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03.03.08
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A Rural Referendum
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By Yelena Biberman
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The result of Sunday’s presidential election was never nebulous for now president-elect Dmitry Medvedev, and though the state apparatus supported him all the way with dominant coverage on state controlled media and a lack of true opposition, the rank and file voters also lined up to vote for the “obvious” choice to replace President Vladimir Putin.
Between Russia’s northern and southern capital, it seemed that the only choice was still the right choice for those with big-city dreams.
“When Moscow and St. Petersburg merge, Torzhok will become Red Square,” Torzhok’s mayor, Evgeny Ignatov, said lightheartedly.
With a population of 47,600, Torzhok is an ancient outpost dating back to 1139. The town is located about 40 miles west of Tver on the highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The day before the presidential election, Torzhok’s ornate houses, a bit worse for the wear, were bathed in early spring sunlight, and only the occasional engine howl disrupted the hum of awakening nature.
Tomorrow we vote for Medvedev
Raisa Golubeva greeted each vehicle that pulled up to Torzhok’s central bus station with a hot batch of pirozhki. “Tomorrow we will all go to vote for [Dmitry] Medvedev,” she said. She had written a personal letter to Medvedev to tell him what she wanted, a stronger Russian economy.
When the crowd of potential pirozhki buyers dissipated, Golubeva explained her position. “I read the newspapers, watched television. [Gennady] Zyuganov is okay, but [Vladimir] Zhirinovsky is a complete buffoon. If we will not have Putin, our country will crumble. We will end up in chaos and our salaries will be held up once again. Life will stop. Our country will be taken over by the West,” she said. “Now, for me, it’s all about Putin and Medvedev. I looked at how Medvedev worked, what plans he made for himself, what he was able to accomplish. We need someone young. We need a president that we don’t have to change.”
Torzhok’s charm and prime location on a major highway attracts frequent visitors like Russian servicemen. One group of army officers, who found themselves in Torzhok on the eve of the election, said their candidate was Medvedev because he stands for more of Putin’s policies.
The senior officer, Sergey Zhukov, said he was motivated to support Putin after witnessing steady improvements in the Russian army over the course of the president’s tenure. His colleague, who declined to give his name, said that while there was some progress, the picture for many in the Russian military is not as rosy as the one portrayed on television. “Still it’s better than it was under Yeltsin,” picked up Zhukov, adding, “And after Medvedev, it will be Putin again.”
“This has been pre-determined,” laughed his colleague in response.
Part of Torzhok’s charm is that most of its residents live in colorful, though noticeably aged wooden houses. Many of these houses still do not have running water. At the dusk of the day before the election, an elderly woman patiently filled two buckets with water from a public water pump. Though she was circumspect about her favorite candidate, she said that she will definitely vote. “Life has become better, more vibrant for pensioners and children. My life is better now – my pension comes on time and goes up bit by bit. Though, prices go up too,” she said.
Expressing a civic position
By sunrise on the day of the election, a fresh blanket of snow had covered the town. Before the polling stations opened at 8 a.m., two women began clearing the snow surrounding the statue of the early Bolshevik leader Sergey Kirov in Torzhok’s central park.
One of the women she will be too busy to vote, but the other, who brought her young daughter with her to work, said that she plans to vote and prefers Medvedev.
“Medvedev is most likely to increase child benefits to a livable amount. Right now, I get 150 rubles for each of my children. This is not even enough to buy diapers,” she explained. “I also still don’t get my salary on time, and I hope that Medvedev will put an end to that.”
The city’s house of culture served as one of the town’s 23 polling stations for Torzhok’s 36,000 registered voters. Two hours after the stations opened, 96 voters had cast their ballots there. Lively Russian pop music sounded from the open trunk of a car parked nearby, drawing voters the building.
An elderly woman in felt boots climbed dozens of stairs to reach the entrance and searched for the one open door to the building.
“I told my daughter to be the first one here, be the first voter so that she would be shown on television,” Nina Kudryavseva said. She asked whether Putin was running for third term because she wanted to vote for him. Kudryavseva later worked a table passing out free white, blue and red ribbons and signing voters up for a lottery.
Torzhok election committee chairman Victor Glazov described the activities designed to both attract and entertain the voters, a “discotheque and a movie showing at night for the youth,” he said. Attracting young voters had been one of the major goals set for him.
The town’s vice-mayor Boris Dubinin said the Torzhok administration needed to motivate not only the young, but all registered Torzhok voters, to go to the polling stations for an “artificially” limited political contest.
Putin’s decision to unveil his candidate of choice for maintaining Russia’s course may appear to have simplified the voting process. In fact, it did not, Dubinin said. The absence of the “against all” column and a minimum voter turnout requirement fueled apathy among Torzhok’s voters.
“Our mission was to use all the lawful and available methods to explain to people the necessity of their taking part in the election. The use of administrative resources was prohibited,” Dubinin explained. “We did not promote a specific candidate, but just explained the need for the voters to express their civic position, even within the frames that exist today. After all, when the future president makes his decisions, he needs to feel public support behind his back.”
Torzhok’s mayor, Evgeny Ignatov, said that traditionally, the town has not been politically active. Before the parliamentary election in December, the record turnout was 27 percent. Those elections set the new record at 51 percent. Today, he expected a voter turn-out of 60 percent.
During his two years in office, Ignatov witnessed an evolution of his constituents’ voting behavior. “The Torzhok residents started to feel themselves a part of the country’s development. Each votes for his own future,” he said. “If most of us want the same thing, our lives will probably get better. I just went around all the polling stations, and the election aura appears to be very calm, friendly. This shows that each voter has already made his own decision and agrees with the direction the country is moving. There is an evident absence of anger that used to characterize the Russian voters.”
However, Ignatov confessed, “With all the promises the government is making, come responsibilities that it will have to fulfill. The people will now demand greater accountability.” |
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