Letters, Jun. 17, 1996

BACK TO THE U.S.S.R.?

Your special report on the upcoming election [RUSSIA '96, May 27] suggests that Russian voters face a return to Gulags, secret police and totalitarian control over every aspect of life. This sounds more like election propaganda than informed analysis. Sure, it seems ominous that a Communist candidate like Gennadi Zyuganov is doing well with the voters, but having gone through their own Great Depression, many Russians just want to throw the rascals out of office and try something different. Americans are not well served by stories that try to reduce the complexities of Russian politics to good guys vs. bad guys. President Boris Yeltsin has used up nearly all the goodwill he once deserved. It is high time that serious consideration be given to alternatives to him. DAVID JOHNSON, Research Director Center for Defense Information Washington Via E-mail

Russia in its 1,000-year history has never had true democracy. It is not possible to transform a society that is used to being governed by dictators into a U.S.-type democracy in one generation. Russians needed help on their way to achieving this, and they never got it. There were very few financial investments that could show Russians that despite the economic hardship, their country was changing. So it is not strange that Russians want to turn back the clock. Most people are fighting for their economic survival. That is why the ex-Communists are getting more power and the Clinton Administration's efforts to support Yeltsin may be too late. ANDRE KAMINSKI Cape Town, South Africa Via E-mail

TIME, like most Western media, still buys the myth that Yeltsin is a reformer and a democrat. But face it, he was never the initiator of democratic reforms in Russia. On the contrary, he relies heavily on the old apparatus. Yeltsin made a party career under Leonid Brezhnev, attempted a power grab in a military coup and finally was able to establish himself as a semi-dictator. Since then he has started a war with Chechnya and dismissed all its critics. Yeltsin is responsible for the continued killing of thousands of civilians, including children. Is this the democrat the West wants? A shift of power to any other candidate would at least add credibility to the democratic mechanism. The worst thing the West can do is give Yeltsin the green light to rig the elections or ignore them. OLLI LAGERSPETZ Swansea, Wales

Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko will have proved insightful should Russians vote for Communists in the election. He wrote, "Those who are conceived in a cage yearn for a cage." STEVE HARHAJ New Brighton, Minnesota

The Russia of today is in a situation similar to that of the Russia of 1861, when the serfs were emancipated. Even though they had gained their freedom, their living conditions were far worse than those they had experienced as serfs. And for many of today's Russians, living conditions have become worse since the fall of communism. So, many Russians want to return to communism. Unused to freedom, they don't know how to exercise it responsibly. Russia's choices in this election offer little grounds for optimism. However, reverting to communism would be a major setback for Russia's citizens. This is a critical election. PAUL FRANCIS HEALY III Sudbury, Massachusetts