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For those making history, however, the action is not always attractive. Many ruble-bound Russians, faced with hyperinflation, must sell prized possessions in order to feed their families. Some are even beginning to look back on their benighted communist past with a bitter nostalgia. A young Russian engineer, now unemployed, says he felt "nothing but shame" when, on TV, he saw his country's awkwardly named "Unified Team" compete in hockey during the Winter Olympics. A taxi driver, passing Moscow's heroic monument to the Soviet space program, comments matter-of-factly that it was built "when we still had pride in ourselves."
It is against that backdrop that Strauss must conduct his unconventional ambassadorship, while dealing with a U.S. Administration and a Congress that act, these days, as if foreign policy were a social disease, each blaming the other for the failure to provide major economic assistance and advice to Russia. Over a candlelit dinner last month at Spaso House, the ambassadorial residence in Moscow, Strauss and his wife Helen listened as two Senators -- Republican Robert C. Smith of New Hampshire and Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts -- agreed that the way to bring American audiences "out of their chairs" these days was simply to say, in Smith's words, "We won the cold war, and we're not going to send one dime in aid to Russia." Replied Strauss: "Well, you know, I was back in the States not long ago, speaking to the national Governors' conference, and I got a standing ovation from them when I said, 'We cannot let this moment in history go by without our being involved. We must be involved. It is in our interest to be involved.' "
Strauss, who shares Texas ties with Bush and Secretary of State James Baker, is hardly a political naif. He understands that professional politicians are nothing if not adept readers of the public mood. He knows too that Western financiers are probably right to be wary of pouring too much money, too fast, into the Russian economy. But, like Richard Nixon, who recently criticized the Administration's "pathetically inadequate" support of Russia, Strauss also understands that leadership can help change attitudes. "It isn't that there's anything wrong with the Executive Branch or the Legislative Branch," he says. "It's just that I've reached a stage in my life where I don't have the patience that one needs to have. Sometimes that's good and helpful, and other * times I suspect it's not so good. But I want to move on."
Strauss favors -- as does, sotto voce, the Administration -- early admission of Russia to the International Monetary Fund, creation of a ruble- stabilization fund and additional food and medical supplies in time for next winter's depredations, which he predicts will be much worse than this winter's. "The West must do the right thing," Strauss says. "So must Russia. But right now we're wasting too much time. The Russians aren't interested in charity. They're interested in support, and I think they're entitled to it."