Unemployment Russia

Unemployment in Russia, once so small that authorities insisted it did not exist, will reach 15% or more by the end of this year and produce severe hardships in a country that lacks adequate jobless benefits, the International Labor Organization said Monday.

In threadbare coats and bad temper, millions of long-unpaid state workers across Russia took to the streets Thursday to denounce the Kremlin for reforms they say have ruined the country. The one-day strike that idled schools, transportation and factories across the vast federation was believed to be the broadest labor unrest since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, even though it fell far short of a predicted 20 million marchers and widespread disorder.

In threadbare coats and bad temper, millions of long-unpaid state workers across Russia took to the streets Thursday to denounce the Kremlin for reforms they say have ruined the country. The one-day strike that idled schools, transportation and factories across the vast federation was believed to be the broadest labor unrest since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, even though it fell far short of a predicted 20 million marchers and widespread disorder.

As foreign investors, Western politicians and rich Russians celebrated President Boris N. Yeltsin's recent reelection, Valentina Shetchenkova and her 8-year-old daughter rummaged through the garbage behind their local market for rotten tomatoes and cabbages to eat for dinner. Geneticist Oleg Lazebny endured yet another clash with his in-laws, with whom he and his wife have been living since his laboratory slashed wages.

As foreign investors, Western politicians and rich Russians celebrated President Boris N. Yeltsin's recent reelection, Valentina Shetchenkova and her 8-year-old daughter rummaged through the garbage behind their local market for rotten tomatoes and cabbages to eat for dinner. Geneticist Oleg Lazebny endured yet another clash with his in-laws, with whom he and his wife have been living since his laboratory slashed wages.

The 8,500 workers of the Lenin Komsomol Electronic Device Factory are tending their home gardens instead of their machines this summer. The neighboring cash register plant closed down this month, putting another 8,000 people on forced vacations. Of the 24 other giant factories in this mid-size Russian town, all have either shut their gates or shifted to three-day weeks since July 1.

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin lands here today with a long-coveted invitation to the World's Most Important Countries Club, marking a new phase in Russia's bumpy rapprochement with the West. For the first time, Yeltsin does not come seeking international aid. Rather, he aims to show the West that Russia, however troubled, is no longer a charity case.

Remember the prosperous Russia of yeoman property holders that President Boris N. Yeltsin evoked last week? Well, there are still plenty of bugs in the system, his lieutenants admitted Monday. Thirty-two of Russia's regions, at last word, hadn't even created the government committees that are supposed to preside over the massive selloff of state-owned factories and assets, the man in charge reported.

President Boris N. Yeltsin has signed a decree aimed at compensating Russians for savings wiped out by the raging inflation of the last two years, Russian television announced Tuesday. But the measure will be little more than symbolic, and ordinary Russians seemed to react with bitterness, not gratitude. Depositors will receive three times the number of rubles they had in accounts in the Russian Savings Bank on Jan. 1, 1992, when prices were decontrolled.

Pushing the world's richest nations hard for increased foreign trade, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on Friday got billions in additional aid instead. He expressed gratitude, but also regret. "The biggest disappointment I have from the meeting is that to my energetic calls came the reply: 'Yes, yes. It's hard. We'll have to solve those problems,' " Yeltsin said dryly after he met with President Clinton and the rest of the Group of Seven leaders.

The 8,500 workers of the Lenin Komsomol Electronic Device Factory are tending their home gardens instead of their machines this summer. The neighboring cash register plant closed down this month, putting another 8,000 people on forced vacations. Of the 24 other giant factories in this mid-size Russian town, all have either shut their gates or shifted to three-day weeks since July 1.

Unemployment in Russia, once so small that authorities insisted it did not exist, will reach 15% or more by the end of this year and produce severe hardships in a country that lacks adequate jobless benefits, the International Labor Organization said Monday.

One of the world's greatest museums was nearly destroyed a few months ago by a forgotten cup of tea. A worker in the fabric section of the Hermitage's Russian History Department had plugged in an electric tea kettle but then forgot about it. The water boiled away, the kettle burned up, the curtains caught fire, and suddenly the Hermitage--home of Rembrandt and Rodin, Matisse and Manet, Scythian gold and Egyptian sarcophagi--was in mortal danger.