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.

This is the Part 6 of my weekly series about Russian women.  The women who have my greatest respect are the bold, who have taken the painful step from a bureaucratic stagnation and are adapting to the new realities in a dynamic competitive economy. Some come fresh out of university, or from academia or government bureaucracy, where they enjoyed a level of prestige and a comfortable job but an uncomfortable life. In a new world that rewards deeds, not diplomas, those who have taken that step, and persevered, are not only surviving, they are prospering.

It is often the Russian women who are making this rapid adaptation, taking the jump and winning the new game. In the process, the men often are left behind in lower paying jobs. When the woman brings home more bread than the man, strains can occur in a society as chauvinistic as Russia’s. The vehicle of the new age of Russia is world commerce, and the catalyst is the English language–as it is worldwide. The women are holding important jobs in Western companies bringing in higher incomes than their men, vacationing in Spain, shopping in the designer stores on Tverskaya and Nevsky, and ordering from Land’s End and Victoria’s Secrets. The emasculated man is tempted toward increased indolence, resentment, alcoholism, even child and wife abuse.

And with all this progress, a friend said still the real decisions of Russia are made in the banya, the steam bath, amongst old friends, survivors of the male-dominated past. In spite of these barriers, the young women today are rising to the top, running large companies and serious budgets, even getting their MBAs in America or Europe. They are the new heroes in Russia.

 Stay tuned for more on these amazing people.

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 This is the Part 4 of my weekly series about Russian women.  It’s about those I call the “Barbies” and the “beaten.”

 There is another kind of woman in Russia today, which, unfortunately, is nothing to brag about–the Barbies. Out of the same age group of the young Russians who are so promising, there are the Lady Gaga wannabes with more on their face than in their head. The Barbies sit dumbly in the street kiosks, bored, chewing gum, reluctantly responding to questions about the pirated DVDs on display. With a cigarette hanging from over-painted lips, they are lost in a cheap world of making money, conspicuous consumption, and Hollywood B flicks. Down Nevsky Prospect, they walk as onto a couture stage, the teen-aged bare-bellied Barbies, arm and arm, lost in their cheap fantasy of who they want to be. We have them, too. They are not the hope of the new Russia–but maybe will get in line with the winners.

One kind of woman in Russia, one too often obscured, is the tragic–the beaten. She is the victim of the violent side of Russian culture, the deep-seated crudeness and cruelty present in many Russian men. The Moscow Times reported once that fifty percent of all murders are committed by husbands killing wives. Rapes, not as prevalent as in America, nevertheless go unreported because the police and courts are unsympathetic to the rape victim who is chided for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I’ve seen the faces of women on the street, going about their chores with a battered face¾as if the system itself was not brutal enough. Alcohol is often to blame. In a country where drunkenness is a cultural right and vodka subsidized by the state, what can you expect? The women are tough survivors. They have to be tough to survive the infamous birthing clinics that treat women like accomplices to a crime. Until recently, there were thirteen abortions for every ten births. Only those with money and contacts can use the modern maternity facilities.

Check here next week for the “winners.”

Comments are welcome.

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This is the Part 3 of my weekly series about Russian women.  It’s about the babushkas, bless their hearts.

The babushka, or grandmother, has a special role in Russian history and life. They are the social conscience, and humorously, the collective mouthpiece of Russia. They have an opinion about everything. They are fearless; they talked back tank drivers at the Russian White House in 1991, they march in political demonstrations (all sides), they guard the lobbies of apartment houses, they beat away gypsies attacking foreigners in the street (as they once did for me). They sat outside my building on long summer nights, petting the house cat, enjoying the children playing hopscotch on the pavement, complaining about the immoral price of milk or the crooks in the Kremlin. Yes, they also sweep the streets and sidewalks with stick brooms–someone has to do it.

Sometimes intimidating with their dour, deeply-bred suspicious looks, they can quickly return a smile exposing a few gold teeth or none at all, or start a conversation, or willingly give a direction. They often live alone or in depressing communal flats struggling to maintain their dignity. Our Los Angeles/St. Petersburg Sister City Committee supports a charity group that serves some of the dear ladies in that city. I remember dearly my visits with a few. One was 95 years old and fought the Nazis in that terrible “900 days”  war of attrition- wonderful sweet lady. They deserve help and are one group you don’t want to have against you.

 Come back next week for the Barbies and the beaten.

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 Your questions and comments are welcome.

This is the Part 2b of my weekly series about Russian women.  More about the beautiful.

These pretty women are feminine, they are proud of being feminine, and know how to be feminine. They are good at flirting and expert at coyness. Yet, the Russian women, no matter how many university degrees she has or her business title, is always a woman and expects to be treated like one. She considers it an insult if the man does not open the door, help her with her coat, or hold her chair. She takes your arm on a stroll, particularly helpful when walking on the ice.

Russian women are interesting as people. Many are educated, well-read, cultured and able to discuss a wide range of subjects–and these days well traveled. They are thoughtful and sensitive, and prefer intelligent conversation to shallow small talk or TV humor. They have opinions and are ready to express them. They have a ready sense of humor, and like most Russians, a sense of irony and satire. They are good as friends. Honest, but polite. Direct, sometimes painfully so, but without intent to offend. She is herself.

The best season to watch the Russian women, believe it or not, is in the winter, when the mystery is framed in long elegant furs, or a tailored hooded coat over tall boots. Intriguing is the quick glimpse of a modern Anna Karenina or a Lara out of Dr. Zhivago, moving through a crowd, crossing a snowy street, maybe leading a child to school, or leaning seductively on a lamp post at a bus stop. Busily on their way, their pace is long confident strides, even on the ice.

But, then they are not all like that. Next week we will indeed talk about the babushkas and the Barbies.

Stay tuned for more

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This is the second of my weekly series about Russian women.  The common Western notion about Russian women is either that of the babushkas, the stocky grandmothers in gray headscarves who dutifully sweep the frozen streets of Moscow–or the fantasy of long-legged Russian beauties, seductive KGB agents in a James Bond movie. Both impressions are valid.

Women are hard enough to understand in any case. To borrow Winston Churchill’s famous line about Russians, that they are “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,” and then further wrap a large minority of them in a bundle of fur–you have Russian women. In my book there are six kinds of Russian women: the beautiful, the babushka, the Barbie, the beaten, the bold. and now, the bewildered. Today we will touch on the beautiful.

There is a reality in the stereotypical James Bond seductress. I will flatly say that Russia has more than its share of charming and attractive women. By “attractive” I don’t mean merely the exotic physical characteristics that are so publicized. The real beauty of Russian women is under the surface where they often contain an elusive self-confidence, a seductive charm, a depth and strength uncommon in others. There is an enigmatic self-awareness in their eyes¾a pride, perhaps a secret¾certainly nothing inconsequential.

As you walk the streets or look at the faces at a bus stop or in the Metro, you often see this same feminine mystery. But they are not aloof. There is a curiosity and willingness to return a quick smile or hold a gaze for that fraction of a second that asks a question–or suggests a danger. They love life, which is hard to explain considering how hard life can be in Russia.

More on the beautiful next week.

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There is a lot written today about the escalation of women in world affairs.  There is no doubt they are rising to the top in business and politics. It’s about time! Nowhere is this more evident as with Russian women, whether in Russia or abroad, where often they have to go to get the freedom and opportunity they crave. I cover this in depth in my book, “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia,” and will excerpt parts of it, and add recent observations in this column on my website. I will do this once a week over the next several weeks, so watch this column weekly.

In Chapter 38 of “The Domostroi,” a sixteenth century version of Good Housekeeping, the husband is instructed in how to discipline his wife and children, “beat them only with the lash, in a careful and controlled way, albeit painfully and fearsomely.” Progress has been made in Russia, but progress, like all else, is relative. It is a long story, but it’s clear the women in Russia are moving up regardless of the men. A Moscow Times article said the over 50% of the new businesses in Moscow were started by women. But, if they can’t make it at home, they go abroad.

March 8th is Woman’s Day in Russia. Some say it is a transparent apology for mistreating women the rest of the year, which is to some degree true. Others say that women have come a long way in Russia and are, and should be, grateful for that step forward, also true. They still have far to go, but they are getting there.

Check each week for a new post on this alluring subject.

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

Now that I am getting involved with new ventures with Russians and/or on Russian soil, I am reapproaching all I have experienced and written about in my book, “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia” and measuring how things have continued to change. It seems the positive has become more positive, and the negative more negative. But there does seem to be hope. “Hope dies last in Russia” a respected business friend said once. The fact is the opportunity, if carefully developed, is there and promising.

Progess is inevitable, because that demarcation line between the old world and the new is every day moving upward. The line is now at about age 45 – those below are bringing new thought and energy to the Russian world. These younger Russians are well educated, experienced, responsible, and dedicated. Those over that line are to one degree or another still in the mindset of the past. That past is not just the Soviet past, but the autocratic past of a thousand years. But, even those in the younger group, have lots of inherited mindset to change. It is possible, I firmly believe, to be an effective, successful, responsible member of the greater world and still enjoy the honored cultural identity of being Russian. But, “In Russia, everything is difficult, and everything is possible.”

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

From the review for “Walking on Ice. An American Businessman in Russia” from Russia Profile magazine, by its editor, Andrei Zolotov, Jr.  

Of the legion of Western entrepreneurs who came to Russia in the early 1990s in search of opportunities, many came here guided not just by greed, but by a quest for adventure. But there were few who had become infatuated with Russian culture built their businesses as a cultural matchmaking of sorts. They had the inquisitive minds and open hearts of cultural interpreters, which helped push their projects in the land, where, as one such person, Frederick R. Andresen put it, “everything is difficult—and everything is possible.”

Andresen put his insightful observations into a tenderly written, concise book, which is neither an academic study, nor a memoir; neither a business manual, nor a cultural history. Yet it somehow manages to serve all these purposes and can be recommended as an easy and highly educational read for aspiring Russia scholars and people preparing for a tour of duty in Russia.

One part of the book is structured in chapters on Russian geography, demography, culture, business and politics, while the other is simply called “An Essay Collection.” These pages bear an openly Chekhovian description of a weekend spent at the dacha with an extended Russian family next to a carefully worded account of the role of crime and corruption in business practices and how they can be worked around; a tribute to Boris Pasternak next to a report about the October 1993 revolt and the shelling of parliament from an unusual perspective of a businessman whose operation was headquartered in the Comecon building at the very center of those dramatic events.

The author analyzes the role of the Orthodox Church in shaping the Russian psyche and identity, and categorizes Russian women in types which would make some of them blush. What brings these essays together is a transpiring love for both the strengths and weaknesses of this country and its people.

Andresen was clearly intrigued by the “Russian soul” and made an unpretentious and humorous contribution to unwrapping the “mystery inside the enigma.” It rings true even to a skeptical Russian reader instinctively ready to catch factual or contextual flaws in a “naïve foreigner’s” reflection on his country.

One of the book’s high points is the account of how the author applied Dostoyevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor” chapter to business management. Three things are generic to the traditional Russian character, Andresen wrote, referring to Dostoyevsky: “the idea that good, if any, will come from some unexpected outside source (miracle); that man is not ordained to be responsible for his own welfare and progress (mystery); and that guidance and protection come only from constant dependence on and obedience to someone else (authority). There is a reversion to this in today’s Russian government. That situation is pressing to be changed by the young, but it seems always there under the surface.”

For business people without a background in Russian studies embarking on a Russia-related project, Andresen gives a short reading list: “The Icon and the Ax” by James Billington, “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and “The Castle” by Franz Kafka. “Walking on Ice” would certainly complement the list—it can be consumed in one trans-Atlantic flight.

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

March eighth is Woman’s Day in Russia. Its history goes back to the 1917 Russian Revolution.  Like most things in Russia today, it is controversial. Some say it is a transparent apology for mistreating women the rest of the year, which is to some degree true. Others say that women have come a long way in Russia and are, or should be, grateful for that step forward¾also true. And I said, about ten years ago when I first wrote the essay on Russian Women which is in my book, “Walking on Ice…,) they still have far to go. But things have changed. Russian women today are increasingly at the forefront of society, business, politics.  The Moscow Times reported a few years ago that sixty percent of the new businesses in Moscow were started by women.

Amongst the over sixty employees in my first Russian company a large percentage were women and they were for the most part capable, determined, technically competent, trustworthy, and loyal. I enjoyed working with them. I could depend on them

There is a lot of various opinions about Russian women, some not too complimentary. But in my book, they are unique and fill a very important place in society—in Russia for sure, but also just about anywhere they decide to be. In my book I list six kinds of Russian women: the beautiful, the babushka, the Barbie, the beaten, the bold, and the bewildered. To understand all this you will have to read “Walking on Ice….” Enjoy.

Partially excerpted from “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”