The Politics of Russian Business

One thing you have to understand is that Russia is a politi­cal country. You can’t do things alone.  Never mind about the Kremlin. That is another ocean you probably won’t have to challenge. But, even at the daily business level, it can be like crossing a big pond in a small boat. Or, as in the famous Repin painting above, like pulling the boat upstream. It is better to know you may need help on the oars and to prepare by choosing your crew yourself. In Russia they call it a “roof” which means political relationships that hopefully will be there to help when you need it. Also you hope they will leave you alone to manage your business and not interfere. In my company, we were fortunate to have trustworty and friendly connections which did just that. Some roofs leak in a storm; others are overwhelming and starve you of sun to grow in. Choose carefully.

It’s like getting married. Be careful to pick the right one as you may be with them a long time. So often I found Americans who had made some initial contacts, came to Moscow for a week and went home thinking they had made a deal. It doesn’t happen that way. Again, here is where patience pays. Patience is strength.

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Pushkin was right!

“To the orders of God or muse be obedient.

Don’t be afraid of insult,

don’t demand the laurel wreath.

Slander and praise receive

with equal indifference.

     And never argue with a fool.”

This is from a poem Alexander Pushkin wrote in 1836. The epigraph is from Horace – “Exegi Monumentum”

Maybe if he had taken his own advice, he would not have lost in life in a senseless duel in St. Petersburg not long after he wrote this. Nevertheless the advice is not to be ignored. I gave these words in a calligraphic poem, framed, as a gift to my teenaged grandchildren for their home or college room walls. It is advice we all should follow.

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The Cossacks are Coming

Recently I was introduced to a Russian lady here in California who soon informed me she was in fact a Cossack. In my interest in Russian history and culture I know about the Cossacks, but hard facts are elusive as to who they really are.  I knew them from the dramatic pictures and wild stories and that they chased Napoleon out of Russia in 1812. A few questions from my ignorance brought her answer, “Cossacks are a nation.” The origin of the name “Cossack” is from an early Turkic word meaning “free man”—anyone who could not find his appropriate place in society and went into the steppes, where he acknowledged no authority.  An independent people they have always been.

Olga told us of her family, its terrible treatment under Stalin, the “disappearance” of most of the men, Meeting Olga encouraged me to do a little research and I find their identity goes back the 16^th century in that southern steppe lands of Eastern Europe and Asian Russia, around the Dnieper and Don rivers—that geographic location destined to be forever in the way of invading armies going south or north, with  the Cossacks allying with one side or the other, or both.

As I underline in “Walking on Ice, an American Businessman in Russia,” I am always amazed at the determination and strength of many of the Russian women who come here for a new life. To meet a Cossack woman, here only three years, with a good job, and hear her decent English and resolve to better herself in this totally different culture, is admirable. The Cossacks are coming, but maybe only one at a time.

The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan of Turkey, the painting by Ilya Repin shown above is in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg

Coco Chanel and WHO? Rasputin??

No, they were not lovers. Really!! But there is a connection, albeit a long thin one. Grand Duke Dimitri was one of the handful, led by Prince Felix Yusupov, who murdered Rasputin in Saint Petersburg in December, 1916. Czar Nicholas II sent the conspirators far out of town and Dimitri was sent to a military unit in Persia. In the next year, 1917, it was all over for Czarist Russia and the Grand Duke never returned. Like many other fleeing Russians he ended up in Paris. And who do you think took notice of the aristocrat’s arrival? Coco Chanel. She was eleven years his senior but that didn’t stop either one.

 The French perfume business was booming because the scents didn’t last past eleven in the evening. So they bathed in the stuff. (Can you imagine!) But, as I heard the story, Dimitri said to Coco that she should not sell big bottles of perfume for cheap prices, but small bottles for high prices. He introduced Coco to Ernest Beaux, a successful Russian-born perfumer from St. Petersburg, whose French employer, Coty, would not follow his suggestions. Beaux insisted that the addition of deer musk would make the perfume last the night. Coco hired Beaux, added dear musk to the eighty-some other ingredients and voilà- Chanel No. 5 was born—that was 1920. The Coco-Dimitri affair was in 1921 and while she moved on to others, the relationship in indeed historic. You may have seen the film “Igor and Coco” about her affair with Stravinsky. It seems she liked Russians – famous Russians.

In my next book, “The Lady with the Ostrich Feather Fan” you will learn more about Rasputin’s murder, but it is really about the “life” of two Rembrandts that were the pride of the Yusupov collection and now hang in the National Gallery of Art. More on that later. This perfume story is just one of the many side-stories that emerge when writing.

To read more about all this read “Chanel” by Edmonde Charles~Roux.

Russia Burning – to do what?

 The disastrous fires in Russia will soon be over—and then what? I was amazed to hear that the fires had started. I spent six years in Russia, in Moscow winters and summers. Nothing like this has happened before in Russia. What lasting effect these fires will have is open discussion now. Fingers are pointing9, but will they return to counting money soon?

This crisis has presented Prime Minister Putin with a great opportunity to show himself a hero on TV, at the controls (really?) of a BE200 dropping water on the fires, and to pose as master of the situation, and he has done just that. That’s despite Putin himself bearing the brunt of responsibility for Russia’s lack of preparedness for the fires, according to a scathing article in the Moscow business newspaper Vedemosti. It points out that Putin abolished the state forestry service three years ago and scaled back state funding for fire prevention measures. According to the paper, Russia currently spends about 4 cents per hectare of forest lands on fire-fighting services, compared with about $4 in the United States.

The impact of this disaster will be, I think, another weight on the scale of change inching forward in that country of a thousand years of autocratic rule where all change was determined from the top down. The demand for regional elections to choose regional leaders is growing. Putin eliminated regional leadership choice and moved it to the Kremlin. Now the regions want it back. Local control to create local solutions to unforeseen disasters such as the wildfires is one of the reasons argued in favor of this move.  The fire of change has already begun. It will take time.

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The Spirit of the Siberian Tiger

Alexander Dolitsky is deeply absorbed by the Russian heritage of Alaska and lives in Juneau.  He has written many books on this subject, but the ones I have been so enthralled with are the tales and myths from Siberia, and especially his book, “Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East.” It is a masterpiece of story-telling, of art, poetry, and information. The illustrations are phenomenal. The stories focuses on the cultural significance Siberian tigers have held in the Russian Far East and tells us much about the native people, the Eskimo and Chukchi.

Dolitsky, who heads the “Alaska-Siberia Research Center,” is now beginning a new series of tales from the north country that will be published in the future. It is certainly a pleasure to be on the edge of this and see it growing.

To acquire a copy of “Spirit of the Siberian Tiger…” contact adolitsky@gci.net or write  the Alaska-Siberia Research Center, P.O. Box 34871, Juneau, Alaska 99803.

A Russian Boy for a Yosemite Camp

Two years ago my business partner in Russia asked me to help find a summer camp in the U.S. for her then eleven-year old son, Egor (nickname “Goshka”.)  My family experience with camps was all in New England. So I asked a group in church here in California for a reference and a friend mentioned Yosemite Sierra Summer Camp. So I made the contacts and Goshka came for two weeks in 2009. . He was thrilled with the camp Califonia’s Bass Lake, in the shadow of Yosemite National Park. YSSC was established in 1972 to provide Christian adventure camp experiences for children 8 to 16 years old.

Goshka speaks good English and they were pleased to have him. He was thrilled with the camp and with the competent, supporting and loving leadership. He vowed to come back this year (2010) and he did,  now at age 13. I am sending a boy back to Moscow again thrilled with his experience and commitment to return again in 2011. This is a great life experience for this Russian boy to take home and share with his family and friends. Goshka tells me there are no summer camps in Russia like this. My thanks to Steve and Sara Kuljis, the camp managers and their devoted staff.  I am happy to be a help in this regard.

Russian Contemporary Art

 by Tamara Semenova, St. Petersburg

Masha Zeiring and with Muriel Wood, both Directors of our Los Angeles/St. Petersburg Sister City Committee was the team that prepared and took over 200 pieces of art from the Los Angeles Unified School District for display during the Master Class White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia this past June-July. Masha’s parents are celebrated artists in St. Petersburg and Masha has started a web page for them and to provide an expanding representation of the best in contemporary art from that artistic center of Russia. The web page is called The Art Addiction.

I think this initiative of Masha’s is going to grow into a recognized center of contemporary Russian art in the city of Los Angeles.

Russian Corruption of Olympic Proportions

  The allegations of extreme corruption in the Russian 2014 Sochi Olympics have got everyone talking, but so far we hear of no corrective action being taken. The media is full of it. The Moscow Times, The Christian Science Monitor and the Novaya Gazeta have covered it well. This speaks of incredibly negative public relations for Russia amidst the world community.

Of course, corruption in the Olympies is not new. But after the efficient and relatively clean Olympics in Vancouver, the mishandling of such a visible international affair as the Winter Olympics forecasts a great loss of prestige for a nation trying to establish itself in as a world leader. As the Christian Science Monitor reported, the Transparency International’s annual corruption perceptions index currently ranks Russia No. 146 out of 180 countries, down from No. 82 a decade ago. A financially corrupt Sochi games will simply highlight that national sickness. And it colors the entire reputation of this honorable historic event. Not much is expected from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s publicized investigation into the affair.

Why would a country’s leadership allow or support such a demeaning thing to happen? The answers may be deep and hard to heal. To some, civil and moral disobedience is not the issue. Getting caught is the offense to avoid. We won’t know the fallout of this for some time. Heads may roll, but pockets will be filled. But, as the Russians often say, “Let’s hope for the best.”

Moscow, a City of Dogs

Don’t take offense, Muscovites. The subway riding dogs have made Moscow famous. We have seen this canine phenomenon on TV. Moscow is a city of dogs. There are two classes. Much like the city’s underclass inhabitants, those affected by the need to move out of the modernizing city can still be seen in vagabond packs or stalking alone, scheming to sur­vive, begging,. But now they ride the metro.

They sleep in the suburbs and shop in the center. Russian scientists say that Moscow stray dogs became much smarter. Once they arrive to the downtown they demonstrate different new, previously unseen dog skills. They know how to scare people into dropping their hotdog.     They don’t miss their stop while going on the subway. Biologists say dogs have very keen sense of time which helps them not to miss their destination. Another skill they have is to cross the road on the green traffic light. “They don’t react on color, but on the picture they see on the traffic light”, Moscow scientist tells. Also they choose often the last or the first metro car–those are less crowded usually.

There is of course the upper class of dogs, the canine elite, who walk their masters, regardless of rank, in the parks each morning and evening. (In my book, see the essays Dogs and My Name is Dog in the Essay Collection.)

But then there is the big picture. Moscow is a masculine city. It has muscle. It is an explod­ing powerhouse of opportunity held together by threads of per­sonal energy and ambition. It is a beehive of lives stacked twenty stories high, living the happiness and sins of people anywhere—only at the extremes Moscow hardly sleeps. It has a burly aggressiveness unique in Europe. In time, Moscow is destined to be one of the great cit­ies of Europe. The one word that describes Moscow is power.

With an energy unmatched anywhere else in Russia, Mos­cow is a sprawling, brawling, dynamic throng of eleven million people embracing dozens of races, speaking scores of different tongues and struggling to make enough rubles to survive. Not only are there two Russias, there are two Moscows, one whose people thrive and one whose people strive to survive. Not far outside the latest Outer Ring, you might think in some ways it is still the 1930s. And then there are the dogs. Maybe there are three Moscows.

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