Spectator's Journal/Moscow a Go-Go
Young, Cathy
SPECTATOR'S JOURNAL MOSCOW A GO-GO by Cathy Young rr ravelers who have noted a pleasant 1 change in the manners of guards at Soviet border checkpoints—from "What are you doing in our country,...
...and the same in much smaller Cyrillic...
...Some of the Beltway libertarians were excited by the idea that the Soviet Union, with its "advantage" of starting from scratch, was in a position to build a purer capitalism than the adulterated Western version...
...Don't delay...the supplies are limited...
...quite a few had come with dollar signs in their eyes (and I don't mean Ayn Rand's mystical visions) and saw the word "American" in combination with Cathy Young, our Soviet Presswatch columnist, is the author of Growing Up in Moscow (Ticknor & Fields...
...Other misunderstandings were even richer in irony...
...Reversing roles, "progressive" communist Otto Latsis chided Charles Murray for failing to see that Marx and Lenin were not champions of egalitarianism and that freedom of initiative and individual responsibility were perfectly compatible with socialism...
...She had to shop on the farm market, and the 1,000-ruble monthly salary she was earning at a cooperative was barely enough to survive . . . I was back from the world of people power to a world that may seem too absurd to be called real but nonetheless is so to most Muscovites most of the time, except for the 1,000-ruble salary: the average person earns about one-fifth of that...
...Intrigued, I peered into the tent...
...By accepting membership in the United States Strategic institute, you will receive Strategic Review regularly and you can look forward to timely and incisive analyses and background information on vital national security issues and the direction and consequences of the changing security environment...
...As I walked toward the nearest open metro stop, a well-dressed, soft-spoken woman heading the same way heaved a doleful sigh and said, "It's all very scary...
...Embassy being off-limits) for four months, renewing his Soviet visa through personal invitations from Russian peacenik friends...
...The calendar is full size (10"x12") with enough space to jot down your appointments and special events...
...I asked uneasily, wondering if I was being accosted by a lunatic...
...Signature United States Strategic institute 2020 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 610, Washington, DC 20006 that the Russians, starting as they are from scratch, can achieve a more perfect sexual revolution than we have...
...Among the American speakers were Charles Murray, James Buchanan, and George Gilder...
...The reason they sound so radical is that their point of departure is total statism...
...For them to laugh about it is sportsmanlike...
...Similar testimonials have come from academicians, journalists, legislators, policymakers...
...So we get what Gettysburg College economist Edwin Dolan, who now teaches a business course at Moscow State University, aptly described as Jeffersonian rhetoric and Swedish substance...
...The foregoing is the professional judgment of Harry Zubkoff, former Editor of Defense Media Review...
...Charge my: ^ Visa ^ MasterCard card # exp...
...SPECTATOR'S JOURNAL MOSCOW A GO-GO by Cathy Young rr ravelers who have noted a pleasant 1 change in the manners of guards at Soviet border checkpoints—from "What are you doing in our country, imperialist pig...
...At the school where my friend had received the half chicken, the head of the staff party bureau and her deputy had turned in their party cards...
...The police stood on the sidelines, reacting with equanimity to something that most certainly hadn't been part of their police academy training...
...Economist Vasily Selyunin scoffed at attempts by one or two American speakers to prove that Marx was no enemy of free enterprise, ostensibly in order to make the latter more palatable to the Soviets...
...This spectacle, in a way, epitomized the Soviets' rush to emulate all things Western without any understanding of the context—of the fact that what goes in a go-go bar may not go at a conference on the free market...
...hese days, conversations in the 1 homes of educated professionals in Moscow almost inevitably turn to the food problem, and one feels rather awkward when people start making hunger jokes...
...USSI is an independent, nonprofit organization, and your contribution of S35 will also help to support the Institute's ongoing program of research and publication...
...A moment of irony was provided by a road sign over a short tunnel through which the marchers passed at one point, a bizarre consequence of the Communist rulers' passion for slapping revolutionary names on everything: "Insurrection Square-1 km...
...A sarcastic deputy of the Moscow City Council later quipped, alluding to Orwell's Animal Farm, that Latsis offered a fine example of a creature in the process of re-education from "Four legs good, two legs bad" to "Four legs good, two legs better...
...Some things never change...
...That's the kind of question independent journalists aren't supposed to ask...
...Or maybe it's just 28 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1991 In a Time of Momentous Changes Taking Place in the International Arena, USSI Invites You to Share in Today's Best Thinking on the State of Our National Security "A very important element of the media for professionals and laymen alike who want to keep abreast of national security affairs is the quarterly journal...
...However, the column took a different route and peacefully reached Manezhnaya Square, right by the walls of the Kremlin...
...These cartoons are the exclusive property of National Review and can't be found anywhere else...
...smiles—credit the new guidelines issued to the young soldiers manning the glass booths at Sheremetyevo Airport...
...At the opening-night banquet, welcoming remarks by the mayors of Moscow and Leningrad were followed by a floor show in which the dancers were losing more and more of their clothes from one number to the next, until they were left in G-strings and fish-net tops...
...scowls to "How nice of you to come...
...For a few hours, tens of thousands of ordinary Moscow men and women had gained a sense of power, at least power to defy: the victory of unity over fear...
...The re-education of Soviets at times takes bizarre turns...
...Some were grinning at cheeky posters bobbing over the motley stream of heads and umbrellas, such as a drawing of the Lenin mausoleum with a sign over the entrance saying, "BEER...
...This did not deter the Russians from attending...
...on the Soviet side, Moscow's radical mayor Gavriil Popov, his Leningrad counterpart Anatoly Sobchak, and some well-known free-market economists—all three of them...
...Sales clerks in their dingy white smocks came out of the stores and cafes and stood on the sidewalk gaping with no discernible expression except curiosity...
...Manfred Woerner, Secretary General of NATO, singled out Strategic Review for "its embracive, universal view of strategy, and its focus on the global interplay of political, economic, social and military factors...
...Had I seen the empty shelves in the stores, the lines...
...The last part of this may soon apply to the Communist party of the Soviet Union, which its members are leaving in droves...
...You know what this means...
...Now they were being offered a chance to go out into the fields and pick their own potatoes for the winter (the understaffed farms lacking the hands to harvest this year's record crop), but no one in the family was of particularly strong build, and they had no car to transport the potatoes and no room to store them . . . And the neighborhood bakery had a notice posted on the door, a sort of artless cri de coeur: BAKERY CLOSED...
...Stanislav Shatalin, author of the 500-day reform plan, was too busy to attend...
...Please send me USSI membership information and a sample issue of Strategic Review...
...Payment enclosed (check or m.o...
...Do you mean," a Moscow TV reporter pressed Cato president Ed Crane, "that our capitalism will be better because it can incorporate our achievements in social guarantees...
...The first part went right past dear old Norbert, who nodded and proudly informed me that he had just participated in the international peace march in Kazakhstan...
...Seduced by the Milton Friedmanite rhetoric so popular in Moscow these days, American free-market enthusiasts often fail to see that most of these Russian Friedmanites favor a mixed economy and fairly large social programs...
...Forces of darkness," she explained, with no demented intensity in her voice, just quiet desperation...
...had my picture taken with a cardboard cutout of Gorby, which I must say looked more alive than his predecessors had in the flesh...
...What they needed was advice on how to privatize the economy...
...NOTHING LEFT...
...For years you've enjoyed the scathing humor of Jeff MacNelly in the pages of National Review...
...Yes, please send me 1991 National Review Calendars) featuring 13 original Jeff MacNelly cartoons for only $13.95 each (plus $1.50 postage and handling...
...STRATEGIC REVIEW MU 1990 UNITED STATES STRATEGIC INSTITUTE WASHINGTON, D.C...
...Enjoy the Lighter Side of Politics All Year Long...
...told me that if the Americans were here to convince the Russians of the benefits of the free market, they were wasting their time—the Russians were already convinced...
...the Russian-language copies were quickly snatched up, leaving many would-be readers vocally unhappy...
...Such, at any rate, was my welcome when I arrived in Moscow for the "Ransition to Freedom" conference, organized by the libertarian Cato Institute...
...One handmade poster proclaimed, "For wrecking the economy Ryzhkov should get the firing squad...
...Name Address City State Zip ^ My tax-deductible contribution of 535 is enclosed...
...Not surprisingly, the short paper delivered by Paul Craig Roberts, which actually outlined a privatization plan, was a hit...
...On the other hand, most of the Russians seemed to agree with Pinsker...
...But what is that to the true idealist, who worries about peace on a global scale...
...T o introduce Soviets (including 1 managers, journalists, college instructors of economics, and the like) to the thinking of Americans who are not John Kenneth Galbraith was a great idea—though it would have been helpful to explain not only free-market theory but the real-life failures of the Scandinavian welfare state, still a potent lure to all too many Russians who reject Communism...
...30 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1991...
...My Soviet relatives had tried to talk me out of it: protest rallies in Moscow are reputed to be a dangerous activity...
...Victor Aksyuchits, a Christian Democrat deputy in the Russian parliament, called on the people, in the spirit of goodwill they had (according to him) exhibited at the rally, to give the Ryzhkov government one more chance...
...And we didn't forget those politicians you love to hate — Fidel Castro, Jesse Jackson and Mario Cuomo...
...Spectators, some also with tricolors, waved from windows and balconies and shouted greetings...
...rr wo days after the conference, I was 1 carrying on the good fight, marching in a huge rally staged to protest the moderate reform plan presented by Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov and demand his resignation...
...Because of the "'limo-PlusFour" meetings taking place on the reunification of Germany, we were bounced at the last minute from the deluxe Oktyabrskaya hotel to one located on the godforsaken outskirts of the city...
...And when the guest, having acknowledged the fact, tries to be nice and adds that the USSR is a very interesting place to visit, it is unlikely that the new guidelines call for the border guard to respond, with a puzzled, almost pitying look, "Well, what's so interesting about it...
...However, border guards are certainly not directed to ask a Soviet-born American visitor, "So how's life in America—better than here, uh...
...I was spared embarrassment when, having finished a small chicken cutlet, I was about to ask for seconds—and just then, my hostess THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1991 29 apologetically explained that half a chicken per person had been given out the day before at the school where she worked, and she had pleaded for a whole chicken on the basis of the fact that her husband and her son worked at the same school, but to no avail...
...That is why Woerner, then still German Defense Minister, chose Strategic Review for unveiling his important and controversial proposal for a NATO missile defense in 1986...
...The marchers must have failed to convey their message, since the latest reports from that area have Kazakhs and ethnic Russians bashing each other's heads with blunt objects...
...ambassador, where Norbert had been camping out (the U.S...
...Plus, a few surprises...
...military as a parasite sucking the life out of the American taxpayer: "We are here in this room together not least because your country was willing to back its moral fortitude and devotion to the ideals of freedom with military might, and not only to fight for its principles and ideals but also to spend enormous amounts of money on this...
...Plus, the wit and humor make it fun to display and appreciate all year long...
...Other slogans were less bloodthirsty but just as forthright: "Communism is the Plague of the 20th Century," "Communist Party, Give Your Loot Back to the People," "Down With Communist Ministers," "Put the CPSU on Trial," "The Supreme Soviet of the USSR is a Fig Leaf over Bolshevist Obscenity," and one to gladden the hearts of the Cato crowd: "We Support Immediate Privatization of Property...
...Strategic Review permits you to share in the strategy debates now underway at the highest levels of U.S...
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...and turned away two eleven- or twelveyear-old kids in American clothes and sneakers who were trying to sell me badges for dollars...
...He did not define the latter...
...for someone like myself—soon to be sauntering down the aisles of ShopRite—it's rather tactless, though to set oneself apart and not laugh would be even worse...
...I suffered no worse damage than a bad cold from a two-hour trek in the damp, chilly weather, a small price to pay for the opportunity to yell "Down with the KGB...
...The yellow mansion behind the fence, he explained, was the residence of the U.S...
...Conservative favorites like Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Barry Goldwater and our own William F, Buckley Jr...
...I left soon after the speeches began, but not before witnessing the world record for flip-flopping...
...I wonder how many of these people actually know what they want," I said to my companion for the day, a cub reporter for the Russian-language Latvian newspaper Baltic Times...
...Out crawled a man in his fifties, who introduced himself as a West Coast peace activist named Norbert...
...Some of the Americans looked as if they were witnessing a disastrous public faux pas...
...The shrewd-looking, oily co-owner of an electronics consulting center (who, asked if he had any desire to emigrate, patted me on the shoulder and pronounced, "My dear, have you ever heard of a gold prospector leaving the Klondike at the very start of the gold rush...
...Those members of the audience who were not yet consumed by thegold fever were impressed by Charles Murray, who spoke of how an egalitarian state with cradle-to-grave social protection robs men and women of responsibility for their own lives and thereby of true happiness...
...national security policymaking and to enjoy the most authoritative assessments available of the military, political, diplomatic and economic challenges confronting the United States and its allies in the late Twentieth Century...
...Hundreds of large red-whiteand-blue flags—the colors of free Russia—flapped wetly over the crowd, and enterprising young fellows were selling smaller ones...
...Now the most prominent figures in global politics cannot escape his pointed brush...
...Each cartoon is carefully reproduced in color and all are suitable for framing...
...Oh, how lucky you are...
...date signature send calendar to (please print): Name Address City/State/Zip Mail with your payment to, National Review 1991 Calendar 150 East 35th Street New York, NY 10016 The 1991 National Review Calendar featuring 13 original full-color cartoons by renowned political cartoonist Jeff MacNelly...
...The young man giggled mischievously...
...Just that...
...Not that all were satisfied...
...With America virtually out of reach, many non-Jewish Russians are looking to the promised land of . . . South Africa, rumored to be seeking to boost its white population through immigration (emphatically denied, I should add, by a South African consular official I contacted in New York...
...that's where my niece works...
...It turned out they were talking about different schools...
...What do you mean, devils...
...I had to say something, so I managed this: "Well, it's a tough time for the Soviet people, but it's very interesting to be here these days...
...Order your 1991 For this special offer to our readers, National Review commissioned Jeff to do thirteen completely original full-color cartoons...
...That these Americans were interested in free-market theory rather than practice was not easy to explain...
...There are devils out there, you know...
...in the very heart of Moscow—a delicious feeling but something that it would be unwise to try solo...
...Order right now and get ready for the New Year the right way ...with a hearty smile...
...National Review Calendar today...
...There were the usual mishaps associated with holding conferences in what is generally not a user-friendly city...
...A Cato Institute book on deregulation was also an object of interest, as was, for that matter, all the literature brought by Americans—even when it was in English...
...True enough...
...And George Gilder even found some long-time Russian fans: Larisa Piyasheva and her husband Boris Pinsker, economists who had read Wealth and Poverty and were ecstatic to have an autographed copy...
...BREAD SOLD OUT...
...One of the finest is Strategic Review, published by the United States Strategic institute, not only because it focuses almost exclusively on the most compelling strategic problems of the day, but also for the quality of its writing, the pertinence of its articles, and the depth and clarity of the thinking displayed...
...The special edition of the 1991 National Review Calendar is yours for only $13.95 (plus $1.50 postage and handling...
...We don't know if we'll end up eating Jessie this winter or she will end up eating us," said the owner of a rather skinny black Labrador...
...The question, as an American friend of mine points out, is whether the Soviets will be able to build up something new before they are crushed by the chunks of the old structures as they crumble...
...When I mentioned this to another acquaintance, she said, "Oh, then I know the school...
...This would make perfect sense except for such inconvenient facts as the dire poverty in which so many Soviets live and the resulting demands for a strong safety net...
...in an age of permanent revolution, that may be a comfort...
...And then, on a small cross street, I saw a curious sight: a tent on the lawn and a banner hanging on an iron grill fence, proclaiming in huge spray-painted letters, in English, THE USSR STOPPED TESTING—WHEN SHALL WE...
...Something very dangerous is going to be set loose, and blood is going to flow, and we are all going to weep and weep a lot . . . " Something moved me to tell her that I lived in the United States, and she gasped and wailed, "Oh, how lucky you are...
...Did I know what it was like...
...And, I might add, whether there will be anyone left to do the building...
...A hackneyed Lenin quote, "Communism equals Soviet power plus the electrification of the entire country," has been updated into "Communism equals Soviet power plus the emigration of the entire country...
...Drowned out by a storm of howls and boos, he quickly wrapped up his speech by shouting, "Ryzhkov must resign...
...Please bill me...
...businessman," not "intellectual...
...Two days before my flight back, I was walking from the Arbat, a colorful pedestrian mall where I had listened to a street poet recite anti-Communist doggerel to a laughing, clapping crowd...
...Pinsker lashed out scathingly at Ralph Raico, professor of history at State University College at Buffalo, for characterizing the U.S...
Vol. 24 • January 1991 • No. 1
