From: Sorokin@ps1.iaee.tuwien.ac.at (Sorokin Zhenya)
Subject: Re: Stereotypes of Soviet Peoples
Organization: Inst. of General Electronics and Electroengeneering, TU Vienna
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 21:23:28 GMT

In article <1992Dec30.151150.1173@polaris.utu.fi> Olli-Jukka Paloneva <opaloneva@abo.fi> writes:

[stuff deleted]

>
>The way, how Chechenians treated their superioirs and
>colleagues does
>not change my personal feelings for example of Ruslan
>Hasbulatov, who
>is probably the most famous Chechen in Russian nowadays.
>

Famous, oh yes. You know, Stalin is still the most famous Osetian in the 
world...
BTW, comparison of Hasbulatov and Stalin is not too stupid.
As I remember from the history of CPSU (and Hasbulatov was univ. professor 
on this subject), Stalin's way to power was that he turned his bureaucratic 
position (general secretary, i.e. head of typewriters) within the RKP(b) 
Central Commitee to a dictatorship. Milestones were: 
1. Creation of "Secretariat" under personal control. 
2. Transferring of ALL paperwork to the "apparat" of this Secratariat. As a 
result, all activity of CC, _including personal changes_ and _party's press_
got under controle of the Secretariat. 
4. Creating of a new undercover security system under personal control.
3. Reproducing of this system downstairs through the party, creating a new 
hierarchie of power.  

Hasbulatov's milestones:
1. Conservation of the inherited from the communist epoch "Presidium" of the 
Parliament (Congress, etc.) under *personal* control of the Speaker.
2. Transferring of the control of the whole Apparat of the Parliament to 
this Presidium (internal information, organization, personal changes).
3. Creation of the independent "parliamentary guard" under *personal* 
control. Forbidden by Yeltsin this autumn as anticonstitutional, is now 
recreated after special bill of the recent Congress.
4. Permanent *war* against independency of the mass-media. Recent 
achievements: Firing of Poltoranin, Yakovlev, takeover of Izvestiya 
publishing facilities.
5. Recent creation of a system of so-called "direct information tarnsfer" 
between representative structures of all levels, which is parallel to and 
independent of executive power structure.

The result was seen on recent Congress: 
*All* decisions on important subjects were equal to his personal 
opinion, which he always made known before voting.
His remark was enough to cancel hearing (!) of the reports of two (!) 
parliamentary commissions on some subject (I do not remember which one, it 
was in October-November), where it was known that conclusions were opposite 
to his opinion. (Guess the result of the voting).
He established himself as a second man in the state, capable of 
introducing and cancelling changes in Constitution by personal bargaining 
with President.

Try to imagine such power in the hands of parliamentary speaker in any 
democratic state! Can you remember the name of *any* parliamentary speaker 
besides Hasbulatov and your own?

>Sometimes I wonder, why it is easier to find common sense
>between
>the foreigners and CISsians than among CISsians?
>

It's always the case between close neighbours or marriage partners
(e.g. Canada).

>Olli

P.S. About Chechens it seems reasonable to read Solzhenitsin's "Archipelag 
GULAG". He wrote a special Chapter concerning formation of Chechen 
superiority in concentration camps (SA for young soldiers doesn't differ 
much from jail). You'll find the answers to why and how. 
And do not forget, Chechens are muslims, so the prospectives of "peaceful 
coexistence" are very, very dark.

Yours,
Sorokin Zhenya
Vienna, Austria.


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