Once she told me about a national security board meeting in Soviet
times. It was decided to destroy the reputation of the most noted figures
in the democratic movement. Galina Starovoitova mentioned names and quoted
from specific projects. Frankly, I did not believe much of what she had
to say. Even after Anatoly Sobchak, former Mayor of St. Petersburg, turned
up in Paris and former Presidential Adviser Sergei Stankevich surfaced
in Warsaw. I just could not bring myself to associate what happened to
them with the fact that both were in a way symbols of Gorbachev's perestroika.
Now my attitude to her story is different, of course. She had a singular
awareness of realities, perhaps based on her woman's intuition. That was
probably why she was known as a "marginal politician." She knew what was
happening, and she could also foretell what would happen later. No changes
in the political climate could make her run around switching sides, as
did certain former democrats, always watching which way the wind was blowing,
adjusting themselves to those more powerful even though what they knew
in their hearts was precisely the opposite. At the time of the Chechnya
War numerous intellectuals in Boris Yeltsin's entourage said they could
not retire lest the President be left alone in Korzhakov's evil embrace.
No such pussy-footing for Galina Starovoitova. She realized that her involvement
in or with any power structure would lend it a touch of decency, and decency
was her one asset that she would not share lightly, not with those that
she thought undeserving.
In fact, she was a normal person. Those rubbing shoulders with politicians
will appreciate the importance and rarity of this virtue. One could have
coffee with her, discuss personal things, and wonder at how she lived her
own life. She knew people and could find the right ones. I knew her for
ten years and always found her company interesting. It all started with
a young reporter seeking an interview with a new political star and ended
on that tragic night when I heard about her assassination. She never kept
her distance. People like her don't know how. With them it is either understanding
or complete rejection. I was lucky to be understood and accepted.
I only regret that I did not listen to her more often.






