"Chess One" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. ..

"Jürgen R." wrote in message
...
[...]

After the wall came down I spent some time with a physicist from East
Berlin.

He told me of a Czech bath manufacturing facility, whose foundry
produced iron baths for the entire Soviet Union.

No other baths were on offer anywhere [that is to say, without *special*
people importing them from West Germany] despite the demand for ceramic
ones, and indeed, for the new plastic shower-tubs wieghing one tenth of
the bath units.

Don't you realize that you weaken your case when you grasp at
straws like this. Your 'physicist' was obviously having fun pulling
your leg: Go out and try to buy a ceramic bathtub sometime.

I have written 2,000 e-mails on chess subjects alone with people who were
behind the curtain. That's a hell of a lot of straws. But I don't want to
convince you of anything Jürgen, I want to speak of my /experience/ not
belief.

If its convincing you want, have you written extensively with anyone from
the old SU? Or even know them?

Well, since I was born there (in Tallinn) and since the place (Munich) where
I am now is inhabited by thousands of recent emigrants from the former USSR
I don't need to write to communicate with 'them'.


I shall call Bernd

Needless to say, you must protect his privacy...

Needless to say any physicist could identify him by his first name
But truly needless to say anyone's surname to you - who doubt all, anyway.

These anecdotes are never traceable to the source. You surely
wouldn't be betraying anyone by naming the apocryphal bathtub
factory in Tchechoslovakia? The factories in these stories
never do have a name, do they?

Remember the radio factory that was given norms to fulfill by weight?
And the 10kg bottom plates they put in the radios. That factory
was also nameless.


] worked in a photodiode semiconductor factory in East Berlin as its head
scientist,

I see - the world famous photodiode scientist whose name
everybody knows.

and his unit produced for the entire Soviet 'Aerospace' Industry - but
that is natural - you don't need lots of electro-optical facilities
making silicon detectors.

But he drove a Trabant car - a 'trabi', which was not the only car
produced behind the curtain, but the only one ordinary people could get.
The black market in trabi parts was enormous, and actually far more
expensive than the officially manufactured ones, which... you are
guessing right... were in limitied supply, despite massive demand from
Trabant owners ...

Shall I tell you a story or two about 3 automobile manufacturers that
operate
from a formerly great U.S. city that now looks like Berlin did in 1945
and has
been abondoned by Whitey?

I see!

No, you don't see. You are missing the point: The
Trabi was, indeed, a joke and became
a symbol for East German industrial backwardness.

The Chrysler Corporation, e.g., is also a joke, one that survives today
only because the state bailed it out. Nor are the cars it makes
much better than a Trabant. The point? Absurdities of this kind
are easily found on both sides of the divide.

This is a competition. Things were not as I say in the SU because of
instances of Western failure. Where do you live, BTW? But if you must
believe things, let me quote you Russians instead:-

I have no reason to believe anything you say, unless you
can give a reliable source.


Please put it in a bank... Please, let's put it in a foreign bank.

//Vladimir Putin advising the relatives of those who died on the
nuclear submarine /Kursk/ on what to do with their compensation.

Invariably the same game. Why do you misrepresent what
is being said? What does it accomplish?

Putin: "Please, put it in the bank. Banks are not safe. Please, put it in a
foreign bank. That doesn't mean you need to deposit this money
outside the country. Here, in Russia. It is safe. And the bank will
operate according to Russian law. And the money will be in Russia..."

So the poor guy is thoroughly confused in the middle of an
extremely emotional meeting.


[hint; try Kommersant-Vlast, August 29, 2000]

Surely The Leader can't be wrong?

But maybe you can find this one by yourself:

We wanted the best, but it turned out as always.

//Victor Chernomyrdin,
//Russian prime minister, 1992-1998.

But the main issues here are chessic ones - to the general degree that the
State leaned on Soviet-era players, and the degree to which individuals
complied with it. Did you have views on either of these subjects?

Yes, my view is that neither you nor Parr knows a thing about it, and that
there is no way that you can verify your conspiracy theories.



Vykhod est! Phil Innes