Some Like it Cool

Just how interested are Westerners in Russia?

A recent TV show here offered some answers. It was the popular weekly TV program å˚ (“Us”), hosted by Vladimir Pozner – who many Americans know from the time he spent in the US working with Phil Donahue. Pozner asked Russia-based foreign journalists about their readers’ (or viewers’) level of interest in Russia. Most agreed on three theses: (1) they really cannot deviate from “hot” topics and some degree of negativism – which they termed “the hidden agenda” of their respective media outfits – which reputedly helps to sell their product; (2) there has been a general drop in Western interest in Russia; (3) contradicting the “conventional wisdom” of point #1, readers, listeners and TV viewers who are interested in Russia no longer like it hot – they want to hear less about the mafia, corruption and prostitutes, and more about life in Russia today, including and especially more positive reportage.

Well, at the risk of twisting an elbow (which this tennis lover is loathe to do) from patting ourselves on the back, it is reassuring to hear these top Western journalists affirming much of Russian Life’s editorial outlook. For us, hidden agendas are out. As are “hot” topics manufactured to sell magazines. As to negativism, we admit to being prone to give Russia the benefit of the doubt. But then that is the sort of thing you do for someone or something you care about.

This is not to say we try to avoid difficult issues. Rather, that we try to put them into proper perspective. After all, in recent months, we have covered some very acute problems in our cover stories: rampant criminality, economically-strained health care, brainwashing by religious sects, apalling child vagrancy. But these are always balanced by the weight of more positive stories, “of which we do have a few,” as they say in Odessa.

As to the falling interest in things Russian, we would attribute much of this to readers tiring of journalists harping on the darker side of life in Russia these past 10 years. If our mailings and your letters are any indication, interest in Russia is steady and growing.

So, on that note, for our lead story this month we present an enjoyable, positive and pacific story on beer in Russia (page 6). Even Leo Tolstoy – writer, vegan and world-famous pacifist – apparently advocated beer as a reasonable alternative in Russia’s fight against vodka. Tolstoy, whose house in Moscow was located near one of the capital’s oldest breweries, in the Khamovniki district, knew what he was talking about. We only wish that, while reading this surprising story (who, after all, associates beer with Russia?), you could be enjoying a dark and foamy porter from Baltika or a light Afanasy lager. Perhaps imbibing a few of the beer-related idioms in this month’s Survival Russian will help alleviate your dehydration...

Continuing with this positive mood, we offer Oksana Voronova’s refreshing story on an unusual theatre troupe in Magnitogorsk that is thriving in spite of the difficult creative and economic climate surrounding it (page 16).

These stories ought then prepare you perfectly to digest the hilarious excerpts from a book for all time – Ilf & Petrov’s saga of Russia’s great adventurer, Ostap Bender (page 22). Bender’s  many humorous quips throughout The Twelve Chairs have become proverbial for generations of Russians. We hope you will find it entertaining as well.

One Benderism – “a car is not a luxury, but a means of transportation” – proved that Ostap (a.k.a. “the smooth operator”) was not only a top-notch crook, but also a prophet. For, in Russia today, a car is no longer a luxury item, and Russia is less and less plagued by what Ilf & Petrov called bezdorozhye (absence of roads). So we thought it appropriate to share with you some practical tips from the experts on how best to travel by car in Russia (page 32).

We hope that, if you decide to drive Russia’s roads, your trip doesn’t end up anything like that of Bender and his team in the rented Antilope Gnu (in The Golden Calf, the sequel to The Twelve Chairs). To know what I refer to, you will obviously have to read the works in their entirety. But, as we Russians say, ne zrya (it is not in vain). For Ilf & Petrov will help you to grasp many things Russian, including the especially important observation that Ostap Bender would easily find his place under the sun in today’s Russia.