What V-E Day Means to the Russians

From a letter to the editor at SiberianLight:

"People like McDuff misunderstand the nature of WWII as perceived by most Russians, and by doing so and indulging in diatribes in defense of various small nations that were not exactly anti-Nazi during the war, he is playing right into the hands of Russian imperialists. (Note that I am an anti-imperial nationalist as it were.) The war of German Aggression was a war of survival for Russia (and Belarus, and large parts of Ukraine). We paid a huge price in blood (partly, but not entirely because of Stalin's and his generals' massive errors) but we survived as a people and, moreover, destroyed the enemy. May 9 is the day of remembrance of this epic struggle, and of commemoration of the fallen. The memory of the war is one of the very few bonds that still hold together what remains of the nation. Seen in this light, McDuff's enclosing 'celebrations' in quotation marks is so offensive to the common Russian that it automatically disqualifies the author from any meaningful discussion of WWII. It may be 'celebrations' for the Latvian and the Finn but it's Celebrations for the Russian." (Posted by Alexei, March 5, 2008)

To the extent America understands this sentiment, a strong Russian-American relationship can be rebuilt, which IMHO is needed to balance a resurgent and not always pro-American Europe...
NOTE: I see that Alexei runs The Russian Dilettante blog.

The American Society of Newspaper Censors?

Colbert I. King's column in today's Washington Post about a dispute between Post writer Marc Fisher and the American Society of Newspaper Editors, titled An Affront to the First Amendment, is well worth reading.

If anything illustrates a moral failure with major media in America today, it is a letter from ASNE lawyer Kevin Goldberg, attacking Fisher for commenting on a court battle between the Baltimore Sun and Maryland Governor Robert Erhlich:

Goldberg wrote last Saturday that Fisher had "done a disservice to his reporting brethren" by "publicly" stating his views. Acknowledging Fisher's right to state his beliefs, Goldberg declared, incredibly, that "the responsibility that accompanies that right mitigates against stating them in this situation." This from the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Now who's trying to stifle the free flow of information to the public?

That a professional organization of newspaper editors would be calling for censorship in order to further their own cause fits a pattern that can be seen in the Dan Rather case, Eason Jordan's comments, and so forth. This is troubling for the United States at a time when freedom and democracy are embattled around the world.

As Instapundit might say, the ASNE letter is evidence that they "are on the other side."

Power Line on Dan Rather's Letterman appearance

Putin mentioned the Dan Rather scandal at his summit with President Bush. And when I was in Moscow at a Moscow State University conference on American Studies, they were talking about Dan Rather in the same way--a victim of the White House. Turned out the sources for Russian analysts were the outlets like the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Columbia Journalism Review, and so on. One might write a dissertation on the national security fallout of the Dan Rather story, and how the Thornburgh report is making things worse. The logic goes like this: If there were no political agenda and no fraud at CBS, why did Rather have to resign? White House pressure!

I know when I was teaching in Moscow, my students believed that the American president controlled network news...(Americans know that he doesn't).

So it is nice to see that PowerLine is still on the Rather casewith this account of his appearence on David Letterman's show. "My translation of Rather's take on the report is: "People have got to know whether or not their [anchor] is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook."

The Return of Kremlinology

According to this article in London's Financial Times, Kremlinology is all the rage again, as outsiders struggle to figure out who's really in charge in Moscow:

In the days of the Soviet Union, Kremlinologists assessed who was going up and down within the country's political elite by scrutinising the order in which members of the Communist party politburo climbed on to Lenin's mausoleum to watch parades on Red Square. Today there is no Soviet Union and no parading, but Kremlinology is back. Political analysts these days, however, are more likely to pore over the increasingly Soviet-style television news to see who is hovering at President Vladimir Putin's shoulder during nightly footage of his meetings with ministers.

The FT names a handful of insiders, but who knows if they are the real insiders or a Potemkin inner-circle, designed to throw Kremlin-watchers off-track?

Scraps of Moscow

Thanks to Lyndon Allin's link to my blog, I found his interesting website about Russia today Scraps of Moscow. It has good photos as well as text.

Hooray for George F. Will!

He's back in the saddle again, with a good essay about why the federal government should stop paying for PBS, titled Cut Buster Loose:

Money quote:"Public television is akin to the body politic's appendix: It is vestigial, purposeless and occasionally troublesome. Of the two arguments for it, one is impervious to refutation and the other refutes itself. "

The Case for Putin

Here's an interesting pro-Putin article The west gets Putin wrong that is worth thinking about. Mary Dejevsky makes some good points, namely that Putin is weaker than he looks, and far from being a dictator, is casting about trying to stay in power by playing factions off against each other. Still, the argument that things could be worse, and that there is no constituency for more reforms--while true--doesn't justify the kind of self-defeating overkill that Putin has engaged in with the Yukos affair, for example.

Who would want to go into business in Russia, if the government can just decide one day to put you out of business, on a whim? Especially since Yukos was by all accounts the best-run company in Russia. That is the chilling effect to outside investors that Putin needs to resolve as quickly as possible, by letting Khodorkovsky go. Until he does, Russia's international image will continue to suffer.

One thought would be for Putin to release Khodorkovsky before V-E Day celebrations, as a gift to Bush for attending.

Uzbekistan: A modernizing society

When it rains, it pours. Orbis has just published my scholarly article, "Uzbekistan: A modernizing society". Here's the money quote:

Underestimating Uzbekistan's legacy of modernist secularism, Americans often stereotype the nation as one of the poor and backward '-stans.' Many Central Asia analysts accept at face value nationalist, pan-Turkic, or Islamist versions of the region's past, dismissing as inauthentic anything that is modern, Western, or familiar. Focusing on the exotic or (in the case of the Fergana Valley) dangerous, they foster misperceptions about the character of Uzbekistan that result in flawed policies.

Click on Registan.net to read the whole thing.

Tashkent - New York: America - Uzbekistan

Time Out Tashkent has published my article about the Uzbek capital: "Tashkent-New York: America-Uzbekistan." Here's the money quote:

Anyone who has lived in New York City should be able to adapt to life in Uzbekistan's capital, especially West Siders (East Siders tend to have high-paying jobs). New Yorkers live in blocks of flats, take the subway and buses, and eat from street vendors, so do residents of Tashkent. New Yorkers feel they are more sophisticated than anyone else in the country, so do Tashkent's inhabitants. New York is the center of intellectual life for the USA, Tashkent plays the same role in Uzbekistan. New York has Lincoln Center, Tashkent the Navoi Opera House; New York has the Astoria Film Studios, Tashkent, UzbekFilm; New York has its Broadway, Tashkent has its own Broadway. To better understand Uzbekistan, just think about its similarities to America.

Alice Goldfarb Marquis on "Old Europe"

We heard from Alice, last seen in Moscow, in regard to the depressinq quality of Vienna:

Yes, all of Central Europe is depressing most of the time. Hence Kafka. Hence Gustav Mahler. Hence Karl Krauss, publisher of a journal describing the end of the world. Hence Freud, who saw humans trapped inside the warring id & ego. And I could go on, perhaps showing that Hitler himself was depressed. And no wonder.

Ann Coulter Defends Bloggers

In her latest column, Ann Coulter defends bloggers against the media attacks on James Guckert, who apparently made big news when he received a White House press pass while I was out of town in Moscow. (When do I get a pass?)

In response to the public disgrace and ruin of New York Times editor Howell Raines, CBS anchor Dan Rather and CNN news director Eason Jordan, liberals are directing their fury at the blogs. Once derided as people sitting around their living rooms in pajamas, now obscure writers for unknown Web sites are coming under more intensive background checks than CIA agents.

To continue today's shameless name-dropping festival, I knew Ann Coulter, too, a few years ago. She was one of the nicest people in Washington, she even tried to get me hired when she a commentator on MSNBC. She sent her parents to see me talk at the Women's National Republican Club in New York City. They were nice, too. So, I really don't understand why some people hate her so much. In addition to being beautiful, she's intelligent, thin, rich, a best-selling author--and extremely tall...Could it be that someone's jealous?

Some Email from Paris, about Khodorkovsky

Marie-Noelle Pane just sent us an email about Mikhail Khodorkovsky, after seeing an item in this blog. She asked for a link to her organization. So here it is:



Pane heads a group working for Khodorkovsy's relase, and sounds sincere when she says they don't get any money from him (though I wouldn't blame them if they did). Here's how she describes her Paris-based organization:

In a few words (excuse me, my English is very bad) - we are just a group of citizens, we found one another on several discussion forums on the web, and then we decided to get together and meet in "real" life to try to do something. At least to express our protest.
No one pay for our operations. From the beginning, we absolutely rejected the idea of any financial help. We want to show that people can do something by themselves. And it would be no moral help for Khodorkovsky if people were defending him... on his own money ;-). So - no, thanks. As we are all not very well-off, our operations are not expensive - web site cost about 20$/year, I pay for him myself, there are telephone fees, paper, ink...that kind of things. Everyone gives what he can gives. We all are volonterees, working according to the "samizdat" principle. We try to do original things to drive the attention of media, and sometimes collaborate with Human Right Defence Organisations. We also collaborate with Khodorkovsky's press center, in that way that they (sometimes) publish account of our actions, and sometimes give us posters of Khodorkovsky. And that's all.
If you are interested and you are in Moscow, you can assist to our demonstrations in front of the Meschanskyj Court (about once a week). You can also have a look of what's happening inside the Court, it is... how to say... interesting. :-(

You can read our position :
http://www.sovest.org/orgsovest/position_en.htm

Another old school tie

My non-Oscar winning friend, dissident Cuban-American filmmaker Agustin Blazquez, who made "Covering Cuba 3: Elian" (has it even played in Los Angeles?) emailed to say that UCLA film school colleague Alexander Payne won an Oscar for "Sideways." I was in Vienna, at the Opera, watching Aida, I think--or asleep--during the broadcast from Hollywood. So I missed the big moment. (Oscar show producer Bill Cates used to be chairman of the film/tv production department at UCLA, btw).

In any case, Agustin's letter reminded me that Payne named an off-screen character with my very own moniker in his "Citizen Ruth." You can hear it on the tape deck in the car that the protagonist listens to, some pretty straightforward tips on real estate investing. The film is sort of interesting, and Payne has some talent.

At any rate, it is proof that we were at UCLA film school together. He was perfectly nice to me, though I always had a feeling that he thought I wasn't cool enough. I guess he was right. At the time, Payne had a pretty blonde girlfriend, also a UCLA film student, who I remember for her "witchy" pointed shoes. They were a cool couple, they made a film about a relationship of some peculiar kind. He's still making films about relationships, it seems.

I don't think I'm mentioned in "Sideways," though.

Back in the USA

Just came back to a snowstorm that closed down Washington, DC, "our nation's capital." Just a few inches, it wouldn't have stopped anyone in Moscow...

The whole place looks just beautiful, dusted with sugar, like a small town in New England. It does seem pretty small, after Moscow. Incredible to consider that this tiny town is the "capital of the free world." Very quiet and peaceful, all the world's problems seem far away.

Today's Washington Post has the story about Moscow Mayor Luzhkov threatening to punish weathermen for incorrect forecasts. It was in the Moscow newspapers a week ago, when we left, he was even on TV making his threats.

Although the Post mentions that Luzhkov sometimes directs the weather:

In advance of major holidays, sports events and parades, Luzhkov forks out tens of thousands of dollars for planes to seed clouds with dry ice and liquid nitrogen. That causes them to unleash their loads of moisture before reaching Moscow, often bringing torrential downpours to the hapless suburbs while the city basks in sunshine.

The author, Peter Finn, treat this as a joke. I somehow don't think the Post really understands that while in America everyone talks about the weather, in Russia they do something about it (apologies to M. Twain).

Biggest News from Summit? IMHO It's Bush to Moscow for V-E Day Celebrations

As Andrew Sullivan likes to say, here's the money quote from the transcript of the Bush-Putin summit in Bratislava:

(PUTIN)

In conclusion, I would like to say that I highly appreciate the outcome of this summit. Later this year, we are going to meet a few more times within the framework of various international fora. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the President of the United States who has accepted the invitation to participate in the festivities on the occasion of the anniversary of the great victory on May 9th in Moscow. This is a natural manifestation of respect of historic memory and the memory of the alliance that bonded our two countries in the years of the second world war.

This seems like a fine idea--especially if Putin releases Khodorkovsky beforehand. A good time to renew the US-Russian alliance that beat the Nazis and can beat Islamic extremism in the same way. There's a huge statue of a victorious Soviet soldier looming over Vienna, and for all its awful grandiosity, I kind of liked seeing it.

Of course the plaza was probably the only unswept snow in Vienna, they don't much like the Russians here.

One reason Europeans were nice to America in the past, it seems to me, is that they wanted us to protect Europe from the Russians. Now that they're not so afraid of a weak Russia, Europeans think that they don't need us, and they're not so nice to America.

On the other hand, the Russians really do need us, and I sort of think we need them to beat the new Nazi threat, so this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, as Humphrey Bogart said to Claude Rains in Casablanca...

Vienna Diary

Well, the Bush~Putin summit has come and gone, not much news coverage here in Vienna. We are staying at the Hilton, which has a nice American feel to it, even a Coca Cola convention where I got an old Coke in a small glass bottle that needed a bottle opener. Ahh...

Vienna itself is a little of a letdown after Moscow. We saw the graves of the Hapsburgs, crammed with schoolchildren, in the crypt of the Capuchin church. Someone is putting a lot of flowers on the grave of Franz Josef, it was impressive. Freud Museum didn't have too much in it, still it was interesting to see. Also the Lichtenstein Palace which has a terrific art collection and is hosting a Rubens show with some other Vienna museums, including the Kunsthistorisches Museum, where we spent today.

Last nights, sausages for supper. Now off for a schnitzel.

A Shameless Plug for a Relative's Art

My cousin, Louise Link Rath, has just put her paintings online. She's a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, founded by Walt Disney, lives in bucolic New Hampshire. You can take a look at her artwork at www.louiselinkrath.com.

Let Khodorkovsky Go

Press coverage about the upcoming Bush-Putin summit seems a little vague. From reading the smoke signals, it is not clear at this point, for example, what Bush is asking for. Take this item on Yahoo! News:

"Bush and Putin are due to discuss issues such as combatting terrorism, signing in the Slovakian capital Bratislava an accord imposing controls on 'man-portable' air defenses, and review as well Iraq, North Korea and US support for Russia's membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The two men should also hold 'frank' talks on the Yukos affair and Russian political reforms, sources said.

What's to discuss in the Yukos affair? The whole thing is chilling, many here here say Khodorkovsky will remain in jail as long as Putin is in office--maybe longer, like Dumas' "Man in the Iron Mask." What meaning could any talk of political reforms have in this environment?

Instead of "frank" private talks, Bush might just try something a little more Reaganesque. He might directly and publicly ask Putin to let Mikhail Khodorkovsky out of jail -- in the same way Reagan asked Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. The release of Khodordovsky would immediately improve the climate for American business with Russia, and signal a return to a more democratic path. Better business with Russia would help American-Russian relations, and make it easier for Russia to take other steps of mutual benefit to the two countries.

The Bachelor Stripped Bare

Getting ready to leave on the day after "Defenders of the Fatherland Day," a Soviet-era tribute to soldiers, sailors, and airmen which has become a sort of "Men's Day" in answer to International Women's Day on March 8th. You can buy greeting cards with a tank!

Not too much blogging last week because I was hosting Alice Goldfarb Marquis, author of a recent biography of Marcel Duchamp, The Bachelor Stripped Bare and a forthcoming biography of Clement Greenberg, in town to speak at my university and the American Center Library--and to attend the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, "Dialectics of Hope." She talked about Art and the Cold War, and about the legacy of Marcel Duchamp.

It was really interesting to hear Alice in Moscow, because we had some excellent and very sophisticated discussions about everything from Duchamp's "Large Glass" to Alice knitting mittens and scarves for Soviet troops during World War II.

And, gratifyingly, almost everyone here understands the importance of "ne oficialne" art and real meaning of artistic freedom. And things like the Museum of Modern Art's banning of Alice's biography of Alfred Barr, Jr. from its bookshop-- apparently, you still can't buy it there, but you can buy it here, from Amazon.com.

Alice made an extremely interesting point in a couple of her lectures, namely, that the Soviet Cultural Offensive that lead to American support for the arts in the Cold War actually helped America to develop its own self-conscious art, independent of Europe--viz., Jackson Pollock (discovered by Greenberg) and Duchamp.

The Cold War in art ended up helping America, since, as Alice concluded one talk, "thanks to some anonymous Russian bureaucrats who dreamt up the Soviet Cultural Offensive, I can now see good art and listen to good music in my hometown of La Jolla, California..."

One other interesting item from Alice's talks related to the politics of art, and art criticism. Apparently, the New York Times spiked a scheduled book review of The Bachelor Stripped Bare, after 9/11.

Why?

A Really Bad Idea from PBS

The New York Times has already begun lobbying for a trust fund for PBS in this article. (Thanks to Artsjournal for the tip)

Among the NYT's curious decisions was labelling Norman Ornstein of AEI a "conservative." When I was involved in the issue, a decade ago, Ornstein was considered a liberal democrat and CNN commentator (CNN at that point was called by some the Clinton News Network). But maybe he's changed. In any case, any conservative Republican might realize that Ornstein's catchphrase "socially useful programming" means spending taxpayer money to defeat Republicans...

IMHO, PBS stations should return any proceeds from spectrum sale directly to the US taxpayers -- who subsidized the network in the first place. Then the money can be used for real social needs--preserving social security or paying for homeland security, or to buy bulletproof vests and armor for our soldiers in Iraq.

Luckily for President Bush, PBS has done a good job of self-destruction in the last ten years. Ratings are down nicely. Programming is stupider than ever. And serious viewers who want educational and cultural enrichment have C-SPAN and the History Channel to turn to. Congress should let the process continue to its natural end, and stop PBS stations (many of which already have multi-million dollar endowments!) from stealing valuable spectrum revenue from the American taxpayer.