In The Heartland: Bitter Discontent

Most of Tetya Zhenya's savings have been wiped out in the past eight years by what Moscow bureaucrats call economic reform, and the retired cowherd knows exactly how she is going to spend what's left. "When Yeltsin dies, I'll throw a party to celebrate and get the whole village drunk," Zhenya announced in an obscenity-filled dialect to visitors in Pakhomovo, a tiny, remote settlement on the Pinega River, 650 miles from Moscow. President Boris Yeltsin, she said, is to blame for the "mess" the villagers are in: the collapse of their livelihood, the disappearance of paychecks, long delays in pensions, the...

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