[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13695-13696]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       RUSSIAN ``PROFILES IN COURAGE'' HIGH SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, on May 31, the first edition in Russian 
of President Kennedy's famous book, ``Profiles in Courage,'' was 
published, and to mark the occasion, our Ambassador in Moscow, 
Alexander Vershbow, held a reception at the U.S. Embassy.
  As part of the occasion, the Embassy honored the winner of a 
``Profiles in Courage'' essay contest organized by the Embassy, in 
which Russian high school students were encouraged to write essays on 
political leaders who showed extraordinary political courage of the 
kind described by my brother in his book. The contest was conducted 
under the Public Diplomacy Program of the Embassy, and I commend the 
State Department and the Ambassador for this inspiring initiative.
  The author of the winning essay is Ivan Dmitriyevich Yevstafyev, a 
15-year old student in the ninth grade at the Second School Lyceum in 
Moscow. His essay, ``Genius and Villain,'' describes how Anatoly 
Chubais took on and carried out the immense responsibility for the vast 
economic reform under President Yeltsin that privatized much of the 
Russian economy during the 1990s. He knew that his actions would be 
unpopular, but he believed very deeply that the reforms served the 
national interest in moving Russia toward democracy, and as the essay 
states, he carried them out with extraordinary courage.
  The ``villain'' in the title refers to the intense controversy over 
the phase of the program that privatized the energy sector amid charges 
of corruption and insider dealing relating to the rise of the 
oligarchs--hence the essay's reference to President Yeltsin's remark, 
``It's all Chubais' fault.''
  The essay has been translated into English by the Embassy, and I find 
it extremely inspiring. I am sure President Kennedy would be proud of 
Mr. Yevstafyev and his impressive essay, and proud of the Embassy for 
reaching out to young Russians in this appealing way and encouraging 
their appreciation of the importance of political courage in pursuing 
the path to a better future for their nation.
  I believe the essay will be of interest to all our colleagues in 
Congress, and I ask unanimous consent that it may be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                           Genius and Villain

                   (By Ivan Dmitriyevich Yevstafyev)

       I would like to write about Anatoly Chubais, a politician 
     of extraordinary civic courage who was strong enough to 
     remain true to himself and stay on the road he had chosen 
     despite the pressure of circumstances. I am aware that the 
     figure I have chosen is ambiguous and sometimes unpopular. 
     ``Genius and villainy do not go together.'' This phrase has 
     been used so often that it has become commonplace. But we 
     have to admit that Chubais, together with the team of ``The 
     Young Reformers,'' is an economic genius. His villainy is 
     similar to the evil actions of a surgeon who mercilessly cuts 
     a gangrenous limb to save a patient's life.
       Chubais is not popular because of his perceived 
     ``cynicism.'' In my opinion, he just openly talks about 
     problems and complications that accompany every victory. He 
     does not promise wonders. But the ``shock therapy'' without 
     the use of anesthesia cannot be popular by definition.
       In the fall of 1991, when Yegor Gaydar wanted Chubais to 
     become the head of the Department of Privatization, the 
     future minister and deputy head of government asked, ``Do you 
     realize that, regardless of the result, people will hate me 
     for the rest of my life, because for them I will be the man 
     who sold Russia and who sold it the wrong way?'' It was a 
     rhetorical question, of course. Gaydar had no doubt that 
     Chubais would accept responsibility.
       I think that taking upon oneself the responsibility for 
     carrying out the necessary, but extremely unpopular action on 
     a national scale, and performing it efficiently and quickly, 
     demands from a politician and a person true civic courage. 
     His contemporaries are not able to appreciate the importance 
     of his actions.
       Through his privatization Chubais was not only making a 
     bourgeois revolution that was virtually bloodless, but every 
     day he made history that was ``sold'' piping hot together 
     with the state property. Under enormous pressure from his 
     opponents, Chubais managed to solve two problems of 
     privatization: he made the process irreversible, and he took 
     the property from bureaucratic hands and carried out the 
     privatization, making compromises with all concerned parties 
     to keep the society peaceful. As a result, by the middle of 
     1994, an organizational miracle occurred: the ``voucher 
     privatization'' was over. Two-thirds of property became 
     private. The time for a monetary stage had come.
       Beginning in March 1995, the system of ``shares-for-Ioans'' 
     auctions was put into effect. As a result, the state budget 
     received one billion dollars that contributed to the 
     financial stabilization to come. Thanks to the auction 
     system, big industrial enterprises received their owners. The 
     ten interceding years have shown that these owners are 
     efficient.
       ``When someone accuses us of taking the 'pearls of the 
     Russian Imperial Crown' and giving them out, we disagree,'' 
     explains Chubais. ``These so-called `pearls' were nothing--
     complete failures. Thanks to privatization, these industrial 
     ruins were turned into pearls of the new Russian market 
     economy. We helped private shareholders to become owners 
     through the legal procedures. As a result, they resurrected 
     these businesses and transformed them into active 
     enterprises.''
       Charismatic leaders are always in favor in Russia. It is 
     our mentality. Anatoly Chubais' charisma has a limited range. 
     It does not affect all people. But his team obeys him like 
     privates obey their general. You can call Chubais an 
     outstanding manipulator, but his readiness to negotiate with 
     the outraged audience proves his everyday courage. For 
     example, he won the sympathy of miners at a depth of 790 
     meters, where the striking miners agreed to meet with the 
     then deputy head of government. The story had a mellow, 
     almost fairy-tale end: privatization of coal mines, regular 
     payrolls and transformation of the mining industry into a 
     profitable one.
       His political credo: ``We survived because surviving has 
     never been our priority task. When the French Revolution 
     ended, one of its key figures was asked what he had been 
     doing during the revolution. His answer was, `I tried to 
     survive.' As for me, I never tried to survive.''
       Chubais' motto is, ``If not me, then who?'' Probably, in 
     the political history of Russia there are things no one but 
     he could do. But they have to be done--for the future of 
     Russia and for our own future. In this respect, our hero is a 
     very lonely man. As lonely as only a reformer can be--the one 
     who sets up

[[Page 13696]]

     tasks that only he can perform. The role of a personality in 
     the history of Russia has always been important. Let's not 
     disregard this. That is why a popular remark attributed to 
     Yeltsin is quite true: ``It's all Chubais' fault.'' Everybody 
     can interpret it in one's own way--positive or negative.
       In 1998, Chubais began to manage a whole empire--as CEO of 
     United Energy Systems of Russia. The initial set of key 
     problems and parameters was very Chubais-like: an industry on 
     the verge of collapse, covering an enormous geographic area, 
     whose whole system desperately needed reforms. Energy is the 
     heart of economics. Over these years, the sick heart has 
     almost healed, although at the beginning it seemed 
     impossible.
       History does not use conditional tenses, but only because 
     it is made by outstanding figures, who do not care about 
     means in order to achieve their goals and solve problems of 
     historical importance. I see my hero as a person who was 
     remodeled by history, but who also dared to recast history. 
     Several times he succeeded.
       In politics, Chubais is a man of compromise--there the end 
     often justifies the means. But for him ideology is more 
     important than political profit. Besides, he is just a brave 
     man: only a person of integrity and courage could tell 
     Vladimir Putin that he and the Russian people are wrong about 
     the issue of Stalin's anthem.
       As the head of United Energy Systems, he took upon himself 
     the role of formulating and voicing the negative reaction of 
     Russian business to the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky on 
     October 25, 2003. The clear impression was made that the 
     bosses of business used him as a ``human shield,'' as had 
     already happened in 1996 and 1998. Perhaps, that's how it 
     was. But Chubais stated that it was his ``inner decision.''
       Those who clean the Augean stables of gloomy epochs and 
     lost opportunities do not always enjoy a good reputation 
     among their contemporaries. Thirteen years ago, several 
     people sacrificed their reputations by taking responsibility 
     for changes in the country. Chubais continues to work. His 
     achievements are spread in time and therefore do not clearly 
     stand out. His goal is to turn Russia into a market 
     democracy. One criterion for evaluating Chubais is the 
     country that we have now and the one we will have in the 
     future--the country that is moving from coup d'etats to 
     guided democracy and maybe to real democracy. History is made 
     by people who eventually bring success to their country.
       Although Chubais is already in the history books, the goal 
     he set for himself has not been achieved yet. The liberal 
     Russia is being built online.

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