Russia thinks the mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge describes his visit to the Institute of Brain, a facility in Moscow where the former Soviet Union preserved the brain tissue of its most notable citizens — and where he held the remnants of Josef Stalin’s brain.

This week on Worldfocus we had two interesting stories from Russia by Martin Himel. One was about the revival of Stalinism, basically looking at how the former Soviet dictator of the 30s and 40s — responsible for killing millions — is receiving renewed respect from Russians. Shocking, but true.

Personally, I never met the man, but I have held his brain.

Really…

Not long after the collapse of communism, I was in the old Soviet Union doing a number of reports on how life was changing. During part of the journey, I traveled with a well-known American brain surgeon by the name of Dr. Robert White. He was the one who told me about the Institute of Brain in Moscow.

He told me that when a great Soviet died, whether a Russian leader or performer in the arts, it was a secret that they were buried without their brain. Instead, it was preserved for study at the Institute of Brain — the thinking being that if you studied the brain long enough, you would eventually discover what made that person great. Dumbstruck, I immediately knew we had to get in to do a story on this ultimate “think tank.”

“But you don’t just show up on the doorstep of the Institute of Brain and announce yourself,” I said.

“That,” said Dr. White, “is exactly what we WILL do.” So there we were on a quiet tree-lined Moscow street, standing on the steps of a red brick building with a brass plaque, ringing the doorbell.

Getting in with a television camera required a lot of creative talking and drinking a lot of tea. Let’s just say I was introduced as “Dr. Savidge” and there was something about a medical documentary (Oh, the minor deceits we must make for journalism!) .

Soon, we were walking the halls of one of the most bizarre and fascinating institutions I have ever seen. Brains were everywhere! Some sat pickling in giant glass jars on desktops. Most were sealed in large blocks of paraffin wax. Open a cupboard, and you’d find brains stacked so precariously that they threatened to…brain you.

We were given a demonstration of how the studying was done. A brain sealed in wax was lifted from the shelf and placed in what looked like a turn-of-the-century deli slicer. A few squeaky cranks of a handle, and a tissue paper slice of grey fluttered into a scientist’s waiting hand. It was then placed between sheets of glass, stained with purple dye and put beneath a microscope.

As our tour continued, the guide told us with a smile that all of the brains had been weighed and measured. Turns out the smallest one in the entire collection belonged to Vladimir Lenin, the man who started Russia on the road to communism. I didn’t know whether to laugh or just say “I told you so” — instead I simply stroked my chin and said “Hmmm.”

It was then that the tour stopped in front of a very heavy door with the number 19 on it. “This is vault 19,” proclaimed our guide. “It holds the brains of our great political leaders.” Dr. White had spoken of this place but thought it was so sensitive that we would never be allowed to see it.

The door was pulled open and we were ushered in.

The room measured about ten by ten, and the walls were lined with wooden drawers. The host walked over to one and carefully pulled it open. “This,” he announced, “is Stalin’s.”

The dictator’s brain was not what it had been. It had long ago passed through the cerebral vego-matic and was now reduced to hundreds of glass plates.

“Would you like to hold it?” the guide asked. For some odd reason, I said yes. And so it came to be that I held Stalin’s brain, thanks to the fact that in the old Soviet Union they had preserved the brains of their leaders, truly believing the mind is a terrible thing to waste.

- Martin Savidge

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Himel travels first to Moscow and then to another city some 80 miles away, where the Russian dream was once alive and well.

Read what a Worldfocus contributing blogger had to say about the contest: Vote for most notable Russian is contested.

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Himel visited Moscow recently and reports on Stalin’s comeback.

Wal-Mart may expand its presence in Russia.

Europe has been hard-hit in the world financial crisis, and unemployment is rising.

But Russia may see more growth than other European countries in the coming months, and some retail giants are looking to Moscow — including Wal-Mart, which plans to expand its overseas presence.

Blogger “Sean” is a graduate student studying history at the University of California, Los Angeles. He writes at “Sean’s Russia Blog” about what Wal-Mart’s presence might mean for Russian jobs.

Russian Unemployment Rising, Fast

Russian unemployment is growing fast, especially in Moscow. Mikhail Nagaitsev, the chairman of the Moscow Federation of Labor Unions, reported on Ekho Moskvy that during the holiday period the number of people registering for unemployment doubled.

Now there are about 290,000 unemployed in Moscow compared to 56,500 a year ago.

Some statisticians are saying that unemployment is perhaps higher that the official 6.6 percent.  According to a survey conduced by FOM, only one percent of Russians register as unemployed when the lose their job making the overall figure probably closer to 7.5 percent.  If correct, that would put the number of unemployed in Russia at 6 million out of 76 million people of working age.  Experts believe that social unrest tends to occur when unemployed surpasses the 10 percent mark.  With officials admitting that joblessness in Russia might increase by 2.1 to 2.2 million people in 2009, that 10 percent mark is inching closer and closer. Couple this with another FOM survey which finds that every fifth Russian not only expects an increase in labor strikes, but are also willing to participate in them and the situation is looking more ominous.

Unemployed, disgruntled Russians might not need to worry too much longer. Walmart has made some serious steps for entering the Russian market.  It’s cheap goods, enormous stores, and abundant service jobs will certain ally the frustrations of any downtrodden public.  But as anyone from small town America knows that box store on the hill is a temple of false gods.  Walmart is cancer to small businesses, acid to the idyllic downtown Main Street, and a snake oil cure for disparity.  Walmart may have branded itself as that blue vested, smiley faced cornucopia of consumerism, but its real face is a low wage and viciously anti-union substitute for the loss of well paid jobs.  I urge Russians to beware.

But Walmart’s penetration into the Russian sales and labor market is still a while off.  In the meantime something is needed to get a grip on any future public disorder.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user racineur under a Creative Commons license.

Gazprom, a state-controlled Russian energy company, is the world’s largest producer of natural gas.

Russia’s dispute with Ukraine over gas prices is now impacting other European nations whose gas shipments pass through Ukraine to places like Greece, the Czech Republic and Austria.

Gazprom, a state-controlled Russian energy company and the world’s largest producer of natural gas, reduced gas supplies to Ukraine after accusing the country of stealing 65.3 million cubic meters of gas since Jan. 1.

Gazprom recently increased its gas prices, which have long been a source of dispute with Ukraine. Worldwide, oil prices reacted to worries about Russian exports.

Steve LeVine covers foreign affairs for BusinessWeek and is a former correspondent with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He writes at “The Oil and the Glory” about the reasons for the dispute.

Russia-Ukraine: A Market Dispute

Are the Russians and Ukrainians simply fated to go to the mat every year about this time, causing grief to their neighbors? Or is something else at work in their antagonism?

The philosophical answer is that, while it’s hard to imagine these two former Soviet states living as friendly neighbors any time soon, the current dispute is a separate matter.

It can be reduced to a difference of outlook: Do you expect oil prices to rise to $60 a barrel this year, or to drop back down to between $30 and $40 a barrel? (Oil has surged in the last two trading days to about $46 a barrel because of the fighting in Gaza.)

In Europe, natural gas prices follow oil, and Russia is clearly of the consensus view that oil will average somewhere in the neighborhood of $60 a barrel this year. That corresponds to a natural gas price of about $350 per 1,000 cubic meters. (Here’s the loose formula to get the natural gas price: divide the oil price by six, then multiply the result by 35.3).

Hence the claim by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that the demand by Gazprom, Russia’s natural gas behemoth, for $250 per 1,000 cubic meters from Ukraine this year amounts to a “humanitarian gesture.”

Ukraine, however, has embraced oil’s most recent price band. It’s arguing that oil will average $40 a barrel this year, or $235 per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas. That’s precisely what Ukraine has counter-offered to Gazprom. [...]

The subtext is the nature of the two countries’ contract, which is based not on the spot price of natural gas, or a forecast, but a formula that lags current prices by eight months. In other words, when Gazprom is retorting that it in fact could charge Ukraine $418 per 1,000 cubic meters if it so wishes, that’s Russia’s estimate of the price of natural gas last May.

To read more, see the original post.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user basb under a Creative Commons license.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Brian Whitmore writes at “The Power Vertical” blog about the public relations efforts of the Russian government as unemployment spirals and the ruble falters.

Uncle Volodya Meets Cinderella

He promised to help a school start a knitting club. He invited two little girls and their grandmother to the Kremlin for New Year’s Eve celebrations. And he reiterated his desire to see Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili “strung up by his balls.”

Live from Moscow! It’s the Vladimir Putin Show!

Meet Putin, the wise and kindly father figure. Gaze in admiration as the Good Tsar Vladimir soothes the nerves of a jittery nation. Watch in awe as the tough-guy strongman describes how he will take care of his foreign enemies who would do his people harm.

It has become an annual ritual of political theater, this virtual-town-hall extravaganza. It doesn’t even matter that Putin is no longer president — he’s still the “national leader” after all. And sitting on a round electric-blue stage surrounded by an adoring studio audience and sycophantic television anchors, he’s the star, fielding three hours’ worth of carefully choreographed questions from meticulously prescreened ordinary citizens.

“Greetings Uncle Volodya!” Dasha Varfolomeyeva, a little girl from the Buryat Republic in Siberia, said over a crackling phone line, using the diminutive form of Putin’s name usually reserved for close friends and family members.

“Soon it will be New Year’s. We live on grandmother’s pension and there is no work in our village. My sister and I dream about having new dresses, like Cinderella, and would like to ask you to buy them for us.”

“Dashenka,” Putin answered with a bemused smile, also using the diminutive. “I think that you and other children should be able to celebrate New Year’s in a dignified manner and adults must see to it that this wish is fulfilled. As far as gifts are concerned, I would like to invite you, your sister, and your grandmother to Moscow for New Year’s Eve, and then we will decide about gifts.” [...]

Putin mainly tried to sooth fears over the global financial crisis that is hitting Russia’s economy hard.

“We have every opportunity to get through this difficult period with minimal problems,” Putin said, despite rising inflation, increased unemployment, plummeting growth. True to form, he blamed the crisis on the United States, which Putin said has “contaminated all leading economies of the world.”

One has to wonder how much longer Russia’s ruling elite can keep blowing smoke into the eyes of their citizens. As Putin was performing for an adoring nation today, oil prices plummeted to a four-year low. And despite protestations to the contrary, Russia’s rulers have made little to no progress in diversifying the economy to make it less dependent on energy and commodities prices.

If current economic trends continue, it will take more than New Year’s invitations, Cinderella dresses, and references to the Georgian president’s private parts to pacify an increasingly panicky public.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

A banner for presidential elections shows Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, proclaiming “Together, we will be victorious!”

On Friday, Russian lawmakers voted to extend the presidential term from four to six years. The bill, proposed by President Dmitry Medvedev, faces one more reading before becoming law, and has led to suspicions that Prime Minister Vladmir Putin will reclaim the presidency.

In compliance with constitutional requirements, Putin stepped down as president earlier this year. He appointed Medvedev, who has been called his “puppet.” If Putin returns to the presidential seat, he could serve a total of 20 years in the position.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Brian Whitmore writes at “The Power Vertical” blog about another possible job title for Putin — speaker of the State Duma — and explores the politician’s consolidation of power under various job titles.

Prime Minister. President. Speaker. Does It Really Matter?

Another day, another round of speculation about a new job for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

When President Dmitry Medvedev submitted legislation to the State Duma last week proposing extending the presidential term from four years to six, it sent the Moscow punditocracy abuzz with anticipation that Putin was gearing up for a return to the Kremlin.

This week, however, the talk is all about Putin getting himself named speaker of the State Duma.

Prime Minister. President. Speaker. But does it really matter?

A brief story in today’s “The Moscow Times” by Nabi Abdullaev had an interesting little nugget suggesting that it doesn’t. Putin is planning to continue his tradition of holding a televised question-and-answer session with ordinary citizens via video link early next year. It will be Putin’s seventh such session, and his first since leaving the presidency.

Abdullaev quoted an unidentified senior official from the ruling Unified Russia party as saying that with the broadcast, Putin “will act more in the role of party leader than prime minister.”

It has become abundantly clear that Putin will continue to be Russia’s true ruler. But the true source of his power will not be a state post like president, speaker, or prime minister. This is mere window-dressing.

Putin’s real power will stem from Unified Russia and its sprawling system of nomenklatura that encompasses not just the federal parliament and government, but also regional legislatures, local governments, and the commercial elite. The road to success in business, politics or academia in Russia today runs through the party’s Byzantine labyrinth.

This is how pre-perestroika Soviet leaders ruled from Stalin to Chernenko. And it is how we can expect Putin to rule as well.

It is probably just a matter of time before the party’s general-secretary formally moves his office to the Kremlin.

See the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Neeka under a Creative Commons license.

A statue of Josef Stalin in Moscow.

This year, the Russia TV channel began the “Name of Russia” project where people vote on the most notable personalities of Russian history. The 13th century prince Alexander Nevsky eventually won, although the contest generated controversy around the prominent placement of Joseph Stalin in the ratings.

Victor Yasmann is an analyst for Radio Free Europe’s Russian Service and writes about the contest organizers’ political motivations and Russia’s perception of its own history.

Russia Again Demonstrates Its Past Is Unpredictable

Soviet dictator Josef Stalin once said that it doesn’t matter who votes, but who counts the votes. This axiom of the “father of nations” would seem perfectly applicable to the “Name of Russia” project, which was created in order to determine the most outstanding personalities of Russian history. It all began when the project’s sponsor, the Rossia state television channel, asked Internet users to choose from a list of 500 nominees the 12 names that most fully symbolize the country.

Similar projects have already been carried out in 22 countries around the world, and in none of them did the selection process produce any particular conflicts. That is because these countries have come to terms with their pasts. Therefore, the British — as might have been expected — voted for Winston Churchill, the Americans selected Ronald Reagan, South Africans endorsed Nelson Mandela, and Germans picked Conrad Adenauer. The German case is interesting because the competition organizers there published a list of ineligible people that included all the leaders of the Nazi regime.

In Russia — the country with an unpredictable past — everything was different. The project organizers clearly manipulated the voting in such a way that the competition and its results were undermined.

By the middle of the summer, Stalin was leading in the voting, a fact that produced consternation among the organizers and their masters in the Kremlin. But the fact was that Stalin was the choice of this forward-leaning audience of Internet users, none of whom, of course, lived under the dictator.

And this fact surprised no one. In the great cultural counterrevolution that has been going on in Russia over the last decade or more, Stalin’s name was long ago rehabilitated and has even become a fundamental element of the current system’s ideology of national revanche. All you have to do is walk into any bookstore to see whole shelves of books devoted to the father of nations, approximately three-quarters of which are paeans to the dictator. Around the same time, a new history textbook by Aleksandr Filippov and others appeared that called Stalin “an effective manager” and whitewashed the Great Terror as “a rational tool for the development of the country.”

To read more, visit the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user chill under a Creative Commons license.

The attempted ban led to protests in Moscow where two Russians captured photos of the demonstrations here and here. A YouTube user uploaded amateur footage of the protests.

The show met similar protest and resistance in the United States in 1997. The Russian TV channel 2X2 that broadcasts “South Park” says the popularity of the show has skyrocketed in Russia and is encouraging protests by devoted viewers of “South Park.”