[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 10 (Wednesday, February 11, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              ALEXANDER OGORODNIKOV AND CHARITY IN MOSCOW

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 11, 1998

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, recently I visited Moscow with 
my colleagues Mr. Hall of Ohio and Mr. Wolf of Virginia, along with the 
distinguished Librarian of Congress and specialist on Russia, Dr. James 
Billington. We were there as part of an international delegation 
invited to discuss with Russian officials the new Russian law on 
freedom of conscience and religious organizations. This trip was very 
fruitful and I believe will have played a role in having some of the 
most pernicious elements of that regrettable legislation removed or 
alleviated.
  During our stay in Moscow, the U.S. Embassy kindly arranged a meeting 
for us with Alexander Ogorodnikov, a former Soviet political prisoner 
whom I first met in 1988. Until recently, he had operated a soup 
kitchen and shelter for endangered young women in Moscow. I say 
``recently'' because just before our arrival, the soup kitchen was 
closed down by order of city officials. The shelter is still open, 
although it has been subjected to periodic police raids since its 
opening.
  Mr. Ogorodnikov opened his soup kitchen on Khoroshevskoe Shosse in 
February 1991, the first such privately funded charitable institution 
in the former Soviet Union. Among the financial contributors were 
religious organizations in the United States, Germany, France, and the 
Netherlands. The soup kitchen fed pensioners, homeless persons, former 
incarcerees, refugees, people from other neighborhoods, basically most 
anyone who needed a meal. According to Mr. Ogorodnikov, an average of 
450 to 550 persons visited the soup kitchen every day as of 1997.
  Unfortunately, as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished--
especially in today's Russia. Neighborhood officials and the Moscow 
city property authorities have been leveling (in Mr. Ogorodnikov's 
words) ``unjustified financial claims'' against the soup kitchen. The 
case has gone to court and has still not been resolved.
  Nevertheless, on the night of November 13, 1997, a group of unknown 
persons showed up when none of the soup kitchen personnel were present 
and seized the premises. On the next day, when soup kitchen personnel 
arrived for work, they were not permitted to enter. The new occupants 
announced that ``repairs had been initiated.'' Mr. Ogorodnikov was not 
even allowed to retrieve his equipment or the foodstuffs that had been 
stored at the soup kitchen.
  On January 15, I visited the soup kitchen, or rather what was left of 
it, with Mr. Ogorodnikov. Repair work on the building was being done, 
but it appeared as if the soup kitchen had never existed. All Mr. 
Ogorodnikov's kitchen equipment and his foodstuffs had disappeared. We 
asked for the foreman of the operation and, after a while, he showed 
up. I don't think he was glad to see us. The foreman informed Mr. 
Ogorodnikov that his equipment had been removed and stored elsewhere in 
the city, but he refused to say where.
  Mr. Ogorodnikov was shown a back room where someone had stashed two 
of the icons that had been on the soup kitchen wall, and Mr. 
Ogorodnikov was required to sign for the icons before he could remove 
them for safe keeping, ``so there won't be any claims.'' Of course, no 
one worried about claims when the food, refrigerators, freezers, 
tables, and other equipment were hauled away.
  The foreman did indicate that he would arrange to have the equipment 
delivered wherever Mr. Ogorodnikov instructed, a rather difficult 
condition, since Mr. Ogorodnikov has no other place to store his 
equipment. In the meantime, Mr. Ogorodnikov could win his case against 
his tormentors, and the court might order his foodstuffs and equipment 
returned to him. By that time, who knows what will remain?
  Mr. Speaker, ironically, the United States Government has spent 
significant amounts of taxpayers' money to assist Russia with 
macroeconomic programs, small business assistance, and humanitarian 
aid. Yet here is a Russian man who, like many of his contemporaries, 
could have gone into business for his own financial gain. Instead, he 
has devoted himself to helping the many poor and destitute among his 
countrymen. In return, local officials harass him, shut down his 
operation, and deprive many others of the chance to have a decent meal.
  It is a sad commentary on human nature, and bespeaks badly on the 
political leadership of a city with such great potential.

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