By Vitaly PORTNYKOV, The Day
Journalists hang out for hours near Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital
in the hope to learn something new about the health of Russian President
Boris Yeltsin. Meanwhile, another post-Soviet capital, Baku, looks forward
to news from Turkey where President Geydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan is receiving
medical treatment. A sad coincidence? Of course, but this is also a vivid
characteristic of the generation still populating the post-Soviet space.
Messrs. Yeltsin and Aliyev are people very different in their leadership
styles, political destinies, and everyday attitudes. One lost his seat
in the Politburo because he was considered too conservative an opponent
of the Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika, the other because he advocated
too radical reforms. What they had in common is that both were members
of that Politburo. The Politburo, as well as the Communist Party of the
USSR and the Soviet Union, are now history.
But their alumni remain in power.
We always repeat that what is needed is a change of generations: look,
Moses led his people in the wilderness for decades, while we want everything
all at once. Sorry, what kind of Moses are you talking about, if you can
learn the biographies of today's leaders from a time-battered Propagandist's
Reference Book - and these will be true biographies and not what they
tell us about themselves today. One such person went to an international
forum and, in order not to disgrace himself in front of the Rockefellers,
wrote in his resume: "Was engaged in political activity before being elected."
What kind of activity, Comrade? Did you run a section at a district
Party committee? Then at a city Committee? Then in the Central Committee?
Shall I remind you of the Politburo?
No doubt, there are extremely gifted and strong personalities among
these people. Yeltsin, after all, is one. But these are old men with an
old style of thinking and ruling and who have their own problems. They
suffer from their own maladies, lust for power being the most dangerous.
They do not want to become historical figures just yet. However, before
they make their way into the history books, the latter will also feature
us, post-Soviet people, as the best example of the whole nations once so
arduously experimented upon by those invincible Politburo members.






