Moscow Diary: Silenced critic

The BBC's James Rodgers describes the impression Anna Politkovskaya made on him, as Russia digests the prosecutor general's revelations about her murder. He also talks to a Bolshevik who not only reveres Lenin and Stalin but also praises the late Diana, Princess of Wales. His diary is published fortnightly.

MEETING WITH A MURDER VICTIM

Anna Politkovskaya remains influential even in death

She was risking her life. She must have known it.

I met Anna Politkovskaya twice. The first time we talked for more than an hour - mostly about her work in Chechnya. I was not living in Russia at the time. I had not been to Chechnya for some years.

It was a summer afternoon. We drank tea in the sunshine. It could not have been further from the cruelty and misery of war in the Caucasus.

I was impressed by her minute knowledge of every detail of the conflict and her range of contacts among all parties to it.

The next time I saw her was a couple of months later.

It was now the autumn of 2004. At the beginning of September, she had been taken ill while travelling to Beslan to cover the siege at the school there.

She was sure that she had been poisoned.

It was my impression on our second meeting that she seemed much more cautious than previously. She may well have still been suffering from whatever noxious substance had landed her in hospital.

The news that 10 people have been arrested in the investigation into her death has reignited all the debate here about who might have ordered her killing.

In essence, her supporters seem convinced that she was killed as a result of her work. The authorities here prefer the theory that "the person who ordered her killing is abroad", as the Prosecutor General, Yuri Chaika, put it.

Unravelling the riddle is the kind of task Anna Politkovskaya might well have taken on herself.

The political dimension her murder has taken on means she will be influential even in death.

BOLSHEVIK PRAISE FOR A PRINCESS

Iskra Myachina is the living history of her country.

Iskra Myachina is still proud about the USSR - "the beautiful country"

I went to interview her for a report about the last years of the Soviet Union.

Her story is worth telling on its own.

She was born in 1923. Her name almost betrays her age. It means "Spark". It is the title which Lenin gave to the newspaper he edited in exile. Lenin wanted the paper to act as the catalyst which would bring about the revolution he was convinced that Russia needed.

Iskra was born the year before Lenin died. Like many Bolsheviks, Iskra's parents gave her a name which belonged to the new era he had founded.

Now approaching her 84th birthday, Iskra remains a communist. She says that the reforms introduced by the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, destroyed a "beautiful country" - ie the USSR. She is convinced that communism will eventually triumph, although she does not expect to live to see the day.

Of course, Iskra is not alone among octogenarians in this country who believe that things were better under communism. Most of the Russian Communist Party's electorate, such as it is, tend to be elderly. They are the generation who saw little reward for the hardships they suffered.

What made her such a rare living example of her country's history is that her grandparents were born serfs: the property of the aristocrats on whose land they lived.

Russia only abolished this medieval, feudal system in 1861.

They were surprised, when I told them that I was a communist, that I didn't have horns, a tail, and hooves! Iskra Myachina, recalling her first visit to the US

Iskra's parents lived through the Revolution which swept away the Russian aristocracy, and the monarchy which stood at its head, forever.

Iskra saw the Soviet Union become a superpower.

In 1961, just 100 years after Tsar Alexander II had liberated the serfs, the USSR put a man into space. Russia had gone from the Middle Ages to the space age in just one century.

Thirty years after that, Iskra's "beautiful country" ceased to exist.

While it lasted, she was proud of it. She remains so to this day. As a trusted member of the Communist party, she was permitted to travel abroad at a time when it was out of the question for ordinary Soviet citizens.

"They were surprised, when I told them that I was a communist, that I didn't have horns, a tail, and hooves!" she recalled of her first visit to the United States.

The only 20th Century leaders she admires are Lenin and Stalin. She dismisses every other occupant of the Kremlin as either a weakling or a traitor.

There was one other public figure for whom she seemed to have unlimited praise: Diana, Princess of Wales.

This week, across the world, people are thinking of Princess Diana on the 10th anniversary of her death.

They include Iskra Myachina, self-styled "old Bolshevik", who lives on Lenin Avenue in Moscow.

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Your comments:

Personally I think there are few people in Russia so sure that Lenin had his heart in the right place. Too much suffering, too many people killed in Stalin times and later. But I am sure the only thing that is so attractive to most communist supporters now is the economical stability Russians had then, then life could be planned. Now we are not sure of tomorrow, though in comparison to the 90s we may speak of some oil-smothered stabilisation. The USSR collapse cost so much for almost everyone in Russia. That's why the past is so often remembered with good words.
Radmila, Moscow, Russia

When the Soviet Union collapsed 15 years ago, Russia became a third-world country almost overnight. Now Moscow is - for the second year running - the most expensive city in the world. I suspect we are seeing Putin's Russia become the economic superpower that communism promised but could not deliver. However much some may fear a resurgent Russia, I welcome it, for only Russia can provide a real balance of economic power in Asia against China.

Best of all, the prospect of large-scale military conflict at any foreseeable point in the future does not seem to be a substantial issue. Perhaps the great countries of the world (excepting my own, sadly) are finally seeing war by classical means as too expensive in terms of time, money, and worldwide respect.
Glenn Cessor, Bremerton, Washington, USA

Russia is not changing. It is standing in one spot. Mass media is controlled, politics are in KGB hands, gas and oil keeps the Kremlin regime alive. The situation will not change if Russians don't want it to. People are calm because they have cars and can buy expensive goods.
Tomas, Vilnius, Lithuania

I remember how I together with my friends stood with candles outside the Russian Embassy in Helsinki the night after Anna was murdered last autumn. Some rumours say it was up to 2,000 people gathered in Helsinki that evening, while in all Russia there were just a few hundred. Anna's own country turned its back on her, out of confusion and fear I guess. Fear because as you wrote James, Anna knew she risked her life, and those who wanted to support her knew they had to pay a price.
Lukke, Helsinki, Finland

The lady is a fine example of a Communist party member in the USSR. If she was able to travel abroad, then she had a privileged life, could use party contacts to source goods not available to the masses, and would have a good standard of living. Essentially, she thinks that USSR was a beautiful country because it offered her a beautiful life. However, for others less fortunate it was different. Interesting aside that her grandparents were serfs. Should the Russian government apologise for serfdom? Or should the descendents worldwide of Russia's landowners?
Richard, Edinburgh, UK

I came to Russia in 1992 to work on several joint venture projects with our company. Several of our colleagues in the Russian office were still card-carrying members of the Communist Party. I asked one of them why he still wanted to be associated with a bankrupt ideology that had lost control of Russia, and he replied seriously and quite simply, "we will prevail". Now, with Putin busy resurrecting the USSR with a modern makeover, I know just what he meant.
Paul A Kachur, Bacharach, Germany

I find it of interest that at a time when British-Russian relations are at an all time low, the BBC publishes, within a two-week period, an article on an 80-year old communist; another on revival of "traditional values" in a Cossack village deep in a Siberian backwater; a number of articles on an "unexploded missile" dropped in Georgia and an online forum seeking public comment on whether "we should be scared of Russia". Scaremongering anyone??
Anton Babkov, Sydney, Australia

The current regime may be tough and undemocratic at times but I think it is necessary to install some order here. I am sure that things will get better in terms of democracy. People need some time to recover from the previous decades of depravities and grow to appreciate the western personal freedoms and values. The mindset will change.
Andrey, Moscow, Russia

I really do not understand why people insist on Russia's responsibility to share its natural resources with other countries, like Shelley from Ontario does. I'm sure life in Ontario exposed her to little of hardships that many Russians experienced through decades of communism followed by turbulent 90s. Russia has inherited massive debt for all of the Soviet Union, and that is after decades of subsidising economies of its neighbours near and far. Enough it enough! I beg you, leave it to the Russians to decide who is better for them.
Jeffim K, Miami, Fl, USA

Every week I spend about 20 hours reading stories and information about Russia. What I can't understand is why the Russians lag behind the west in terms of technology and other aspects of life.
Boye Andrew, Brass, Nigeria

Most people judging Russia on its standards do not understand the inner dynamics of Russia today, simply because of the biased press in their own countries. Many are blinded by sheer jealousy of re-emerging Russia and will do everything in their power to stun the growth and integration of Russia into the mainstream world.
Andrey, New York/Moscow

I am not a communist. As a student I lived in the last days of the USSR. I can say that everything in the USSR was bad.
WB, Desse, Ethiopia

Russia needs a strong leader. Perhaps they should consider returning the Tsar to power, or having a system like Singapore rather than what most people call "liberal democracy".
Kevin, Singapore

It is not capitalism or communism but a socialist nation that is needed. A nation where the strong help the weak - because they want to.
Stephen Hammond, United States

I'm almost certain that Shelley from Ontario, Canada, meant to use the words "United States" wherever she used the word "Russia". Uncanny how people can accuse Putin of tyranny when the "land of the free" has almost identical problems. There are no simple answers to such complex problems, especially when they involve the need for rapid growth. Even more so when greedy post-perestroika privatisations and tax evasion set Russia back decades. Putin is doing his utmost to reverse the trend, and quite successfully to date. He may be a little heavy handed, but no more than the US government. The Russian people will have the occasion to thank him in good time.
Andrew, New York, USA

It seems that Mrs Myachina was in the higher ranks of the communist party. Perhaps, my parents would not mind communist regime if they were allowed to travel abroad as Mrs Myachina. And freedom of movement is only a minute part of the difference between the high ranking communists and the ordinary people. However some ordinary people still support communists, that's the real puzzle for me.
Krystyna, Philadelphia, USA

In your report, you mentioned that Russia only abolished this medieval, feudal system [serfdom] in 1861. In the interests of fairness, it must be remembered that it was not until 1865, four years later, when the USA abolished slavery [The Thirteenth Amendment].
Nicholas Smith, England

Mrs Myachina's feelings are at once understandable and repulsive to me. My Lithuanian heritage has some strong similarities but has led my extended family and others like us in a different direction. My mother was born in the US to semi-literate Lithuanian peasant immigrants who left because of poverty and lack of opportunity and, in my grandfather's case, to escape the Tsar's press gangs rounding up young men to fight the Japanese.

My maternal grandparents never had anything good to say about the Tsar and were suspicious of later refugees from independent Lithuania who managed to escape from Communism and the depravities of Stalin. My father was from this group which lumped the Communists and Nazis into the same perverse bag which almost destroyed western civilization in the 20th century. Thank God those days are over, but as we can see in Mrs. Myachina and the historical outlook of the Putin regime, the Nazi ghosts may have been exorcized, the Red ones haven't.
Rimantas Aukstuolis, Hudson, Ohio, USA

James, it is a nice story. But I want to ask you about the woman you described. Is there any person in present day Russia who believe in the eventual triumph of communism? Please do talk to some other people about their days under communism.
Engida Zewdie, Dilaa, Ethiopia

I think that there is a big problem with the Russian political system and I have a hard time understanding how the Russian people can continue to support it. They are very much lacking the rule of law as well as providing the basic necessities of life. Russia will never totally have free people until they have a democratic society where people have the right to choose and the right to free speech. What's wrong with that?

Oil and gas is big for Russia so why don't they share that with their people. What is wrong with investing in your own country and your own people? Government controlled media is a way of hushing and hiding from the people, eliminating your chance to speak freely. How is that good for a country? I think the author delivered a fair, non-biased report of the way it is.
Shelley, Ontario, Canada

The Tsar may not have been swept away forever. Monarchies have been restored and they have contributed to stability. This would benefit Russia.
Avraam Jack, Alexandris, USA