Monday, Apr. 28, 2003. Page 1
Pickled Babies Drafted to Battle Alcoholism
By Jeremy Page
Reuters
Dima Korotayev / Reuters
Schoolchildren in Lyubertsy looking at a Kunstkammer
exhibit of deformed fetuses.
LYUBERTSY, Moscow Region -- Peter the Great would have been
proud.
The schoolchildren huddled together in silence, eyes goggling at
the collection of deformed human fetuses started by the tsar almost 300
years ago.
"You see, kids," whispered Tatyana Borisova in the soft tones of
a children's storyteller as she pointed to the "Cyclops" -- a stillborn
baby with a single eye in the middle of its forehead.
"This is what can happen if you mess around with drugs and
alcohol."
For one young girl, it was all too much. She asked for
permission to leave but passed out as she headed for the door.
The stomach-churning collection of preserved mutant babies and
pickled body parts is part of the Kunstkammer, Russia's first museum,
which the tsar founded in 1714 to combat superstition and promote
scientific education.
Three centuries later, the "anatomical rarities" exhibition --
part freak show, part medical study -- is being used in a "shock tactics"
campaign to combat drug and alcohol abuse.
Russians drink some 15 liters of pure alcohol per head each
year, one of the highest rates in the world, and by some estimates one in
seven Russians are alcoholics, experts say.
Male life expectancy has plunged to under 59 since the Soviet
Union collapsed in 1991. And a country where drug abuse was virtually
unknown in Soviet times now has 3 million drug users -- about 2 percent of
the population.
Borisova, the administrator of the exhibition, says desperate
times call for desperate measures.
"Unfortunately, so many children are surrounded by drunks on the
street or even in their homes," she said.
"We should show this to children and show them what organs look
like and what happens to our body if we use certain substances."
The Kunstkammer is based in the Museum of Anthropology and
Ethnography in St. Petersburg. But 40 exhibits are touring Russian cities
to promote health education, much in the spirit of Peter the Great,
Borisova said.
Captivated by all things European, the tsar started the
collection after visiting the museum of a Dutch anatomist, Frederik
Ruysch, in Amsterdam in 1697.
He bought Ruysch's entire collection of pickled body parts and
encouraged Russians to contribute human and animal abnormalities,
determined to show visitors such phenomena were not the work of the devil,
but of nature.
The result is one of the most bizarre museums in the world --
its German name reflecting the European influence on Peter.
As well as the Cyclops, it includes Siamese twins, a two-faced
baby known as a "Janus," a "mermaid" with a fleshy tail instead of legs,
and a double-headed calf.
Another highlight is the skeleton of a giant named Bourgeois,
whom Peter brought back to Russia from the French port of Calais.
This month, the exhibition was in Lyubertsy, a town of concrete
high-rise buildings and simple wooden houses just outside Moscow, with a
poor record of substance abuse.
The poster outside the Lyubertsy House of Culture has an
unashamedly "Roll-up! Roll-up!" ring.
"You will see the Siamese twins, the Cyclops, the mermaid, the
two-faced baby and other anatomical rarities!" it proclaims.
But once inside, the 300 schoolchildren and dozens of curious
adults who visit every day listen to Borisova patiently preaching the
virtues of temperance.
"You should talk with them not to scare them, but to let them
draw their own conclusions," she said. "You should tell them about our
ecology and about unhealthy lifestyles."
Judging by their reactions, her unorthodox approach -- P.T.
Barnum meets Betty Ford -- is getting the message through.
"Well, this shows me that you should never smoke, use drugs or
drink if you want to have a normal child or a normal career," said
Natasha, a third-grade student.
Even a couple of swaggering teenage boys said they would think
twice before lighting up a cigarette or cracking open a beer after seeing
the disintegrated lungs of a smoker and the bloated liver of an alcoholic
floating in formaldehyde.
"We already smoke and drink," said Yevgeny Ganin, 14. "It's
normal for kids our age. But I think vodka can be dangerous and I stay
away from drugs."
Police in Lyubertsy say most addicts are aged between 16 and 30,
and 80 percent of cases involve heroin.
President Vladimir Putin last year called drug addiction a
social disaster and created a national agency to lead a crackdown on drug
trafficking.
But tackling alcoholism is more problematic given the enduring
popularity of vodka.
Alcohol is sold 24 hours a day from kiosks around Lyubertsy --
as in most of Russia -- and a liter costs just over $1. Beer is regarded
by many as a soft drink.
The Moscow city government is considering ending round-the-clock
alcohol sales because boozing is draining the economy and driving away
tourists, a Moscow newspaper said this month.
But such moves are fraught with political risk in Russia --
especially with a presidential election set for early 2004.
In the 1980s, attempts by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to
curb alcoholism by slashing vodka output and destroying vineyards only
caused widespread derision and a surge in production of moonshine.
Shocking as the Kunstkammer exhibition may be, pessimists argue
that drinking has always been part of Russian culture and always will be.
After all, legend has it that when Peter the Great opened the museum, he
had to entice visitors by offering them a free shot of vodka.
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2003/04/28/002.html
