European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 15, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse A part of life for those left behind by Alison Smale associated press often on n summer evening muscovites head for that most chilling of places a graveyard. But a cemetery to a russian is More than the place of the dead. It is also a part of life for those left behind. Crouching Between the painted Iron railings that Border most plots. Russians of All Ages lovingly tend family Graves sweeping them clean planting Flowers erecting benches where they sit to quietly mourn and Ponder. By partaking in age old rituals. They briefly escape the drab modernity of soviet life. Traditions of death rooted in the russian orthodox Church survive even among non believers. Funerals Are followed by wakes known As after nine Days and again after 40. Religious tradition Calls for further feasts to Mark the passage of the soul from the body to another world. On birthdays the death anniversary Ana at orthodox easter tradition dictates visits to relatives Graves. Food is often Laid out for the deceased and toasts raised to them. In recent years. Soviet authorities have done More to help citizens observe the old rituals establishing Flower shops adjacent to cemeteries for example and arranging for special buses to cemeteries at eastertide. In Russia grave Sites can be expressive. A giant propeller adorns the burial place of a Pilot in one Moscow graveyard. In another the famous Novod Vichy cemetery a bust depicts a military commander giving orders Telephone to his ear. Public officials military men and other prominent soviets Are usually honoured with elaborate Marble or Black Granite gravestones bearing etched portraits. Novod Vichy cemetery where Only the most important people Are buried shows How the careful division of privilege in soviet society carries Over into death. Relatives can visit there with special passes but the general Public is allowed in Only one Day a year to see the Graves of personalities such As Premier Nikita s. Khrushchev dictator Josef Stalin s wife Nadezhda Allilu Yeva and author Anton Chekhov. Graveyards Are a place for russians to Honor artists who brought Solace or Joy to their lives. Thousands pay tribute to Balladeer Vladimir Vysotsky on the anniversary of his death july 25. 1980. In the same cemetery the grave of poet Sergei Yesenin is always festooned with Flowers. Boris Pasternak s resting place at the Village of per Edelkind. West of Moscow daily attracts admirers who sit by the grave Reading Pasternak s poems or simply staring wistfully. The Graves of Many humbler russians boast at least a photograph of the deceased on a Ceramic disk. And some carry sentiments composed by loved ones such As the poem seen on the Gravestone of a woman who died at age 19 your Lite Short and wonderful in it there were Hopes loves and dreams everything was lost forever without return leaving us suffering and troubled eternally with you. The plot around her grave was a Model of the kind of care the russians lavish on their cemeteries a neatness partly attributable to the russian love of order in Small things. Families have a stake in preserving plots because like most soviet commodities cemetery space is at a Premium. Only those who maintain Graves Are allowed to Bury More dead in the plot and burial is preferred to cremation the More common method. A woman in Moscow s Patni Skoye cemetery explained that she tended the grave of a Mere acquaintance who died in 1938 because it s necessary for the cemetery to be in i cannot allow the grave of anybody i knew to look bad she said. There must be soviet leadership by Andrew Rosenthal associated press Mikhail Gorbachev s interview with time shows How a modernized Kremlin publicity machine has replaced cold War shoe banging with Well timed proposals affable spokesmen and a keen understanding of the Western press. Evolved Over the past 2v? years this new strategy has scored successes with Western Media and Public opinion. It has let the Kremlin maintain a propaganda offensive capture headlines and appear flexible without any fundamental policy changes. The interview with visiting editors of the . News Magazine did not reveal any policy shifts. But Gorbachev s first interview with Western journalists gave him a new forum for promoting Moscow s View that us soviet relations Are worsening. It also was another Chance to show off the vigor. Relative youth and professional Demeanour that form the image Gorbachev has cultivated since becoming communist party Leader in March. The soviet Public relations drive pursues some old alms to paint the United states As the aggressor and the soviet Union As the peacekeeper and the Long sought after goal of souring Western Europe on nato. Its focus is the . Strategic defense initiative or ski commonly known As Star and the .-soviet Summit planned for Geneva this november. The Battle for world Public opinion is being contested very aggressively by the soviet Union and the United states said a senior West european Diplomat. Ultimately the Side that proves itself most Clever will Page 14 the stars and stripes the soviets have always had one advantage in this Battle they Don t have to worry about Domestic Public opinion. But for years they be had Little apparent Success in drumming up Western support. In 1983. A heavy soviet propaganda Campaign failed to halt deployment of . Built nuclear missiles in Western Europe. The Way the soviet Union now approaches Mere sceptical and Well informed foreign audiences departs radically from past practice. It s a world removed from performances like Nikita Khrushchev s famed shoe banging outburst in the United nations in 1960, an embarrassing incident that dealt a blow to Kremlin Public relations. Many people associate changes in Kremlin Public relations with Gorbachev who has displayed a Mastery of publicity techniques unsurpassed in soviet history. But the Effort has in tact been evolving since the death of Leonid i. Brezhnev in november 1982. Brezhnev s successor the late Yuri v. Andropov began the publicity offensive against Star wars in August 1983 by telling nine . Senators the soviets wanted a ban on space weapons research. It also was Andropov who invited american schoolgirl Samantha Smith to the soviet Union to promote peace a move that won wide coverage in the Western press in the summer of 1983. In the summer of 1984, the soviets began using an old Public relations tool the press briefing featuring regular appearances by foreign ministry press spokesman Vladimir Lomeiko. Reporters packed the urbane Lomeiko s nearly weekly briefings to hear the Kremlin s View of arms control and other subjects. He made headlines by announcing the Start of .-soviet arms talks in Geneva and the planned Summit Between Gorbachev and . President Ronald Reagan for most soviets visiting the Grain of Davtd enet pc in november. Gorbachev made his first major arms control statement on easter sunday taking advantage of protest marches Irr Western Europe to say the soviets were freezing medium Range missile deployment until november. This put pressure on the United states and on the Netherlands which said it would decide in november whether to deploy . Missiles. Gorbachev s statement came two Days before a visit by dutch foreign minister Hans Van Den Broek. In june. Gorbachev removed the aging foreign minister Andrei a. Gromyko and replaced him with party apparatchiks Eduard a. Shevardnadze. He then sent Shevardnadze to Helsinki to meet Western diplomats and reporters at the 10th anniversary of the european Security accords. Although he Speaks no foreign language Sheva Dnada impressed Western journalists with his smooth Demeanour. He chatted with Moscow based correspondents at cocktail parties and had Lomeiko give news Conle Renot to compete with american of the record briefings. The soviets appeared to come out ahead in another Public relations flurry just before the Helsinki meetings. A on the same Day Gorbachev announced a Tyve Mottl moratorium on nuclear tests while Reagan invited the soviets to Send an observer to the next test explosion in to Nevada. Reagan s invitation seemed to be lost in the my of press reports and commentary Over Gorbachev announcement. The soviets have since linked testing � t the arms talks and the . Response to the upcoming to. Summit. As the meeting in Geneva approaches the Kremlin publicity machine is sure to swing into High gear in an attempt to put Reagan on the defensive. Sunday. A
