Very few people gathered to mark the second anniversary of the assassination of renowned Russian politician Galina Starovoitova at her grave in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. There were almost no active public servants here — just the people who had once entered politics together with Starovoitova and who now found themselves by the side of the road in new/old Russia.
Two years ago at Starovoitova’s burial there were tens of thousands of people. Planes and trains brought prominent politicians, businesspeople, people of rank and means from Moscow. During her life, most of them considered her old-fashioned, marginal, too uncompromising. But they came to her funeral as though they had never differed in their views. At her grave they promised to join hands and allow no more discord in the democratic movement.
They kept their promise as best they could. The Union of Right Forces (SPS) has become the association of most Russian democratic parties; now it plans to change into a rightist liberal party and form an alliance with Yabloko. SPS entered parliament under slogans of support for Vladimir Putin in the full splendor of the Chechnya campaign. The leader of Union, former Premier Sergei Kiriyenko, became presidential representative in one of the newly-created federal districts. One can hardly see in such tame liberals any evidence of Starovoitova’s dream of creating a powerful democratic movement coming true. It was precisely she who was always against this kind of futile marking time in politics, and because of that she resigned her position of presidential advisor, did not join Gaidar’s Russia’s Choice, and tried to go her own way instead. However, the small number to assemble at her grave does not mean that her former comrades-in-arms understand how much their way differs from Starovoitova’s political principles.
It is as simple as that—they were present at a more important event, the 75th birthday of the great ballerina Maya Plisetskaya at the Bolshoi Theater. Why, the President himself was there!
Incidentally, the life and creative development of Plisetskaya is a striking example of the same unwillingness to compromise and faith in the rightness of one’s choice that marked the Starovoitova’s life. Those who do not realize this will never ascend the stage—theatrical, political, or any other.
They will have to be content with seats in the balcony.
