Eastern Radar #20
Belarus’ underground billionaire, exorcism in Russia’s Orthodox Church, the botanist who defied Stalin and more
Beeps
Hi everybody. If you’re looking for an interesting podcast this week, the first episode of “Reimagining Soviet Georgia” looks into the state of Soviet history in Georgia.
In other news:
🚢 Chinese and Turkish shipbuilders are fighting over a 4,983 billion rubles (€55 million) contract for a Russian icebreaker dock that no Russian company is ready to build.
🇲🇳 Mongolia's president said he's ready to dissolve the Mongolian People's Party before June elections and called the democratically elected MPP majority in government an “unjust and illegal dictatorship.”
☢️ A study of more than 200 Chernobyl survivors and their children showed that radiation hasn't affected the children of people directly affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
🤸♂️ Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov is reportedly planning to create a new political party, and to distance himself from the “Opposition Platform - For Life” party.
Under the Radar
Belarus’ Underground Billionaire [RU]
Marina Volkova | Kyky | April 22 | 3,600 words
His name is Dmitry Baskov. According to Bypol, a network of dissident former officers from the Belarusian security services, Baskov was involved with the plainclothes security officers who, in November, beat to death protester and art teacher Roman Bondarenko near the Square of Change. But Baskov is also a strong regime supporter, who played for various Belarusian hockey clubs from 1999 to 2010 and turned around a struggling Minsk hockey school from 2013 by using special forces soldiers to train the teenagers and getting prisoners to make uniforms for the young athletes. Lukashenko appreciated the initiative, and Baskov's career took off. He became director of the Dynamo - Minsk club in 2018, and head of Belarus' ice hockey federation in 2020. He was also known to have played with Lukashenko and to have coached his son, Nikolai, who had grown very fond of him.
Exorcism by the book: how Russia’s Orthodox Church gets rid of demons [RU]
Anastasiya Lotareva | BBC - Russian service | April 20 | 1,800 words
Petr the exorcist suggests meeting at the cemetery after 9 pm — before that, he’s busy with a “purification” work. The memorial and park complex dedicated to the heroes of the First World War is what he calls a cemetery. There really was a cemetery there before the revolution, but it’s been completely forgotten during the Soviet era. When we meet, Petr disapproves of my phone’s “demonic” brand and advises “never to use iPhones”.
In the Russian Orthodox practice, exorcism is usually called a “purification.” It is defined as a special church rite in which incantatory prayers are pronounced “with the aim of driving out evil spirits from a possessed person.” It is rarely talked about publicly, with no unity on this controversial issue among priests. But “purification rituals” became very popular in the 1990s, with monasteries and churches famous for their exorcists attracting large crowds. Now, the Russian Orthodox Church has announced a document regulating the practice of casting out demons.
Kyrgyz villagers decry health impacts of cement plant pollution
The Third Pole | April 22 | 1,400 words
Villagers who spoke with The Third Pole allege that the pollution comes from two cement factories, collectively called the Aravansky Cement Plants. The companies, Sinzhi-Pirim LLC and Southern Building Material Combiner LLC (also known as Yuksm) send finished products for export to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Sinzhi-Pirim LLC belongs to one of the richest entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan, Berdibay Primov, whose son Ulan Primov is a member of parliament. Yuksm is owned by the deputy of parliament, Azamat Arapbayev, whose family hails from an influential clan in the south of the country. While both are owned by Kyrgyz businessmen, these plants function with the backing of Chinese investors. Neither company responded to the reporter’s requests for comments.
Photo: The Bison Men Of Ukraine
Olga Ivashchenko | RFE/RL | April 26
Research, Culture & Nerdistry
The Botanist Who Defied Stalin
Lee Alan Dugatkin | Nautilus | April 21 | 3,900 words
In the midst of World War One, Russian biologist Nikolai Vavilov began a one-man crusade to scour the planet collecting crop varieties that were disease resistant and might also shed light on the evolution of domesticated plants. For the next 25 years Vavilov’s travels and adventures, recounted in detail in his massive work Five Continents, would make Indiana Jones look like a Boy Scout. He collected hundreds of thousands of seed samples from 60 countries, beginning with Iran and the Pamir region in 1916, Afghanistan in 1924, Algiers, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, Mesopotamia (Iraq), Palestine, Jordan, Ethiopia (Abyssinia), Greece, Cyprus, Crete, Italy and Spain in 1926. And he was only just getting started. Other collecting missions took him to China, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, as well as Mexico, the United States, Canada, Germany, France, England, the Netherlands, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Trinidad, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.
Images of urban space in constructing the Cold War enemy: American skyscrapers in Soviet animation 🔒
Oleg Riabov, Tatiana Riabova | Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema | March 2021
This article deals with an analysis of the representation of American cities in Soviet animated films of the Cold War (1946–63). The space-oriented discourse of popular geopolitics was a resource for constructing the Cold War enemy. The authors point out that the images of skyscrapers served as the main signifier of Americanness in Soviet animation. Among their principal functions were othering and dehumanising ‘enemy number one’, supporting the positive collective identity of the Soviet people and legitimising the Soviet way of life. The image of skyscrapers is discussed as a political symbol, which Soviet propaganda treated as an embodiment of America. This image incorporates the negative characteristics of the American enemy: exploitation; economic and social inequality; racism; the dictatorship of the magnates of Wall Street; egoism and hostility among persons; dominance of mass culture; incitement of base instincts in a person; and cult of violence and war.
Which translation of War and Peace should I read?
Rosamund Bartlett | Five Books
There are many reasons why the translations by Constance Garnett and the Maudes have stood the test of time, and are now regarded as classics in their own right. Garnett, who published her translation in 1904, worked while Tolstoy was still alive, and even went to Russia to meet the author at his home. She brought an admirable educated and literary sensibility to her translations, but was largely self-taught, and worked without the arsenal of dictionaries and resources available in abundance today, not to mention the benefit of hindsight. Her translation of War and Peace is ultimately a little too Edwardian, and lacks precision. The Maudes both spent long years living in Moscow and spoke flawless Russian. Although neither came from a literary background, they knew Tolstoy well, and received his seal of approval as translators of his work. Knowing Tolstoy’s propensity to make changes to his texts even after they had been published, the Maudes took care to work with the most accurate version of War and Peace.