World

Clash of interests ff

as perestroika

gathers momentum

The Soviet perestroika is turning out to
be an exhilarating and profound historical
transformation. All dire warnings to the
contrary, it passes through its crises gather-
ing momentum and lengthening its stride as
it goes.

If at times the process seems messy, dis-
turbing or contradictory, we need to remind
ourselves that this is part of the proof that it
is genuine: it is the product of creative social
leadership, an upsurge of grassroots activ-
ity, the clash of various interests and percep-
tions, and an accelerated pattern of change
which has by now largely left behind the old
but has not yet fully embraced the new. It is
with an effort to comprehend this spirit of
transition that I urge readers to consider the
following three items.

Saving the sacred sea: Russians call it the
“sacred sea” and the “blue pearl of Siberia.”
Baikal, the largest lake in Asia and the
deepest in the world (more than one kilome-
tre), repository of one-fifth — that’s right,
one-fifth — of the global fresh , water
supply, and home to dozens of unique spe-
cies of animal life, is also the focus of one of
the most protracted and emotional ecologi-
cal disputes in history.

I recall my own amazement when I first
laid eyes on Lake Baikal some 18 years ago,
that such wild, untouched, primeval beauty
could exist so close to the rapidly expanding
industrial zone of Irkutsk. When last year I
had the opportunity to fly over Baikal dur-
ing a trip to Mongolia, it struck me again:
the impression of a blue jewel set among
rugged green mountains is overwhelming.

Last month American Lynne Cox paid
her own tribute to the lake with an 18-km
endurance swim in its ice-cold, crystal-clear
waters.

For a quarter of a century Lake Baikal
has been the object of a sometimes bitter
political tug-of-war between Soviet envir-
onmentalists and economic planners. The
environmentalists have won all the battles,
yet have been gradually and inexorably los-
ing the war.

Twenty-five years ago the issue was
whether or not to build a pulp and paper
mill on the Baikal shore to take advantage
of its extraordinarily pure water. At that

time there was a vigorous debate in the press-

accompanied by an outpouring of popular
opposition to the project — the first public
discussion of its kind in the USSR — fol-
lowing which the plant was built anyway.
Environmentalists insist that despite “the
best waste treatment facilities in the world,”
poisons from the mill are getting into the
lake’s delicate ecosystem, and that pro-
posed “solutions” — such as piping the
wastes 40-km to another lake — are less
than satisfactory.

In the 1970s, during the construction of
the Baikal-Amur railway, a few “temporary
shacks” for workers were permitted to be
built on the lake’s shore. To the dismay of
environmentalists, these have now mush-
roomed into the bustling industrial town of
Severobaikalsk, population 10,000.

As the newspaper Pravda revealed last
month, planners intend to construct two
large engineering plants in the area, and
eventually boost the town’s inhabitants to
140,000.

Furthermore, environmentalists say deci-
sions taken in the Seventies to reserve most
of the lake’s territory for “recreational pur-
poses” didn’t work out as they should have,
and now excessive timber felling and
haphazard construction also pose threats to
Baikal’s ecosystem.

A new battle over the future of Lake
Baikal erupted in the Soviet media. Last
month a meeting of the Siberian branch of

6 « Pacific Tribune, September 14, 1988

FROM
MOSCOW

the USSR Academy of Sciences put for-
ward a comprehensive program to preserve
the lake by making it a “world heritage
area,” curbing economic activity in its vicin-
ity, and transferring or converting existing
industries in order to reduce the ecological
threat to zero.

It should be noted that despite everything
Soviet environmental activists have proba-
bly succeeded over the years in limiting
development around the lake more effec-
tively than their Canadian counterparts
have been able to do in similar cases, and
they now enter the fray with a newly-aware
public and a campaigning, post-glasnost
press on their side.

Exposing the Stalin era: Late last month
Mikhail Solomentsev, head of the Commu-
nist Party politbureau commission estab-
lished to examine and expose Stalin-era
repressions, gave a progress report to the
newspaper Pravda.

It was a shocking, jarring interview —
even for these times — and perhaps the
best evidence yet that the party’s pledge to
uncover every last skeleton in the closet of
Soviet history is actually being fulfilled.

Among other things, Solomentsev noted
that since the commission began its work
636 people — including several top Bol-
shevik leaders such as Bukharin, Rykov,
Zinoviey and Kamenev — have been
legally rehabilitated:

“We are equally interested in the fate of
prominent leaders of the party and Soviet
state, and that of rank-and-file citizens”
who fell victim to the repressions, he said.

The interview also broached the sensitive
topic of foreign communist leaders and
Comintern workers who were caught up in
the purges. “Investigation of these cases was
begun in the 1950s,” noted Solomentsev,
“but the work was not completed. The
commission now intends to return to these
matters in contact with the communist par-
ties concerned.”

He further raised the potentially explo-
sive issue of blame.

Many of the worst offenders have already
faced criminal proceedings, he said. How-
ever, “the number of those guilty of abuses,
both named and still unnamed, is really
large, but the degree of personal responsibil-
ity of each of them will certainly be found
out.

“The personal guilt of Stalin and the
people closest to him before the party and
the people for the mass repressions and
lawlessness is. immense and terrible,” he
said.

“But the guilt of ‘the leaders’ does not
relieve of responsibility the voluntary
informers, direct violators of socialist laws
and those who supported and _ blindly
obeyed those inhuman orders.”

Meanwhile, in Moscow, a society has
been formed at the initiative of several crea-
tive workers’ unions to raise money and
gather information to be stored in a memor-

_ial complex to the victims of Stalinist repres-

sion. The idea of such a memorial was first
put forward by Khrushchev at the 22nd
Communist Party Congress in 1961, but has
since been given a massive vote of support
by public petitions and the endorsement of
the 19th Conference last June.

The Baikal-Amur railway, constructed in the 1970s, opened up industrial develop”
menton the shores of Lake Baikal. Now Soviet environmentalists have put forward 4
plan to preserve the lake by making it a “world heritage area.”

“The memorial should include a monu-
ment, a museum and archives which would
be open to everyone,” says Vyacheslav Gla-
zychev, one of the organizers and secretary
of the USSR architects’ union.

“A competition to find the best design for
the memorial complex will be: held, and it
will be open to foreign as well as Soviet
citizens,” he says.

Many possible locations for the memor-
ial are being discussed, with the most likely
being Bolotnikov Square, just across the
river from the Kremlin and directly facing
the famous Dom na Naberezhnaya — the
apartment house where many of Stalin’s
most prominent victims once lived.

Just what they said: Finally, a news item
that speaks so clearly for itself that any
comment would be superfluous. Here it is,
straight from the TASS newswire, dated
Aug. 24:

“The most beautiful girl of the Soviet
Union will appear in the constellation of
recognized beauties of all the countries and
continents next spring. She will be elected at
the first nationwide beauty contest whose
finals are planned to be held on March 8,
1989.

“This was announced at a press confer-
ence in Moscow of the organizing commit-
tee of the contest which includes representa-
tives of the USSR State Committee for
Cinematography, the USSR Union of
Filmmakers, TASS, Mosfilm and the
American-Soviet Initiative. A number of

Soviet and foreign firms have already |

expressed the desire to become sponsors of
the contest. Their advertising and commer-
cial activities will be co-ordinated by a joint
company created with the participation of

For all your travel needs, big
or small. Let Globe Tours find
the best way for you.

GLOBE TOURS

2720 E. Hastings St.
Vancouver, B.C.
Phone 253-1221

International Processing Systems of Wes
Germany.

“Beauty contests were held for the first
time this year in Moscow, capitals of the
Soviet Baltic republics, Tashkent and othe
cities. The one that was given the greates!
publicity, Moscow Beauty-88, ended 4
month ago and evoked tremendous inter
est. The contest was won by Masha Kalilr)
ina, 16, a Moscow school girl.

“Yuri Kushnerov, director of the Mos
film Film Studio creative association, told
journalists that Masha and five other git
who had qualified for the finals had bee!
offered roles in some films.

“One of the main tasks of the comil
contest is to find stars,’ said Vyachesla!
Tikhonov, a popular Soviet actor who ha?
been invited to become chairman of the
organizing committee of the first nation®
beauty contest. |

|
“Elimination contests will be held ‘S
0

September to January in 168 Soviet citié
Girls aged from 16 to 25, not married, 1

having any children, will be able to take pal
in them. The organizers of the conté
believe that apart from being beautifi '
claimants to the crown of the most beautil

girl of the USSR should be charming, wit

and sociable. Winners of the ron

contests will get together in Moscow wh
it will be found out who will qualify for

finals. A
“According to Tikhonov, all those W”
qualify for the finals will get prizes, while
winner of the contest will receive the big?
prize — a round-the-world cruise. A
from that, she will take part in internatio

beauty contests.”

. es