"Today's Pioneers"

"Today's Pioneers"

Last month there was some talk about the revival of the Young Pioneer organization in Russia. Russia Today did a talk-show segment asking, "Do Children Need Ideology?" All the fuss coincided with the anniversary of the organization's founding in May, which was marked more widely a year ago on the 85th anniversary of the Pioneers' founding.

RIA Novosti ran a photoset last year to mark the occasion ("День рождения Пионерии") with images from the organization's history, including one from a 2006 Pioneer induction ceremony on Red Square that could have been from 1986 except for the prominent involvement of post-Soviet Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov.

День рождения Пионерии

www.rian.ru

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Here are a few more pictures of that day's ceremony by RIA Novosti's photographer which didn't make it into the photoset linked above.

In May, a friend emailed me this somewhat amazing video clip from a news broadcast by ProTV of Chisinau (which unfortunately can't be embedded), showing a bemused news anchor reporting on the Pioneers' induction ceremony in Moldova's capital last month. The ceremony was timed to mark the 86th anniversary of the Soviet Pioneer organization's founding and involved the induction of around 70 children.

ProTV asked a few of the kids what they were there to celebrate and got responses like "I don't know...Victory Day" and "our teacher told us to come." The TV station titled the report "Pioneers Help Their Elders," which is part of the Pioneer's oath but also no doubt a tongue-in-cheek reference to these children's utility to Moldova's ruling Communist Party.

I pulled a few screen-shots from the video of the ceremony (below), but it's worth watching the video. The ceremony was conducted in Russian, and many of the kids interviewed were not able to answer questions put to them in Romanian, which explains the subtitles in the screen-shots:

[part of the Pioneer's oath]
"...to conscientiously fulfill the duties of a Pioneer..."

"Be faithful to the Pioneer ideal!" says the
elderly man sporting a St. George's ribbon.

One enthusiastic young inductee tried to explain what exactly those ideals meant to her:
"It's very important to be a Pioneer, because [Pioneers]
defend...their city from different...well, how can I put it..."

"...from different enemies and those who damage the environment."

Perhaps she just couldn't think of anything else to say, or perhaps for at least one young member, the ideals of the Pioneer movement in its ninth decade are morphing from red to green.

The one that got worked out

Here is a map of a region in Georgia that is no longer a conflict zone. In the late Shevardnadze era (i.e., the early 2000's), Tbilisi's tenuous control over Ajaria (a.k.a. Adzharia, Adjara, Achara) was often mentioned in the same breath as the de facto independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as evidence of Georgia's failed statehood.

Relatively soon after the Rose Revolution, however, in May 2004, Ajaria's wily ruler Aslan Abashidze, who had run the province pretty much as a personal fiefdom since the Soviet breakup, was ousted from his perch in Batumi and forced to flee - to Moscow, I believe, to take advantage of the hospitality of his pal Yuri Luzhkov, who had earlier tried unsuccessfully to insert himself as a mediator in the conflict between Batumi and the Georgian center.

The only real tragedy of Abashidze's ouster was the sad fate of his many fancy dogs. The departure of the long-time leader did not fully quiet the dissatisfaction of the local population, however, and the fact that it was accomplished without violence may have fostered an early and unjustified sense of confidence among Saakashvili's team that the other regions which had strayed even farther from Tbilisi's control would somehow be easy to bring back into the fold. The region retains nominal autonomous status, which it also enjoyed during the Soviet era.

Anyway, here's a map of the region made in less chaotic times - circa 1985:

Achara Side 2, originally uploaded by lyndonk2; full-size version here.

Achara Side 1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2; full-size version here.

Please be patient, and don't worry...

...I'm running out of maps to post, in case you've grown weary of the ongoing series. It's not my intention to make this blog a repository for examples of Soviet cartography. But hopefully at least a few readers find all of these vintage maps of the Caucasus to be of interest. This one is a mid-1980s folding map of Abkhazia:

Abkhazia-Side1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2; full-size version here.

Abkhazia-Side2, originally uploaded by lyndonk2; full-size version here.

Remembering Piter

I've added a few photos to my St. Petersburg photoset; this one is my favorite:

CIMG6265, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

Black Sea Coast of the Caucasus

This map took much longer than I'd care to admit to scan in, since it had to be scanned in bits and then digitally assembled - and I don't really have the proper software for that, so sadly I had to use the very basic MS Paint. I might have given up if the thing wasn't so visually spectacular. It dates from 1970 and has thumbnail photos and brief summaries of tourist attractions on the back.

Through sometimes painful experience, I've concluded that Flickr is a better photo host than Blogger, so I've uploaded the images there - if you want to see larger-sized versions, click on the picture or the link underneath it and then once you have been taken to Flickr, look for the "all sizes" icon above the photo. I've also added a link to the very largest version of each image in the captions below.

BlackSeaCoastMap, originally uploaded by lyndonk2; full-size version here.

BlackSeaCoastMap-Back, originally uploaded by lyndonk2; full-size version here.

Remembrance of phobias past

The used bookstores of Washington offer the Russophilic book-lover a smorgasbord of stale fare - shelves full of antiquated Kremlinology; earnest discussions of the Soviet political system often shown by later revelations to have been misguided or naive; optimistic accounts of Russian democratization and marketization from the early 1990s; and travelogue accounts of the USSR which are often interesting only as ephemera, based as so many of them are only on the limited areas of the country which foreigners were allowed to see.

And of course, Washington being Washington, one can always find government publications which have made their way to the land of used bookstores by virtue of their obsolescence or their previous owner's need to free up shelf space. Often these are not just US government publications but Soviet products - Progress Publishers and the Foreign Languages Publishing House tend to be well-represented - or coffee-table books depicting foreign lands which visitors to DC bestowed upon their hosts. Sometimes, amidst the detritus, one finds items which have been preserved long enough to become interesting historical documents. Recently I found one such item, Vol. II of a report by the House Un-American Activities Commission entitled Soviet Total War: 'Historic Mission' of Violence and Deceit.


To be honest, I can't decide whether this book is more interesting as a compendium of enduring Russophobic stereotypes or as a monument to some of the actual (if perhaps superficial) policy continuities between the Soviet and post-Soviet periods and their ability to continue to engender hysteria among foreign observers (though I don't think Russophobic hysteria in today's America is quite at the fever pitch alleged by some).

I scanned in a few pages, although I now regret not scanning in the table of contents - the titles of many articles in this little paperback read as though they could have been snatched from some of the more sensationalistic headlines of today's Russia coverage: intimidation of neighbors, the use of trade as a weapon, domestic repression - all were present 50 years ago in the US perception of Russia, and indeed in Russian reality, though one suspects to a rather greater degree than is the case today.

I was finally inspired to post the scans after attending a presentation by David Foglesong at the Kennan Institute yesterday. Foglesong's book, The American Mission and the “Evil Empire”: The Crusade for a “Free Russia” since 1881, was the subject of a couple of interesting posts on Sean's Russia Blog, and his presentation - accompanied by a fascinating slideshow of political cartoons which sadly is not available anywhere online - did not disappoint. One of the cartoons can be seen at this post on the blog of Foglesong's publisher, which also reproduces his May 2008 testimony before the US Helsinki Commission. Foglesong's testimony is well worth a read, as it is a series of measured recommendations about how to approach Russia with good intentions but without those missionary impulses which do more harm than good to the bilateral relationship.

Anyway, back to the relic which is the main subject of this post. This fold-out graphic was what really induced me to buy the book (though since it was only eight bucks, it didn't require too much persuasion):


Here is an example of one of the articles - "Red Supersalesmen Muscle in," about unfair Soviet trade practices - which reads like a precursor of some things one reads in today's news coverage of Russian foreign economic activity (if you click on the graphic, you should get a readable couple of pages):


One of the articles in the compilation had some interesting charts which suggested that the identities of the parties in today's US-Russian relationship (a military/economic superpower vs. an energy superpower) represent something of a reversal of the roles in the relationship 50 years ago - at least as they were perceived by HUAC.

Of the two, the US would seem to have occupied the "energy superpower" role:




Meanwhile, the USSR had substantially more men under arms than the US (although that is actually still the case, at least on the books, though not to such a large degree; and then as now the US enjoyed advantages in naval and air power, though again, not to the same degree as today):

Another Abkhazia-related map

Continuing my recent spate of posts about Abkhazia, here is another map I found in one of our boxes of stuff from Moscow, most likely purchased at Izmailovo or some other flea market - a tourist's guide to Sukhumi from the early 1980s. I scanned it in at a fairly high resolution, so if you click on the images and view the full-sized files you should be able to read the narrative text describing the city's various tourist attractions.

Russian TV online

An earlier post on this topic has proven to be quite a magnet for Google searches - apparently many people share my interest in watching Russian TV over the internet.

Previously, I offered one option for watching a wide array of post-Soviet TV programming online; now I'd like to plug a site which I recently saw for the first time and which seems to allow one to watch three major networks' evening news shows (with a slight delay) for free, albeit in a small-screen preview format. The site is logically called "Russian TV Online," and it allowed me to observe what seems to be (though perhaps I'm misremembering his earlier style) Prez. Medvedev's newly Putinized deeper-voiced, shorter-sentence-using style of speech delivery in his remarks at a couple of the photo ops with CIS leaders in St. Petersburg.

At least on NTV, though, Putin made it onto the broadcast earlier...though I suppose a sample size of one doesn't really allow me to draw any broader conclusions.

For more reading roughly related to this topic, check out a much longer recent post here as well as the relatively recent (from 2006) issue of Pro et Contra dedicated to the theme of "[Russian] Television in Search of Ideology."

Platon's plaudit for Putin portrait

[image source]

The head shot of Vladimir Putin looking ice-cold that graced the cover of Time's "Man of the Year" issue last year - not to mention the photo inside that had Putin looking like a cross between a tsar' and a godfather - caused quite a stir (earlier SoM posts about the issue are here and here) and had many people wondering how the photographer was able to get such shots of the Russian president. Now that photog, who goes by the name Platon, has won a World Press Photo award for the picture. As it turns out, there is indeed a fairly interesting story surrounding the photo.

You can listen to an interview with Platon in which he tells the tale of how he got the shot on the World Press Photo award website (click on 2008 and then the thumbnail of VVP) - the tale has been noted by at least a couple of photography-focused blogs as worth a listen, and I second that impression. I haven't seen a transcript anywhere, or I'd paste in some of the more interesting bits, but again, the whole thing is worth listening to.

Sofia Kornienko of Radio Svoboda interviewed Platon (as well as Stanley Green, who is famous as a photo-chronicler of Chechnya) and also got some fairly interesting comments about the Putin photo. Her own comments about the impact of the Putin "Man of the Year" issue are also quite interesting, although some of her conclusions strike me as perhaps a bit exaggerated. I decided to translate a portion of the interview (n.b. presumably an original English-language text of this interview exists somewhere, but I couldn't find it online; there are likely to be substantial differences between the original and my somewhat stilted re-translation back into English - as always here at Scraps of Moscow, you get what you pay for):

Platon: [the first part of the interview tracks closely with the story told by Platon in the audio interview linked above - Kornienko identifies Platon as a "fan of tall tales"] Then Putin came into the room, and I think he felt sorry for me. I was all sweaty and about to lose it. Pity is the only reason he agreed to pose for me. The ability to make people feel sorry for you is the photographer's greatest weapon.

The first thing I said to him was, "Let's not stand on ceremony. What was it like to meet Paul McCartney?" Everyone in the room was shocked, because in Putin's office you're supposed to stay very serious, and no one smiles. Then, when we had finished the photo shoot and were talking about the Beatles, I thought I was able to get inside his interior world.

The picture I took was a play on the Godfather, or Scarface, or something like that. I think Putin liked that picture. After all, it's what he wants, it's his style to look like a gangster.

Sofia Kornienko: After the awards ceremony, I asked Platon why he decided to take on this assignment.

Platon: It's my job. I have very strong political views, but my job is to take people's pictures, therefore part of my work is to break down the natural barrier, the natural resistance [of the subject] upon meeting them, whether it is simple shyness, emotion or a lack of confidence, to break down that barrier and reach the internal content of their personality.

In this case, I had just eight minutes to feel out that connection with what the person had inside. Having felt out the person's internal substance, I have to capture it as I see it. As far as political views, it's not my role to come up with an angle or approach to the subject ahead of time that would intentionally depict him as an evil man, if I perhaps think that's what he is. My agreement to photograph someone [also] doesn't mean that I have agreed to idolize him or sing his praises. I simply documented his presence for history.

Sofia Kornienko: But the issue of Time which named Putin "Man of the Year," on the cover of which your photograph appeared, as well as the interview illustrated by your portrait, was perceived by many liberally oriented people in Russia and outside of Russia as a betrayal on the part of our Western colleagues whose support is so highly valued. Putin's interview with Time didn't contain a single question which could have provoked a substantive discussion and, in the eyes of many, discredited the Western ideals of the free press which have generally been considered the benchmark [for journalists everywhere].

Doesn't it seem that your photograph was used as a banner or symbol of this tendency which disappointed so many readers, and what would you like to say to people who found that issue of the magazine outrageous or insulting?

Platon: The fact of the matter is that, as I already said, it's my job to document people living today. If I had lived in the 1940s, it's quite possible that I would have photographed Stalin. That doesn't mean that I support the subjects of my photos. The main thing is to get a portrait that shows who my subject really is. I can't control what happens with the portrait after that.

As soon as a photo is published, it leaves my sphere of influence and becomes public property. I am sure that one way or another history brings the truth to the surface. It's possible that some people were outraged by that issue of Time or by the context in which [Putin] was presented - I can't change that. But I documented him. I showed that if you look deep into his eyes, you see power, strength, incredible self-discipline and cold, icy cold.

I have my own strength: a visual image is able to convey to the audience that which the written word cannot. Perhaps people felt that their ideals were betrayed by the written words, but as far as the photograph, it shows Putin as he really is. That's the way he is. And one can't not accept a precise portrait, because it is true to life and honest. I tried to be honest with myself and with Putin when I was working. That's all you can expect from a photographer.

Radio Svoboda interview via barabanch

More on Abkhazia

I'm not in a position to try to follow the breaking aspects of the story and provide updates on the escalation or de-escalation of tensions, various visits to the region by foreign dignitaries, etc., but I did want to post a few more maps as well as point out that the International Crisis Group has just issued a report on the situation in Abkhazia. I haven't read it yet, but if it's anything like their past reports on the conflict it will be interesting and useful. I normally skim over the "recommendations" portions of their reports and head to the meatier narrative portions, which contain insights from interviews conducted by ICG which you might not see elsewhere.

As for the maps, I've scanned them in from a book I recently acquired, Konflikty v Abkhazii i IUzhnoi Osetii: Dokumenty 1989-2006 gg. I was expecting a dry compilation of documents and perhaps some black-and-white maps - imagine my surprise when the book arrived with two inlaid full-color maps and maps on each of the endpapers.

The book is published in Moscow and at least one of the maps appears to have been authored by a relative of Abkhazia's de facto leader Sergei Bagapsh, so it is quite possible that the maps are designed to make subtle and perhaps deceptive political points (this is also suggested by the somewhat tendentious title of the second map - rough translations of the map titles appear as captions below).

Nevertheless, they are so well-designed that I couldn't resist posting them (though I'll be happy to take them down if the copyright holders object!), and I would imagine that at least the ones based on 1989 figures are reliable. The map titled "peacekeeper deployment" also contains ethnic breakdown figures, but they are based on the questionable 2002 census figures arrived at by the de facto Abkhazian authorities.

Click on the images to expand them:

Ethnic minorities in Georgia (based on the 1989 census)

Ethnic minorities within (the internationally recognized borders of) Georgia
(based on 2002 figures)

Abkhazia: an ethnic map based on the 1989 census

Republic of Abkhazia and peacekeeper deployment

Echoes of Victory Day and the Inauguration

I happened to catch a re-run of the Daily Show a week or two ago and saw Jon Stewart's hilarious and surprisingly on-point riff on the Victory Day parade and Medvedev's inauguration ceremony. Transcribing selected sound bites from the clip wouldn't do it justice - just watch it and laugh:

That - as well as the return of the outstanding Darkness at Noon, which is back on line and has posted an original video of the V-Day festivities in Moscow, inspired me to corral a few links to online material on the events in Moscow of four weeks or so ago.

CSIS's Sarah Mendelson wrote a "critical questions" brief about the significance of the re-militarization of the Victory Day celebrations, which included a brief digression down memory lane, as Mendelson recalled attending a Soviet military parade in late 1990.

Global Voices Online had roundups about both the inauguration and Victory Day. And the always interesting Wu Wei has an interesting account of what it was like to watch Medvedev's inauguration on Georgian TV.

[Update June 15: I wanted to direct readers as well to this link which fell through the cracks - Oleg Panfilov's brief comments stating that the question of who has the upper hand as between Putin and Medvedev will become clear when one of the two begins to enjoy an advantage in TV coverage.]