Monthly Archives: July 2009

Vedomosti has a great article on the history of Russia’s housing crisis. Housing, as Maksim Trudoliubov notes, is a chronic historical problem in Russia, one which the Soviets tried to attenuate, but made little headway until the 1960s.  “The comfort of our home life is still not good for many of us,” Trudoliubov begins.  “As in the early Soviet and even in the “mature Soviet” period housing was the main problem for the majority of citizens.  Life was collective not because the state managed to inculcate citizens with a fancy for the romanticism of “communal life,” and because of this all of Stalin’s construction projects must be seen in this light. There’s just not enough housing (as is the case up to the present).  But even more important, housing–from the bunks in dormitories to elite apartments in nomenclature buildings–was an instrument of manipulating people.”

Indeed, as Truboliubov continues, solutions to the ..read more

My post about Joachim Crima, the so-called “Volgograd Obama,” has received a lot of traffic thanks to Joshua Keating’s link to it at Foreign Policy. So given the interest in this Russian political novelty, I figured I’d do an update on the first Afro-Russian to run for public office.

The first articles I read about Crima suggested that his candidacy was a scheme of local politicians to potentially suck votes from United Russia.  I still can’t figure out how this would be possible, and so far there has been no evidence to prove that Crima’s candidacy is merely a political gimmick.  Russian political commentators seem baffled, viewing Crima’s campaign as something that would appeal to voters “for the sake of a joke” or as “an act of protest against Russia’s moribund political life.” Indeed, Crima’s being an outside is part of his appeal.   As Rossiiskaya razeta found out, all the people ..read more

Those communists in Voronezh really, really like Stalin.  Last month, the Voronezh KPRF put up billboards of Stalin to promote the dictator’s great achievements.  The local government demanded that the billboards be removed citing laws on advertising.

But the KPRF is undeterred. Spurred on by the OSCE’s recent resolution equating Stalin with Hitler and the local ban of their Stalin billboards, the regional KPRF office has decided to create pocket Stalin calendars to protest “against the discrimination of their party.”  So far 20,000 copies have been printed with plans to produce a total run of 100,000. The calendars won’t be sold, only distributed through Party cells.  However, local KPRFers don’t discount a few ending up in local kiosks.

The protest against Stalin haters worldwide doesn’t stop with pocket calendars. In the coming months, Voronezh communists plan on staging an motorcade rally to support the vozhd‘s positive image.  As for any possible repercussions, ..read more

I highly recommend “Nikita Khrushchev Goes to Hollywood” from the Smithsonian Magazine.  Khrushchev, always the showman, charmed, bantered with American capitalists, and even took in the filming of Can-Can during his tour of America in 1959.  When the Soviet premier went to Hollywood, hundreds of stars appealed for tickets to attend a luncheon with him.  He met such Hollywood legends as Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Hope, Gary Cooper, and Charleston Heston.

The event apparently had several memorable moments.  When Heston leaned over to Soviet novelist Mikhail Sholokhtov and said “I have read excerpts from your works.” The novelist replied, “Thank you. When we get some of your films, I shall not fail to watch some excerpts from them.”  When businessman Spyros Skouras used his immigrant rags-to-riches story to educate Khrushchev about capitalism, the communist retorted:

He turned to Skouras—”my dear brother Greek”—and said he was impressed by his capitalist rags-to-riches story. ..read more

They’re calling him the “Volgograd Obama.”  Joachim Crima, 37, native of Guinea-Bissau, former watermelon seller, and graduate of Volgograd Pedagogical University has thrown his hat into the region’s municipal election.  If elected, which is a long shot, Crima would become Russia’s first black elected official. “I was born in Africa, but I have lived in the district for 12 years and feel practically Russian. I have a son here and this is why I cannot be indifferent to the fate of the region,” he told the press. Crima, who has adopted the name Vasilii Ivanovich, promises “to toil like a negro” for his constituents. “I want to make the lives of people who I consider my compatriots better. I am ready to work from morning until evening to resolve their problems.”  In fact, “Will toil like a negro” has become his election slogan.

Political commentators aren’t taking the African seriously and ..read more

увеличить фото …

Dimitri Medvedev’s effort to court youth into politics continues on Thursday when he meets with young members of United Russia.  According to Kommersant, the meeting will be attended by party leaders Mintemer Shaimiev and Yuri Luzhkov, General Council secretary Vyacheslav Volodin and young United Russia representatives from the provinces.

The meeting appears to have been thrown together at the spur of the moment, right before Medvedev’s comments on youth policy last week.  Little has been said about the actual content of the meeting. According to Alexander Tretyakov, the head of the Perm’s United Russia office, “the delegation has been formed, but still not the full information about the event.”  Aleksei Volotskov, a member of Volgograd’s youth council and UR member, said that he only got a request to submit his information for a background check two weeks ago.

As to what the President’s urgency to meet with young URs might ..read more