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I worked with Russian political parties in 1994 and '95, and I want to stress that Russians ran the '96 campaign and Russians won the election. By now, Russian political activists have sufficient experience in using Western campaign technology, including formulating a main message and using focus groups for testing political ads. Your article made it appear that the election team consisted of four Americans, candidate Yeltsin and his daughter. A more accurate picture would include roughly 1,000 activists from different political parties who pulled together to make sure the communists did not take back all the advances that Russia has made on its difficult journey to democracy. The real story of American influence on the process of democratization in Russia lies with those who have spent years working with thousands of Russian political-party activists around the country. You did a great disservice to these people by inflating the role of a few American political consultants, flown in for a few months, with no knowledge of the country. SARAH E. MENDELSON Assistant Professor of Political Science State University of New York Albany, New York
Now I understand why the Russian people don't trust Boris, and why the American people have developed such a disdain for politics. DAVID A. KRAFT Clarence, New York
The aid given to Yeltsin's campaign by U.S. politicos experienced in misleading the people and betraying democracy recalls the final sentence of George Orwell's antitotalitarian fable, Animal Farm: "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which." J. QUINN BRISBEN Chicago
I simply could not put this story down until I had finished every word. It was like reading a William F. Buckley Jr. cold war novel, and the stakes were even higher. Once again, spasiba! BOB WATERS Hartford, Vermont
When the history of the Russian election is written, the American consultants will occupy only a small footnote. For those of us who observed the process over many months, the claims of the consultants are highly exaggerated. It is hard to imagine that a group of American political advisers who did not speak the language, had no background in the country or Russian culture and did not meet with any of the key figures in the campaign (except for occasional contact with Yeltsin's daughter) would ultimately have much impact. GREGORY GUROFF, Senior Associate Center for Post-Soviet Studies Chevy Chase, Maryland
DOLE'S DECISION MAKING
I'm surprised you forgot a major aspect of Bob Dole's position on tobacco, gun control and other issues [NATION, July 15]: once he makes up his mind, he seems to be full of indecision. JOSEPH B. MIRSKY West Palm Beach, Florida
UNIONS: HELPING OR HURTING?
I am outraged that the AFL-CIO has the audacity to compare its selfish and destructive union-organizing campaign with the civil rights "Freedom Summer" of 1964 [BUSINESS, July 15]. Labor unions are a dinosaur. In the first part of the century they were a necessary evil, but they are no longer needed. The AFL-CIO should accept the fact that it is an anachronism and drift quietly into obscurity. Unions, while preaching the altruistic intent of helping the low-skilled worker, actually cause fewer jobs suitable for such workers to be created. ELIJAH C. MARENTETTE Boston