Geneva\’s Moscow Eye

While watching the first US presidential election debate on CNN on Saturday night, I could hardly believe my ears. I was shocked by the overall shallowness of the discussion. I kept asking myself whether the two leaders-to-be of the greatest country in the world were “saving their voices” like singers before a premiere, or what I heard was their full voice and all they had to say. Alas, the latter seemed to be true.

I shall pass on all the platitudes and rhetoric concerning US domestic problems, including several priceless live broadcast minutes wasted on an argument about something Henry Kissinger did or did not say. The question that interested me the most was the penultimate one about the future of the US-Russian relationship.

That produced the real shock. For once, John McCain and Barack Obama were in agreement. Both stated that the “resurgent aggressive Russia was a threat”, both condemned the Russian “aggression against Georgia”, and both promised to support Georgia and the Ukraine in their attempts to join NATO.

McCain and Obama also failed to mention that the recent armed conflict in the Caucasus was started by the Georgian government, or that a public opinion poll in the Ukraine clearly indicated that the overwhelming majority of its population is against entering the Alliance.  But who cares about such minor details, when the future of - to quote McCain’s words - “a young, brilliant President Misha Saakashvili” and the growing Georgian economy are at stake.

What charming familiarity, what touching concern. At the same time both gave assurances that they have no intention of starting another Cold War, no, no, no…

My God! This discourse revived a nostalgic memory. I remembered the 1980’s and my grandfather’s old radio – a solid piece of technological art made in the 1960s which sat by his bedside. Every evening, my grandfather, like all his friends in their respective apartments, watched the 9 pm news broadcast “Vremya” on Soviet TV. He would then glue his ears to the radio trying to catch, through the fuzz of state organized interference, Voice of America, or the BBC Russian service, or Radio Free Europe, in order to get the truth. In the morning all of them – including many exemplary Communist party members – held debriefing sessions to discuss in great detail every piece of news transmitted by the “voices”.

For the sake of this generation, for whom the “voices” were the only sources of truth about what was going on in their own country, I wonder what had happened to America? Does it really feel so weak and lost that its leaders need to use blunt lies and futile threats to win the election? Will Russia replace Al-Qaeda as enemy number one?

Having always admired the United States for its many splendors, in particular for giving shelter and support to many brilliant Russians who contributed to the country’s power and glory, I am for once happy not to be in American shoes and to have to choose between these two rather pathetic candidates. If they are America’s only choice, God save America!

Who is to blame and what to do? The first of these two classical Russian questions will be answered by historians, but the second needs an urgent reply today. I regret that the world learns the geography of my country, present and/or former, mainly through the names of places where terrible things happen: Nagorny Karabakh, Grozny, now Tskhinvali, Tbilissi… Which is next? These names are difficult to pronounce, even more difficult to understand what is going on there. The unknown often seems scary. Who are those Ossetians?  The bearded bandits with wild eyes and Kalashnikovs?

For a change, why not take Russian conductor Valery Gergiev - an Ossetian - as an example. It is a pity that not a single TV channel broadcasted the extraordinary concert he and the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater gave last week in Tskhinvali, Georgia [Editor’s note: south Ossetia] to the crowd of grieving people. All his regular performances, like a recent one in Verbier, are broadcasted worldwide, and there were plenty of cameras in Tskhinvali… Strange, isn’t it?

Talking of broadcasts. I happened to be in Tokyo during the heat of the crises, and could only watch CNN, mostly with a Japanese voice-over. I could hardly believe my eyes, and yet I am so used to take CNN’s word and image at its face value. Then, upon my return to Geneva last Friday night I watched the coverage of the events in the Caucases, alternating CNN and a Russian channel. While talking on the phone with a Georgian friend, who was watching a Georgian channel, in Berlin. Clearly, we followed three different events.

English-speakers might remember “Fawlty Towers” (a television comedy series) and a brilliant John Cleese uttering to his German guests “You started it! You invaded Poland!”. It is amazing to see how quickly the Western press chose to forget who has actually started it, who invaded Ossetia. And this shortage of memory is even more surprising when more and more arguments are put forward to prove that the US and NATO were aware of the forthcoming attack. One should be very naïve to imagine that Russia would not respond.

The verbal escalation on both sides of propaganda fence is indeed scary. After lots of screaming and stone-throwing the media came back to its senses and started breaking it down to pragmatic, even cynical, facts, but facts nonetheless. On August 22, Peter Baker in International Herald Tribune summarized the Russian options for applying pressure on the West, and those of the West on Russia. Well, the Russian list is much longer. A shorter but even more explicit summary of the situation was given last night by the TF1 correspondent in Moscow who said that Europe has neither a carrot nor a stick to negotiate with Russia.

With all my respect to Professor André Liebich, I do not share his conviction, expressed in Le Temps today, that President Saakashvili comes out as a winner, even in long term. The winter is approaching, and Europeans want their houses warm, hence the need for Russian gas. Of course, this sounds terribly synical, but à la guerre comme à la guerre…

And there is another complication which probably escapes the West: Russian and Georgian leaders may hate each other but the people do not. The three major Russian poets of the 19th century, Pushkin, Lermontov and Griboedov, all glorified the beauty of Caucases in general and Georgia in particular, and sang praise to the courage and nobility of its warriors, gentleness and modesty of its women, its melodic songs, the contagious fever of its dances, the quality of its food and incredible hospitality of its people on a whole.

These images are still valid. Any Russian schoolchild knows, thanks to Lermontov, the exact location of a tiny monastery on top of a hill at the feet of which cross the streams of Aragva and Kura in Georgia. By the way, the monument to Lermontov still dominates the highway between Tbilissi and Mstkheta. At least it did, only a few weeks ago. Likewise, during my recent trip to Tbilissi I felt no animosity whatsoever, quite on the contrary.

Besides poetry, Russian have always liked chess and have been strong at it. Much more so than Americans. Clearly, this is a shortcoming in Georgian President Saakashvili’s education: when attacking Ossetia he did not plan his next move. The consequences are tragic for his country. To conclude, my personal opinion is that the Russian response was legitimate but it went too far, unnecessarily so. But the question remains: what to do next? The floor is open for discussion.

I am writing these notes from Tbilissi, the capital of Georgia. (Sorry, Professor Warner for stepping on your territory). I did not come here to work but to support a charity foundation launched by a friend, a great opera singer, Paata Burchuladze, who became famous winning the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow in 1982. What I saw and felt here prompted me to turn to my computer.

Anyone vaguely interested in the post-Soviet politics knows about the growing tension between Russia and Georgia which reached its culmination when the import of Georgian wines was prohibited, flights between Moscow and Tbilisi cancelled and a group of Georgians was deported from Moscow. And on top of it the Georgian President called Vladimir Putin a dwarf. Russians were shocked by Georgia’s playing with NATO which they considered as openly hostile.

Full of memories of my previous delightful trips here, I could hardly imagine any hostility from the local people. However, upon advice from my cautious Moscow friends I travelled with my Swiss passport. There was no need for that.

Whatever one might hear on Russian TV, ordinary Georgians do not hate Russians. You feel it from the very first moment, at the airport.  When I presented it my red and white passport, the lady at the immigration desk offered a welcoming phrase in English. Then, seeing my Russian name, she shyly switched to Russian.

“How nice it is to hear you speak Russian”, I said.

“How nice it is that you have come to Georgia”, she replied, and stamped my passport.

This was at 3.05 am.

The 30th anniversary celebration for Paata Burchuladze’s singing career took place in the Opera House. Security was at its height – no wonder, the President of Georgia and half of cabinet ministers, the Patriarch, as well as many other dignitaries, were in attendance. The beautiful, old-fashioned room was full. 

Having performed on all best opera stages of the world, Paata could have brought any orchestra to join him in this celebration. (Thanks to him, many stars have already visited Georgia). However, for this very special occasion he chose to invite Maestro Yury Temirkanov with the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic. Why? Because Paata thinks they are the best. And I am sure those who had the chance to hear this orchestra will agree with him. The concert programme consisted entirely of Russian music – Moussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Paata performed – brilliantly, of course – the famous final scene from Boris Godunov. Why that rather than Verdi, Mozart or anything else from his vast repertoire? Because this is where his heart lies.

One might speculate about Georgian President Saakishvili’s feelings when listening to Boris’s words “I’ve reached the highest power…”.  Or perhaps there was none.  But he did sit through the concert and later, at the reception, drank to the health of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic members.

After the concert, Paata and his friends and supporters offered keys to the new apartments to six big and fatherless families, whose kids his Foundation has been supporting. To say that this moment was moving is to say nothing…

Later – very late indeed! – that evening, as well as the following day, at a luncheon offered by Moscow-based Georgian businessmen, I had the chance to talk at length to both our hosts and the members of the orchestra, for whom this was the first trip to Georgia. Equal bewilderment on both sides: who might be interested in breaking the friendship between our people? Lenin’s famous question – who is interested, who might benefit? Georgian intelligentsia criticizes its President just as much as the Russian one criticizes hers. Perhaps even more. But both agree that what is happening in the “high spheres” between our countries is simply stupid and artificial. 

The point of this short note is not to go into political analysis but simply to share with you what I have felt so strongly during my stay in Tbilisi. Georgian and Russian people are not enemies. And if politicians do not get it, musicians certainly do. 

PS If for some reason you’ve never heard about Paata Burchuladze, you will find plenty in the Internet but the most straightforward and unexpected praise comes from Stephen Fry in his wonderful book, “Incomplete and utter history of classical music”. See the chapter entitled “My name is Classic. Neo-classic”. Enjoy!

Euro 2008 is not over, but for us Russians, our national team is certainly the winner. Stereotypes are slow to build and even slower to destroy. And yet, in a short period of barely three weeks, a social miracle happened – the image of Russia did change.

Have you noticed that nobody is talking lately about Putin/Medvedev, oil and gas and tycoon Victor Vekselberg’s recent acquisitions? The impassive faces of Russian leaders were replaced by a laughing or crying face of Andrei Arshavin, the striker of Russia’s football team in Euro 2008. Everybody knows the names of Pavluchenko, Zyrianov and Mr Hiddink, commentators sing praise and laymen learned to pronounce the word sbornaia [the national team], with many different accents.Yet at the beginning of Euro 2008 our players were hardly known, and last Saturday Tribune de Genève was fast to serve its “vodka-orange” [Editor’s note: a reference to the Dutch team colours]. One should never destroy the purity of Russian national drink by adding foreign flavors – such initiatives are always punishable! Is Arshavka, as he was called in the “Smena” football school in his native Saint-Petersburg, the symbol of a new Russia? Some might feel this is an exaggeration but many will agree that he, and the performance of our team in general, have inspired a long forgotten feeling of national pride for my compatriots.  A very pleasant feeling, indeed!

Of course, the effect of Euro 2008 will fade with time and the euphoria will settle. But thank you, sbornaia,  for what we have experienced during this competition, and good luck tonight. We’ll keep our fingers crossed!

The month of May is important to Russians. And I do not mean because of the change of presidents, but because of Victory Day celebrated on the 9th.

Irrespective of the declarations by the newly liberated and enlightened “historians” who try to downgrade the role of the Russian people in the Second World War – I shall not contradict them, they will burn in hell in due time – Victory Day remains the only civic holiday by which every Russian (as a nation I mean) family feels concerned. I exclude the few neo-Nazis – they will join the previous group.

I happened to be in Moscow during the long weekend. The traditional parade on the Red Square demonstrated the country’s military might – as it was supposed to. But what struck me the most is how few veterans I crossed in the streets and how terribly fragile this generation is becoming.

But back to Geneva; it is symbolic, that this month the Swiss music scene is marked by two major works of Russian repertoire, “Boris Godunov” in Zurich opera and Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony (in Geneva’s Victoria Hall tomorrow).

When I hear Shostakovich’s Seventh (otherwise known as The Leningrad Symphony) my impulse is to get on my feet and salute. (Strangely enough I do not have the same reflex towards my national anthem. My husband says that years of propaganda registered with me but not in the right files.)

The destiny of this monumental work is in many ways contradictory. Its first part was finalized by Dmitri Shostakovich in besieged Leningrad on September 3, 1941. (At the time, Shostakovich combined two functions, those of a composer and of a fireman, taking shifts on the roof of the Leningrad Conservatory). The final part was completed in February 1942 in Kuibyshev (now Samara) where Shostakovich was evacuated together with the greater part of the Bolshoi’s company, whose orchestra gave the premiere performance on March 5^th (Stalin’s birthday!)

The Western world got to admire it on July 1942, performed by the then NBS Symphonic Orchestra (now the NY Philharmonic) conducted by Arturo Toscanini. The ratings were huge: several million people listened to the live broadcast. The audience included Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Hindemith, Rakhmaninov and Bartok, who were all hugely impressed.

Finally, on 9 August 1942 the Symphony was performed in Leningrad by the orchestra composed of the 15 (out of 150) surviving but exhausted members of the Leningrad Philharmonic and other musicians assembled for the occasion. The concert took place in the Leningrad Philarmony, one of the most beautiful concert halls of the world, under the baton of Carl Eliasberg.

This historic moment is vividly shown in Alexandre Buravsky’s film “Leningrad”, which last year received the Russian national film award.

To read the full story, you should urgently brush up your Russian and read the full article at http://www.nashagazeta.ch/article/1335. In the meantime, try to get a ticket to the performance tomorrow – Yury Temirkanov, who will conduct the Saint-Petersburg Symphonic orchestra, is himself a living legend.

On a totally different scale, another interesting event is taking place in Geneva, at the Flux Laboratory (10 rue Jacques-Dalphin in Carouge): TRASH. It presents works by two French photographers, Bruno Mouron and Pascal Rostain, specialized in covering “celebrities”. This time they decided to have a look at the backyards, and more specifically their garbage cans.

Next to the revelatory trash of Madonna and Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and an anonymous Swiss banker, one can see two panels, representing Rich Russia and Poor Russia.

Well, what can I say… tough for the foreigners to distinguish between the two, especially if the search for the poor is in the heart of Moscow…

But still, it is quite funny, and worth a stop. For more information, read the following article: http://www.nashagazeta.ch/article/1338

Rich or Poor Trash?

To my surprise, somebody – a Mr. M., a Swiss living in Moscow - has actually read my previous text and even left a comment. How very gratifying ! So my first words go to him – yes, blinis in « Troika » are at least as good as in « Margarita » or may be even better !

Talking of blinis, there will be more of those in Geneva this summer. Ten days ago the Geneva Tourism office and the Government of Moscow signed an agreement about Moscow’s participation in the Fêtes de Genève (31 July-10 August) as guest of honour.

In addition to blinis, pirojkis and perhaps even borsh served à la louche, there will be live music – classical, folk and jazz, expansive exhibition on Moscow’s historical center and the city’s surroundings… And, the last but not the least, a team of Moscow rowers will participate in the race on the lake.

But one thinks of Moscow and of Russia at large, it is not rowing that comes to mind but the golden dômes of the Kremlin and the attributes of the country’s power and might.

While a declared democracy, Russia cherishes – more and more so – its csarist past. It is a valid idem of export, too.

“Impressing the csars”, a ballet created by William Forsythe, an American genius of dance, was the central piece in the « Steps » dance festival which just ended in Zurich.

But as a Russian saying goes, « a sacred place is never empty ». To prove the point, the Zurich opera offers a new production of « Boris Godunov » - première on April 27 – under the masterful baton of the famous Russian maestro Vladimir Fedoseev.

And three days later, also in Zurich, the Orlando galery will present an impressive array of works by Russian painters of the first part of the 20th century – Alexandra Exter and Natalia Goncharova, Marc Chagall and El Lissitsky … any decent museum would be proud of this selection.

To the Swiss expats in Russia and Russian expats in Switzerland, I recommend to read this tragi-comical book http://www.nashagazeta.ch/article/1202 – comparatively speaking, times are still better now !

When I walk in the rue du Rhône I sometimes feel like pinching myself: am I really in Geneva? My native language envelopes and lulls me, and not only in the boutiques like Dior or where not only clients but the majority of the personnel master the language of Pushkin, but also in more “reasonable” places like Zara or H&M. Not to mentions bars, restaurants, gym clubs, beauty salons… Russians are everywhere!

Who are these people? Some are the so-called “new Russians” – very (VERY) wealthy individuals whose input into the local economy is often questioned. (The latest issue of the Swiss weekly L’Hebdo tells you all about them.) But they are also staff of numerous international organizations, scientists and researchers, professors and students, doctors and lawyers, IT specialists and artists …

Speaking of the latter, as editor of NashaGazeta.ch, the Russian language on-line daily in Geneva, I naturally follow everything Russia-related and I must say, it makes me happy and proud to see the active and diverse presence of my countrymen in the Swiss cultural life.

Let’s have a look. Today and tomorrow, students of the best (in my opinion) Moscow Drama School will give two performances in Geneva at the Théâtre de la Cité Bleue (46, avenue de Miremont) . The brand new gallery ART XXI (rue Kleberg, 14), owned by Moscow-born Grégory Guitter, is presenting exquisite works of Alexandra Exter and Natalia Goncharova . Meanwhile, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne features paintings by Ilya Kabakov in its current exhibition “Comme des bêtes” and Basel’s Kunstmuseum boasts of 60 works by Chaim Soutine, a contemporary and friend of Marc Chagall and Amedeo Modigliani.

Next week, Boris Berezovsky (not to be confused with the oligarch!), an internationally renowned pianist recognized, in 2006, as the best instrumentalist of the year by the prestigious BBC Music Magazine Awards, will perform Rakhmaninov’s Third Concerto, the most romantic piece of Russian music, with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (9 April, Victoria Hall, Geneva, and 10 April, Théâtre de Beaulieu, Lausanne).

Turning from the “food for the soul” to the real one, if you happen to be in the Plainpalais area in Geneva, do drop by the Troika restaurant to try the best blinis in town!

I’ll be back with more tips…

* ‘Privet’ Geneva - Hello Geneva