The Zhirinovsky Phenomenonrnby Alexander Yanovrn., -fT^rn’rn;- ‘j^ \rn^* i’rn/:rn•4rnirnirn’ ‘ rf^rnx’rnrrnLrnfrn’/rn*rnirn,1rn^^^^HH^^rnVladimir Zhirinovsky, one of President Yeltsin’s mostrnformidable opponents, is not well known in the West, hirnthe former Soviet Union, though, he is despised and feared byrnboth political camps: the reformers and the “patriots.” EvenrnLeonid Kravchuk, president of the Ukraine and a former communist,rnconsiders Zhirinovsky extremely dangerous. “Do yournwant to deal with Zhirinovsky’s Russia instead of Yeltsin’s?” hernonce warned his feisty parliamentarians. Zhirinovsky appearedrnout of nowhere on Russia’s political map: the classic emergencernof an outsider in troubled times. At first these men are not takenrnseriously, but sometimes they get lucky. In Germany, inrn1933, a frustrated painter from Linz, Austria, became lucky indeed.rnIn the 1991 Russian presidential elections the previously unknownrnZhirinovsky, founder of the miniscule Liberal DemocraticrnParty, came in third, after the popular Yeltsin and formerrnSoviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov. He was far ahead of allrnthe other opposition leaders. In fact, Zhirinovsky garnered sixrnmillion votes—no joke for a candidate who materialized onlyrnyesterday, especially if one remembers that in the middle of anotherrncivilizational collapse in Russia, in 1917, Lenin came tornpower with nowhere near as many votes.rnWhat are Zhirinovsky’s positions and who are his followers?rnWhile campaigning for president in 1991, he promised that hernThis is a chapter from Alexander Yanov’s forthcoming bookrnWeimar Russia. The piece was translated and edited byrnLeon Steinmetz.rnwould feed the country within 72 hours. How? “Very simply.rnI’ll move the troops, about 1.5 million strong, into the formerrnGDR; rattle my nuclear sabers; and they’ll give me everything.”rnBy “them” he naturally meant the West. To be sure,rnthis would be a gross violation of international law, but this isrnprecisely Zhirinovsky’s trump card. He is ready and willing tornbreak all accepted international rules, and this is the nature ofrnhis appeal in postcommunist Russia. “What price Paris?” hernwould ask. “How about London? Washington? Los Angeles?rnHow much arc you willing to pay so I don’t wipe them from thernface of the earth with my SS-I8’s? You doubt me? Want torntake a chance? Let’s get started.”rnWestern politicians may assure their constituents that thernnuclear nightmare which has been hanging over everyone’srnhead for half a century is over, but Zhirinovsky knows that untilrnat least 2003 Soviet SS-18’s will still be aimed at the West.rnHe hopes to become Russia’s president long before then, andrnfrom that moment on all agreements will be null and void.rnTrue, Yeltsin has promised to take the missiles off alert status,rnbut Zhirinovsky will not fulfill Yeltsin’s promise if and when hernbecomes president. By the same token, he has no intention ofrnadhering to any international agreements based on nuclear parityrnor mutual assured destruction. In contrast to conventionalrnpoliticians, Zhirinovsky is perfectly ready to risk mutual destruction.rnHe feels there is nothing wrong with perpetrating arnvast hijack, using any weapons, including nuclear. I le has nornnotion of legitimacy, property, or law. For him the main thingrnis Russia’s nuclear fist: the readiness to blackmail prosperousrn28/CHRONICLESrnrnrn