DATE=3/22/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / ELECTION / LIFE IN SIBERIA
NUMBER=5-45970
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=RAZVEDCHIK, KEMEROVO
CONTENT=
PART THREE IN THREE PART SERIES
VOICED AT:
/// EDS: THIS IS THE THIRD OF THREE REPORTS FROM
SIBERIA IN ADVANCE OF RUSSIA'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
SUNDAY, MARCH 26TH ///
INTRO: The Siberian region of Kemerovo (KEM-er-ova)
is at the heart of Russia's mining industry. But coal
mines are closing and living standards have hit an all
time low. In the final part of a series about
Siberia, V-O-A Correspondent Eve Conant visited the
mining village of Razvedchik where families say they
have learned to rely on themselves, not the Kremlin,
to survive.
TEXT: The village of Razvedchik, which in Russian
means "spy," is actually named for a team of
geologists who came here three decades ago to research
the region's coal deposits. The Pervomaisky mine
looms in the distance over the small wooden cottages
nestled together in this snowy field. On the other
side of the village is a deep forest of tall spruce
and pine trees dusted with snow.
A building near the village store is covered with
hand-written banners advertising itself as the
village's voting station. But the miners, their wives
and families who live here say they have little hope
their lives will change much after presidential
elections March 26th.
The son of one of those first geologists is 41-year
old Nikolai Zimini who has worked at the Pervomaiskaya
mine for almost half his life.
/// ZIMINI ACT ONE - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER
TRANSLATION ///
I'll just live, be patient. In general, we
Russians are all patient. No other country is
like this. They don't pay us for years and
we're quiet while other people would be
striking.
/// END ACT ///
Nikolai -- or Kolya as his family calls him -- says he
and the other miners are afraid to strike because they
will simply lose their jobs. Any illusions they once
had that the Kremlin will come to their aid have long
since disappeared.
/// ZIMINI ACT TWO - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER
TRANSLATION ///
There is so much written in the newspapers --
who we need to vote for, which politicians have
sold out, and so on. No one cares what the
people really think. They just put whomever they
want to in power.
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT /// Kolya and his wife Olya live in a
small two-room cottage. Inside their kitchen is a
long trench filled with seedlings. As soon as the
snow outside melts -- and it is now more than one-and-
a-half meters deep -- they will plant their garden.
/// OPT // ACT HUSBAND AND WIFE TALKING - FADE
UNDER ///
/// OPT /// They finish each other's sentences to
explain that here in Razvedchik, it does not matter
who will be president. They say, "in the countryside,
nothing will change."
/// OPT /// Kolya says he cannot save money, that
his salary is used up each month on food to feed the
children and themselves. He says, "my two boys ask
for apples and candy -- they want everything but we
only have kopeks."
/// OPT /// They laugh when asked how much his
wife Olya earns as a cleaning woman at a nearby
hospital.
/// OPT // ACT - REACTION AND LAUGHING ///
/// OPT /// The answer is 280 rubles, less than
ten dollars each month. /// END OPT ///
/// NAT SOUND WALKING IN SNOW - FADE UNDER ///
The path to neighbor Ludmilla Krupina's house is
filled so high with snow that a person walks above the
fences that surround each cottage, the pointy wooden
tips poking just above the packed, icy snow.
/// OPT // ACT - DOGS BARKING / WALKING UP STAIRS
AND OPENING DOOR ///
/// OPT /// Ludmilla -- also in her 40's -- walks
up to her porch and runs her hand above the door frame
to find her house key. Kolya and Olya are visiting
her. They say they all keep their keys outside, and
that if anyone tried to rob them they would eventually
be caught since everyone knows everyone anyway.
/// OPT /// In the windowsills of her wooden
cottage are more potted seedlings, warming in the sun
in white plastic cups marked "peppers, Moldovan
tomatoes, parsley and dill."
/// OPT // KRUPINA ACT ONE - IN RUSSIAN - FADE
UNDER TRANSLATION ///
We salt and pickle everything from our gardens.
We can grow cabbage, carrots and potatoes-this
is what we live on.
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT /// Everything she serves is homemade.
One of the many treats here are pine nuts, which
locals gather in the forest and then roast into
handfuls of dark brown nuts smelling of spruce. ///
END OPT ///
/// SOUND POURING WATER ///
Ludmilla prepares tea in her kitchen. She says she
hopes the elections will bring change and that she
will vote for Acting President Vladimir Putin.
/// KRUPINA ACT TWO - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER
TRANSLATION ///
(Sighs) We hope Putin will fulfill our wishes,
but we're afraid. This is how we voted for
Yeltsin, with our souls and with hope. But it
all turned out so bad. But I guess we have no
other choice. Whether or not he'll do
anything for us I don't know. Well, so what?
If he can't, we'll wait four years for the next
elections. But I won't vote to return to
communism.
/// END ACT ///
"We are free now," she says. "But what has changed is
that we don't expect the government to protect us --
we rely on ourselves." Kolya and Olga, who are
drinking tea with her, nod in agreement as she
continues.
/// OPT // KRUPINA ACT THREE - IN RUSSIAN - FADE
UNDER TRANSLATION ///
It even seems like we have fewer friends.
Before we would have tea and candies and visit
each other almost every day. Now we don't have
money for those little things. It costs money
to have guests over, to open our table. But we
won't give up.
/// END ACT // END OPT ///
It is almost 6 o'clock in the evening and Kolya gets
up to leave for his shift at the coal mine. He will
work until three in the morning and then come home to
sleep. He throws on his boots, jacket, and fur hat
and races out the door. The sun is setting, casting a
pale pink, pink light over the cottages -- each
covered in a meter or more of snow. The coal mine is
just a short walk away. He says he will work the rest
of his life there, and expects his two sons to do the
same. "No one gets out of here," he says. (Signed)
NEB/EC/JWH/KL
22-Mar-2000 10:31 AM EDT (22-Mar-2000 1531 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
