov also employs unusual choices for his actresses. Zarechnaya is played by an older woman, while Arkadina by a younger one. There’s quite a bit of confusion about which actors are playing which at points because characters switch from one to the other more than once. The performance features an upbeat soundtrack and plenty of dancing, with Butusov himself leading the way. It’s one of the longest versions of “The Seagull,” lasting more than four hours with three intermissions. satirikon.ru 8 Sheremetyevskaya Ulitsa Metro Marina Roshcha Tabakov Theater Out & About Stanislavsky Electrotheater 10 “The Seagull” at the Tabakov Theater Post-modernism meets tradition Director Konstantin Bogomolov, known for his scandalous interpretations of classics by such writers as Oscar Wilde and Fyodor Dostoevsky, sticks to the letter in this traditional version of “The Seagull.” Yet Bogomolov still finds ways to insert interesting elements even in a completely traditional performance. To begin with, stage arrangements are quite unusual. The whole first half is performed on benches which in turns face the audience and away from it. The backdrop itself is a screen with a projection of the action onstage. Except that on the screen there is an actual curtain, absent on the real stage. This setup casts the whole production in a somewhat surreal, post-modernist light. To add to the feeling sometimes there is a text on the backdrop notifying where and when the action is taking place (“Tree,” “Day of departure,” etc.). The second act, in total contrast to the first, uses traditional stage decorations — the interior of a house complete with cupboard, table, and chairs. Another twist is that Zarechnaya is played by one actress in the first act and a different one in the second. First part’s Zarechnaya is a young flirty girl, while the second act’s Zarechnaya is a hollowed out, grim middleaged woman. tabakov.ru MKhAT stage at 3 Kamergersky Pereulok Metro Teatralnaya, Okhotny Ryad Russian Tales 11 May 5 – 11, 2016 60% “Lenin is buried under Orthodox rules. I consulted with priests on that.” Gennady Zyuganov, Communist Party leader. of russians are in favor of a proper burial for lenin. Aug. 1, 1924 According to studies, lenin died as a result of cerebrovascular disease. some have speculated that he had neurosyphilis. the red square mausoleum first opened. ← Despite freezing temperatures, tens of thousands of mourners attended Lenin’s funeral on Red Square, Jan. 27, 1924. riA novosti AnAtoly GArAnin / riA novosti → View over Red Square and Lenin’s tomb, September 1941. The permanent granite mausoleum was completed in 1933. ← Continued from Page 6 embalmed body lay alongside Lenin from 1953 to 1961. The embalming process was carried out in complete secrecy, with scientists from the lab, occasionally flying to Vietnam or North Korea to provide maintenance, reluctant to share information with their foreign colleagues. “Junior specialists — like I was at the time — weren’t told any of the specifics,” Vadim Milov, an embalmer who worked in the lab from 1987 to 1997, told The Moscow Times. “And yet I had enough information to travel to Vietnam to work on Ho Chi Minh’s body.” Attempts by The Moscow Times to interview someone currently assigned to the lab were unsuccessful. After several written requests to provide comments, Nikolai Sidelnikov, director of the All-Russia Institute of Medicinal Plants, refused to provide access to the lab, saying it was “subject to commercial and state secrets.” Yurchak, who has been studying Lenin’s body for years and has interviewed scientists of the lab, says such secrecy hasn’t always been the case. “They gave plenty of interviews in the 1990s, one Russian television channel even filmed a detailed documentary featuring the facilities under the mausoleum. But the new management of the lab doesn’t want journalists to turn their work into a joke, which they often do,” the anthropologist said. It is quite likely that authorities have imposed a ban on talking to the media, he added. Lenin’s face, and his eye sockets were deformed. So, for several months, scientists set about whitening the skin and calculating the correct chemical mixture for successful embalming. Under the pressure of reporting to Soviet officials, they worked day and night. On Aug. 1, 1924 the mausoleum on Red Square finally opened for visitors. “Amazing! It’s an absolute victory,” Zbarsky was reported as saying. From then on, a group of scientists has been tasked with maintaining the body. At the peak of its activity during Soviet times, the “Lenin lab” had around 200 specialists working on the project, according to Yurchak. Today, the group is a dozen times smaller, but the work has hardly changed. Every few days scientists visit the mausoleum to check on the body, where it is preserved under carefully calculated temperature and lighting. And every 18 months the body is re-embalmed in a special facility located beneath the mausoleum. Here, scientists cautiously wash the body, immerse it in embalming liquids and inject it with the necessary chemicals. Lenin’s body is now little more than a skeleton held together with muscles and skin. All internal organs have been removed, including the brain. Lenin’s brain was meticulously examined by the Soviet “Brain Institute,” created not long after Lenin died with the specific role of studying his “extraordinary abilities.” Pieces of Lenin’s brain are still preserved in the institute, which now forms part of the Neurology Center at the Russian Academy of Sciences. In addition to ensuring the body looks natural, scientists nowadays also keep the joints working, monitor the condition of the skin, and sometimes replace damaged tissue with artificial material. Experimental treatments and new chemicals are usually tested on so-called “experimental objects” — unidentified embalmed bodies that are kept in the lab — in order not to accidentally damage Lenin. The unique technique developed by Soviet scientists has resulted in several “customers” from abroad. Besides Lenin, the lab in Moscow also embalmed and preserved, among others, Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh, Bulgarian leader Georgi Dimitrov, North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Not to mention Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, whose riA novosti The Lenin Lab Post-Soviet Lenin Lenin’s lab hit hard times after the Soviet Union collapsed. In 1991 many of Russia’s new democratic rulers called for the demolition of the mausoleum, and for Lenin to be buried elsewhere. This caused a big protest, recalls Yevgeny Dorovin, State Duma deputy from the Communist Party and chair of an NGO supporting preserving the mausoleum in its current state. “A lot of people went to Red Square to protest this blasphemy,” he says. “Fortunately, the commandant of the Kremlin garrison eventually came out and calmed everyone down, and told them that the mausoleum is safe.” But the government pulled the plug on the project’s funding, once again putting the future of the mausoleum under question. The Communist Party responded by collecting donations to support the mausoleum and the scientists who worked on maintaining Lenin’s body. “We paid for everything except gas, water and electricity,” Dorovin said, though he refused to specify how much money the foundation raised and spent. The state only began funding the mausoleum again a couple years ago, he added. The Federal Guard Service told The Moscow Times “it was impossible” to reveal how much had been allocated to preserving Lenin and the mausoleum. They also refused to specify at what time they became responsible for the mausoleum. The bigger threat to the future of the mausoleum is generational. The scientists are getting older, and there are no young scientists willing to Still from the replace them. “Young people are not that indocumentary terested in mausoleum science, it’s not pres“Woeful Janutigious anymore,” Yurchak says. ary of 1924.” There is one obvious solution, but the Bolshevik idea of burying the Soviet icon is not a popurevolutionary lar one among the Lenin scientists. If that Mikhail Kaliwere to happen, it would mean an unparalnin stands in leled 92-year-long experiment will come to honor guard an end. “It would represent a loss of science, near Lenin’s studies and discoveries — that is what scientomb. Kalinin tists fear,” says Yurchak. was an ally of Stalin during In the meantime, the mausoleum is the power closed — but only temporarily: Authorities struggle that are preparing Red Square for the Victory followed Day Parade on May 9. It will open again on Lenin’s death. May 18, with Lenin looking as sprightly as ever. TMT 12 Living Here The Moscow Times No. 5753 1965 “The initiative was created not in an office or by administrative structures, but in the hearts of our people.” Vladimir Putin. Leonid Brezhnev turns May 9 into a public holiday. 12M “There are fewer and fewer veterans, and less and less truth on Victory Day.” Sergei Lapenkov, cofounder of the immortal regiment. Reported immortal regiment participants last year. RIA NovosTI / ReuTeRs Students of the Sevastopol Presidential Cadet School take part in the 2015 Immortal Regiment march on Victory Day in central Moscow. They carry pl acards showing World War II soldiers. Seeking Immortality By Peter Hobson [email protected] | Twitter: @peterhobson15 A grassroots movement to remember the World War II generation proved so popular that the authorities adopted it as their own. O n Victory Day, May 9, last year, a giant procession took over central Moscow. Its participants held aloft placards, with faded, black and white photographs of men and women, many of them in uniform, most of them somber, unsmiling. Crowds filled Moscow’s eight-lane central avenue, Tverskaya Ulitsa, for a full 3 1/2 kilometers. On the same day, in hundreds of other cities, millions more marched with their own photographs. These were Russia’s “immortal regiments,” an homage to the generation that lost more than 20 million people in the fight against the Nazis. The portraits people held were of relatives who had lived and died during World War II. Alongside the sense of loss, the mood everywhere was of elation and national pride. This wasn’t necessarily what its founders had intended. Origins Four years earlier, a man called Igor Dmitriyev wrestled with his own worries over Victory Day. As a boy, Dmitriyev would mark May 9 with his grandfather, who had fought his way to Berlin and returned home, miraculously, to push ahead with life. Each year, Dmitriyev’s family would gather around the table. Sometimes they would play the accordion and sing. There were more jokes about the war than discussions of its horrors. When his grandfather died, Dmitriyev still sought the company of the World War II generation. On Victory day, a public holiday, he and his daughter would chose a veteran among the crowds. “It may sound stupid, but we’d find a grandpa that we liked,” he says. Then the aging veterans began to disappear. Unwilling to abandon their tradition, Dmitriyev and his daughter began to pick out other pensioners and military officials. But it didn’t feel right. He puzzled over the problem with friends in Tomsk, his Siberian hometown of half a million people. With fewer veterans, they thought, Victory Day had begun to lose its truth. From being an event of remembrance, it was fast becoming an official government party. The friends decided it was time to bring their grandparents back. “We thought our grandfathers should march,” Dmitriyev says in a gentle, serene voice. “Even if they were in our arms.” He recruited two friends working at a local television station in Tomsk, Sergei Lapenkov and Sergei Kolotovkin, to put out the word. They expected a few hundred people to come to the first immortal regiment in 2012. Six thousand showed up. The idea immediately proved infectious. News of the march through Tomsk spread, and people began calling in from across Russia wanting to participate or organize their own event the following year. In 2013, immortal regiments marched through 120 towns. A year later, they paraded though 500. The founders set up a website and wrote a charter. It proclaimed that the immortal regiment would forever remain a loose collection of volunteers; that it would be non-commercial, apolitical and non-state, and never be hijacked to improve anyone’s image. Its meaning was simple: Help families remember their members who endured the war. Infiltration The purity of the movement soon made it vulnerable. From the very start, the organizers were approached by politicians and corporate sponsors eager to piggyback off their success. By the beginning of last year, they had begun to lose control. The main reason for this was Nikolai Zemtsov, a Communist Party deputy in Moscow’s local parliament. Soon after making contact with Dmitriyev, Lapenkov and Kolotovkin in 2013, Zemtsov began to insist that the immortal regiment in Moscow work with local authorities for funding and organization. When the Tomsk activists refused, Zemtsov went rogue and set up a copycat movement called “The Immortal Regiment of Russia.” Zemtsov did everything the original organizers had wanted to avoid. He wanted on-stage speeches to the Moscow crowds. He forged links with political movements linked to President Vladimir Putin. He canvassed for funding. He announced on television that immortal regiments would march through Donetsk and Luhansk with “portraits not only of war veterans, but those who have died now, in the battle against Ukrainian fascism.” Zemtsov wrested control of last year’s march through Moscow. Afterward, his influence spread as he lobbied other cities across Russia to adopt his surrogate immortal regiment as official organizer. Given their original open Living Here “The immortal regiment isn’t feeling even a fraction of the tragedy of war. It’s turned into a parade of military glory.” Nikita Petrov, historian. May 5 – 11, 2016 1995 first victory Day parade since end of communism. “They are trying to organize a folk tradition and turn it into a political lever.” Igor Dmitriyev, immortal regiment co-founder. On May 9, 2015, people take part in the Immortal Regiment march in Chita, in Siberia’s Zabaikalsky region. 319,240 13 Personal war stories were on the immortal regiment website in early May. The word’s worTh Giving Life and Bouncing Back RIA novosTI / ReuTeRs By Michele A. Berdy Moscow-based translator and interpreter, author of “The Russian Word’s Worth” (Glas), a collection of her columns. I proposal, there was little that the Tomsk founders could do to stop him. Under Zemtsov’s direction, the movement in many cities now bears little relation to the apolitical vision mapped out in the original charter. Organization committees have popped up across the country, some drawing state salaries. Political parties and local authorities use immortal regiment logos on their websites and in election pamphlets. Banks distribute placards with corporate logos. In schools across the country, children are tasked with making placards and sent to march in groups. Zemtsov defends all of this. He says the regiment’s founders were naive to think hundreds of marches could be run by volunteers without a budget. “The organizers’ role is limited and they are needed, considering the scale of things,” he says. But the original founders are suspicious of Zemtsov’s motives. One of them, Sergei Lapenkov, says the people taking control of the regiment are destroying its focus on personal family histories and on individuals. He says Zemtsov and those like him are pursuing career advancement and financial gain. More fundamentally, he says, the takeover is about government taking control. All significant opposition parties, youth movements and NGOs have either been brought under the thumb or crushed during Putin’s reign. Here was an independent movement that was expanding exponentially. “This must have seriously worried somebody at the top,” says Lapenkov. “Someone thought: ‘What else might these people do?’” Pomp RIA novosTI / ReuTeRs Lapenkov says “placard patriotism” is the inevitable result of bureaucrats getting involved in voluntary endeavours. This kind of state-engineered patriotism has been rife since the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, and it reaches fever pitch during the pageantry of Victory Day. But it wasn’t always like this. In the postwar decades, Victory Day was much quieter, and a family event. Veterans tended to avoid speaking about the war. Lapenkov’s says his own grandfather would never watch war films (he lost both legs in the war, but afterward learned to dance on his prostheses). Victory Day was usually overshadowed by May 1, Labor Day. It was in this celebration of workers that the Communist Party invested more energy. Victory Day only became a public holiday with military parades after 1965, under Leonid Brezhnev, with his government made from the war generation. After a lull following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the May 9 parade was rehabilitated in 1995, on the 50th anniversary of victory. In a demoralized, broken country, politicians quickly saw Victory Day’s value as a uniting force, and made the parades an annual fixture. The final step came in 2008, when Putin reintroduced processions of tanks and intercontinental missiles across Red Square. Alongside the rising pomp of May 9, history itself has been moulded by the government to solidify its position. A mythologized version of war heroism has emerged, reinforced by a steady flow of glossy state-subsidized patriotic movies. The immortal regiment project aimed to puncture that mythology and preserve real stories of personal loss. That idea survives on the founders’ original website, moypolk.ru, which invites people to share their soldiers’ tales. In early May, there were 319,240 entries. “The stories are remarkable, sometimes wild,” says Dmitriyev. And often, they are touchingly unheroic. One tells of a father who reported a day late to his dispatch station. For this failure, the man was placed in a “punishment battalion.” These battalions were practically a death sentence — commanders used them for such tasks as running through minefields to clear them. That soldier disappeared without a trace, leaving his wife in lifelong mourning. For some, not only the increased government control but the scale of the immortal regiment risks undermining that humanity. This year’s event promises to be the biggest yet. Regiments will march not only in hundreds of Russian cities, but in dozens of countries, including the United States, Spain and Indonesia. That worries Nikita President Petrov, a historian. “When Vladimir this sort of action becomes Putin holds mass, it takes on a revana portrait of chist, militaristic character,” his father, he says. “It is no longer perwar vetsonal remembrance, but a eran Vladimir state event.” Spiridonovich Dmitriyev, the idea’s origiPutin, while nator, is also anxious. “Evtaking part in erything this is now turning the Immortal into is not right,” he says, Regiment march on Red “all of this organization and Square on agreed numbers and times. May 9, 2015. Guys, stop, just stop. You’re all people. You all have grandfathers who fought. Let’s just remember them. Sometimes this turns into dancing on bones. Who needs it?” TMT f you hopped on a plane, bus, or train last weekend to travel to a country with few Orthodox Christians, you might have forgotten the Easter rituals. But if you stayed in Russia, you were probably overwhelmed by colored eggs, кулич (Easter sweet bread), пасха (a spread that tastes a bit like cheesecake), and of course the cheerful greeting Христос воскресе! (Christ is risen!) to which people reply: Воистину воскресе! (Verily He is risen.) Wait a sec — воскресе? That doesn’t sound like Russian. Good catch! It isn’t. It’s Church Slavonic. You can also say in Russian: Христос воскрес! Воистину воскрес! — although that’s a bit down to earth. In any case, the verb being used is воскрес-, that is, воскреш-, no — hold on I’ll get it … Ah. Here’s the tricky bit. There are two verb pairs that are almost but not quite synonyms: воскрешать/воскресить and воскресать/воскреснуть. Blink and you mix them up. But the meaning and way you use them differs. Воскрешать means to resurrect someone or something. It’s a transitive verb, which means in everyday language that you carry out the act of resurrecting on a person or object. Usually you come across this in a religious context: Христос воскрешает нас, как воскресил когда-то Лазаря (Christ resurrects us the way he once resurrected Lazarus). But we humans can also resurrect things, like memories: Нам легко воскрешать в нашей памяти радостные моменты прошлого (It’s easy for us to resurrect the joyful moments of our past in our memories). Or we can give concepts a second life: Это давным-давно умершие понятия нашего проклятого прошлого, и я не пойму, кто и зачем их воскрешает (Those are concepts of our cursed past that died out long ago, and I can’t understand who is resurrecting them and why). Or we can bring someone back to life, albeit in a human way, like this prison camp inmate described by Varlam Shalamov: Даже пятьсот граммов ржаного хлеба, три ложки каши и миска жидкого супа в день могли воскрешать человека (Even 50 grams of rye bread, three spoonfuls of porridge and a bowl of watery soup a day could bring a man back to life). The other pair, воскресать/воскреснуть, also means to resurrect, but the verb pair is intransitive — someone or something resurrects itself. This is verb you’re using at Easter with the greeting Христос воскрес. And even though this is a very religious word, you can find it used figuratively — or at least secularly: Воскреснет твёрдый знак, вернутся ять (The hard sign will be resurrected and the letter yat will return, too). Of course, most of the time it’s rather lofty: Я шёл так, словно мне шестнадцать лет, всё апрельское волнение и юношеские страхи воскресли во мне (I walked along just like I was 16 years old, and all the excitement of April and fears of youth came to life in me again). Now you might not have cause to talk about resurrection much, but you do bring things back to life, like your garden in the spring. With these secular verb pairs, it’s the same story: оживлять/оживить (to bring someone or something to life) and оживать/ожить (to come to life). You even have the same problem telling the verbs apart. Мы оживляем газету (We’re bringing the newspaper back to life). And in fact: Газета ожила! (The newspaper has bounced back!) Hey, it’s the season of miracles. TMT YevGenY PARfYonov Воскрешать: to resurrect 14 Tips for Life HEALTH NigHTLifE What is больничный лист? What is face control? TMT: If you’ve lived in Moscow long enough Do I need one? and partied hard enough you’ll probably have TMT: Depending on your workplace, this больничный лист — sick leave certificate — may be the most important document you get or something to ignore. It’s an official document issued by a licensed medical provider that certifies that you really were sick last week, not just goofing off, hungover, or painting the garage at the dacha. When you are too sick to go to work, you have to immediately “open” the certificate by going to your clinic of choice. Then you return when you are better and “close” the certificate. You deliver the certificate to the HR department at work, where they will determine your salary for the days you were out of the office, which depends on how long you’ve been working there and other factors. Often you’ll be feeling better but either you can’t get an appointment to “close” out your certificate, or the doctor thinks that bronchitis demands two full weeks in bed. You can go back to work ahead of time, but you will be paid sick leave rates until the certificate is closed. So you might as well stay home. heard of face control. A ritual barbarism carried out by stern-faced bouncers at the city’s more upscale establishments, it essentially involves you either getting the nod of approval or the brutal statement “tonight there is a private party.” The latter is often combined with a gesture to the exit or an aggressive crossing of the arms. Rejectees are plunged into an existential crisis. Why me? What did I do wrong? Waving a foreign passport just isn’t going to cut the mustard, and while the decisions and reasoning of heavies at the door are both mysterious and sometimes illogical — you may get in one week, and not the next — there are a few rules of thumb you can follow to improve your chances. Firstly, dress to impress. It has been argued there is no such thing as overdressed in Moscow, unless you’re aiming to get into a grimy but cool basement club. Secondly, Moscow is one of the few places where being a girl isn’t necessarily an advantage — probably due to the abundance of supermodel types. If you’re in a large group, split into smaller groups of three or four with a mix of genders. And the obvious. Be The Moscow Times No. 5753 Advice, answers and lifehacks to help you enjoy Moscow. fashionably early, don’t be loud in the line and definitely don’t exude the air of being drunk and/or obnoxious. If you don’t get in, take heart that you’ll probably have a better time somewhere else. REPAiRS How do you clean super glue off your hands? TMT: Ah, the May holidays: cleaning, washing windows, digging up the garden, fixing all those broken things around the house. You limp back to the office sunburned, with blisters, cuts and other weekend warrior injuries. In Russia, the land of malls, for your DYI projects you can buy a variety of imported and domestic glues. A Russian favorite is actually a German-produced glue called Moment because it dries in a moment. That’s very, very good when it’s on your mother-in-law’s favorite china teapot that you broke. But when it’s sticking your fingers together forever? Not so good. Here’s a Russian lifehack to clean it off: Take table salt — or ask someone else, if your hands are immobilized. Drip a bit of water on top. Rub the salt and water mixture for several minutes until all the glue dissolves or is rubbed off. Genius. fuN STuff Where can I watch the Victory Day parade? TMT: Unless you’re a veteran, government worker or a close friend of Putin, you can forget about watching the Victory Day parade in Red Square on Monday. It’s very much an “invite only” affair. But don’t fret, there are plenty of other spots around the city to get your fill of tanks, uniforms and heavy artillery. As with last year, the central parade will pass along Tverskaya Ulitsa, the city’s main thoroughfare, before entering Pushkin Square, Manege Square and Red Square. On its return the parade will pass along Novy Arbat. If you’re hoping to catch the parade on Tverskaya Ulitsa, get in position early and sharpen those elbows. Soldiers and tanks will be in position on Red Square at 10 a.m., so aim to either catch processions on the way to or from the center. Alternatively, if you’re interested in the spectacle but also love a lie-in, why not tune in to a live stream via the May 9 website from the comfort of your own home? Invite some friends over and make a morning of it. Live stream at 9maya.ru Route map at pro-stranstva.ru/parad-pobedy Classifieds May 5 – 11, 2016 Advertising. To place an ad, please contact Yulia Bychenkova Tel.: +7 (495) 232 4774 [email protected] 15 16 What’s On The Moscow Times No. 5753 See www.themoscowtimes.com for more listings. May 5 – 11 Fireworks An Eagle Eye on Festivities Watch the Victory Day fireworks from the 58th floor of Moscow City’s Empire building Empire building Moscow City smotricity.ru AFIMall City. Metro Delovoi Tsentr May 9 at 9 p.m. FesTival Oriental Culture Festival TReTyAKOV GAlleRy Learn about Oriental crafts, languages and cuisine Sokolniki Park facebook.com/orientalexpo2016 1 Sokolnichesky Val. Metro Sokolniki May 2 through May 6 Symphony of Colors: Kandinsky at New Tretyakov Gallery By Timur Zolotoev [email protected] To mark the 150th anniversary of Kandinsky’s birth, the Tretyakov Gallery has collaborated with the Hermitage Museum to bring two of Vasily Kandinsky’s most iconic works to Moscow. “Composition VI” and “Composition VII” were created in 1913, and are considered to embody the key ideas of one of the founding fathers and principle theorists of abstract art. The masterpieces face one another other in a hexagonal pavilion — built by the renowned Russian architect Sergei Chobin — within the New Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val. The exhibition also features a multimedia project that visualizes Kandinsky’s path to his masterpieces by collecting the sketches and other works that preceded both compositions. Kandinsky believed that figurative art distracted the observer by its visual references to the real world, thus making color and form secondary. Abstract art in its turn sets color and form free, liberating them from any fixed references. Music was a key driving force behind Kandinsky’s search for pure forms and colors. Likening painting to composing music, he often used musical terms, such as “impressions” and “compositions” to identify his works. A crucial concept for Kandinsky was counterpoint — the art of combining different melodic lines in a musical composition. Borrowing the idea from musical theory, he applied it to painting, describing it as a superior way of organizing an artwork. “He did not want any ideas to be directly reflected in his paintings, but rather wanted his paintings to provoke observers to reflect on themselves,” said Lyudmila Bobrovskaya, the curator of the exhibition, in an interview with The Moscow Times. “The main advantage of abstract art is that it does not bind you to any literary allusions or history. Kandinsky’s key achievement is that in the beginning of the 20th century, the age of scientific discoveries, he tried to appeal to people’s souls.” Trying to explain “Composition VI” and “Composition VII” is a daunting task, as they are first and foremost meant to resonate with observer’s soul. “Everyone will see what they want to see — be that a cat, a whale or an angel blowing a trumpet,” Bobrovskaya said of “Composition VII.” “What is really important for Kandinsky is the state of mind into which the observers immerse themselves.” The whole exhibition is binary in its focus on the two masterpieces — they collide and harmonize at the same time. In short, they embody the Kandinsky counterpoint that allows the creation of a symphony on canvas. TMT “Vasily Kandinsky. Counterpoint: Composition VI — Composition VII” runs until June 13 tretyakovgallery.ru 10 Krymsky Val. Metro Oktyabrskaya ConCerT Moscow Easter Festival Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 Tchaikovsky Concert Hall meloman.ru 4/31 Triumfalnaya Ploshchad Metro Mayakovskaya May 9 at 7 p.m. opera Iolante Directoral debut of actors from the Seventh Circle produce Tchaikovsky’s opera Gogol Center gogolcenter.com 8 Ulitsa Kazakova. Metro Kurskaya May 7 and 8 at 8:30 p.m. FesTival French Cinema Films including “Chocolat” and “Marguerite” will be shown in French with Russian subtitles Cinema Park Riviera institutfrancais.ru 18 Avtozavodskaya Ulitsa Metro Avtozavodskaya May 10 through May 14