BOOKMARKS www.pircenter.org Center for Political Research
RUSSIA NOW 05
www.cdi.org/russia/johnson Johnson’s Russia List
www.russiaprofile.org Unwrapping the mystery inside the enigma
SECTION SPONSORED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA
www.interfax.com International News Agency WWW.RBTH.RU Reflections
AFGHAN INVASIONS
Found in Translation
Rejecting the ‘isms’
The Soviet invasion of Afghani- Of Ideology
stan, a fateful turn of history, oc-
curred thirty years ago, on Dec. 27,
RUSSIANS HAVE A TRADITIONAL DISLIKE OF ANY SORT OF ‘ISMS’ - ES-
1979. It would be almost ten years
PECIALLY IF THEY ARE POLITICAL. PERHAPS LEFT OVER FROM SOVIET
before the army extricated itself, on
TIMES, ANYTHING THAT SUGGESTS COLLECTIVISM IS SURE TO DRAW
Feb. 15, 1989. The pervasive view is
SINCERE IRE.
that the decade-long war contrib-
uted greatly to the collapse of the dence? True, dictionaries also
Soviet Union, though other theories note a more negative meaning:
in Russia are gaining in popularity. the doctrine that self-interest is
One critical question remains: Why the proper goal of all human
did Soviet leadership choose to in- action and even egoism, but
vade Afghanistan in the first place? that is rather marginal com-
pared to the positive mean-
VLADIMIR SNEGIREV
ings.
SPECIAL TO RUSSIA NOW
And yet, in Russian, it is this
derogatory meaning of the
On Dec. 27, Russia’s veterans will mark
DRAWING BY DMITRY DIVIN
word that is practically the only
the 30th anniversary of the Soviet in- one. And I suspect that it’s not
vasion of Afghanistan. On that day just a matter of our presumed
in 1979, KGB and military intelligence PAVEL PALAZCHENKO cultural preference for all things
spetsnaz (special forces), assaulted
RUSSIAN TRANSLATION
common and collective, but
and secured all the key government
COMPANY
that the “-ism” in the word has
buildings in Kabul, killed Hafizullah something to do with it, too.
Amin, the second President of Afghan-
DRAWING BY DMITRY DIVIN
When the congress of United As soon as it is taken out, the
istan, and installed the KGB-approved Russia declared that Russian core concept seems to become
Babrak Karmal in his place. conservatism will be the party’s much more acceptable. For ex-
That day is often regarded as the trying to find the answer by scruti- existing balance of power. Admitted- nothing could stop the mujaheddin ideology, I had mixed feelings. ample, the adjective individu-
fatal point, when the countdown nizing hundreds of documents and ly, the defense minister was also eager from picking the desired fruit. All they On the one hand, it is entirely alny is at least neutral and can
began for the fate of the Soviet Union. interviewing people who were direct- to combat-test the enormous Soviet had to do was to reach out and take proper for a political party to sometimes be a word of praise,
(It was almost a decade later, twenty ly or indirectly involved in those events arsenals built during the arms race. it. The media was looking forward have an ideology. Until recent- while individualnost (individu-
years ago on Feb. 15, that the Sovi- 30 years ago, I came to a conclusion. Yuriy Andropov, head of the KGB, to wiring sensational reports back to ly, United Russia didn’t even try ality) is much prized.
et forces pulled out of Afghanistan.) The fateful decision, which was doc- was affected by the heavily biased in- their headquarters. to choose one. But, on the other And, while in English oppor-
It is commonly believed that the umented in a secret handwritten res- telligence coming from his agents in To be fair, similar logic prevailed hand, we Russians seem to have tunism and the derivatives op-
armed invasion of Afghanistan, fol- olution of the Politburo on Dec. 12, Kabul indicating that the Afghan among many senior Soviet officials, an abiding dislike of any “-isms.” portunist and opportunistic can
lowed by a decade of fierce fighting 1979, was compelled by a combina- armed forces were unable to cope including those in the Defense and It may be the legacy of too describe both the admirable
between the “limited contingent” (as tion of circumstances. with the threat of Islamic extremism. Foreign Ministries and the intelligence much ideology in Soviet times, ability to seize every opportu-
the Soviet forces were dubbed by the The aging Soviet leader, Leonid Br- By that time, the mujaheddin had at- service. when Marxism-Leninism was nity and the less commendable
Communist press) and the mujahed- tacked government forces from mul- Several transport aircraft were on mandatory in the media, uni- tendency to act without regard
din, dealt a crushing blow both to tiple locations, and Amin as well as standby to take off from Moscow versities and public speeches. for principle or consequences,
the reputation and the economy of Curiously, the Soviet Taraki before him implored the Krem- and Tashkent in Uzbekistan, and evac- Now, when people hate some- in Russian similar words are al-
the Soviet Union, driving the exist-
leadership was funda-
lin to provide full-scale military sup- uate the Soviet citizens still remain- thing or someone, they just tend ways strongly negative.
ing cracks deeper into the system be- to add an “-ism” to a person’s A word that reflects this “-ism”
fore the U.S.S.R. collapsed together
mentally misled by their
port lest Kabul be taken over by fa- ing in Afghanistan. Most people were
name. fatigue in at least two ways is
with the Communist regime.
previous experience of
natics. sure that once the Soviet troops with-
They argued that Islamic guerrillas drew, Najibullah’s regime would hold Many of the “-isms” that can the Russian word pofigism. It can
An unbiased analysis, however, re- suppressing Eastern would not stop and continue to ex- out for two or three weeks at be perfectly acceptable in Eng- be rendered as an “I-couldn’t-
quires consideration of another point
Europe...But Afghanistan
pand their corrupting influence north- most. lish have a strongly negative care-less attitude” and some peo-
of view, particularly in the context of connotation in Russian. Take in- ple believe that this is the true
continued coalition efforts to curb the
proved to be far beyond
ward to the Muslim republics of the All the main figures of that epic
dividualism, for example. The philosophy of many Russians,
Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. A
any comparisons with
Soviet Union. drama are long gone. And those who
Finally, the Soviet decision-makers had to fight and sort out the mess word has several meanings, in- concerned, particularly after the
growing number of Russians subscribe Europe. associated with the Afghan invasion for 10 years — soldiers, officers and cluding individual character and hardships they went through in
to the view that the Soviet military had a common phobia as the Cold generals, meet twice a year, on Feb. the leading of one’s life in one’s the 1990s, mostly with their pri-
presence beyond the Pyanj and Amu War reached its peak and both blocs 15 and Dec. 27, to remember their own way without conforming vate life. Of course, no political
Darya in the 1980s checked the ezhnev, was deeply disturbed by the were consumed by mutual fears. Who fallen comrades in arms and past bat- to prevailing patterns. party could propose this as an
spread of religious extremism and murder of the 66-year-old Nur Mu- would finally outplay the other? tles. And what can be better than ideology. But for many people
prevented this large region from slip- hammad Taraki, President of Afghan- Whose nerves would prove to be They are not ashamed of taking rugged individualism, a belief “conservatism—if it means “we
ping into unrestrained anarchy. The istan, who was killed at the order of stronger? Ultimately, Moscow faltered part in the war, which is receding in the importance of the indi- don’t want too much change”—
Taliban of today in fact has its roots Hafizullah Amin. Given that the Af- under the pressure and was lured into quickly from modern sight, and they vidual and the virtue of self-re- may be just what the doctor or-
in the radical mujaheddin movement, ghan government was overthrown a trap with no exit. come to these traditional gatherings liance and personal indepen- dered.
-
which fought the Red Army in the just months after Brezhnev welcomed Curiously, the Soviet leadership was wearing their decorations and awards,
1980s. the Afghan President in Moscow and fundamentally misled by their previ- happy and excited.
Whatever is closer to the truth, the promised his support and protection, ous experience of suppressing East- They did their duty protecting the
obscure history of the Soviet-Afghan the General Secretary took the mur- ern Europe: Hungary in 1956 and interests of their homeland. For some
conflict still holds unresolved ques- der as a personal affront and an open Czechoslovakia in 1968, where op- years, they have been inviting war
The Expat Files
tions. One of the most intriguing mys- challenge that begged for a re- position was quickly and almost veterans from the United States and
teries concerns the motivations be- sponse. bloodlessly removed by several large other Western countries to join them.
hind the Soviet government’s decision Marshal Dmitriy Ustinov, the Sovi- tank units. But Afghanistan proved I think it is a good idea. Language
Postcards From the Edge
to launch the invasion. et Defense Minister, was sincerely con- to be far beyond any comparisons barriers disappear as they commu-
Each invasion, clearly, brings a cerned by a U.S. announcement that with Europe. nicate in the common language of
SNAIL MAIL IN RUSSIA MAY BE AS EFFECTIVE AS PUTTING A MESSAGE
new misery to the Afghan people that same autumn that the United States By Feb. 1989, Kabul was flooded the soldier and veteran.
-
IN A BOTTLE, BUT AMERICANS LOVE THE SENTIMENT.
also seems beyond resolution. would station medium range missiles with journalists from around the
Historians still do not understand in Europe that would be aimed at world. The only decent hotel in the From 1981-1992, Vladimir Snegirev “That would be lovely too,”
why the Kremlin bosses, who had the East. Afghan capital was overflowing with worked in Afghanistan as a correspon- I assured her, “but some mail
unanimously objected to an open in- Losing political influence in Afghan- reporters from top television chan- dent for several leading Soviet news- would really please her as
tervention against a neighboring state istan meant, from Ustinov’s perspec- nels, news agencies, newspapers and papers. He has written a number of well.”
in the summer of 1979, suddenly tive, that such missiles would inevi- weekly journals. The last units of the books and film scripts, and is now “Mail?” said my father-in-law,
changed their minds several months tably appear close to the Soviet Soviet contingent had just left Afghan- working on an extensive study of the who always assumes I’m just
later. After I had spent many years southern border, vastly shifting the istan and my colleagues believed that role of special forces in Afghanistan. very ignorant and he’s just very
patient, “I think mail is not very
reliable.”
Of course, in Russia, mail was
LIBERATING HUMOR
four years until KVN rose from the DRAWING BY DMITRY DIVIN not very reliable, and so does
dead air in 1961. It was originally JENNIFER EREMEEVA not play the integral role it does
filmed in black-and-white and be- RUSSIA NOW for us. Nothing good like “The
came fantastically popular overnight, New Yorker” ever arrives through
eventually becoming the longest-run- About three days into her first the Russian mail. For many years,
ning show on both Soviet and Rus- term at boarding school in the I suppose sending even the most
EVGENY TIPIKIN
sian TV. United States, my daughter Vel- innocuous message through the
SPECIAL TO RUSSIA NOW KVN soon became a social move-
vet discovered the significance mail might be early admission
ment. Copycat “KVNchiks” were put of snail mail, something which to the Junior Gulag: “Wish you
A few years ago, when it suddenly on at universities, factories, schools had gone unnoticed during her were here,” could be misinter-
became public that Russia’s Deputy and pioneer camps. KVN went twelve years in Russia. preted and “Having a wonder-
Prime Minister would become Putin’s around the country auditioning “Mommy,” she wailed down ful time,” begged the question
likely successor, a team from Moscow teams, the best of which wound up the phone to me, “send me “in comparison to what?” When
State University performed a skit on on television. some mail!” I first came to Russia, “Ground
television, with Dmitry Medvedev Since the teams often made iron- I put a 44-cent stamp on a Overnight” involved entrusting
roaring with laughter in the front ic remarks about Soviet reality and card and popped it over to her, a letter or package to a train
row. ideology (those were the jokes the even though I was going to see conductor heading to a specific
The students portrayed Medvedev’s audience liked best), the show was her before she would receive city. You went to the station in
fictional high school reunion: His for- soon no longer live, but taped. And it. It’s important to get mail the dark of night to arrange the
mer classmates fawn over the presi- ideologically dubious humor was when you are away from home transaction, and then you called
dent-to-be, asking if he remembers often edited out. for the first time. I remembered the addressee on the telephone
them and laughing uproariously at More recently, the game has my own mail boxes from school to advise the details.
his lame jokes. been played in Western Europe, Is- and college, and the frisson of Like so many things in Rus-
A clueless former classmate arrives, rael and the United States. The first excitement that ran through me sia, during the fast-forward post-
boasting: “I’ve been in the woods for international competition, between when it was mail time. perestroika years, mail missed
the past five years – no TV, no radio… DRAWING BY DMITRY DIVIN the former Soviet Union and Israel, “Send Velvet a postcard of a beat somewhere along the
nothing!” Oblivious to Medvedev’s was held in Moscow in 1992. A world Moscow,” I said to HRH (hand- way, and it wasn’t clear to me
fame, the guy smacks him on the It began in its first incarnation in yet KVN, but VVV — or Vecher Vesy- championship—between teams from some Russian husband). “She what the 21st century innova-
back and says “What’s up, Dima?” 1956. Like a bolt from the blue at olykh Voprosov (An Evening of Merry the United States, Israel and the for- loves getting mail.” tion would be. Russia went from
When they pose for a class photo, the Twentieth Congress of the Com- Questions). After only its third show, mer Soviet Union—took place in Is- “Hmmm?” he responded a cash-only economy right to
the unknowing hero gives the future munist Party, Khrushchev delivered VVV was taken off the air by the So- rael in 1994. vaguely. I accused him (correct- debit cards, by-passing the “the
president bunny ears. Tell this story his secret speech denouncing Stalin. viet authorities in the wake of an “in- In one skit, following several bank ly) of not knowing where the check is in the mail” stage en-
to any Russian, and he’ll respond, His unmasking of the personality cult cident.” defaults and economic crises, a KVN post office was. tirely. No one in Russia ever had
“only on KVN.” was like a breath of fresh air — and VVV had decided to award a prize team from the city of Tula offered “What should we send Vel- a home answering machine:
The abbreviation KVN is as recog- freedom. at the next taping to any audience the following domain name to Rus- vet-ichka when you go back?” The nation leaped forward from
nizable a Soviet brand as the Bolshoi The following year Moscow host- member who arrived at the studio sia’s largest state bank, Sberbank: wailed my mother-in-law, up scratchy landlines to cell phones
Ballet or Yuriy Gagarin’s smile. When ed the World Youth Festival. The So- dressed in a fur coat, hat and felt www.deneg.net. In Russian, “deneg and down the scales in a mourn- in the blink of an eye.
it debuted on national television in viet intelligentsia was full of hope, cre- boots (it was then the middle of sum- net” reads, “there’s no money.” ful tone, as if my daughter had I purchased 35 postcards in
the 1960s, KVN, or Klub Vesyolykh i ative projects and brilliant ideas. mer) and carrying a newspaper dated In the old days, KVN had been a been enrolled in the Junior Moscow, printed up address la-
Nakhodchivykh (The Club of the It was then, during the so-called December 31 of the previous year. sort of valve through which, along Gulag, and not a cushy, all-girls, bels, and stood in line at the
Merry and Quick-Witted), was the “Thaw,” that producers came up with Unfortunately, when the show’s with laughter, the steam of social ten- equestrian school. post office. While purchasing
only legal form of unorthodox the idea of “enlivening” Soviet tele- host (the famous composer Nikita Bo- sion was released. “What she would really like,” 35 stamps, I was delighted to
thought. vision, still totally controlled by the goslovsky) announced the conditions, The media atmosphere in Russia I said to her, because when it see real efforts to beef up the
Today this humorous survivor from ruling regime. he forgot to mention the newspa- has since changed, and KVN has be- comes to her only grandchild “neither rain, nor sleet, nor
Soviet civilization is a one-of-a-kind The message was completely new per. come one of many comedy sketch- nothing is too much trouble, “is gloom of night” side of the op-
show, a unique creation that for Soviet TV: the participants includ- Naturally, almost everyone owned es. Today the government welcomes some mail...Why don’t you send eration. I presented HRH and
wasn’t borrowed from the West. ed not only the hosts, but members winter clothing, and when the next the movement: Putin appeared on her some postcards of Russia?” his family with the stamped, ad-
The series of games and skits be- of the audience. Filmed live, they took show was scheduled to start taping the show several years ago to con- “Postcards?” my mother-in- dressed cards and encouraged
tween teams of college students is part in various contests. The show the studio was stampeded by hun- gratulate the team on its 45th anni- law seemed doubtful. “I thought them to throw caution to the
played out in front of a live studio helped to demonstrate that after de- dreds of people in fur coats and felt versary. we’d send her some chocolate, wind and send Velvet a few as
audience. At first it consisted of com- cades of being stifled in the name of boots. They surged past the police, However, it is still one of the few or a book in Russian…you can an experiment. My father-in-law
petitions involving general erudition, the Party and the State, every person and chaos ensued. The show was places—perhaps the only one—that take it when you go next week.” still seemed flummoxed:
but it evolved into contests of wits could be interesting on his own and, yanked, but nothing was put in its has brought former President Vladi- I caught the drift: Sending “Couldn’t we just Skype in-
that favored the player who made more significantly, have his own opin- place. All evening televisions tuned mir Putin to laugh at an impression something with someone you stead?”
-
the smartest joke. The key to the ion. to VVV showed the message: of himself.
-
know, and trust to pass on to
show became improvisation, jokes This was a fantastic breakthrough, INTERRUPTED FOR TECHNICAL the recipient, a “posilitchka,” is Jennifer Eremeeva, a longtime
and put-ons, as well as uncontrolla- a revolution of sorts. REASONS. Evgeny Tipikin is a member of the Rus- a much more time-honored tra- resident of Moscow, is currently
ble laughter. In the beginning the show was not This technical interruption lasted sian Union of Journalists. dition. at work on her first book.
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