Hi Everett!
I`m one of those students who tried to make you understand the beauties of socialism and communism (I`m Pavel Trooshin). 

I`ve visited your site and I think that your goal is very noble. So i decided to send you a ZIP`ed pic - one of the symbols of communism, no need to thank me  :-))
GOOD LUCK AND HAVE A NICE TRIP!
 

Hi Everett!
I apologize for not replying for such a long time, I had problems with an access to i-net.  I want to thank you for sending me a pic of my schoolmates. 

My teacher told me that you wanted me to write some kind of an essay, can you please send me a letter with details?

About Chechnya: I think its horrible that we have to sacrifice our soldiers` lives and the lives of our civilians (chechens are russians too), but this is the price we have to pay if we want to clean our country from terrorists.  BTW, here is another pic: "Soviet Zone"

Pavel Trooshin

First of all I want to say that any war, no matter what it`s aims are, is a tragedy for both sides.  But sometimes wars become inevitable because of the stupidity and self-assurance of the world leaders.

Chechnya has been causing problems for the Russian Federation for a very long time: the chechens have been kidnapping russian people, stealing cattle, killing civilians (even preachers!).  The russian government sent troops to the villages which were situated near the border of Chechnya to protect our people from the terrorists.  In 1999 the chechen bandits invaded one of the russian republics - Dagestan.  At first their leaders proclaimed that they were going to create a new country on the territory of  Dagestan, but soon russian troops counter-attacked the chechens, who fled back to Chechnya. I supported our government when it decided to send troops into Chechnya to get rid of the terrorists.

Right now there are serious fights for Grozny (the capital of Chechnya) going on. It's hard to say whether we`re winning or not because both sides say that they`ve practically defeated the enemy and that the war will be over soon. I hope that we`ll be able to free Chechnya soon because the losses are getting bigger and bigger with each day, and civilians are suffering too, because the terrorists sometime use them as a shield. But russian troops are not at their best too: several soldiers stole a tank and started firing at people in the middle of a peaceful village.

International relations are worsening all the time: some countries demand that we stop the war and start the peace-talks, but they can't name a person with whom the russian government should talk about peace, because they agree that Mashadov has no real power and that he is controlled by Raduev, Basaev and other criminals, responsible for the invasion into Dagestan. In my opinion, the leaders of other countries don't really care about the citizens` lives.  They just don't want Russia to win, because winning would allow the Russian Federation to gain respectability and power.  Most countries, which don't approve our actions are members of NATO.  In my opinion, this organization is rather hostile and a strong Russia is a threat to the growth of NATO`s influence.  The US and its allies must remember that Chechnya is a part of Russia and NATO has no right to interfere in our inner affairs.

All in all, I hope that we`ll be victorious in this war, but I also hope that the war will be over soon, because too many innocent people suffer.

By Pavel Trooshin, student of the 10th grade.
 

Essay:

I think that it is a very complicated topic to all Russian citizens. Political situation in Russia is very difficult, and 26 of March is the prominent event for all Russian families; we have to make a proper choice.

Now the acting President of Russia is Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.  Mr.Putin, a former KGB agent who is expected to win next month’s presidential elections virtually unopposed, seems in the space of only a month in power to have embarked on a much more aggressive path than his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin.

At first, I want to say that I am against Putin because he is not a man whom Russia needs.  Everything that I know about Putin makes me think he is very dangerous for my country and for the world.  He was a KGB agent, and as history shows, a president can’t  be a military leader, for instance, Andropov:  he tried to rule with the military rules and it was terrible.

I’ve said that situation is very  bad, because a terrible war is in progress and Russian soldiers, men in the full flush of their gallant youth, are dying every day. Russia tries to free Chechnya from the terrorists and here I suppose Putin  leads a right politic and he wants to finish this war, and free Chechnya from the bandits, when the West and the USA are against this war, according to their words they don’t want people to die, but they don’t care about terrorists, about houses that were exploded in Moscow by terrorists, and they can do nothing, except economic sanctions, because Russia is the Great Nuclear Power.

I think that Russia needs a violent leader, but not Putin whom has already now started heavy military ruling.  I hear that presidential Security Council passed a new Russian military doctrine, which relaxes the rules of engagement of Moscow’s nuclear forces.
From next month, when the doctrine comes into effect, the Russian head of state will be allowed to use atomic weapons in conflicts that do not necessarily threaten Russia’s territory.  I think we have to improve our armament, to pay more attention to defense, but not to pass doctrine like this.

And Putin has already now made some mistakes, as, he supported Gennady Seleznev as the head of Duma, Seleznev is the communist and I think he doesn’t suit to this post. I am inclined to think that Putin has made some awful mistakes. 

So, I think Russia doesn’t have suitable candidate for the President of Russia.
I can write some information about the most vital politics in Russia.

At first, Gennady Zuganov, leader of the Communist party.  I don’t think that we have to return to Communism it’s absurd, we have to built Democracy.  Secondly, Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the liberal Yabloko party, argues that Putin has turned a legitimate antiterrorist operation in Chechnya into a brutal war against an entire people. 
I don’t agree with him and I think that he is not right, we do everything what we can against Terrorists.  Thirdly Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the liberal-democratic LDPR party. Almost everyone would say that he is an madman, crazy, he is very nervous and only 5.5% of Russian citizens would say that he is a suitable man, but I think that it shows that Russia contains 5.5% of insanes.

So I want to iterate that Russia doesn’t have pertinent candidate for President of Russia, but anyway I am an optimist and I hope that it’ll be everything OK.

By Anton Loutsik, student of the 10th grade

Yeltzin’s announcement on the December 31,1999 was shocking not only for the foreigners but also to all people of my country.  I consider his leaving the post of the president of Russia as a kind of a New Year present to all of us. Everyone was rather tired of him- his was absolutely unable to rule the country for at least last 2 or 3 years. But still I think there was no need to leave the post; there were only several month till the new election.  And, of course, he wouldn’t be chosen again. It was good to him only from one point of view - he would be remembered not only as the first president of Russia but as the president whose government had finished with the end of the year, the century, the millennium,  because there is nothing else to remember him for-not his good deeds, of course.

From my point of view it was nothing else but simply a political game. The election campaign of the candidates should be started earlier that it was supposed to open; they are probably not ready yet, so they would get less voices they had expected and as a result it would be their complete failure. So, I guess, there is no sense in that election because it’s already had been decided earlier who would be the president by the people who are at power in this country: they do not want to loose it. 

The popularity of Putin is high now because of the war in Chechnja-people like him because of his decisive actions, they believe it would be stopped soon - so it’s absolutely the right moment for the election for him to be chosen.  The people are forced to choose the ‘right’ candidate.  I believe that if you are forced to do something it wouldn’t, for sure, bring you any good, and besides it is a breach of the rights of every citizen.  We shouldn’t vote for him simply from that point of view.  The political and economical situation in the country will become even worse than it is now.

But actually such things do not bother me. I am not keen on politics, for I don’t see how it influences my life.  My life (and probably the life of every person in Russia) won’t change, no matter who’ll become the president.  I believe people in Russia are used to constant changing of government, so it plays a small role in their lives.

By Irina Troitskaya, the student of the 10th grade