|
Russia's parliament opened debate Friday on President Vladimir
Putin's proposal to give the country a mixed bag of state symbols
ranging from the tsarist eagle to the Stalin-era Soviet anthem.
Nine years after the collapse of communism, Russia is still living
without an official crest, flag or hymn. Its current double-headed
eagle, the red-white-and-blue tricolour and an arcane 19th-century
tune are no more than temporary stand-ins. Putin, keen to boost
Russia's nationhood, has asked the State Duma lower house of parliament
to resolve the issue quickly by backing his proposal to reinstate
the old Soviet anthem along with the imperial emblem and the tricolour.
The notion of restoring the music of an anthem approved by Josef
Stalin has enraged liberals who have called for a complete break
with the Soviet era as a mark of respect for the millions of victims
of his totalitarian rule. "We are certain this is a serious
political mistake," Grigory Yavlinsky of the Yabloko party
told NTV television. "It is our duty to ensure that this
does not happen." As debate got under way, Yabloko party
activists gathered outside Moscow's main post office, urging passersby
to send telegrams to Putin denouncing the president's proposals.
The debate also raised the ire of former President Boris Yeltsin,
who said Putin, the man he chose as prime minister and his preferred
successor in 1999, should act on public opinion and ensure a new
anthem was composed. The liberal daily Sevodnya said the likely
outcome of the debate amounted to Putin breaking with Yeltsin
and the liberal ideas that brought him to power as communism crumbled.
"The Yeltsin era has effectively run its course," it
said. "In 10 years the pro-Western democrats were no more
able to adopt an anthem any more than they were able to present
an attractive ideological programme or break imperial traditions."
Restoring the anthem will please the communists, the Duma's largest
group. Observers say that despite their aversion to imperial panoply
Putin's laws seem likely to pass easily and Russia will begin
2001 with old-new symbols of statehood. ANTHEM THE FOCUS OF CONTROVERSY
At the centre of the argument is the rousing "Unbreakable
Union" tune by Alexander Alexandrov, composed at the time
of some of the bloodiest battles of World War Two. Putin defended
the restoration of the anthem in a television address this week,
saying his choice of symbols was meant to unite Russians by taking
the best from their tumultuous history. He said he had the backing
of Russians. Yeltsin stepped into the fray on Thursday to make
a rare jab at his hand-picked successor. The former president
quoted Anatoly Chubais, a longtime Kremlin adviser and now head
of a giant power utility, in saying it was immaterial that opinion
polls showed many Russians favoured the old anthem. "Chubais
was quite right on this score: the president of a country should
not blindly follow the mood of the people. On the contrary, it
is up to him to actively influence it," he said in an interview
to the mass-circulation daily Komsomolskaya Pravda. Putin said
he would not be fazed by the comments. In the likely event of
the old Soviet tune being approved on Friday, the stirring melody
will have to remain wordless for some time while famed children's
poet Sergei Mikhalkov re-writes the lyrics, for the third time
in his life. Mikhalkov, who wrote the original "An unbreakable
union of free republics the Great Russia has sealed" in 1943,
amended the lines after Stalin's death to drop any mention of
the dictator.
See also:
 "UNBREAKABLE
UNION" RESTORED
Grigory
Yavlinsky: approval of the music by Aleksandrov as the hymn for
Russia represents a step towards a split in society
Yabloko
and the SPS oppose restoration of the symbols of the Soviet Union
Yabloko
proposes the march “Farewell of a Slavic woman” as a new hymn
of Russia
|
