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THE SPIRIT OF
SURVIVAL DUR 16’31” BELL RINGER STARTS PULLING BELLS IN CHURCH TOWER PAN THROUGH BELL TOWER FROM CHURCH TO FACTORY (MAP) BELLS UNDER MAP TRAM PULLS UP – PEOPLE CLIMB IN BEGGARS ON STEP LOOKING BACK AT CHURCHES FACTORY ELIZAVETA WORKING B/W ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE OF EARLY FACTORY SOVIET WORKERS’ SONG EX ARCHIVAL FILM ELIZAVETA AT WORK SUITS WALKING INTO OFFICE NIKOLAI DIRECTOR KIDS SKATING PAST APARTMENT BUILDING CUT TO INTERIOR OF APARTMENT (ERIC) (ELIZAVETA) (ALLA) (ELIZAVETA) (ERIC) CHOIR SINGING IN LARGE THEATRE TOWN CENTRE HOSPITAL INTERIOR DOCTOR EXAMINING PATIENTS DOCTOR USING A CAT SCAN DOCTOR WITH OTHER PATIENTS (DOCTOR) (ERIC) (DOCTOR) MUSIC HORSE-DRAWN TROIKA RIDES PAST ON SNOW SEQUENCE OF PEOPLE PLAYING ON SNOW AND ICE DANCING SEQUENCE – GIRLS IN HISTORIC COSTUME MUSIC EX CASSETTE TAPE IN BOX WITH TAPES MUSIC ENDS ON SHOT OF OLGA AND IRINA. OLGA IS THE SHORT ONE WITH BLONDE HAIR. OLGA AND IRNA ENTER MCDONALDS GIRLS AT COUNTER C/U TRAY WITH HAPPY MEAL OLGA ON THE LEFT, IRINA ON THE RIGHT HOCKEY TRAINING COACH HOCKEY TRAINING GOVERNOR JOURNALIST EDITING STORY ON ICE PALACE JOURNALISTS GIVING INSTRUCTIONS TO EDITOR JOURNALIST PRESENTER INTRODUCING NEWS IN BAD STUDIO BEGINNING OF NEW PROGRAM REPORT ON LATE PENSIONS YAROSLAVL FACTORIES TYRE FACTORY DIRECTOR (ELIZAVETA) (ERIC) (ELIZAVETA) (ERIC) (ALLA) CHURCH SERVICE |
On a cold but bright Sunday morning, the chimes of 17th century bells peel across an ancient city. Yaroslavl is a testament to Russian strength and endurance. For a thousand years it has survived a turbulent and sometimes agonising history. The Mongols invaded its fortress. The Bolsheviks closed its churches. And economic reformers destroyed its factories. Today, Yaroslavl is a wounded casualty of Russia’s stumbling transition from Communism. Most of its privatised businesses are ruined. Social services have almost collapsed. Many of its pensioners are reduced to begging. “But the surprising thing about this place is not how bad things have become, but how certain people are that they’ll get through these latest troubles. Yaroslavl doesn’t just embody Russia’s problems; it also shows its potential. Because in the midst of this deepest crisis, there’s a stirring of renewal.” Yaroslavl’s biggest factory should be in as dire a state as anything in Russia. But its profits have never been higher. It’s even hiring hundreds of new workers every month. Elizaveta Kurmatova has worked here for more than 30 years, X-raying tyres for quality control. For the first time since Perestroika, she no longer has fears for the future. “This year is much better, we are paid on time, at the staff meetings the director promises bigger salaries, so we are hoping for the better. We are hopeful.” That a factory like this could prosper also gives hope for the rest of Russia’s Soviet-built industry. The Yaroslavl Tyre Factory was set up in 1932 as a State-run enterprise. It prospered in the days of heavy industry, even inventing synthetic rubber. But the factory wilted as the world economy passed it by. When it was privatised, in the early 90s, it was stuck with the same rusting equipment and outmoded work practices. By last year, the factory couldn’t even afford to pay wages. It was paying its workers with tyres. “We got the tyres, then we had to sell them to get some money to live on. These were such times. Then they paid us in food.” In July, a new management team took over, headed by 32-year-old Nikolai Tonkov. “No one thought about strategic goals, staff matters or even profits. It just rolled on just like in socialist times, except there was no planning and no one was responsible for anything.” Russia’s economic meltdown could have finished the factory. Instead, it helped to save it. As the national currency… the rouble… collapsed, the tyres were suddenly a quarter the cost of their imported competition. By modernising their marketing and work practices, the management was able to take advantage of this newfound competitiveness. “The attitude to Russian produced goods has changed. They may be of a lower quality, but they are much cheaper and have begun selling much better.” Elizaveta can’t afford any luxuries. But now she’s paid in robles, not tyres, she CAN throw together some traditional hospitality. Elizaveta invited us to her apartment for a meal of blinis and sweets with her 81-year-old mother, Alla Dvoretskaya. Her wage sees her mother through those months when the pension never arrives. The tyre factory has been central to the family’s life since it opened 67 years before. You worked at the factory for 35 years? “My mother worked for 35 years, and I for 37.” “She has already beaten me.” “I’ve got ahead.” “72 years altogether.” Alla looks back on those Soviet years as a golden time. “Yes it was like a family, because at work we really felt like in a close-knit collective, where people help each other.” Alla/she still belongs to the factory’s veteran choir. Every so often they get together to entertain other factory veterans and to reminisce. The years of reform have severely strained the close bonds that communities like this once enjoyed. Factories were always much more than places where people worked. “Under the Soviet system a factory could also be where your kids went to school, where your family went to the doctor. It could even run the cinema where you went for entertainment. And when a factory died, everything that wound a community together went as well.” Today, Yaroslavl is trying to revive those links. The tyre factory no longer pays for a school and kindergarten it once ran. But now it’s profitable, it does help the old factory hospital. The hospital treats the factory’s five thousand staff and families for free. The State is supposed to provide half the funding, but rarely does. Only the factory subsidy keeps the staff paid and the hospital stocked with medicine. The radiologist, Yevgenia Orlova, can now use hi-tech equipment unheard of in most Russian hospitals. “We have film and we have medicine for intravenous injections, this is something that no one else has these days, and we have it. Of course we have it thanks to the factory, we have a very good administration and we get a huge help from the tyre factory.” But the cold principles of the market apply. Yevgenia has nine years of training and 30 years experience, and she’s paid less than a factory cleaner. “At times we get more, but then they stop raising the salaries and we get less. But in general we keep living and the hospital can still treat the patients, this is what matters.” “In your opinion, will things get better or worse?” “I’m an optimist by nature. It will get better eventually. The question is when. I’d like to think it will be sooner rather than later. So that we can live a little bit.” Most people in Yaroslavl gave up any hope of being rich a long time ago. The happiness that can be found here comes from family, friends and the dependable rhythm of seasons. Many Russians feel lost and humiliated by their country’s descent from a superpower to a developing nation. But in Yaroslavl, there’s a growing national pride in the their more distant past. Yaroslavl’s folk dancing ensemble is now rehearsing for summer, when the Volga River thaws bringing boatloads of tourists. The ensemble belongs to the Yaroslavl Railway, but it’s their commercial concerts that pay the staff’s wages and help renovate the theatre. For the dancers, it’s a labour of love. Even two of the company’s stars, Olga Petrina and Irina Shagina, don’t get paid for performing. They survive on their day jobs. And in modern Russia, that’s a daunting challenge. We met Olga and Irina on Saturday morning at Yaroslavl’s only fast food outlet. It was a rare treat. Olga, on the left, earns 700 roubles a month as a full-time teacher… the equivalent of 35 US dollars. Irina works for the Department of Labour, earning even less. The meal cost more than a tenth of their monthly wage. But they’re not complaining. Expectations here are brutally realistic. (IRINA) Young people are always in a good mood and financial problems are always secondary. They have their own ideas, they study, they have hobbies, there are many musical companies in town, so it keeps young people busy.” (OLGA) “We have many dance companies in town, more than any other town, there are many sports clubs too.” It’s Saturday afternoon and the junior hockey team is gearing up for a big match. The senior team… the Torpedos… shot to the top of the national league two years ago. Coach Sergei Konevsky is looking forward to more success. “The best boys from all over Russia are invited to study here. And we have very good coaches too. I think out future is bright.” But some believe the city’s sporting obsession could be its costliest mistake. The Governor has taken a leaf from Tsarist history and ordered the construction of a palace. It’s going to be called the Ice Palace… Yaroslavl is spending far more on its construction than it will spend on the poor and homeless. “I don’t know what you call expensive. Its total cost is 50 million US dollars and it will house 9,000 spectators. It’s a concert and sport complex, not just an Ice Palace. For the first time we’ll have such a commercial enterprise where everything will be making money.” Elvira Mazhennaya, a local journalist who’s been covering the construction, disagrees. She believes the Governor is indulging in the new, national past time… squandering other peoples’ money. “If you imagine a family that has no money to feed the elderly or buy fruit for the kids and they buy an expensive toy or car… a BMW or a Volvo… people will say that they are mad. In reality the city and the region is just like this family.” Russia has been let down badly by its post-Communism rulers. Thanks to them, most news is still bad. Every week City Television reports on unpaid wages, late pensions and political bickering. “Two months… this is how much later our pensions are paid in our region. Now the November pensions are being paid, and as soon as another 9 million roubles are found, the December pensions will start to be paid.” Money that could have revived Russia’s industry or at least cushioned the impact of change has been wasted or simply stolen. Historic opportunities have been missed, perhaps for good. But in towns like Yaroslavl, private citizens might just succeed where Governments have failed. Instead of shipping its money offshore, the tyre factory is spending millions on modernising its equipment. In the long term it will compete on more than a falling rouble. “In the future we will buy world class equipment to produce tyres with metal cord base and they will not be any worse than those made by Pirelli, Nokia and others.” Despite the gloom, many still feel hope. Having endured so much in the past, they’re confident that one day they’ll have a future. “We hope for the better, that we’ll be paid, that we’ll get good money, we’ll work, raise children and grandchildren and have some rest too.” “Do you think all will be well?” “I want to hope so, I don't want to think about bad things.” “Alla Sergeevna, what do you think about the future, are you an optimist?” “I don't have much future left, but I want my children to live well, this is my hope. I am very glad that they have a job and stand firmly on their feet, that makes me feel good.” SINGING At the end of another week, Yaroslavl’s Christians gather to seek solace in faith and to give thanks for blessings. If Russia is to revive, it will most likely be through ordinary people and their small, but determined struggles. Their hope and strength are as good as any reason to believe in Russia’s future. Yaroslavl may be battered. But it’s not beaten yet. |