How the Belarusian Santa Clause affected the President’s image
Heorhi Kazulka, Specially for the website "Belovezhskaya Pushcha – 21th Century", January 31, 2006
(This article was prepared in late 2004 already. However, it was not managed to publish it in any newspapers, even in the short-cut form. Taking into account the actuality of the topic and infringements of legislation in Belovezhskaya Pushcha which are raised in the publication, this belated article is therefore put on the Website "Belovezhskaya Pushcha – 21 Century".)
Recently a significant event happened in my life. I visited the residence of the Belrusian Grandfather Frost (Santa Clause), which was placed in the depths of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Why a significant event? Scientific conferences, nature protection activities and visits of famous people were, in the old days, the main focus in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, whereas in the past years the Grandfather Frost advertising has become more important than science, nature protection and all other things related. Almost every week press or radio informed about how many tourists met Grandfather Frost or about what new things had been constructed at the residence. Grandfather Frost almost became the main event of the country. This is why I, as inhabitant of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, started to feel uncomfortable because I didn’t yet witness or take part in such grandiose project.
Belarusian Santa Clause
But even in summer, in peak-season, when tourists are most numerous in the Pushcha, this route can only be used by the Park’s vehicles. Despite this, some years ago visitors could have easily used several routes with their own cars and along with the Park’s guides. It was possible to visit unique sites, for example to see a virgin forest at the border of the Wilderness Protection Zone if allowed by the administration.
So, the bus started off and away we went. A guide told us about the Pushcha and not only about it. In twenty minutes we arrived at the “heart” of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the residence of Grandfather Frost. First it was the Wilderness Protection Zone that was called the “heart” of Pushcha, and then it was the Viskuly governmental residence, where the dismemberment of the Soviet Union was signed. Now, if we were to judge by the “financial pulse” of the National Park, the “heart” of Pushcha has moved to the residence of Grandfather Frost.
The residence of Grandfather Frost is located on the place of the former bison nursery. Tourists get straight to a range of shops where souvenirs and foodstuff are sold. It is reasonable and makes good sense. A visitor should devastate his/her purse at once so that its weight does not prevent him/her from visiting the residence. We went 200 meters on foot along the glade where bison were once feeding. Then we came up in front of the gate of the Fairy, of which we heard so much before. The Fairy, with a beautiful green costume and a crown met the tourists. She was replacing the Snow Maiden for the summer season. After she told a short story the gate opened and we found ourselves in a fairy tale! There were the Seven Gnomes and Snow-White. Behind them stood a two-floor tower, the house of Grandfather Frost. To see him one has to shout a bit, like “Grandfather Frost, appear!” Soon the main hero of the New Year's carnival made his appearance for the enthusiastic tourists. He wore a beautiful summer costume (he puts on a warm fur coat and valenki only in winter), and had a long white beard. He welcomed everybody, told a fairy tale and spoke about Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Then he kindly allowed everybody to make a picture with him as a keepsake and said goodbye. Accompanied by the Fairy we continued our tour.
The Magic Mill, Well and Lake, the Elk and twelve Brothers representing the Months of the Year were to be seen further. The old spruce at the end of the way was, as written there, the tallest in Europe. But I question this fact since I myself saw fir trees of 60 meters and spruce trees of almost the same height in the National Park “Shumava” in the Czech Republic. The Polish colleagues also told that there are spruce trees in Pushcha taller than this one. But is the truth important when is advertising?
When we returned, we visited the Snow Maiden’s bedroom and the gift-room where bags with children’s letters are stored, while old country utensils were placed along the walls filled with children’s drawings.
The workshop where works on arrangement and enlargement of the residence proceed is in open air and located in the back of the residence. Other characters from stories are made there. We thanked the Fairy and said goodbye, then bought some souvenirs. On coming back by bus we visited the 550 years old king-oak, and soon after we arrived at the place where we started. Tired but partly pleased with the new impressions, we left Belovezhskaya Pushcha. We said good-bye to the three-hour fairy tale.
It would seem that this was all. What does an ordinary man need more? However I’ll make an offer to those who usually not only look but also think and explore the “side-scenes” of this fairy tale. I’ll prove that not least important, and actually interesting things are going on in there.
Firstly, it was interesting to me – as a man and scientist who dedicated nearly twenty years of my life to Belovezhskaya Pushcha’s conservation and then got fired from the National Park with the currently fashionable formulation “in connection with the work contract coming to an end” (that means without any grounded reason) – to see what was done in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in the last years. Secondly, it was important to compare the past and current level of tourism development. This is because I was responsible for ecological education and scientific tourism in the National Park some time ago. And the most important, visiting the Grandfather Frost’s residence, I needed to touch and feel the spirit and atmosphere of Belovezhskaya Pushcha at present. Finally I got answers to all my questions.
I understand that my conclusions will result in hysterical reactions from some employed propagandists who are paid from the state budget, reactions like “how dare you criticize the new Belarusian sanctity?!” Alas, advertising is advertising, whereas the truth is worthiest. You see the protection of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, which is sometimes called the main reserve of the country, did not improve. Time will come when many people will understand that the reserved Pushcha is a beautiful myth consciously kept alive for quite clear purposes and businesses. As a matter of fact, Belovezhskaya Pushcha never was a reserve in the true sense of the word because its natural resources were so appetizing both in the past and present.
But this is another topic and now I would like to present the conclusions I drew from visiting Grandfather Frost’s residence.
1. It is necessary to agree that a lot has been done in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in the past tree years for reconstruction and development of the tourism infrastructure. The Grandfather Frost’s residence is impressive. I can assume what kind of emotions an ordinary man gets when seeing for the first time both the Grandfather Frost’s residence and Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Not only the idea is interesting but also the professionalism of the business is worthy to note. Alexander Maslo and local craft-masters, the creators of this miracle-fairy tale are true goldsmiths. I feel proud that such talented people live in our country. By the way, Alexander Maslo was the winner of an international competition of woodcarvers. He cuts out wood sculptures directly with the chainsaw without any previous drawing. As he once said in an interview “I just look and cut”. His sculptures cannot be described in words. They have to be seen.
I had the chance to visit Disney Land in the USA ten years ago and to witness a grandiose children's carnival. Certainly, Belovezhskaya Pushcha is too far from the scale of American entertainment but this is a good start and who knows what kind of future will be created in Belovezhskaya Pushcha…
On the other hand, it is not clear why mass media advertise only the skilled national craftsman Alexander Maslo? Masters from Belovezhskaya Pushcha are not less talented. Many objects in the residence are creations made by their hands or following their projects. I saw myself how they worked together with Alexander Maslo in the workshop from the residence’s back yard. Maybe the administration of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha, which came here from the Pripyat region, distributes special advertisements to its fellow-countryman and consciously ignores of the local masters?
2. Grandfather Frost’s Residence is the business-project of the first category made by all classical rules for the purpose to earn money. A range of shops is the first visiting objective of the residence. A ticket for a two - three hour tour does not come cheap for the Belarusian. It is compulsory to use the Park’s transport while personal vehicles are not allowed. The tourist route has priority to be used for visiting the residence’s site. Some last winter (2004) the pupils from a Moscow biological school were even forced to visit the residence even though they had the ecological-education tour in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Only afterwards they were allowed to see other reserved sites. As for my fellow ecologists from Poland, they were also compelled to limit their trip to visiting the residence though they wanted to see only the protected nature. Absence of free educational excursions for the local pupils after the residence was open is another issue (only in 2006, on the threshold of coming presidential election, the Park's administration allowed to give a bus and deliver the wishing local pupils and pensioners to the residence). In the end, intensive advertising in all state mass-media appreciably raised the interest towards the Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
Consequently, considerable amounts of money were spent and continue to be spent on building and maintaining the wooden residence. About 150,000 $ were spent just for the construction. But in some years many designs will need repairs, like for example the wooden flooring which covers paths of the residence. Although due to advertising and state decisions that limit foreign leisure trips for children, the number of visitors to the National Park increased over 2 times in the last years, this can be a temporary phenomenon. The stir will gradually disappear and restrictions for foreign leisure trips will be cancelled. Besides this, children are basically the visitors of the residence. Therefore, the financial side of the project can be proved not as faultless, as it is said today.
3. Implementing Grandfather Frost’s project meant that there were also serious infringements of nature protection legislation. Belovezhskaya Pushcha is divided into four zones: the Wilderness Protection Zone, the Regulated Nature Zone, the Regulated Recreational Zone and the Economic Activity Zone. All zones are under a different regime of protection and nature use, according to national laws. The former bison nursery site was located in the second zone - the Regulated Nature Zone. This Zone serves as a site for study, preservation and restoration of ecosystems that are characteristic for the Belovezhskaya Pushcha complex, as well as for reproduction and rational use of natural resources. All activities within this Zone should provide optimal conditions for sustainable development of natural communities, while science-oriented nature conservation arrangements are being implemented. Within this Zone the following activities are allowed: scientific research, monitoring, activities aimed at restoration of disturbed natural complexes and reproduction of natural resources, measures for preventing fire, sanitary woodcutting, forest maintenance, clearing of dead wood for forest sanitation and afforestation in order to restore primary forest stands, elimination of animals in order to regulate their populations and for the purpose of selection, artificial feeding of wild animals, haymaking, harvesting berries and mushrooms, raising cattle, amateur fishing as well as several other activities serving the needs of the National Park and its employees on specially selected sites. Natural resources are being exploited in limited quantities. Restricted ecotourism under the Park guide’s control is authorized in this zone.
Mass tourism is allowed in the third Zone, the Regulated Recreational Zone which covers the outskirts of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. This is the area where tourism and recreation are encouraged, where activities connected to cultural aspects, leisure and health should be implemented.
To create Santa’s residence and to make access roads, the living forest was cut down. For this a special sanction of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Protection was needed. But was it given?! The residence was constructed on the bison nursery site. As a matter of fact, the residence replaced it. This is a serious disturbance factor for the bison, a species listed in the Red Data Book. It is doubtful that wild animals have a better life since the construction of the residence. This project was not discussed at the session of the National Park’s Scientific and Technical Council and it was not examined from an ecological point of view. Moreover, to build the Grandfather Frost's residence appropriate documents and sanctions from a state architect, sanitary station, firemen service and some other state bodies were necessary. However there is no exact information to this day on whether such sanctions were received in time. Therefore it can quite turn out that the residence was constructed illegally, to be self-building!
For the project to have a successful life is necessary not only to advertise but also to further develop it. Did anybody think of this? If tomorrow somebody decided to build an amusement park it would be another infringement of the law. If Grandfather Frost’s residence would have been constructed in the Regulated Recreational Zone at the edge of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha (places suitable for this purpose are available there) nobody would have asked any questions because this is the zone where such constructions are authorized since it was specially designed for recreation and tourism. Moreover it could avoid the distance of 12 kilometers to deliver the people crossing the protected forest. It would decrease finance expenses and exhaust pollution in Pushcha.
Although later a new zoning has been drawn up and the protection level of the area where the residence is located has been lowered because of transferring it to the Regulated Recreational Zone, this fact does not cross out the law problem. For example, if tomorrow someone would want to cut down the forest in the Wilderness Protection Zone and illegally started this, what would be the next decision - to lower the protection level of this zone and to transfer it into the Economic Activity Zone because of its "qualitative damage"? Or should the violator be punished according to the law?
Press informed that the President of Belarus is the one who had the idea with Grandfather Frost’s residence. Alexander Lukashenko, congratulating children on New Year’s Eve, said that he personally told them this fairy tale. It turns out that his opponents can declare ever since that the President once again violated the law. Why do you, subordinated comrades, want to alter the President’s image again? He has a lot of important state duties and he is not able to hold all of you under control in the same time. Or maybe you think that since the project is under the President’s personal control it means the law matters less? Does it mean you can also do what you want?
4. One of the tasks of a National Park is to preserve cultural heritage. A Belarusian population of bison was revived in the area of the bison nursery after the Second World War. Ludmila Korochkina, her name is connected with the revival of bison, lived and worked there in that. A bison service house, where construction of a museum of bison was under plan, was located there. However this house has been reconstructed into the estate of Grandfather Frost. Thus, this cultural heritage of Belovezhskaya Pushcha have been destroyed for ever.
5. The project “Grandfather Frost in Belovezhskaya Pushcha” is a grandiose show meant to divert the public’s attention from the serious ecological problems of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. I convinced myself of this after I saw how things went on in this business. I understand those who transformed the National Park almost into their own estate and “feeding place”. It’s clear that without Grandfather Frost in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, there wouldn’t have been anything left to show tourists, except for the lunar landscape of cutting sites. In the past, tourists came to the Pushcha to see the reserved nature. But where is it now? Tourists are accompanied by stumps and cutting sites along the entire route to Grandfather Frost’s residence. You can imagine how many negative impressions visitors would be left with after seeing the main nature reservation of the country! For this reason tourists are delivered very quickly to the residence, where for one or two hours they listen and enjoy a fairy tale, they are surprised by the carvers’ skills and then they are quickly taken back. What is left in the memory of the tourist? Of course, Grandfather Frost! Even I, an ecologist and a man knowing well the local situation, had been left with a strong impression after visiting the residence. It makes no sense to mention what the non-residents of Pushcha think. Therefore I assert with absolute reliance: a substitution of priorities has taken place in Belovezhskaya Pushcha - the entertainment industry developed, replacing ecological tourism. The main objective here is not nature protection or ecological education, the main purposes of a National Park, but earning money and giving a false impression of Belovezhskaya Pushcha’s well-being.
6. The sharp decrease in the quality of the tours is confirmation of the above statement. The information I received on the way to the residence and back, is actually more than 50 percent cock-and-bull stories. We were told about hedgehogs which run on the forest roads following the white strip because if they turn aside they will lose the way in the forest; about hornbeam which produces ozone instead of oxygen; about wild boars which dug under a fence of the zoo enclosures and escaped in the woods, and a year later they did it again to come back in the zoo. Then we were told about a stone which radiates heat signals and which is used in traditional medicine by pregnant women, about pitch from the huge pine which bewitches women and about the power of the king-oak to give men strength. A quarter of the information was dedicated to medicinal plants, illnesses and cures. Information about Belovezhskaya Pushcha was very little. There was almost nothing said about nature protection management, ecological problems of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, wilderness or its protection.
A good thing is that the route through Viskuly (the place where the Soviet Union was disintegrated by the three leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus), which has an entrance with two statues of bison, is closed now. Some time ago a pair of employees from the Park, who were recently in leading positions, put in practice an old custom, so they say, but actually an invention of theirs, called “consecration as local of the Pushcha”: drinking alcohol and kissing the sexual organ of the bison sculpture while “tipsy”. Then articles have appeared in the press about a “special erotic air” of the Pushcha, about a “tree of love” etc. Later, in their book, these employees attributed the authorship of this custom to Peter Masherov (the famous leader of Soviet Byelorussia)!
Nonetheless people say the Park’s directors like such informational contents of excursions. This is clear – like master, like subordinates. It already became a tradition to replace the museum directors with retiring persons that are not familiar with museum activities and that are incapable to professionally guide tourists. Belovezhskaya Pushcha and nature preservation have nothing to win from this; on the contrary, Pushcha is losing a lot.
I imagine what my fellow ecologists from Poland thought about all these. The quality of excursions in the Polish part of Belovezhskaya Pushcha is obviously very high. It is a rule that guides have the highest professional level. I heard about their excursions myself so there is a base for comparison. Instead of ecological education our excursions have turned into entertainment in nature, into a show named “Grandfather Frost”.
7. The project “Grandfather Frost in Belovezhskaya Pushcha” became the climax of the transformation process of Belovezhskaya Pushcha’s natural landscape of into a more anthropogenic and a more “civilized” one. It means transformation of the primeval and reserved forest into a forest which is not wild and not protected. I recollect an ONT-TV reportage dedicated to the New Year celebration. The TV reporter informed the viewers about the opening of Grandfather Frost’s residence, and coming out of the dense spruce forest he explained why Belovezhskaya Pushcha had become the native land of the New Year's personage. He said it is because Pushcha is a wild, old and fantastic wood. But what do we see today in the residence replacing the wild and dense forest where bison once lived? We see a huge glade, because the forest was cut and only old trees were left standing. The whole area has been modified, the grass has been mowed and decorative flower-beds have been planted. But wouldn’t it have been possible to aesthetically integrate all of these into the wild forest without destroying it, in other words to make a fairy tale in truly protected nature? Seemingly, the present managers of the National Park are too weak to do it. Therefore they transform Belovezhskaya Pushcha into some kind of a specialized timber enterprise while Grandfather Frost’s residence is only a beautiful facade to cover this transformation.
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Finally, my ordinary trip to the residence resulted in true panic in the National Park since the Park's leader saw me passing by the gate’s check point. People said that even the frontier guard was called out while I joined the excursion. Then the head of the Park’s guards showed up in a hurry and told me that according to the director’s order it is forbidden for me to enter the Park without his personal sanction and if I break this order I will be thrown out of the Park and have my camera broken to pieces. But he did not show any written order. As soon as I came to the residence a guide, seemingly a responsible person immediately explained: “Kazulka came together with the tourists”. Casually or not the director was already at the residence. After the end of the excursion, it was known in the village that some employees were threatened to be fired in case they allow me one more time to enter the Park or to join an excursion.
It turns out that I cannot even enter the museum, restaurant and hotel or, as an ordinary tourist, visit the public site together with all other people. How is this possible? Maybe the National Park has been turned from an official state body into a private firm? Are the constitution and the laws not valid any more for this territory since the administration established here arbitrariness and “police” order? Shouldn’t there be at least some reserve when acting in front of citizens from the neighbouring country, and other tourists?
So, I want to personally to say something to you, head of the Park’s guards. I have also faced some incident on a tourist path two years ago. Since that incident I won two trials in court. If I have to I will win ten more trials. Force is on your side while law and truth are on mine. It is a pity that such a young guard like you has already turned to the criminal ways.
As for you, director of the Park, why did you get panicked again? Are you afraid that I will witness your “achievements” on “protection and preservation” of Belovezhskaya Pushcha? Enough of that is already very well known by the public. All secrets reveal themselves sooner or later, and establishing responsibility for the infringements is only a matter of time. Certainly, such great attention from your side flatters my modest person. A similar panic set in here only when high state figures or international delegations unexpectedly came to visit the Pushcha. But in this case it’s just a simple ecologist! It would have been great if you put as much effort and given as much attention to the observance of law. Then you would have had no reasons to panic. And finally, it’s not appropriate for your social status at all to use defenseless women that have their hands “tied” by the short-term work contracts as a cover and then to threaten them with dismissal if they do not follow your unlawful orders. This behavior is not worthy of a true leader and Man.
Heorhi Kazulka
Philosophy Doctor of Biology
Kamenyuki village, Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Belarus
December 14, 2004