Dear Friends of Beauty, Truth and Goodness,
We knew Galina Starovoitova. She was a member of
our Family Federation for World Peace and Unification,
and was blessed as a couple being newly married at RFK
stadium in Washington, DC, on November 29, 1998, just
one year ago today. We love her and miss her. She is a
righteous lady, a champion, and a martyr of Russia. She
was our best contact, and was victimized by the evil in
this society. However, with her passage, tens of
thousands of more burning, righteous champions will
rise up in her place and in her spirit and the spirit of our
True Parents to take up her fight and defeat the mafia,
the injustice, and the communism threatening Russia
at its core. Russia may look bad to the world, but I tell
you that there are thousands who are ready to stand
up for God and mankind, for their country, their people,
and for goodness. We pray for her and bless her soul.
Love, William Stoertz
Moscow
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NW RUSSIA NEWSLETTER #35; Published 1998.11.25.
IN THIS ISSUE WE MOURN OUR SISTER GALINA STAROVOITOVA
--------------------------------------------
WE MOURN THE PASSING OF OUR SISTER GALINA
STAROVOITOVA: I received a phone call from a foreign
representative early the morning after the murder of Galina
Staravoitova. He had heard it on BBC. I did not know who she
was. Later that evening I received a call from one of my
Russian friends, a member of CARP, who was also upset by
the news. Here is what I learned about this woman.
She was a very progressive politician, speaking up for
democracy and development of the nation, against the
nationalists, Communists and reactionaries who want to take the
nation backwards, to isolate Russia from the west, and to hurt
the economic development of the nation with crude state
socialism. She spoke up for freedom of conscience. She began
her career speaking up for the rights of minorities in the USSR.
I think it also significant in our time the she is a woman. In this
political world which has created the history of evil and
suffering for humankind, women have been the main preservers
of what little heart remains to us and allows ourselves to think
of ourselves as human, rather than sub-animal--which is too
often the way we act. Galina Starovoitova's murder is an
example of sub-animal action. Now with the Completed
Testament Age it is the Women's Era, and it is women's age,
time for women to assume authority and show heart. Galina
was a good example of the best in political leadership.
I thought to myself how special this woman is and how she is
so missed by her people. She represented St Petersburg in the
Duma as I understand it. She was a person of heart in the
heartless world of Russian politics.
In the past before True Parents created the foundation for the
Completed Testament Age, many good people were killed and
evil seemed to walk victoriously over all the earth. That is
changed now and when one of God's people of heart is struck
down, then 10,000 will rise up in her place. That is what we
must do for our nation. If we feel the loss of Galina
Staravoitova, if we grieve, let us not grieve for her but for the
whole nation, and let us turn our grief into a strong resolve and
determination to take her place. Let's witness, teach, fundraise,
teach Pure Love, do charity and make a gather up the righteous
Russians who will make the society safe for leaders of heart to
heal our nation.
There is a part of her story which you couldn't know. I also
didn't know until the foreign representative told me. Galina S
and her husband were a Blessed couple. She and her husband
married about a year ago. She attended the Blessing ceremony
in America. She brought many of her American friends to RFK
Stadium. They did not superficially drink the cup of love but
drank with deep understanding the Holy Wine and were
exceedingly grateful to True Parents for their Blessing.
When we attended her funeral tens of thousands waited in long
lines out in the cold for the chance to walk by her casket and
say good-bye. Mrs Tallakson wept uncontrollably, though she
did not know Galina and did not understand the political system
in which she labored with great heart and courage. My wife
said only, "I know God really loves this woman."
The ideas of True Parents are very appealing to the righteous
educators and politicians, writers and academics of our land
because in True Parents' teaching they see the healing of their
nation and they recognize the ideas which their nation
absolutely cannot live without. They have hope which is far
stronger than any resentful lies of Satan's last gasps against
True Parents.
We know that if a politician speaks in favor of Sun Myung
Moon they risk being crucified by the media--killed by words.
So we do no ask politician to do that. Galina Staravoitova
wanted to defend Father Moon anyway. That is the kind of
person she is. She is iron-will righteous. She made her career
out of defending people's rights and freedom of conscience. A
few months ago in Berlin she attended an internal conference on
Religious Freedom and Freedom of Conscience. She is well
known in the west as a champion of democracy--partially
because she speaks good English--she is often a guest on BBC.
She spoke very righteously in Berlin in the defense of and
promotion of the Unification Movement of Dr Sun Myung
Moon.
So let's pray for our sister Galina. A true Russian patriot. A
righteous person. A true woman. A true politician. A woman of
heart in the political world devoid of mercy. And let's prepare
ourselves to take her place. We cannot let evil, much less blatant
evil, defeat us. We grieve for our children if we do not stand in
Galina's place.
--------------------------------
LEADING LIBERAL DEPUTY STAROVOITOVA
MURDERED: (RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY,
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2,
No. 226, Part I, 23 November 1998): Though somewhat inured
to violence, Russia's political elite responded with shock to the
murder of State Duma deputy and co-chair of the Democratic
Russia party Galina Starovoitova, who was slain by gunmen in
her St. Petersburg apartment late on 20 November. Her press
secretary, Ruslan Linkov, was critically injured in the attack.
Starovoitova, 52, had been a democracy activist both before and
after the breakup of the Soviet Union. She served as one of
Yeltsin's advisers on nationalities policies and more recently led
efforts to censure Duma deputy Albert Makashov for his anti-
Semitic remarks. President Yeltsin expressed "shock and
profound anger" at the killing, calling her "one of the brightest
figures in Russian politics." Historian Dmitrii Likachev said her
killing seems to signal the "outburst of a new Red Terror" (see
also "End Note" below). JAC
--------------------------------
. . . AFTER RECEIVING DEATH THREATS. Linkov, a
former journalist, reportedly had compiled a report on contract
killings traceable to Duma Speaker Seleznev and Communist
Party leader Gennadii Zyuganov, Viktor Krivulin, head of the
St. Petersburg branch of Democratic Russia told reporters on 21
November. Starovoitova intended to present the report at the
next Duma session, he claimed. Starovoitova had been receiving
death threats in recent months over the reports published in
"Severnaya stolitsa" about corruption among high-placed
officials in the federal and St. Petersburg government, Duma
deputy Ludmila Narusova told Interfax on 21 November.
Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin told reporters that there is no
evidence linking Seleznev to the killing, and Federal Security
Service chief Vladimir Putin said that he has no reason to
believe the killing was a "political assassination." In October, a
close aide to Seleznev was shot in St. Petersburg and critically
injured (see "RFE/RL Newsline, 19 October 1998). JAC
--------------------------------
THE DEATH OF A DEMOCRAT (by Paul Goble, Radio Free
Europe)
The brutal murder of State Duma deputy Galina Starovoitova
has deprived Russia of its most consistent defender of
democracy, human rights, and interethnic cooperation.
But more than that, her death on 20 November in St. Petersburg
threatens the possibilities of debate in Russia's still fragile
democracy, to the same extent that the August 1998 devaluation
of the ruble undermined the country's economy.
And that threat explains both the vehemence of the reaction of
Russian political leaders and Starovoitova's recent anticipation
of her own fate and her understanding of the likelihood that
those who had made the democratic revolution might soon be
cast aside.
In the decade before her death, at the age of 52, Starovoitova
went from being an ethnographer to being a leader of the
democratic movement in Moscow. In both capacities, she was
never afraid to criticize others who called themselves democrats
if they failed to defend democratic principles.
Earlier than almost anyone else, Starovoitova spoke out in
defense of the rights of the Karabakh Armenians, a position that
led to her 1988 election to the USSR Supreme Soviet from
Yerevan and membership in that body's Human Rights
Committee.
And even before the Soviet Union collapsed, she showed both
her courage and commitment: In 1990, she won a libel suit
against the Communist newspaper "Pravda," which had
accused her of urging extraconstitutional means to change the
government. But her concern for these human rights and
constitutional rules was not, as some thought at the time, merely
a reflection of her ethnographic interests. Instead, it arose from
her deeply held belief that every individual and every group has
certain rights that must be protected.
In 1991-1992, she combined her passion for both ethnography
and democracy by serving as President Boris Yeltsin's senior
adviser on nationality issues and as co-president of the
Democratic Russia Party. And at that time, she also worked
closely with reformers like Yegor Gaidar, Anatoly Chubais,
and Anatoly Sobchak.
But her relations with all of these leaders, as well as others
were often stormy, precisely because of her uncompromising
commitment to principle. She was among the most outspoken
critics of Yeltsin's ill-fated war against Chechnya. She
condemned Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's decision to expel "persons
of Caucasian nationality" from the Russian capital. And most
recently, she denounced her colleagues in the Duma and some
members of the Russian government for failing to take a
tougher line against the vicious anti-Semitic remarks and
activities of Albert Makashov and other Russian nationalists.
But perhaps because of her willingness to break with allies
when they backed away from their principles, Starovoitova had
greater moral than political success. She failed in her bid to run
for president in 1996, supposedly for "technical reasons," but
more probably because Yeltsin forces did not want her to draw
off any reformist votes they felt they needed to defeat
communist challenger Gennadiy Zyuganov. At the time of her
murder, Starovoitova was in St. Petersburg to take part in the
Northern Capital political movement, a group she hoped to lead
in a liberal challenge to that region's communist governor,
Vladimir Yakovlev, in upcoming elections there.
Reaction to Starovoitova's death was swift and angry. Her
former ally Gaidar, speaking for many who had worked with
her, said that Starovoitova had "paid with her life" to advance
the cause of democracy in Russia. She believed that "democracy
in Russia is possible," Gaidar added, arguing that while this
belief might seem "trivial" to some, her death shows that it "still
needs to be demonstrated."
In a statement, Yeltsin professed himself to be "deeply
outraged" by her murder. He pledged that the killers would be
brought to justice because "the shots that have interrupted her
life have wounded every Russian for whom democratic ideas
are dear."
The Russian president dispatched his interior minister, Sergei
Stepashin, to St. Petersburg to investigate Starovoitova's
murder. And Stepashin indicated that her death would be
investigated under the country's terrorism statute.
But as so often in her short but brilliant life, Starovoitova
herself appears to have described what her murder--the sixth of
a Duma deputy since 1993--means.
In an interview on Ekho Moskvy a few days before her death,
she gave what many are certain to see as her last testament to
the country, people, and principles about which she cared most.
"Any revolution inevitably devours its own children,"
Starovoitova said. "We, the democrats, should recognize that
this is true even of our peaceful one. But now we want to do
what we can to save the gains of our revolution from being
erased--the freedom to vote, the parliamentary system, freedom
of expression, and freedom of the press."
THOSE WHO KILLED HER WOULD LIKE TO KILL
THOSE THINGS AS WELL. THOSE WHO REMEMBER
HER BEST WILL DO WHAT THEY CAN, NOW THAT
SHE IS GONE, TO PREVENT SUCH EFFORTS FROM
SUCCEEDING. (Copyright (c) 1998 RFE/RL, Inc. All rights
reserved.)
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