HAVE YOU HEARD A GOOD ANECDOTE LATELY?

The “Forward, Russia!” movement has announced a countrywide competition for the best contemporary political anecdote, Kuranty reported April 21. A possible entry was given by Moscow’s leading pollster, Yuri Levada, in a Trud interview the same day. According to Levada, whenever he is asked when Russians will live a normal life, he says he responds: “Before perestroika, it seemed to me that we would have a normal life in 300 years; Under Gorbachev, I thought this would take 200 years. But now I say that it will only happen after 325 years.” Copyright 1995 (c) — The Jamestown Foundation

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