Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 24, 1993 TAG: 9303240200
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
YELTSIN FUTURE SAFE, RUSSIAN EDUCATOR SAYS
Valentine Pilipovski has watched the unfolding of the recent dispute between the Russian president and parliament with an optimism lacking in those less familiar with his country's politics.Pilipovski, a Russian educator currently in residence at Radford University, said he believes Yeltsin's future is safe despite a move by the Supreme Soviet to impeach him.
Russians have a tradition of backing the man in charge in the Kremlin, and the fact that Yeltsin is Russia's first democratically elected president will work to his advantage, Pilipovski said in an interview.
"The Russian people support the idea of a strong, legitimate leader who would be really in charge."
This is Pilipovski's second visit to Radford. His first was in September 1990 when, as this time, he was hosted by Radford professor Harvey Jahn.
Pilipovski will lecture tonight in the Heth Party Room on the Radford campus. His topic: "The impact of the totalitarian idea on human rights: implications for international education and global studies."
Although the Russian congress has some support among the people, it is small - at the most 20 percent, while Yeltsin is the most popular politician in Russia, Pilipovski said.
Yeltsin has called for a referendum for the Russian people to choose between his reformist policies and those of the conservative parliament, dominated by former communists. Pilipovski believes the vote will occur and Yeltsin will win it.
The Russian military, humbled by the people during the coup attempt against former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, probably will not take sides in the dispute, Pilipovski said.
Pilipovski, 47, is a senior researcher with the Russian Academy of Education and a professor at Moscow State Educational University. He is an adviser to the Russian leadership on Western educational developments and reforms, especially related to American education.
Yeltsin, like other Russian politicians, is inexperienced at real politics, and that may be part of his problem with the Russian legislature, Pilipovski said.
The president depended too much on his charismatic personality - "the old model of the father of the Russian nation" - to pull him through. He should have understood there is no united Russia, Pilipovski said.
He also erred in not disolving the conservative-dominated parliament after the 1991 coup attempt on Gorbachev, Pilipovski said. Maybe Yeltsin didn't want to be "politically rude" to the congress, which had supported his stand against the coup plotters, he said.
"He should have anticipated [parliament] would revolt against him at the earliest moment." Pilipovski said. "There are no friends in politics, only allies."
Pilipovski stressed that Yeltsin's reform policies are in the best interest of the United States. Unlike some of his opponents in the Russian congress, Yeltsin is not a fervent nationalist and wants to work peacefully with neighboring former Soviet republics, Pilipovski said.
If opponents to Yeltsin's reforms prevail, they won't be able to resurrect the old economic system but "saber rattling" will increase, Pilipovski said. Democratic and economic reforms would come to an abrupt end, he said.
The support shown Yeltsin by the Clinton administration has been appropriate and adequate, said Pilipovski, who was wearing a lapel pin of crossed U.S. and Russian flags during an interview Monday.
Clinton's willingness to go on with the summit next month and even take it to Moscow, if necessary, shows he backs the Russian leader's policies and provides Russian reformers needed moral support, the educator said.
Russians would accept any kind of help from the United States, as they did during World War II, but no one is expecting America to solve all of Russia's economic problems, Pilipovski said.
"The democratic Russia could be a very good partner for the United States," he said.
In Pilipovski's own field, democratic reforms have brought dramatic changes.
Although education and child care, which formerly were subsidized heavily, are suffering from lack of funds, there is much innovation in the Russian school systems now, he said. And schools provide a stabilizing force in Russian society.
An effort is under way to develop national standards for education. The curriculum is being stripped of its old communist ideology and new textbooks written with a more rational basis. Private schools are proliferating, supported by the church, communities and educators, themselves.