Sister-holidays, Maslenitsa and Holi Celebrating colours, gaiety of spring P.08

A portrait of bridge-builderA poet, writer and translator fosters cultural ties

P.07

The Gagarin Odyssey50 years later, global cooperation is new mantraP.06

Distributed with

BANGALORE ● MuMBAi ● NEw DELhi ● WedneSdAy, MARCH 30, 2011

A Report from The Times of India. In association with Rossiyskaya Gazeta

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RussiaIndia

REPORT

...Marching towards a common future

ben ARiS RiR

Japan's Fukushima reactors' blast, sparked by a powerful quake, has cast doubts about nuclear power. but Russia has defied sceptics by signing on new atomic deals.

Unfazed, Russia high on nuclear powerenergy Putin assures turkey nuclear plant still on; Russia signs $6 bn deal with Belarus, opens n-deal talks with hungary

lowed by similar statements from the leaders of Belarus, Ukraine and Turkey, the coun-tries which have recently bought Russian-made nuclear power stations. Russian Presi-dent Dmitry Medvedev as-sured Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan when he vis-ited Moscow in mid-March that Russia will ensure Tur-key's nuclear power plant, to be built in the southern town of Akkuyu, will be able to withstand powerful earth-quakes. “The plant that will be built will be an example for the rest of the world,” Erdogan said during a press conference following talks with Medve-dev. Russia and Belarus signed off on a $6 billion pact to cooper-ate in building a nuclear power plant in Belarus on the same day. The construction is due to start in September.

The unfolding catastrophe at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power station has provoked a rethink in Europe over nucle-ar power. But this has not dampened the enthusiasm of Russia and most countries of emerging Europe, which have reasserted their commitment to using more atomic power. Russia's Prime Minister Vladi-mir Putin was quick to affirm that Moscow will continue to build new power stations. However, like Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel, he also ordered a comprehensive safety review of Russians' nu-clear assets. Putin's comments were fol-A view of the Kalinin nPP and Pesvo Lake in Russia. COnTinUed On PAGe 3

SHWeTA CHAndRiR

The man who brought down the Soviet colossus continues to mean different things to different people in india.

India divided over legacy: Glasnost, Gandhi, Grouchy Marx

Milestone Gorbachev stands tall at 80

first Asian country he visited after becoming the general secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union in March, 1985. Thousands of people lined the streets, flaunting banners and cele-bratory decades of the Soviet-Indian friendship when Gor-bachev touched down in New Delhi in November, 1986.

Reviled at home for liquidat-ing that colossus called the Soviet Union and feted abroad, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, evokes mixed feelings in India, the COnTinUed On PAGe 4

They were inseparable: Raisa and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Mi-28n "the night Hunter" (left) and Ka-50 "black Shark".

ViKTOR LiTOVKinsPEciALLy fOR RiR

each of the Russian choppers bidding for indian contract is unique. Will india pick up the best bet?

Alligator, Night Hunter chase combat helicopter sweepstakes

defence some machines are simply ahead of their time

reconnaissance and observa-tion helicopters.

Three Russian helicopters are bidding for India’s tenders to supply assault combat heli-copters: the firepower support machines Mi-28N (the Night Hunter) from Mil, Ka-52 (the Alligator) from Kamov and Ka-226T. The first two are vying to be included in New

Delhi’s shortlist for procuring 22 assault copters. The Ka-226’s bid is a part of India’s de-fence ministry’s tender for 197 COnTinUed On PAGe 2

in The Economic Times Every second WednesdayBUSINESS REPORT

April 13

www.indrus.in

bookmarks02 Russia india RepoRtin association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia tHe times of india wednesday_march 30_2011

www.kamov.ru/en Kamov JSC . Find more informa-tion about kamov helicopterswww.mi-helicopter.ru/eng Mil Moscow helicopters plantcooperation

son of black shark is adeal-maker in mountainsEach of the Russian choppers bidding for the Indian con-tracts is unique. But they in-clude a helicopter that is truly one-of-a-kind and ahead of its time. It is the Ka-52 Alliga-tor, son of the Ka-50 Black Shark. The Black Shark’s history goes back to the 1970s. In Decem-ber 1976, the USSR Council of Ministers instructed engineers to develop a brand new com-bat helicopter to replace the Mi-24. To minimise the risk of failure, the project was as-signed to two design bureau, Mikhail Mil’s and Nikolai Ka-mov’s. By 1986, the first Mi-28 and Ka-50, designed by the late Mark Vainberg and Sergei Mikheev, disciples of and suc-cessors to the two prominent engineers, had been devel-oped. Many test flights and numerous commissioning boards later, the Ka-50 Black Shark was selected and com-missioned by the Army in 1995. The Shark project cost the federal budget more than $1 billion. Yet the Ministry of Defence could not take deliv-ery of these helicopters as the federal budget had next to nothing to pay for defence equipment in the 1990s. Besides, some Air Force repre-sentatives flatly rejected the very idea of the Ka-50, de-signed to be flown by a single person, combining the func-tions of pilot, navigator, and operator of all of its combat systems, including guided an-ti-tank missiles, non-guided missiles, and an automatic rapid-fire cannon. Soon, the Ka-50 became a prima donna of international air shows, where Kamov test pilots performed aerobatic wonders. In 1998, Kamov took part in an international tender to supply helicopters to Tur-key’s Air Force, but its NATO allies, the Americans, pres-sured the Turks into choosing the Apache over the Black Shark. Fed up with the talk about a single pilot not being able to fly the combat chopper, the Kamov engineers started work on a two-seater version

of the Ka-50 – the Ka-52 (Al-ligator). Working from the Black Shark’s strengths, they created its “son”. Simultane-ously, Mil design bureau engi-neers started refining their Mi-2 8 N by m a k i n g i t a n all-weather and 24/7 machine, like the Ka-50 and the Ka-52. The Mi-28N became a com-petitor of the Black Shark and the Alligator. In December 2003, the then Commander of the Russian Air Force, General Vladimir Mikhailov, decided that “the Mi-28N would become the mainstay combat helicopter of the nation’s Air Force”. He ex-plained that “whereas all heli-copter units would receive the Mi-28N, the Kamov machines would be only sent to units that carry out special mis-sions”.“Comparing the serial-pro-duction Ka-50 and Mi-28

doesn’t make any sense. They are designed for different com-bat missions. While the Ka-50 and Ka-52 are suited to all kinds of special operation and air mission control, the Mi-28 is second to none for general combat missions and fire sup-port,” said Vainberg. “Over re-cent years, engineers have up-graded our new Mi-28N machine to world-class level. What’s more, the Mi-28N has no peers. This chopper can en-gage the enemy at an altitude of five metres or more, while remaining invulnerable (the hull can endure a direct hit from an American M61 Vulcan 20 mm cannon and the wind-shield withstands 12.7 mm bullets). The helicopter is fitted with standardised Russian-made equipment and is relatively in-expensive to manufacture. The defence ministry plans to pro-cure around a 100 of these ma-chines for the Army in 2011. Yet the Ka-52 Alligators, which boast big advantages over other choppers, will also join the ranks. “This helicopter is ideal for working in mountainous and

urban areas and wherever there is little room for ma-noeuvre,” said 1st Class Test Pilot, Colonel Alexander Papai. “Unlike the Mi-24 or Mi-28, the Black Shark has no tail rotor, its main rotor is shorter, and it’s more manoeu-verable and more powerful. It can make a U-turn without slowing down and can fly side-ways. It’s equipped with auto-matic detectors of target radar emissions from the ground, eight-kilometre range super-sonic missiles (three times the Mi-28 missile range), and very high-precision onboard can-nons. And, of course, the Ka-52 is an all-weather machine, a deal-maker in the moun-tains.” At the May Victory Parade in Moscow, the Mi-28N Night Hunter and the Ka-52 Alliga-tor, as well as the Ka-50 Black Shark, flew over central Mos-cow, over Red Square together, in a single combat formation. This suggests that the Russian Army’s front-line Air Force units will need all kinds of he-licopter. And it is up to the In-dian Army to decide what it needs.

ka-52 alligator, multi-role combat helicopter, is occupying a leading position in its class.

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The Black Shark can make a U-turn without slowing down and can fly sideways.

what's newenergyarctic oil: rosneft may engage indian companies

telecoma step ahead: mts crosses 10 mn customer milestone

Rosneft might engage several more international companies to develop its offshore Arctic deposits. Potential partners include three large Chinese companies and a number of Indian firms, said Eduard Khudainatov, CEO of the Rus-sian oil company. “We are considering partnering with Chinese and Indian firms. I’d like to say that the whole world is interested in the

Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL), which owns the MTS brand, has crossed the 10 million subscribers mark in India. To celebrate the achievement, it has come out with a new tagline, "A Step Ahead." "It is indeed a proud moment for me and the entire MTS team to have crossed the 10 million cus-tomers milestone," said SSTL

defenceindia to get nerpa nuke submarine before oct

Russia will deliver a leased Nerpa nuclear submarine to India by October this year, said a senior representative of the Russian Navy’s General Staff. “The submarine is fully ready for delivery. An Indian crew assisted by Russian in-structors is training aboard right now. This mission should be accomplished by October, and so far we’ve been falling behind sched-ule,” the source said. He add-

ed that Indian submariners must complete a full training course. “We now need to have the Indian crew to take the full sailing course,” he said. After that, he added, the submarine will set sail to India’s shores on its own. The Indian Navy was supposed to take delivery of the leased Nerpa nuclear sub-marine back in 2009, but it caught fire during factory run-ning tests in the Sea of Japan on November 8, 2008. rir

Arctic,” Khudainatov said. Rosneft already has two Amer-ican partners for its offshore projects. The state-owned company has contracted Chev-ron to develop the West Black Sea license area, including the Val Shatskogo deposit, and with ExxonMobil, the Tuapse Trough. In 2010, the govern-ment transferred to Rosneft the Yuzhno-Russky area off the Barents Sea shore. ria novosti

President and Chief Executive Officer Vsevolod Rozanov. MTS has also launched the MTS Pulse, the company's first An-droid-powered Smartphone, which is designed by Taiwan-ese manufacturer HTC, SSTL said. Customers can get the high-end smartphone worth Rs 18,000 for free. The custom-er does not need to make any upfront payment. ria novosti

Medvedev's Police reform in Russia: Rebranding or real change?

in@rbth.ru www.indrus.in/letters

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in association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia tHe times of india wednesday_march 30_2011 energy

www.rosatom.ru The State Atomic Energy Corpora-tion ROSATOMwww.nuclear.ru/eng An independent information source specializing in nuclear industry-related topics

Danger levellowaverage

highmax

russian reactors youngest in the world

a whole arsenal of progressive technological means to ensure the stable and accident-free operation of nuclear power plants," Putin said, while as-serting that Russia would

some projects, in turn leading to higher prices." However, as the Russia econo-my regains vigour, the govern-ment has little choice but to build new nuclear facilities. The collapse in demand that followed the crisis had given the government some time, but as economic growth picks up again the window is closing fast. Russia's Energy Ministry says it needs 164 gigawatts (GW) worth of power capacity in Russia by 2030 at a cost of RUB1 trillion ($33bn), said Vasily Nikonov, a department director at the ministry, add-ing 18 nuclear power and hy-dropower plants with a com-bined installed capacity of 11.2 GW will be built. "It is im-possible to speak about a glob-al energy balance without the nuclear power industry," Putin said at a meeting of the Eur-asian Economic Community's intergovernmental council.

Russia and Hungary also opened talks on the possible participation of Russian com-panies in a project to mod-ernise Hungary's Paks nucle-ar power plant. And Russia signed a new deal to build a nuclear power plant in Ban-gladesh at the cost of $2 bil-lion, ITAR-TASS reported on March 1, citing officials in the Bangladesh government.After the explosion of the Chernobyl reactor in 1986 that sent a highly toxic radio-active cloud over most of western Europe, public opin-ion is still wary of Russian-made nuclear power stations. Russia abandoned the Soviet-era RMBK class of reactor fol-lowing the Chernobyl disas-ter, although there are still 11 RMBK reactors operating in Russia today.But Moscow is resolved not to let the 1986 Chernobyl trag-edy or 2011 Fukushima disas-ter to affect its global nuclear business plans. "We now have

continue selling Russian nu-clear technology to its allies.Russia has the youngest reac-tors in the world with an aver-age life of 19 years against the 26 years in Western Europe

and US reactors are the oldest with an average life of 30 years. Fukushima is 38 and one of the oldest reactors in the world still in operation. It was originally scheduled for

decommissioning this year, but its licence was renewed for another ten years"Until now, countries in emerging markets were well out in front of the nuclear in-dustry revival, accounting for a disproportionate share of the expected growth in nucle-ar energy use. Out of the 62 reactors currently under con-struction, 48% - or 77% of the total - are being built in China, Russia, India and South Korea," says Sergei Bubnov, who heads Renais-sance Asset Managers' utili-ties fund. Russia is by far most reliant on nuclear power among the emerging markets, which makes up 16% of produced power, followed by Ukraine with 15%. And in the next 20 years, Russia is planning to double its nuclear capacity. "Inevitably, some of these plans might have to be recon-sidered," says Bubnov. "Russia has a vocal environmental lobby, which might lead to the delay or even cancellation of

a view of the russian novovoronezh nPP, in operation since 1964. a new novovoronezh nPP-2 will be equipped with the same advanced VVer-1000 reactors units as in kudankulam nPP

the Fukushima disaster has revived concerns about the safety of nuclear plants. experts review the safety of russian reactors since the 1986 chernobyl catastrophe.

From Chernobyl to Fukushima, debate goes on shelf, we tried to tuck them away deep in the territory. It is best to move such sites back from the coastline and choose elevated places for construc-tion. With deliveries of oil and gas to China and Korea, we need to look at the situating of such sites very carefully.

The worst catastrophes in recent years have been triggered by the water el-

ement, so we should think ten times before deciding to situ-ate new atomic power plants and large oil refineries in coastal zones. We have seen in Japan how a large oil-refining plant burns when affected by the elements. This will deliver a colossal blow to the ecolo-gy, to say nothing of the eco-nomic damage. Why should we make the same mistake? When we were deciding where to put sites connected with the development of the Sakhalin

continued From Page 1

Read more atwww.indrus.in

Website of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in India

www.rusembassy.inSubscribe to the e-paper

More multimedia www.indrus.in

nikolai Laverov viCE pRESidEnT OF ThE RuSSiAn

ACAdEMy OF SCiEnCES ECiAl TO Rn

Vladimir gubarevAuThOR OF A plAy On ThE ThE

ChERnObyl diSASTER

nuclear plants in the seismic zones

Leonid bolshov nuClEAR ExpERT

Proponents of this point of view were two-and-a-half times as many (41.9% versus 16.5%) as those who believe the Fukushima incident will chill the “nuclear renaissance” and long-term plans to build new atomic energy plants.

no chill in nuclear plansthe JaPan tragedy won't substantiaLLy change the attitude toward nucLear energy.

the PoLLs

Russian atomic scientists are perplexed: how is it possible that in Japan,

where they have the highest level of technological and per-formance discipline, they lost control of six power-generat-ing units at once? The cause is the confluence of two events: an earthquake and a tsunami. None of the project designs anticipated such a probabil-ity. That’s the first thing. The second thing is that at Cher-nobyl, government resources

were immediately activated — they created a headquarters and brought in all the minis-tries and departments. In Japan there was none of that. Fukushima is owned by a pri-vate company. And it was in-capable of dealing with ev-erything that happened.

Fukushima was built 40 years ago. Today’s safety standards are much stricter, and mod-ern Russian nuclear power plants meet those require-ments. Obviously, we have much more water to maintain the integrity of the [reactor] zone. Our AES-2006 design with modern safety systems has two circuits. Its significant feature is that water flows through the reactor, through the steam generator, in a fair-ly contaminated state within the primary circuit and trans-fers heat to clean water in the secondary circuit, which in turn transmits heat to a tur-bine. We have everything tucked into a containment cas-ing with two pipes leading out of it, but they contain clean water. Belarus, which signed an inter-governmental agree-ment with us several days ago, can have peace of mind in terms of their safety with this kind of design

As far as Russian power plants are concerned, safety standards are at

a totally different level now. It’s a far cry from when the

SOuRCE: www.nuClEAR.Ru

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bookmarks04 www.gorby.ru The Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (The Gorbachev Foundation) russiapedia.rt.com/russian-history Find more infor-mation on Russian history

Russia india RepoRtin association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia tHe times of india wednesday_march 30_2011Person

how rajiv and gorbachev bonded well

An Icon oF FREEdomS In ThE wEST And REvIlEd

bAck homE, ThE dEmolIShER oF ThE SovIET

EmPIRE dEFIES lAbElS. hISToRy ShAll judGE...

the gorbachev legacy

It was “the kind of reception I haven't had anywhere,” Gor-bachev confessed when he met the youngest Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Gan-dhi welcomed the Soviet lead-er as a “crusader for peace.” The two leaders bonded well and symbolized for the Indian youth – those in senior school and college – idealism and a touch of innocence in a world of realpolitik. Glasnost and perestroika were magic words for many, showing the possi-bilities of reinventing Com-munism to absorb the longing for reforms and freedoms. The Soviet leader’s eponymous book Perestrokia was a much sought-after book. The Delhi Declaration on the Principles of a Nuclear Weap-on Free and Non-Violent, signed by the two leaders on 27 November, 1986 reinforced the fading belief that idealism was possible in international politics and discourse. Marx gave way to Mahatma Gandhi as the Soviet leader joined his Indian host in calling for the dismantling nuclear weapons. “The most startling inclusion was the reference to non-vio-lence. Here was the general

secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR publicly subscribing to the Gandhian gospel of non-violence,” re-called K. Natwar Singh, a for-mer Indian diplomat who was then minister of state for ex-ternal affairs. In a lecture, Ronen Sen, India’s ambassa-dor to Russia in the tumultu-ous Yeltsin years, described the Delhi Declaration as “a landmark global document.” In a recent article that coin-cided with Gorbachev’s 80th

birthday, Natwar Singh de-scribed the fall of the Soviet Union as “a demographic and political earthquake” whose consequences have yet to be fully played out. “One major fall out was the disappearance of an alternative point of view on global issues,” he said.Like Soviet Communists back home, Indian communists have clearly never been great admirers of Gorbachev. On the contrary, accused him of cod-

Gorbachev, the man behind glasnost, remains a source of inspiration to many Indian idealists.

" Gorbachev’s main achievements are mak-ing politics public and

introducing competition. It's not fair to blame him for the breakup of the Soviet Union or for the failure of market reforms, just as it is not fair to credit him with everything good that came out of his time.

" The ability to use demo-cratic institutions to develop political, eco-

nomic and social life peaked during Gorbachev’s rule. The only truly democratic elec-tions that Russia has ever seen were those conducted by Gor-bachev. The rest were far less democratic.

" He is the man associ-ated with the greatest geopolitical drama in

Russia’s contemporary history. He became the best friend of the West, but for most of our great Motherland’s people, his name is associated mainly with countless problems and irrevo-cable losses.

Quotes

nikolai Petrov cARnEGIE moScow cEnTRE

boris kagarlitsky PolITIcAl AnAlyST

Alexander Tkachev GovERnoR oF ThE kRASnodAR REGIon

gorbachev pictured in front of the hofdi house in reykjavik, iceland, in 2006. 20 years earli-er, in 1986, the leaders of the ussr and usa met here at the height of the cold war to re-solve the nuclear arms race. gorbachev talks to moscovites, 1985 (upper photo); gorbachev, President reagan, and President-elect bush standing together. 1988. (middle); gorbachev wipes his tears during a ceremony of paying last respects to late raisa gorbacheva. 1999.

mikhail gorbachev and his wife raisa with indian Prime min-ister rajiv gandhi and his wife sonia during his visit to india.

dling the West at the cost of the Soviet Union’s relations with developing countries when he came to India for his second visit in 1988. Nobel laureate Gorbachev, a recipient of the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, therefore, sparks conflicted assessments among the Indian elite. In a lecture ent i t led ‘Some Thoughts on the Soviet Col-lapse,’ he delivered at Pune in 1990, I.K. Gujral, who was In-dia’s External Affairs Minis-ter, said: “And then, suddenly, that mighty state lay pros-trate. Its creed and doctrine, communism, was in disgrace. Not because it had been de-feated in a traditional war by a mightier power, but because its leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, inspired by stirring visions of the future not only of his own homeland but also of the hu-mankind, was determined to transform a seventy-year old rugged dictatorship into so-cial democracy drawing its lifeblood from the free consent of its deeply diverse popula-tion,” Gujral, also a former In-dia’s envoy to Russia, said. “This unique background to the collapse of the communist state in the USSR imparts to the tragedy a nobility that must not escape,” he said. This mixture of admiration and sober introspection bor-dering on anguish, fittingly encapsulate ambivalent feel-ings the Gorbachev legacy continue to arouse in India even as New Delhi continues to expand time-tested ties with Moscow under the Mede-vedev-Putin era. Gorbachev the man, as opposed to Gor-bachev the corpse-bearer of Communism, however, re-mains a source of inspiration for many Indian idealists who see in the octogenarian states-man a beacon of idealism in a world of murky deal-making.

“My parents were always very reserved in front of me; there were no outward displays of affection. But there was mutu-al understanding......My father’s resignation was a very difficult time, especially in the early ‘90s. All those trials, all the persecution, the evic-tion of the Foundation. Mama was sick. After Foros, she had certain problems - not only did she lose the use of one hand, but also went blind. There

were lots of problems, includ-ing financial ones. The degree of freedom that I felt after Papa’s resignation was incomparable! … Mama’s death was a black depression. In 1999, Ma-ma was in Münster, in a clin-ic. Right up until the end, we were hoping that she would recover. ... For the first two years, af-ter Mama’s death, Papa and I were always together. Always.

a daugther remembers

'he loves people, their oddities.... I admire his absolute love for mankind'

We worked together, went on business trips together, were at home together. Papa’s work day varies. Some days are fairly calm. Some days are: lectures in American uni-versities and in the space of twelve days, we would have ten flights to different cities around the country. He has to give lectures because that is our main source of income.

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in association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia tHe times of india wednesday_march 30_2011 Person

en.rian.ru/trend/without_soviet_union_2011 See more on 20 years without the Soviet Union www.strategic-culture.org Strategic culture founda-tion on-line magazine

" The Soviet Union was in the throes of a profound crisis. And had been

for years. But until Gorbachev, it had never occurred to any of the general secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to begin such radical democratic transformations.

Ruslan Grinberg economiSt

For taking tough decisions and staying the course even when it was unpop-

ular, Mikhail Gorbachev has earned his place in history.There are leaders who have presided over the renewal of their countries: Adolfo Suárez, Margaret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl, Ronald Reagan and Vá-clav Havel. Then there are leaders who changed the world. The first among them was Vladimir Lenin, who cre-ated the Communist system that stood up to the West. The second was Mikhail Gor-bachev, who brought that monolithic system down.Between 1985 and 1990, Gor-bachev showed that he was a different kind of leader. First, he recognised that the US-So-viet arms race was futile. In 1986, Gorbachev put forward the idea of a nuclear-free world, which resulted in the Soviet-American dialogue on nuclear disarmament and the signing of a treaty on the liqui-dation of medium and shorter range missiles. The two sides decided to destroy a class of

mikhail Gorbachev’s his-torical legacy is hard to sum up. He means dif-

ferent things to different peo-ple. Maybe it is also a hallmark of greatness. Within Russia, what stood out was Gorbachev’s seminal con-tribution to laying the founda-tions of a civil society. Temper-amentally and politically, he was averse to coercive methods of governance. Thereby he cre-ated a new political atmo-sphere in Russia. Russian peo-ple never before knew a ruler communicating directly with them. In the process, he nar-rowed the great divide between the ruler and the subject in Russia and encouraged the subject to behave as a citizen. Gorbachev encouraged the people to talk loudly, to be ar-gumentative and to learn to live with a sense of freedom. Presumably, he hoped the soci-ety would break stereotyped habits of looking up to the leader to provide all solutions. However, what intrigued me incessantly as a foreigner liv-ing in Moscow in those exhila-rating times was about his ul-

weapons that could have trig-gered a nuclear war. This decision was followed by negotiations on strategic of-fensive arms reductions, cuts in conventional weapons and a ban on chemical and bacte-riological weapons. Gor-bachev’s dialogue with Ronald Reagan on security matters was not merely an admission that the Soviet Union was no longer able to compete with the United States in the nucle-ar arms race; a different Sovi-et leader could have continued playing dangerous games with the Americans for much lon-ger. Gorbachev decided volun-tarily to renounce the mainte-nance of the nuclear threat as a way of propping up the So-viet system.Gorbachev’s second great de-parture from his predecessors was his conviction that every nation was entitled to choose its government, a belief that was crucial in his decision to release Eastern Europe from the Soviet grip. When revolu-tions swept across East Ger-many, Czechoslovakia and Po-land, their leaders made frantic calls to the Kremlin pleading for help, but Gor-bachev responded with a firm

timate objective. As a first rate intellectual and gifted political thinker, what was his vision? If it was to reform the communist party and enhance its legitima-cy, the obvious pre-requisite was to improve the living con-ditions of people and make them “stakeholders” in his re-form programme. Which was how reform was handled in China. The Chinese political system delivered in the eco-nomic sphere and the commu-nist party today draws legiti-macy from it. But Gorbachev appears to me as a dramatic personality who revealed in his “new thinking” and notwith-standing the policy of “accel-eration” he promised in 1995, he let economic reform run its course through traditional So-viet methods – discipline, order, management techniques – whereas he needed to go far deeper. If Gorbachev’s objective was to take the country to political pluralism, he could have called a general election and secured a mandate to turn the country into a functioning democracy. But Gorbachev was indecisive. He would neither use state power to preserve the Soviet system nor decisively initiate institutional pluralism.

Gorbachev: the perestroika icon

Vilified at home, lionised abroad

Lilia shevtsova

Specially FoR RiR

m.k.bhadrakumar Specially FoR RiR

“Nyet.” Soviet troops were still stationed in these Eastern bloc countries, but Gorbachev did not want a repeat of the Prague Spring. His actions were cru-cial in reunifying the German people and returning the for-mer Soviet satellites into the European fold. Gorbachev buried the world Communist system, marking the end of the Cold War and confrontation between two systems.Having renounced the Com-munist Party’s monopoly and opened the floodgates for the freedom of expression, Gor-bachev accelerated the disin-tegration of the Soviet Union. True, he had hoped to preserve the country as a community of allied states, but national re-publics were distancing them-selves from Moscow much too quickly and strongly for disin-tegration to be averted. Gorbachev let the Soviet Union evaporate and, proba-bly without intending to, turned out to be a great re-former. The former Soviet president comes across as a dramatic personality, first and foremost, because after starting the country’s great transforma-tion, he did not carry it

I don’t think Gorbachev can be given the latitude that he stalled because he feared for the disintegration of the Soviet Union. I see the dismantling of the Soviet Union as a willful act by Boris Yeltsin rather than as the natural outcome of Gor-bachev’s perestroika. Indeed, there was always the danger of implosion inherent to any tran-sition where the old began to die and the new was struggling to be born but when I left Mos-cow as late as the end of 1989 I didn’t get the sense of critical-ity although Gorbachev was losing the initiative. Gorbachev finally got swept away by the very forces he un-leashed. And despite his great-ness, the final outcome is that his people see him as a destroy-er and his legacy got mixed up – unfairly, though – with the immense suffering and humil-iation the Russian people went through in later years. In the international sphere, it is easy to exaggerate Gorbachev’s legacy. His contribution to eliminating the arms race was substantial. But the US' dogged search for “nuclear su-periority” continues, its nucle-ar doctrines haven’t changed and it is developing newer weapon systems, including in

through all the way to the end. He was the first man in Rus-sian history to have left the Kremlin without clinging to power. But this is not unusual. History does not know of any reformer who managed to de-stroy an established system and build a new one in its place. Reformers sacrifice their popularity when they start to dismantle the old way of life, and this is true for Gor-bachev. Even today, his name evokes mixed feelings in Russia. No society has ever perceived re-formers as heroes during their lifetime. Great politicians are recognised for their achieve-ments only when they pass into eternity. Mikhail Gor-bachev, however, has become a monument in his lifetime. Gorbachev is history. As Thomas Carlyle said: “The his-tory of the world is but a biog-raphy of great men.” Having assured himself a place in eternity too, he remains a re-markable man of a calibre and personality that are indeed larger than life.

Lilia Shevtsova is a senior as-sociate at the Carnegie Mos-cow Center.

space, and Russia is compelled to respond. Gorbachev let the Eastern Eu-ropean allies evolve their iden-tity and we may say it signified the end of the Cold War. But the US’ triumphalism that fol-lowed the Soviet Union’s dis-integration, its containment strategy and, of course, the re-lentless expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation testified that Gorbachev’s as-piration to situate Russia with-in a common European home was misplaced. I wouldn’t say Gorbachev erred but the West never really reciprocated his passion for “new thinking” and probably lionised him with great deliberateness.The biggest rebuff to Gor-bachev’s historic legacy was in the US’ refusal to embrace post-Soviet Russia as an equal partner in ending the Cold War and arms race and its attempts to extract unilateral conces-sions. Hardly 20 years into the post-Gorbachev era, it has be-come necessary to reinvent or “reset” the historic opportuni-ties he opened up for Russia and the world.

The audiences range from 500 people to 12,000. ... We were abroad once and I can’t remember which country; we were being driven some-where, he was looking out of the window at the people walking along the street, peo-

ple with narrow eyes, all sorts, and he said: ‘Daughter, just look how much God has cre-ated; that means it’s all need-ed. And one should love ev-eryone… He knows people. He knows their weaknesses, short-comings. And even so he loves them!... I admire that about my fa-ther more than anything else: his absolute, unparalleled de-cency and absolute love for mankind.”

Irina Virganskaya-Gorbache-va, daughter of Mikhail Gor-bachev, spoke on the eve of his 80th birthday.

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And no one had ever dreamt that a general secretary could initiate such a process. If they had initiated anything, it would probably have ended with empty slogans. But Gorbachev came to power and a miracle occurred. He proposed com-bining socialism with freedom. Freedom of speech existed only in the kitchen. And sud-denly, the general secretary himself was saying that demo-cratic changes had to be made in politics and economics.

M.K.Bhadrakumar is a former diplomat who served in Mos-cow in the Gorbachev era

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www.roscosmos.ru Russian Federal Space Agencywww.gctc.ru/eng Gagarin Research&Training Centeyurigagarin50.org 50th Anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight into spacespace

Flying into history in 108 minutesspace race Fifty years after Yuri Gagarin's maiden space voyage, Cold War rivalry has given way to ISS co-operation

nikolai alenovRIR

yuri gagarin's first space flight on april 12, 1961 is now the stuff of legends. but as the world remembers 'First cosmonaut', russia sets new frontiers for the future.

the yura momentAleksei Leonov, a close friend of Yuri Gagarin, was a mem-ber of the first team of cosmo-nauts and the first person to perform a spacewalk aboard the spacecraft Voskhod-2 on March 18-19, 1965. Recalls Le-onov: "When we, members of the first team of cosmonauts, were asked who we thought was worthy of the first space flight, the majority said: Yu-ra. He had spent his whole life

preparing for this flight. He could be trusted. I happened to be near Red Square on the day of the official Kremlin re-ception for the first man in space, and I saw something I couldn’t understand: hap-py people were strolling smil-ing, with flowers and balloons. “What happened,” I asked. They said: “And where have you been? Gagarin! Gagarin went up in space.”

Star City set for re-launch

vladimir ruvinskyRIR

the soviet-era space training centre at star city braces for a futuristic makeover as the mayor hopes to turn it into a star tourist attraction.

Mayor Nikolai Rybkin says 5 billion roubles ($155 mn) are needed for renovation. A for-mer KGB colonel who was elected mayor by a popular vote in 2009, Rybkin has am-bitious plans to refurbish this unique enclave of world his-tory, increasing accessibility while maintaining security. He aims to turn Zvezdny into a tourist attraction linked to the capital by a special train, with futuristic hotels, busi-ness centres and entertain-ment venues.However, for all the changes over time, Star City has stayed true to its vocation. The esprit of the space community is tan-gible everywhere. Hallways bear photos of cosmonauts and astronauts, who under-went training here, including Russians, Germans, Vietnam-ese, Americans and Chinese.

In a population of 6,700, it will be hard to find anywhere 40 cosmonauts, winners of He-roes of the Soviet Union, the top Soviet medal. But the Star City, once designated as ‘Closed military townlet No.1’ and a highly guarded military installation, in Zvezdny Goro-dok is no ordinary place. Home to Yuri Gagarin Cosmo-naut Training Centre, it boasts a futuristic array of space training equipment. But en-tering the complex is like trav-elling back in time where util-ities, roads and buildings are badly in need of repair.

During a recent tour, visitors were shown a hangar contain-ing replicas of the seven-tonne, three-seater Soyuz spacecraft, which with the re-tirement this year of the US shuttles, will be the only means of ferrying crews to the Inter-national Space Station. Then there is the centrifuge, the only facility in the world that simulates not only G-force and acceleration but also weightlessness. Powered by an underground plant, the 305-tonne device with its 18-metre long arm packs the punch of five railroad locomotives. Elsewhere, teams train on a mock-up of the ISS that is submerged in a giant pool to simulate weightlessness. Wearing 145-kg diving suits loaded with weights, they can shed four kg of weight during a four-hour session.

Fifty years ago on April 12, with a stirring cry of “Let’s Go!” (Poekhali), cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin raced on a Sovi-et rocket to become the first human to go into outer space. Launching in the Vostok spacecraft from Kazakhstan at 9.06 a.m. that radiant sunny day in 1961, the 27-year-old son of a carpenter circled the Earth once on a 108-minute space flight before parachut-ing safely to the ground in the Saratovregion of the U.S.S.R."The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows where her son flies in the sky,” he whis-tled a popular Soviet patriotic song over the radio while or-biting the planet at 17,000 miles an hour. Within a few hours, word of his feat had spread across the globe and a new era had begun. Driven by the Soviet Union’s quest to assert technical supe-riority over the US, Gagarin’s flight became one of the 20th century’s milestone achieve-ments. This short but epic foray into outer space inspired millions of people around the globe, and ignited a Cold War race between the superpowers for technological superiority. “Not one psychologist, not one politician could predict the ef-fect Gagarin’s flight would have on the world,” Alexei Le-onov, another member of the original 20-man squad of So-viet cosmonauts, told Russia Now. “This was the finest com-petition the human race ever staged; who could build the best spacecraft, the best pilot-ed rocket…"For more than two decades,

the two rival powers pitched their finest engineering minds against each other. The Amer-ican Moon landing in July 1969 eclipsed everything else, but it was the Soviet Union that mostly led the space race in the preceding years and often afterwards. Space ex-ploration has, however, be-come increasingly cooperative since the end of the Cold War, especially with the ongoing assembly of the 18-country International Space Station (ISS). Amid the unfolding competition, one thing has not changed: on April 12, Rus-sians everywhere honour the space odyssey legacy embod-ied by Gagarin. The young pilot tragically died in an air-craft crash in 1968 while in

training for a second space mission, and his remains are interred near Lenin’s tomb on the Red Square. But even in the celebrity-studded age, he remains an icon. In a recent survey, 35% of Russians named Gagarin as their prime role model - “not only an ordi-nary person of this world but also the finest of our nation, our first envoy into space, a star of a man,” as Leonov de-scribed him. “Space will al-ways remain a priority of ours. This is not just somebody’s in-terpretation; it’s our official state position,” Russian Presi-dent Dmitry Medvedev told the ISS crew on Cosmonautics Day on April 12 last year. True, Russia’s $3 billion annu-al space budget cannot com-pete with NASA’s almost $19 billion, but more funding has been allocated to space in re-

cent years as oil and gas reve-nues surged. Russia is a world leader in the commercial sat-ellite launch market, which helps to propel its space in-dustry. And while the U.S. agency had its manned Moon and Mars mission, Russia keeps those long-term plans on the drawing board, hoping to establish a Moon base by 2030 and stage a Mars mission shortly afterwards, according to Roskosmos space agency chief Anatoly Perminov.“And then the life’s dream of Sergei Korolyov will be ful-filled,” Perminov said in a re-cent interview, referring to the former inmate of Stalin’s la-bour camps who became the Soviet space programme’s chief designer and driving force until his death in 1966. Meanwhile, both countries are keeping an eye on China and India, as they pursue their own space ambitions. The Chi-nese made a third launch of their Shenzhou VII spacecraft and also their first spacewalk in 2008, while India is plan-ning a manned flight by 2014.More than 500 men and women from 38 countries have flown into space, but with the ISS alone expected to cost more than $100 billion over 15 years, space exploration re-mains a hugely expensive and dangerous activity, with the loss of life estimated at 300 to 400 people over 50 years.“The future lies in coopera-tion,” Roskosmos head Permi-nov told Radio Golos. “Space exploration of the future means electric power stations that feed the space industry as well as the Earth." Gagarin would surely have applauded such a lofty goal. “Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is,” he said after touching down in 1961. “People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it.”

odyssey 2011: a crew trains on a submerged model of the iss in the giant pool at star city.

'The future lies in cooperation,' says Perminov, head of Russian space agency Roskosmos.

yuri gagarin, his wife valentina and Jawaharlal nehru during gagarin's india visit in 1961.

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in association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia tHe times of india wednesday_march 30_2011 Literature

www.sovlit.com Encyclopedia of Soviet Writers russianpoets.blogspot.com Contemporary Poetrywww.russiancentre.org.in Russian Centre of Science and Culture in New Delhi

eLena krovvidiRiR

madhu's tryst with russia began in 1957 when he was sent there as a translator. the octogenarian writer is now a sturdy cultural bridge between india and russia.

Life in letters: Linkinggorky and Premchand

Portrait Poet, writer and translator, Madan Lal Madhu helps foster cultural ties

Those were heady days of cul-tural bonhomie. Back in the 1950s when the legendary actor Raj Kapoor enjoyed wild adulation with his film “Awaara” to the 1970s when the then Soviet president Le-onid Brezhnev met Indian Prime Minister Indira Gan-dhi, Madan Lal Madhu, a journalist, writer and transla-tor, acted as a bridge-builder in fostering closer cultural ties between the two friendly countries. A well-known poet and playwright, a founder of the Indian community associ-ation, Shamat, in Moscow and an eminent journalist who wrote analytical articles on the life in the USSR for Indian dailies, the English-language Tribune and the Hindi edition of the Times of India – Madhu is a man of many talents. After India’s first prime min-ister Jawaharlal Nehru’s his-toric trip to the Soviet Union in 1955, then president Nikita Khrushchev visited India two years later. Cultural coopera-tion was high on the agenda. Translators and editors were much in demand for working in Moscow. Madhu was among those invited by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for work-ing in Moscow. By that time, Madhu had published two volumes of poems, plays and literary articles. One of his less-commented tasks was translating Communist litera-ture of the time. Madhu, who didn’t speak a word of Russian, had to work with the existing English ver-sions of Russian works, trans-lating them from English into Hindi. As he says, they had a controlling editor, a Russian native-speaker who was flu-ent in Hindi. Being a literary man, he soon started to learn Russian on his own. It’s hard to name all the literary works he translated into Hindi, but the ones that immediately spring to mind are ‘Medny Vsadnik’, Little tragedies, Fairy Tales, Belkin’s stories, ‘Kapitanskaya dochka’, ‘Pik-ovaya Dama’ by Pushkin,

‘Voyna I Mir,’ ‘Anna Karenina’ by Tolstoy and ‘Bednye lyudi’ by Dostoyevski. The biggest challenge, Madhu admits, was translating ‘Voyna I Mir’ (‘War and Peace’) by Leo Tolstoy. “There was so much going on in the plot and every character was a unique per-sonality." Madhu says that finer sensitivity to the trials and tribulations of the ordi-nary man is a common theme that cuts across Russian and Indian literature. He recalls his PhD dissertation and a book called ‘Gorki aur Prem-chand: Do Amar Pratibhayen’, comparing the two famous writers, Maxim Gorki and Munshi Premchand. Both of them were concerned with so-cial issues such as poverty and injustice and illuminated the lives of ordinary people. According to Madhu, Leo Tol-stoy has had profound influ-ence on the Indian people and writers. “His ideas were and still remain very popular in India,” says he. “Leo Tolstoy

and Mahatma Gandhi were in correspondence, and Tolstoy had a great influence on the Indian independence move-ment. Also, Gorky’s ‘Mat’ (‘Mother’) is among the favou-rites in India, because of its sensitive depiction of the struggles of a poor person. In-dian literature also influenced Russian readers profoundly. Rabindranath Tagore was “a separate story” for people in the Soviet Union, his poems were read avidly and his name was familiar to every school-boy or girl," he says. Madhu also authored two books of memoirs. “I remem-ber Indira Gandhi arranging a reception at the best restau-rant,” Madhu recalls. “I was invited too. I was standing near Indira Gandhi, Brezhnev, Kosygin, Gromyko and others. Brezhnev drank some orange juice and said, addressing Ko-sygin: ‘Alexei, I’m already drunk.’ It was a joke but Indira Gandhi at first didn’t under-stand it because at Indian events, alcohol is not served. But we explained it to her.”Madhu’s multi-faceted work came in for high recognition when the Indian government bestowed on him Padma Shri, one of the highest Indian civil-ian honours, in 1991. In Russia,

down the decades, madhu has brought india and russia clos-er with his translations of russian masterpieces into hindi.

then President Vladimir Putin honoured him with the Friend-ship Order in 2001. And then were a string of special events organised to celebrate his 85th birth anniversary. When asked if he had ever considered coming back home to India, Madhu’s voice brims with emotion. "I love my pro-fession – literature. And an op-portunity to work in litera-ture, to translate Russian literary works means a lot to me. And I had this opportuni-ty in the Soviet Union.”There were many reasons for his decision to stay on. But probably the most important one was Tatyana – his Russian wife. He met Tatyana after three or four years of working at the publishing house in Moscow where she was the controlling editor. "A person is rooted in the country; this re-lationship attached me to the life in Moscow even more," says Madhu. Madhu and Tatyana, married for over 40 years, stay mostly in Russia, but he spends one or two months in India. Tatyana speaks perfect Hindi and feels at home in India. “There have been many colours and shades of my life in Russia and to-gether they create a separate picture,” Madhu says.

a translator across cultures1925: dr. madhu was born in Lahore (now in Pakistan). 1947: graduated from the Punjabi university, with ma in politics and economy. 1947-1955: taught politics and economy at sd college in shimla city and gandhi memo-rial college in ambala. 1955-1957: worked for all in-dia radio as an advisor on programmes in hindi lan-guage. in 1957, he was chosen by india’s ministry for Foreign affairs as one of the trans-lators to work in the soviet union. 1953: the first volume of po-ems ‘unmad’ was published.2011: the first book of mem-oirs about his life in india be-fore going to the soviet union ‘thundle ujle tihre’ was pub-lished.

timeLine

Both Gorky and Premchand were concerned with issues like poverty and social injustice.

the russian literature, known for its depth and memorable characters, is making its presence felt in the 21st century. rir presents 5 widely-acclaimed authors and their books, which are now available in the english translation. the books represent genres that have evolved over the past decade.

From spy tales to fables, a new wave of Russian authors

books Top 5 that created waves

1. he-Lover oF deathBoris Akunin (W&N)Akunin is the pen name of the philologist and translator Grigory Chkhartishvili, whose postmodernist detective nov-els have become bestsellers. Akunin's hero, Erast Fan-dorin, a detective, is Russia’s answer to Sherlock Holmes.

2. danieL stein, interPreter Ludmila Ulitskaya (W&N)Ulitskaya works in an area that could be defined as intel-lectual female prose. The story follows the escapades of a Pol-ish Jew, who managed to not only survive the Second World War, but also save hundreds of people from Nazi concentra-tion camps.

3.The heLmeT of horrorViktor Pelevin (Canongate Books)A near consensus has been reached in Russia regarding

Pelevin, with literary circles agreeing that he is one of the most important contemporary Russian authors. In the story, eight people meet on a certain website in a certain chat room. They begin communicating and through a series of innuen-dos and tiny details they, as well as the reader, quickly gath-er that they are locked in a vir-tual labyrinth – the very same labyrinth as featured in the Theseus and Minotaur myth.

4. metro 2033Dmitry Glukhovsky (Gollancz)Muscovite Dmitry Gluk-hovsky has lived in Israel, Ger-many and France. It took him eight years to write Metro 2033, which may partly ex-plain his book’s popularity: it is not merely post-apocalyptic science fiction, but a true com-ing-of-age novel.

5. Living souLsDmitry Bykov (Alma Books) Dmitry Bykov is not only a novelist, but also a poet, tele-vision and radio host, colum-nist and critic. His highly iron-ic story is a description of civil war in Russia in the 21st cen-tury, where the Varangians are pitched against the Khazars. The characters clearly evoke biting literary caricatures of contemporary Russian publi-cists and political analysts.

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russiapedia.rt.com Russiapedia (get to know Russia better) www.russian.net Find more about Russian festivals/OccasionsFeature

ANISIA BOROZNOVARIR

Spring is in the air. Every year, in March, Russians celebrate Maslenitsa — festival of the Sun and farewell to winter that mirrors India’s Holi revelries.

Celebrating colours, gaiety of springFestive Spirit Maslenitsa, like Holi, means revelries, song, dance and effigy-burning. It ends with Forgiveness Sunday.

A joyous profusion of colours, a carnival-like spirit of cele-bration, the spirit of wild abandon and the smell of spring and summer in the air after a long winter! This festi-val of gaiety is called by vari-ous names in different cul-tures: it’s Maslenitsa in Russia and in India it’s called Holi. Maslenitsa, like Holi, is deeply rooted in the ancient past. Maslenitsa is an ancient pagan Slavic festival that has sur-vived through more than a thousand years of Christiani-ty. Originally, it was connected with the spring solstice, but when Russia adopted Christi-anity, it became the moveable feast that precedes Lent. In many countries, the ap-proach of spring, the awaken-ing of nature and hopes for a new good harvest, symbolised

the dawn of the New Year that called for cheer and celebra-tion. It would be difficult to � nd two more different festi-vals in their outward trap-pings, but at the same time kindred in spirit. The key word for these festivals of spring is “merriment”. The Russian Maslenitsa lasts an entire week, but the most important celebration and the � nal see-ing-off of winter always take place on Sunday. After that, spring is officially here; it makes no difference that out-side, the temperatures are still below freezing and that the snow may not be entirely gone until May. The Russians recognise spring in subtler signs in the smell of the wind, the shape of the ici-cles and the return of birds from warmer climes. People have always thought that the best way to say goodbye to the old is to consign it to the � ames or to the waves. Maslenitsa in-cludes the burning of an effigy. This effigy, from which Maslenitsa derives its name, has the pleasing appearance of a young girl with pink

cheeks, a long braid and a pretty dress under which is hidden straw. In Rus-sian villages, this straw girl traditionally stood on the highest ground throughout the week of Maslenitsa, observing the villagers’ boisterous merry-making with a smile. And then on Sunday, having all said their good-byes to the winter, the vil-lagers burned the effigy while singing and dancing.The carnival-like spirit of letting oneself go cuts across both Maslenitsa and Holi. By changing one’s appearance, ac-cording to folk belief, one also changes one’s es-sence, and this allows one to give oneself over entirely to this festival. If in India people sprin-kle each other with coloured powders and painted water, then in Russia and many other countries, the distinguishing fea-ture of this festival is

Russian revellers gather to watch the burning of the straw effigy of a pretty girl that marks Maslenitsa, the spring festival that sees signing and dancing, and feasting on pancakes.

Around the same time, Indians celebrate Holi, by sprinkling water and colour powder on each other. Joyous singing and dancing mark the festival.

people in masks dressed up as gyp-sies, bears and various evil spir-

its. In the mythic-religious sense, Holi in India symbolises the triumph of the good over the evil. During Maslenitsa, a

feigned war is waged. For ex-ample, a battle

for a snow fortress is organised. Everyone helps build the for-tress, then they split into two teams: the in-vaders and the defend-ers, who allow them-selves to be defeated. The main weapons, be-sides their own hands, are snowballs. In olden times, the construction of the fortress was taken more seriously, the build-ing often began at the be-ginning of the winter with the first snowfall. And only men were al-lowed to storm the for-tress, because in this bat-tle-for-fun, one could wind

up with serious injuries. An-other traditional and purely masculine entertainment was the “wall-to-wall” � st � ghts. Two teams strip to the waist, and, at the signal (a loud hol-lering from the crowd of on-lookers), go running straight for each other and pummel their opponents till they gave in. Foreigners are usually shocked, but Russians like this sort of thing.But not all activities involve a dose of well-meaning aggres-sion - sledding down icy mountains, rides in sleighs and on carousels, tugs-of-war, balancing on ice-covered logs. In the villages, they build bon-fires and throw old clothes and kitchen utensils into the � ames. They erected a tall post with a wheel at the top to sym-bolise the blazing sun. Pres-ents and prizes were hung from the wheel and the young people amused themselves by trying to shimmy up the icy pole and get them. Maslenitsa, like any Russian celebration, cannot do with-out drinks. But vodka is not quite the vintage drink for

Russian blini - yellow and round plate-sized pancakes.

these revelries. Maslenitsa is far more ancient and the tra-ditional drink at this time is mead, an alcoholic drink made with honey, sometimes with the juices of berries thrown in. The main fare at Maslenitsa is blini (plate-sized pancakes) — yellow and round, like the sun. The last day of Maslenitsa is Shrove Sunday (Forgiveness Sunday) when one tradition-ally asks one’s friends and family for forgiveness for any offenses, and they usually say in reply: “God will forgive you!”

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