Igor Smirnov, Pridnestrovie's "Khozyain" President

Igor Smirnov, the current President of Pridnestrovie, with a widow from the 1992 war of independence

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Depending on who holds the microphone, the current President of Pridnestrovie, Igor Smirnov, 64, is either a dreary Stalinist tyrant or a brave and courageous freedom fighter. Hated in Moldova, his personal popularity is still high back home, despite the fact that pro-presidential party Respublica suffered a defeat in the country's most recent Parliamentary elections.

As a child, Igor Smirnov saw the destructive power of what the Soviet system could do to a family - his own family. When he was ten, his father was arrested and given a 15 year sentence in hard labor camp for unspecified "anti-Soviet activities". As a result, Igor Smirnov had to quit school to work odd and illegal jobs to support his mother. Later, while a teenager, he started to work in a factory as a welder and machinist.

Smirnov was by all accounts a well-liked and competent machinist who over the years worked his way up from the shop floor to become the elected chairman of the work collective, the STK (short for Sovety Trudovykh Kollektivov), of the "Elektromash" factory in Tiraspol in 1987.

No communist background...

Never a professional politician, Smirnov was urged by colleagues at his workplace to stand in a local Tiraspol election in February, 1990. This was his first time ever as a candidate and he was up against the Communist Party. In a dramatic demonstration of how much the Communist Party’s power had waned, Smirnov beat his official challenger, the First Secretary of the city’s Central Party Committee, Leonid Tsurkan, by a 2-to-1 margin.

None of the leaders in Pridnestrovie's independence movement were communist functionaries or party apparatchiki. Very little evidence can be found of any Communist Party involvement in the creation of PMR. If anything, the party was often a hindrance to Igor Smirnov and the other independence activists.

Almost without exception there were no former party functionaries, city committee secretaries, or even local government (gorsovet) deputies within the leadership of the Pridnestrovian state created in 1990. Most of the latter were voted out of office in the same elections which brought Igor Smirnov to power in Tiraspol.

Like in many other post-Soviet nations and large parts of Eastern Europe, following the fall of Communism, the Communist Party of Pridnestrovie was outlawed for part of the 1990s. It is now a legal party again, but in Pridnestrovie - unlike in Moldova - it has failed to gather enough votes to gain even a single seat in the local parliament.

...but plenty of Communist symbols

So what's with the two Lenin statues in Tiraspol? And the Soviet-looking uniforms that the border guards are wearing? Or, for that matter, the creepy-looking hammer and sickle in the state insignia?

" - You would think," says one visitor, "that someone whose own father was thrown in jail by the Communists would be eager to topple some statues."

The official explanation is that although heavy in Communist symbology, the coat of arms merely represents Pridnestrovie's historical legacy. It shouldn't be misinterpreted as adherence to communism or to the extinct Soviet system. At any rate, says a commentator, the proof is in the pudding: Don't look at a symbol but at the actual policies of the government and then decide whether or not there is anything "communist" or "marxist" about the way that Pridnestrovie conducts its affairs.

Moreover, as American investment manager Kevin Stillmock says, "the true Communists today don't openly advertise it." Stillmock, a frequent visitor to Pridnestrovie, comments that if you use the old Communist symbols, you do so for nostalgia only. The real Communists have moved beyond the symbology, with the most canny operators hiding behind a different set of colors these days.

The "Khozyain President"

Khozyain is a Russian term often used to describe a certain type of political leader; the prototype of the style of Igor Smirnov, Pridnestrovie's own "Khozyain" head of state.

It is a rich term which traditionally refers to a leader of a given social domain, a home, a village, an enterprise, or a country. The khozyain of a household is usually the oldest male and is entrusted with the welfare of the group. For someone to merit the title of a real khozyain he must take care of those in his domain. Russian voters judge leaders, including politicians, on whether they are (or give the impression of being) a real khozyain. They are sometimes hard to classify in a classical political sense since their overriding concerns are not a leftist or rightist political agenda, but the welfare of the group where ideology is less important than pragmatism, strength of character and problem solving skills. Igor Smirnov and the other founding fathers of the republic have declared on many occasions, from the earliest day of the independence struggle, that what they wanted to create was a society free of "isms."

A khozyain politician can easily be seen as authoritarian in a Western political context, and, true to form, Igor Smirnov has been called both a "strongman" and, by the more radical Smirnov-haters in Moldova, a "dictator". A more accurate description, for those who understand the true meaning of the word khozyain, would be to classify him as a father figure.

Since essentially the prime trait of the khozyain is to be pragmatic, and he is not driven by ideology, he is open to change if it benefits the welfare of the group.

A never-ending presidency?

Igor Smirnov is one of the few politicians in Pridnestrovie who came as an immigrant. He is not native-born, yet locals say that it doesn't matter and they keep voting for him nevertheless. If it mattered, then the current governor of California - the Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger - shouldn't have been elected either. What really matters, say his supporters, is how you govern and whether or not the voters trust your capabilities enough to re-elect you.

Igor Smirnov was elected President of Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica in 1991 and re-elected by the voters twice (in 1996 and 2001). In the most recent Presidential election, voter turnout was 62.9 percent. Igor Smirnov, standing against two opposition candidates, took 81.8 percent of the vote.

However, even though the personal popularity of the president is high, the main governing party, Respublica, suffered a defeat in the most recent parliamentary elections when they lost to opposition party Renewal. The party and its allies took 29 seats in the 43-member Parliament against Respublica which only managed to hold on to 13 seats (one more seat went to an independent). Parliament is now in control of the opposition.

Does this mean that Igor Smirnov will step down? The next presidential elections are scheduled for December 2006, and Smirnov has already announced that he will be seeking re-election. It will be a tough fight, with new parties recently formed and the opposition enjoying a good deal of support among the voters. But Smirnov, the father of the nation, has a high level of personal popularity too. Given the odds, he stands a good chance of being able to win a new term, especially since his independence-or-bust position resonates with the electorate. Nine out of ten voters in Pridnestrovie want absolutely nothing to do with Moldova and are strongly supportive of an independent future for their new and emerging country.

If Smirnov is re-elected ... again ... is this the never-ending story of the presidency that wouldn't end? Not quite. Igor Smirnov has already publicly declared that he is ready to quit, and he has made no secret of when he will step down, either.

At a meeting on 7 September with the Women's Strike Committee, Igor Smirnov told its chairperson Galina Andreyeva that fifteen years ago, he pledged to the women that he would work until the complete recognition of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica. At the meeting, Igor Smirnov made it clear that he plans to keep his word: "We shall continue working together", he said.

When the statehood of Pridnestrovie is recognized internationally, and full sovereignty is achieved, then the life work of Igor Smirnov is done. As president of Pridnestrovie, he wants his small country to establish diplomatic relations and achieve international integration as a responsible neighbor and partner in the community of nations. When that happens, he is ready to step down, safe in the knowledge that he has done good for the people who trusted him in the independence struggle of 1990. Safe in the knowledge that victims killed in 1992, defending independence, did not spill their blood in vain.

See also:
» Igor Smirnov: "What matters first of all is the opinion of the people who live here"

On the web:
» Profile of Igor Smirnov