Jason Eskenazi

  • 1996
Picture of Jason Eskenazi

Fellowship Title:

  • Russia Faces West: The Last Revolution

Fellowship Year:

  • 1996
FELLOWSHIP STORIES – (2)
The continuing breakup of the former Soviet Union plays out in misery and hardship. Women in the break-away republic of Chechnya wash clothes on the outskirts of Grozny from a hot water pipe. Most of the city's residents are without hot water and electricity.

Chechnya Update

April 27, 1996

As dusk falls on the Chechen capital, Grozny, in southern Russia, the sounds of dogs barking, neighbors chatting, and the theme song to a popular Brazilian soap opera mix with the sounds of automatic gunfire and distant explosions. But the conversations continue, soup is served, and everyone stays glued to the TV. This conflict has not existed only for the last 18 months, but for more than 200 years. Long ago when Russians tried to expand their territory into the Caucasus, they too retreated at nightfall into their fortress for safety, frightened by attacks from Chechan rebels. The Russian soldiers would emerge in daylight to control Grozny. Today, just outside the city, dirty, underfed, and drunk Russian soldiers take bribes and offer to sell weapons and even tanks to passersby and to Chechen rebels. The continuing breakup of the former Soviet Union plays out in misery and hardship. Women in the break-away republic of Chechnya wash clothes on the outskirts of Grozny from a hot water pipe. Most of the city’s residents are without hot

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Abortion remains the chief form of birth control in Russia. This rudimentary clinic for young girls in St. Petersburg operates as an assembly line, with one patient exiting as two wait in line.

Life and Death in St. Petersburg

November 14, 1992

As the first snow of the season fell on St. Petersburg, Russia, Svetlana, 17, sat with two new acquaintances on a bench. They talked, giggled, and waited. Three hours later, they would continue their conversation in the ladies room, over cigarettes, as they put on their make-up, ready to return home. The only difference between those two conversations is that now, in between puffs, they can speak about being free from their pregnancies. Abortion still is the main means of contraception in Russia, due mainly to a history of poor sex education during the Soviet era. Then, health care existed “in words, not in practice,” according to the director of a St. Petersburg clinic, who added that the large number of abortions is “a social problem, not a moral one.” The Russian church is silent on the subject. Abortion is a tradition passed down from mother to daughter. The average Russian woman has four abortions in her life. Doctors in this St. Petersburg clinic have seen women who have had more than 20 of the

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