In Response to "Army's Sway Yet to Be Seen," by Pavel Felgenhauer, Dec. 21.





Editor,


Pavel Felgenhauer's column was packed with interesting insights, but did not point out the current dominance of the Defense Ministry in Russian foreign policy. True, President Yeltsin has not allowed Defense Minister Pavel Grachev to again use force against Dzhokhar Dudayev in Chechnya. But, since NATO's bombing of the Serbs brought Bosnia to the forefront and crystallized pre-election criticism of Russia's "partnership with the West," it has been Grachev, and not Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, who has been globe-trotting.


If one uses Mr. Felgenhauer's numbers and concludes that the military delivered even 4 million votes, then Our Home Is Russia owes more than half of its 10 percent share of the vote to Grachev -- and might not have surpassed the 5 percent barrier without it. Certainly, this gives the defense minister considerable clout and helps him retain his post in the face of opposition criticism.


That the military prefers to influence the helmsman rather than take control itself is a reflection of its relationship with the Communist Party in the time of the Soviet Union. As the author points out, this may change only if stability in Russia is lost because of a paralyzed constitutional government. One wonders what it would have done in October 1993 if Yeltsin himself had not forced a resolution of his deadlock with the Supreme Soviet.





Darrell Stanaford


Visiting Researcher


Institute for World Economy


and International Relations


Russian Academy of Sciences


Language Lessons


In response to "Today's English Lesson: 'Name That Bureaucrat,'" by Robert Coalson, Nov. 28 and "Crime and Recompense" by Igor Yarkevich, Dec. 20.





Editor,


Bureaucratic textbooks naturally can be a serious hindrance for students of a foreign language. But it is not only a question of how boring they usually are.


Language is a system of sounds that not only conveys ideas but also seems to be a kind of music. Languages cannot be learned in the same way as historical facts are learned but must be felt. People often do not know many words of their mother tongue, but they nonetheless can sense their meanings.


Thus, it seems that teachers and textbooks should help students feel the music of the language they want to master. It would also seem that fairy tales can be useful for language students. Listening to Russian folk tales and byliny, (epic poems) or ballads recorded by good Russian actors would be an excellent means for foreign students to learn about the Russian soul and language.


There is in Russia another kind of language which also has certain musical qualities. The Russian word "blatnoy" is one that has hardly any equivalents in most other languages. The Ozhegov dictionary of the Russian language defines it as the argot of thieves.


But the term actually embraces not only language but many other aspects of human life and activity such as world outlook, feelings, tastes, manners of speaking and behavior, even music and art. In the '60s and '70s songs called blatnye were popular among young people. They were not purely Russian but had some of Odessa's international overtones.


Those who shared this blatnoy culture were not necessarily criminals; they could be quite decent people and even intellectuals. But their adopted culture was that of thieves and criminals. It was, perhaps, a kind of protest against the officially prescribed values.


This tribute to criminals, however, could not but lead to some form of lawlessness. Many of the consequences of this culture seem to be emerging today. Of course the wave of criminality may also be connected to a certain vogue for wicked and immoral things, the weakness or absence of religious feelings and the lack of taste for all that is genuinely noble, lofty and beautiful in the modern world.


It would thus seem that one way of solving the problem of crime is to pay more attention to culture and support those who work toward raising it.





Karren George Danielyants


Moscow