What Is To Be Done?

What is to be done to move Russia into the 21^st century world? It always has been a very tough question, but more possible of success today than ever before. It will lift Russians who can accomplish so much more if they develop an environment of cooperation and mutual need and respect. But it’s not easy. While it does not require sleeping on a bed of nails, as the hero did in Nikolai Chernyshevsky’s famous novel What Is To Be Done to prove his dedication to his Markist ideals, it does require a clear and serious intent, dedication, perservance, and many other things.

In a land historically devoid of the predictability of law, the cement of Russian society is built on personal relationships. That interwoven matrix is complex. That is why one never makes commitments he cannot deliver. It is deeds, not words that count. Character is more important than contracts. Once that trust develops, I found the Russians reliable, resourceful, dedicated, and extremely hard-working. New leadership can develop out of that growing pool of forward-looking younger men and women. And contracts can be a result.

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How Fiction Becomes Truth

The great painting by Johannes Vermeer, “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” is sometimes called “The Mona Lisa of the North.” I visited it once in The Mauritshuis in The Hague, the Netherlands. That girl’s gaze will rivet the most impatient viewer.

I had read the popular book on this painting, “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Tracy Chevalier, and after seeing the painting, I wrote Tracy and told her of my experience. I told her about the man who sat in front of the painting for hours , his eyes glued to those of the girl in Vermeer’s painting.  I assumed the man had read Chevalier ’s historical novel and for him, like for me, that story became the truth about Vermeer and the girl in the painting. Tracy agreed how, especially in the absence of any pertinent historical facts, the fiction becomes fact, the story.  Tracy Chevalier did a masterful  job. Great movie, too.

Writing a historical novel myself on two Rembrandts, it has been an enjoyable task to separate what is known from what is not known and create a compelling story.  I hope to get this published within the near future.

Changing Russia~ Patience Pays!

The American or Western visitor or businessman has a special challenge in fitting into the colorful and exciting environment of an evolving Russia. The world is not really so flat as to obscure the character of a people, though superficial similarities make these defining traits less visible. Even in this high-tech world, we need to understand the deeper meaning of a people, including those cultural elements that make them on occasion behave differently. Although Russia is in a great state of change, the effects of a thousand years of history are not erased in a decade or two—if ever.

After over thirty years doing business in Asia and Europe, I went to the new Russia in 1991. The contrasts with the rest of the world were amazing and at the same time stimulating. I was fortunate to gather around me in Russia some of the most dedicated, hard working, ethical, intelligent, and enjoyable young people I have ever worked with. I found a mutual sense of understanding and a team spirit toward the common goal. I started a telecom company and lived there for six years, managing the task in the cauldron of the chaotic residue of the Soviet Union and the stumbling progress of an emerging New Russia. With such smart men and women in Moscow the venture was successful, providing advanced telecom services to Fortune 1000 companies in Russia, to major Russian businesses, and to diplomatic offices, including the American Embassy.

Russia has been the highlight of my international business career—enriching and enjoyable.

Learn more. Buy here  “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

Russia’s Victory Day!!

There is nothing like a Russian military parade.  And on May 9, this year, it will happen all over Russia again. As usual, there will be the patriotic bands, goose-stepping soldiers, rockets, missile launchers, freshly painted armored personnel carriers and tanks. Overhead will be low flying jet fighters. You’d think The Great Patriotic War wasn’t over 66 years ago. But, the Russians are proud, and have a right to be, of course.

I remember such a celebration a decade or so ago in Red Square. The orchestra that day was the  National Symphony Orchestra from Washington conducted by the famed Rostropovich and they played, of course, Tchaikovsky’s 1812  Overture. It was a memorable experience. After the Kremlin bells and cannons closing the 1812 Overture, out came costumed historic figures on white horses. It was like a Parade of the Ages  I had seen in Japan once parading all the heroes of the centuries. That took an hour.

The Red Square experience was different however. Out came Alexander Nevsky, fresh from defeating the Teutonic Knights during the Battle of the Ice on 5 April 1242. After that rode General Kutuzov after chasing Napoleon from Russia in 1812. Then that was all. I asked a policeman, “Is that all?” He looked at me with that satirical Russian expression and said, “Nothing of importance has happened since then.”

Learn more. Buy here  “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

The Los Angeles Festival of Books

For years I have attended The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, held this year on the University of Southern California campus. It was a beautiful day. The first panel presentation was “Novel Arts. The Artist in Fiction.” Considering my next novel to be published, ”The Woman with an Ostrich Feather Fan,” that seemed like a natural for me, –and it was.

Ths panel staff was excellent, well balanced writers, editors, etc. The big surprise for me was one of the panelists, Adrienne Sharp, was the author of a book on the infamous Russian ballerina, Mathilde Kschessinska, a character who lived to be 100, mistress of Czar Nicholas II, and many others. More on this in a separate post here.

My focus was on the maze of publishing today. The panelists on this subject were well chosen, experts in their field and qualified to discuss their particular niche in the business. Being experts, naturally they did not agree and that left most of us not much better informed. I at least learned that no one knows for sure, and that they had all been wrong about the future of e-books five years ago.  E-books are booming even in fiction. But still, no one was predicting the end of print. So much to learn! But, it was certainly worth a long day in my moccasins and Hawaiian beach shirt.

Any comments from others on the The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books?

If you haven’t read it –get  YOUR copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

PRAGUE~ A very special city

From my global travels there is a short list of cities that remain as very special places to me, for many different reasons.  Prague, in the Czech Republic, is certainly one of them. I had a business there.

Prague has been a political, cultural and economic center of Europe and particularly central Europe for the over 1,100 years. The famous Charles Bridge, with parts dating to the year 885, crosses the Vltava River (aka Moldau) and takes you into the Old Town Square with its famous Astronomical Clock and ancient buildings including the Kafka Museum. Prague was one city that was largely spared of World War II destruction.

But, it is the culture that holds me. The Bohemian composers including Dvorak, Smetana, and Janacek, are among my favorites. The writer Franz Kafka is a legend. The poet Rilke and writer Kundera are special. One night I bought a ticket to see the opera “Don Giovanni” in the Estates Theater where Mozart conducted its premier in 1787. Mozart liked Prague and named his Symphony No. 38 after it.

I agree with Mozart.

St. Petersburg~A Favorite City of Mine

As usual in Russia, it is a place of mixed meaning and effect. Founded by Peter the Great in 1703 as his “Window on the West” it is still that and for that reason a place at arm’s length from the rest of Russia. And for that reason, one of the most fascinating cities in the world.

 St. Petersburg is a feminine city. She is an elegant and noble woman sitting draped with the jewels of her youth waiting for her prince to return. It is the most beautiful Italianate city in Europe. This “Venice of the North” with its symmetry, canals, architecture, statuary, museums, performing arts, palaces, gardens and languid summers with endless days make it a city never to be forgotten. The palaces are more flamboyant than Versailles and more numerous than anywhere in the world. I used to call it “Paris without paint,” but for the 300^th anniversary in 2003, the lady polished her nails, groomed her hair and donned a clean and colorful dress.  From my book, “Walking on Ice, an American Businessman in Russia.”

 St. Petersburg is not Russia; it is the historical myth of Imperial Russia. St. Petersburg is charming, gentle, romantic. It goes to bed at ten. But during the glorious summer White Nights it doesn’t sleep at all.

 As President of the Los Angeles/St.Petersburg Sister City Committee, I keep reasonably in touch.

 What do you think? Have you been there?

Buy here  “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

Kraków ~ a city I want to see!

In my many world travels, I have never been to Kraków, an ancient city in southern Poland on the Vistula River and just north of the Tatra Mountains.  I have been to Slovakia just 100 miles to the south, but not to this legendary city.

It has a history going back to the Stone Age, was a city in the 7^th Century, was almost destroyed by the Mongols in the 1200s, and today the second largest Polish city after Warsaw and a major national economic, academic, and artistic center. It suffered under the Nazis and its Jews suffered the same deaths as elsewhere in Europe  

Kraków is proud to be the home of the archbishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyła, who became Pope John Paul II – the first Slavic pope, and the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. My friend Andy is from Kraków and we meet often down on Inspiration Point here in Corona del Mar and watch the sun set over The Pacific. He goes back every year to see if his home city is still there.

Yes, we should all someday go to this famous  historic city, Kraków.

“Dos Gringos” for the screen?

The comment I continually hear from readers of my family book “Dos Gringos” is that it ought to be a film.

“In the middle of the Mexican Revolution, a penniless Norwegian and a drifting Irishman meet in an El Paso bar and are hired by a Pittsburg con-man to fix a gold mine in Mexico with parts which, they discover too late, purposely don’t fit.” I agree it should.  Some of what I have heard:

“This is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid—with accents.”

 “Can’t put it down.  So much intrigue.”

“A page turner, better than most out of Hollywood.”

“Thrilling – and funny.  Crazy guys.”

 If anyone has an idea how I can get this responsibly started toward a film, let me know. I have had classes in screen writing and would be open to working on a financed production. Quality is the thing.

 Let me know if you have ideas.

 If you haven’t read it –get  YOUR copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

What is it about Russian Women?~ Part 6, the “bewildered.”

And that brings us to the sixth category, the bewildered. In the early nineties I noticed the blooming female nouveau riche, superficially sophisticated lovelies in Prada and furs. They sipped cappuccinos in Café Mozart at the Radisson Slavanskaya with men who were convinced of their importance in the new get-rich-quick world. These women have now lived a fairy-tale life for ten years or so, shopping in Paris and parading down the posh avenues of world centers where their rich boyfriends would take them for entertainment while they stashed their ill-gotten riches in foreign banks.

 Even if these women had a university education and degrees in economics or science, they found themselves left out of the picture. As their male sponsors faced the unpredictability of Russian financial progress, bankruptcy or a bullet, the ladies drifted into other camps, or were dumped by their men for younger companionship. Now they look at their bold contemporaries, running advertising agencies or technology firms, and are standing on the dock watching their ship disappear over the horizon. They are bewildered, longing now to find a purpose, to get a life. Some may take the long step needed to find a place that will replace their earlier frivolous goals and bring them self-respect. Some have taken their credit cards and come to America, where, with some luck, they will find more secure, if not richer, life.

This is the end of my special series out of my book, Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia. You can back up on this web-site to read the earlier excerpts. Or you can buy the book at  “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

Questions and comments are welcome anytime.