The Post-Soviet Russia

Lecture 4

Lyra Riabov

Associate Professor

Southern New Hampshire University

Post-Soviet Russia From 1985 to Present

Gorbachev’s Perestroika & Glasnost

Yeltsin’s Democratic Revolution

Putin and “New Russians”

Lenin 1917-1924 Stalin 1924-1953

Khrushchev 1953-1964 Brezhnev 1964-1982 Andropov 1983-1984 Chernenko 1984-1985

Gorbachev 1985-1991 Yeltsin 1991-1999 Putin 2000-present

1917 1991

1991-2003

Time of Stagnation

Human Rights Movement

1966 Tarkovsky: Andrei Rublev

1971 Beginning of large-scale Jewish emigration

In 1970 Sakharov with Soviet dissidents Valery Chalidze and Andrei Tverdokhlebov founded the Moscow Human Rights Committee

1974 Deportation of Solzhenitsyn from USSR

1978 Trial of Natan Shcharansky

1979 Invasion of Afganistan

1980 Exile of Sakharov

“I soon banished Stalin from [my] world. But the state, the nation, and the ideals of communism remained intact for me. It took me years to understand the degree to which deceit and demagoguery were involved in those notions”  (A. Sakharov)

Brezhnev 1964-1982

Andrei Sakharov 1921-1989

February 21,1977,TIME

The KGB was cracking down on Soviet dissidents and harassing the Western journalists profiling them. Sakharov, called the "guiding spirit of the hunted dissidents of the U.S.S.R.," was praised as a "pilgrim of conscience" for his pursuit of human rights.

Natan Shcharansky

Refusenik and human rights activist. Member of the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group. Arrested in 1977, in 1978 sentenced to 13 years in prison. Continued his struggle in imprisonment.Exchanged in 1986 for a Soviet spy. Lives in Israel, prominent political leader, member of the Knesset, several times served as a minister in the Israeli government.

Igor Spadaruck, “Portrait of G. Mikhailov”

Lyra at the Chemiakin Exhibition at Georgii Mikhailov’s Apartment in St.

Petersburg in 1978

Art Exhibition in Manezh

Leningrad, 1971. Photo by Vlad Ovchinnikov

Lyra’s House in St.Petersburg (Leningrad)

St. Petersburg (Leningrad), 1976

Lyra, her twin daughters, and her students “refusniks” are waiting for the arrival of the SNHU friends

SNHU group at Lyra’s Home inSt. Petersburg (Leningrad), 1978

Person-to-Person Tours

Academic Program

In 1976 SNHU and St. Anselm College have developed an academic program for Person-to-Person Tours. Participants of those study groups as well as many other Americans visited me in Leningrad, met with my students, exchanged ideas, and built long lasting friendships.

Prof. John Windhausen, American &

Russian Friends at Lyra’s Home in Leningrad.

Chris Toy, a Member of the SNHU Group, is in Moscow (1976)

Rabbi Starr and Dr. James Grace at Lyra’s Home St.Petersburg (Leningrad), 1981

Sakharov at a pro-democracy rally

From Perestroika (Restructuring) and Glasnost (Openness),1985 to Dissolution of the USSR, 1991

Struggle for Democracy, 1987-1989

Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1985 and initiated the process of reforms that would be called Perestroika.

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster on April 25th -26th, 1986. The Chernobyl accident killed more than 30 people immediately, and as a result of the high radiation levels in the surrounding 20-mile radius, 135,000 people had to be evacuated. 15,000 people are believed to have died as a result of the accident, while a further 50,000 were crippled by exposure to radiation.President Regan and Gorbachev.

First Summit in Geneva, 1985

President Bush and Gorbachev are on Governor’s Island, 1988 in New York.

In the Red Square in Moscow, 1988

Signing the INFTreaty in the White House,1987

Docking of Space Station Mir and US Space Shuttle, 1996

1993 Yeltsin storms the Parliament Building, 200 people were killed

June 1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the President of the Russian Federation On March 26, 2000,

Vladimir Putin was elected the President of the Russian Federation

August 1991, people support Yeltsin against putsch

Mr. Putin owes much of his popularity to the tough line he has taken with Chechen separatists.

Russian security forces surround the Moscow theater where hostages are taken by armed ChechensOctober 2002

“Soviet Officials Get Taste of American Capitalism”

The Union Leader, June 17, 1991

“The Soviets, all high officials in aerospace industry, have spent the past month studying the American free market system, attending lectures and viewing first-hand how the institutions of capitalism work.” Nancy Meersman, The Union Leader Staff, 1991

The Participants visit the General Electric Co. in Lynn, MA.1991

New Hampshire College Welcomes Soviets to Training Program

In August, 1991 as President Bush was visiting the Soviet Union strengthening diplomatic ties, nineteen Soviet business people were studying in SNHU program.

Don Cox, Lyra Riabov and the Soviets pose in front of the Graduate School,

SNHU, 1991

Visits and Meetings

The 157th Refueling Group, New Hampshire Air National Guard, received the Soviets at the Pease Air Base in Newington, NH.

Lyra and the Participants of the SNHU Program are on Board of

the KC-135K Air Refueling Aircraft

“Soviets Enjoy Lee USA Action” Portsmouth Herald, 1991

The Soviets were special guests of the Lee USA Speedway racing event. The participants believed that the improving relations between our countries made this educational program possible.

Lyra and members of the group pose with the winner of

the race

Recreational Activities

• Skip Ashooh and his Rotary Club friends invited the Soviet businessmen to a dinner in a local restaurant in Manchester, NH.

• Lyra brought the group for an evening stroll in Boston.

Weekends

How do American families live? Person to person contacts were the best way to learn about each others cultures.

Dr. Paul Schneiderman entertains his Soviet guests at his home. (top)

The group is planning its next trip either to the White Mountains, or the Seacoast, or the Lake Region of New Hampshire.

Memorable Meetings

The Soviets met with the First Lady Barbara Bush. February, 1992. New Hampshire

The First Lady Barbara Bush, Professor Lyra Riabov and

Mr. Kazarin, the Leader of the Soviet Delegation

The Romanov Dynast y

MIKHAILFEODOROVICH

1613-1645

ALEXEI MIKHAILOVICH

1645-1676

FEODOR ALEXEEVICH 1676-1682

IVAN V (IVAN ALEXEEVICH) 1682-1696

SOFIAALEXEEVNA

1682-1689

PETER THE GREATEMPEROR OF ALL RUSSIA 1721-1725

CATHERINE I1725-1727

PETER II1727-1730

ANNA IVANOVNA1730-1740

IVAN VI1740-1741

ELIZAVETA PETROVNA 1741-1761

PETER III1761-1762

CATHERINE THE GREAT 1762-1796

PAUL I1796-1801

ALEXANDER I 1801-1825

NICHOLAS I 1825-1855

ALEXANDER II1855-1881

ALEXANDER III 1881-1894

NICHOLAS II 1894-1917

Lenin 1917-1924 Stalin 1924-1953

Khrushchev 1953-1964 Brezhnev 1964-1982 Andropov 1983-1984 Chernenko 1984-1985

Gorbachev 1985-1991 Yeltsin 1991-1999 Putin 2000-

1917 1991

1991-2003

Pushkin Lermontov Gogol Turgenev Leo Tolstoy

Glinka Tchaikovsky Dostoevsky Borodin Musorgsky

Repin Karl Brullov Isaac Levitan Mendeleev Hertzen

The Gol den Age of Russian Cul t ur e

My Russia

My Russia