World of the Play

The Polar Truth, written by Yury Klavdiev features several HIV Positive teenagers, experiencing homelessness in Norilsk, Siberia. Norilsk, one of the northernmost cities in the world, lacks vegetation, warmth, or clean air. The Polar Truth sheds light on the very real issues Russian teens face such as exploring their sexuality and experimenting with and/or using drugs. Not only do they experience police brutality, but they also encounter rejection in their own homes, sometimes masked in the form of religious piety. These characters courageously create a new life for themselves, and find a support system in one another, unshakable in the face of adversity.

Norilsk

Everyone around here, we’re all orphans of the Gulag.
Aleksandr, an 80 year old man who was sent to the Norilsk Gulag for the crime of being a Ukrainian peasant.

Imagine a city so remote that there are no roads leading to it. The only way to get in and out is by a ferry or airplane (Meier 204). Think of a cold and polluted place where there are no trees growing within 30 miles of the city. Welcome to Norilsk. This city was literally built on the bones of the prisoners who perished in its construction (Meier 163). To this day, any time there is a construction project, the laborers will still find large quantities of bones (Meier 210). These characteristics may not attract many visitors to the city. As of 2001, the government made such visits even more unlikely by reinstating the ban on any tourism into the city. In the Soviet era, Norilsk’s “closed-city” status was considered a security issue. The mineral riches of the city made it an ideal location for the development of military and industrial technologies (Meier 204). Recent authorities have declined to comment upon closing the city to outsiders again. Norilsk, the northernmost city in Siberia, is a harsh place to survive. Winter brings temperatures of 50 degrees below zero and 23 hours of darkness in the middle of December. With its unforgiving climate and isolation, it seems to be the perfect setting for Yury Klavdiev’s portrait of homeless youth living with HIV in The Polar Truth. The subject matter of the play matches the barren and merciless landscape perfectly. The city was founded as a prison camp in order to mine the land’s rich natural resources. The place where undesirables, mainly criminals of the State have been sent for hundreds of years, Norilsk originated as one of the first Gulags in Russia. At its peak, the Gulag contained over 100,000 prisoners (Meier 207). After the death of Stalin in 1953, rioting, strikes, and a lack of true authority plagued the prison. After their release from the Gulag, prisoners were unable to obtain the Propiska, or residency permit, required for them to return home. Thus, former prisoners formed the major population of Norilsk. The characters of The Polar Truth may very well be the grandchildren of these early inhabitants.

Mining is still the biggest industry in Norilsk. The company Norilsk Nickel was first founded in 1930 as a state enterprise under Stalin. Today “Norilsk Nickel is the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium” as well as one of the leading producers of platinum and several other metals (Norilsk Nickel.org). The lack of government regulation has led to one of the world’s worst environmental situations. Rampant air pollution has helped to prevent the growth of vegetation. Birth defects and ill health among children in the town has similarly been blamed on pollution from the factories and mining operations (Galpin). The average male life expectancy is also lower in Norilsk than in other Russian cities. While the average male life expectancy in Russian is already considered low, at about fifty-seven years, none of the workingmen in Norilsk can expect to live much beyond fifty years (Meier 200).

The buildings within Norilsk are in a constant state of disrepair. The extreme climate and permafrost leads to cracks in all of the sidewalks and buildings. Permafrost damage can actually cause certain parts of buildings to lift off of the ground and create caverns between the buildings and the frozen earth. In these “caverns” one would find needles, condoms, garbage, and probably homeless people. The unforgiving climate, environmental degradation, and arduous history of Norilsk make it a rather remarkable and unique place. Yet, for the inhabitants of Norilsk, as for the characters of The Polar Truth, it also serves as a familiar background for the ordinary struggles of everyday life.

Works Cited
Meier, Andrew. Black Earth: A Journey Through Russia After the Fall. New York: Norton, 2003. Print.

Galpin, Richard. “Toxic Truth of Secretive Siberian City.” 5 April 2007. BBC News, Web. 9 September 2009.

Norilsk Nickel. “About Norilsk Nickel.” 2008. Web. 27 Oct. 2009.

April Baldwin
Senior, Political Science

Homelessness in Contemporary Russia

Buried to their knees in daily cares, sunk to their torsos in problems, buried to their necks in poverty.
From The Polar Truth

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, there has been a drastic increase in the visibility of homeless people living in Russia. The collapse of the Soviet Union created immense economic instability throughout all of the regions that were once joined under the same political banner. Before the collapse, 14 million people in the Soviet Union lived at the poverty level. Afterwards, the number skyrocketed to 168 million people in these regions (Lane 98). As a result of this poverty, homelessness increased to levels that had not been seen since World War I and World War II (Stoecker 4). For decades the Russian government attempted to conceal the “vagrant” populations that inhabited its major cities by sending such people to to faraway regions, including Siberia. In The Polar Truth, Yury Klavdiev makes the attempt to reveal something of the struggles faced by these people whose experiences the government tried to conceal.

Homelessness is defined as “the condition (position) of a person with no living quarters belonging to him through right of ownership or right of use on the basis of a lodging (rental) agreement, and forced as a result to lead a lifestyle which may differ from a generally accepted ‘domestic’ lifestyle” (Interregional Study 2007 11). One of the biggest causes of homelessness in present-day Russia stems from a policy dating back to Stalin’s era in the Soviet Union. Every Soviet citizen was required to have a propiska, or residence permit, in order to gain housing within a particular city or region (Hojdestrand 1). This document is the defining difference of Russian homelessness as compared to homelessness in other countries (Interregional Study 2007 11). This policy created a large number of homeless people because anyone who could not obtain a propiska could not work or gain access to housing in the major cities. The propiska allowed the Soviet government to rid its cities and large towns of people deemed “undesirable.” Anyone who was politically dissident, homeless, or considered to be a criminal was sent out out of the cities (Hojdestrand 2).

Today there are some homeless shelters, but this has only been a recent development. For example, in 2001 a “Doctors without Borders” spokesperson delivered a speech to the Russian Duma explaining the plight of homeless individuals in the region. It was only at this time that “the Duma finally voted to create municipal health and social centers for the homeless in Moscow” (doctorswithoutborders.org). The Russian capital has only recently allocated funding for the homeless, and that monetary assistance has yet to reach a place as isolated as Norilsk, Siberia. In The Polar Truth there is no mention of any shelters -- the characters have to create one on their own. Ironically, the few shelters that do exist in Russia require a propiska for admittance. “The shelters are run by the local districts, the “raiony,” and are targeted only at people who formally lived in the respective district (Hojdestrand 6).” Residents of other districts and those without a propiska may not use the shelters. Even though the propiska can no longer banish people from the cities, it has created an entire culture of street people. The Polar Truth offers a glimpse into that culture and into the lives of people who for a very long time were virtually unseen and unheard.

Works Cited
Hojdestrand, Tova. “The Soviet-Russian Production of Homelssness: Propiska, Housing, Privatisation.” Department of Social Anthropology, University of Stockolm. 2003. Web.

Lane, David. “The Economic Legacy: what Putin had to deal with and the way forward.” Russian Politics Under Putin. Ed Cameron Ross. New York: Manchester University Press, 2004. 95-113.

Stoecker, Sally W. “Homelessness and Criminal Exploitation of Russian Minors: Realities, resources, and Legal Remedies.” Demokratizatsiva. Spring (2001). Web.

Interregional Study. “Social and Legal Aspects of the Problem of Homelessness in Russia.” Saint Petersburg, 2007. 1-70. Web.

April Baldwin
Senior, Political Science

The Gospel According
to Tapeworm:
Religion in The Polar Truth

In The Polar Truth, Yury Klavdiev depicts a cold, harsh world for anyone who is infected with HIV. Not only friends, family, and officials such as the police reject those who are infected by the incurable disease, but also members of religions like the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The beliefs of the Jehovah’s Witnesses prohibit them from treating anyone infected with any disease by means of a blood transfusion. According to Watchtower: Official Website of Jehovah’s Witnesses: “Those who respect life as a gift from the Creator do not try to sustain life by taking in blood” (“How Can Blood Save Your Life?”). The playwright attributes similar attitudes to the Jehovah’s Witnesses parents of Tapeworm, an HIV positive character in The Polar Truth. In a stage direction, he writes of the character’s experience: “For Jehovah’s Witnesses blood is something of a fetish. When his parents found out he was HIV-positive they gave him his own tin pan and spoon. They didn’t give him any forks or knives … They said, ‘Screw you going out infecting normal people’” (Klavdiev 15). Tapeworm’s parents want his blood to remain inside his body and they don’t want any other blood entering his body. The sentiment implied by the author is fear; fear of infecting others and a lack of hope for curing those who are infected. Because of this fear, the characters in the play must come together to create their own moral code and spiritual belief system in order to find happiness in a world that has rejected them.

Throughout the twentieth century, Russians struggled to find a balance between specific spiritual communities and the larger social and political structure of the country. For centuries, the Russia Orthodox Church had served as the dominant religion of the country’s leaders and most of its people. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the church had an estimated 100 million members, making it the world’s largest national church at the time (Kazvin 318-19). At the birth of the Soviet Union, however, the Bolsheviks seized control of the state. Because of their Marxist views, they “disestablished the church in January 1918” (Kazmina 319-20). The Bolsheviks’ ideals include the belief that religion is “the opiate of the masses” and they held the view that allowing any religious faith in the Soviet Union would be mirroring the old regime under the tsars. However, Christian ideals were deeply rooted in Russian culture dating back to the Byzantine Empire. As a result of this conflict, throughout the Soviet era, the relationship between church and state took several different forms, with the government frequently revising its sense of how the church must be controlled or utilized to serve the Soviet mission. Due to Gorbachev’s reforms at the end of the 1980s, this relationship shifted dramatically. When the Soviet regime fell, the people of Russia were able to practice a variety of religions. In this new environment of free choice, Russians in the 1990s began searching for God through a wide range of faiths, including Christianity and “omnibeliefs.” These “omnibeliefs” suggest that Christians might also believe in such things as: poltergeists, interplanetary aliens, reincarnation, and occult phenomena (Kazmina 334). Today, other religious orders such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses regularly send missionaries to help spread their faith to Russia (Kazmina 342). In recent years, however, the struggle for balance again has shifted toward greater solidarity between the state and the Russian Orthodox Church (Kazmina 339). Minority faiths, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, must register with the state and conform to strict regulations. In 2004, prosecutors in Moscow charged the group with “stirring up religious strife, dividing families, infringing on individual rights and freedoms [and] encouraging suicide by enjoining members to refuse medical assistance” (Weir 6). The court ruling to close the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow caused members of other religious groups outside the country’s dominant faith to worry about their future in the country (Weir 6). Clearly, the struggle to define the place of religious worship in the Russian state continues day-to-day. However no place exists in that battle for those with HIV. Yury Klavdiev’s dramatic world takes a firm stance against those in both religious and secular communities who would reject people with the illness. But at the same time he offers the victims, and by extension, his audience, an alternate vision of life through the spiritual community his characters create. Tapeworm provides words of wisdom when asked by Kid if it is possible to be like Jesus. He replies, “The main thing is to not fuck up. God does not fuck up. We kill and screw everything up. That is why, and only that is why: He is God and we are people … It’s just easier for us. We only have 15 or 20 years of life left. We won’t even get tired of being good” (Klavdiev 23).

Works Cited
“How Can Blood Save Your Life?” Watchtower: Official Website of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1990. Web. 28 Oct. 2009

Kazmina, Olga. “Religion.” Understanding Contemporary Russia. Ed. Michael L. Bressler. Boulder: Lynne Reiner Publishers, 2009. 317-51. Print.

Weir, Fred. “Moscow Ruling Vexes Religious Minorities.” Christian Science Monitor. 22 June 2004: 6. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 28 Oct. 2009.

Eric Boelsche
Junior, Department of Theatre Arts

“Let’s Talk about Sex, Baby”:
Sexuality and The Polar Truth

In the late 1980s, the policy of glasnost or openness made it possible for Soviet citizens to raise publicly a wide range of social, political and personal subjects, including sex. But despite the appearance of naked bodies in journals and sexually explicit themes in films, the subject of sex was widely considered inappropriate for everyday conversation. That attitude continues today. Even married couples do not always feel comfortable discussing their sex lives (Kon 172). This discomfort certainly extends to any discussion of the sexual habits of teenagers. Despite the lack of conversation on the topic among the general population, however, teenagers in Russia are having sex - probably at this very moment. But without the opportunity for informed discussion, they may approach this very real part of their lives with confusion. The absence of sex education in schools and at home may lead them to rely upon myths and misinformation about sex that they share with their peers.

Russian teens typically receive little information about sex from teachers or parents. In a survey performed in St. Petersburg in 2004, 61% of teenagers reported having “little or no sex education” in school (Kornienko). Parents often feel uncomfortable speaking with their children about sex, and vice versa. These teenagers, then, learn the bulk of what they know about sex from their peers, who probably have little knowledge themselves. This kind of information - or lack thereof - informs their sex lives. Another factor contributing to their knowledge of this basic human function is the proliferation of sexual material on television and the Internet. Someone from any culture who has a computer and Internet access can look for pornography on the Internet, but that person can’t always order prostitutes from the web in the way that Russians can (Aral 2184). There are Internet sites set up specifically for selling sex, and prostitutes can be contacted by way of such sites (Aral 2184). Ironically, however, despite this public proliferation of sexual images, discussion of sex itself is still widely considered somewhat taboo. This means that the pictures of topless women and other such suggestive images that started appearing in newspapers in under glasnost remain in the public eye (Goldschmidt 321) without a discussion of the consequences of what could happen when following through on impulses that arise from viewing them. The lack of discussion and safe-sex education for young people may also contribute to the prevalence of HIV and other STDs in Russia, according to a 2004 study of sexually transmitted disease in that country (Kornienko). Certainly the characters in The Polar Truth make no mention of the safe sex practices that tend to be part of any sex education program.

The characters in this play navigate this maze of misinformation in their efforts to consider both the ethics and the pleasures of sexual activity. Their debates about “jerking off” vs. “fucking” and advice concerning how to find an enjoyable sexual partner might be heard among teenagers in any part of the world. But in the environment of this play and in a society that seldom engages young people in meaningful conversations about sex with their more knowledgeable elders, such conversations represent one more way that the young people of The Polar Truth are left to construct their own society.

Works Cited
Aral, Sevgi O., Janet S. St. Lawrence, Roman Dyatlov, and Andrei Kozlov. “Commercial Sex Work, Drug Use, and Sexually Transmitted Infections in St. Petersburg, Russia”. Social Science and Medicine. 60 (2005): 2181-2190. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Apr 2009.

Goldschmidt, Paul W. “Pornography in Russia”. Consuming Russia: Popular Culture, Sex, and Society since Gorbachev. Adele Marie Barker, ed. London: Duke University Press, 1999. Print.

Kon, Igor. The Sexual Revolution in Russia. Trans. James Riordan. New York: The Free Press, 1995. Print.

Kornienko, Sophia. “Infections Linked to a Lack of Sex Ed.” The Moscow Times. 28 Apr. 2004. Lexis Nexis. Web. 10 Oct. 2009.

Abby Grimsley
Senior, Department of Theatre Arts

Drugs in The Polar Truth

Russians like to use drugs intravenously; it is culturally accepted.
We do not like pills or smoking; we Russians go for the real thing.
(Veeken 138)

In this quote, Russian HIV/AIDS educator Vitalic Melnikov describes some of the distinctive characteristics of the drug users his program targets. Not only does Melnikov highlight the growing trend among drug users toward injectable drugs, but he also notes that such drug users are often difficult to distinguish from the general young population. Those who inject drugs may also hold jobs, go to school and socialize with their peers who do not regularly use drugs. But what is it really like to do drugs in Russia and how is it connected to The Polar Truth? Answering this question requires finding out what kinds of drugs Russians use and in what ways they use them.

There are a few different types of popular drugs in Russia, each with its accompanying dangers. The four types of popular injectable drugs in Russia include heroin, “chornie” (translated to “black”), “vint” (translated to “screw”), and ketamine (Reilley 318). Heroin is the most expensive to buy, at the equivalent of 150 U.S. dollars per gram, while chorine is the least expensive, only about two U.S. dollars per dose (Reilley 318). Ketamine is cheaper than heroin - around ten U.S. dollars for ten CCs - but users also must inject it more frequently, as the high it gives lasts only about thirty minutes (Reilley 318). Both vint and chornie can be manufactured from home, which is cheaper than buying the drugs, but is also considerably more dangerous, given the high risk for incorrectly mixing chemicals (Reilley 318). Preparing chornie presents additional risks because occasionally blood is added to the mix in order to soften it (Reilley 318). If the person making the chorine is HIV positive, his or her infection can spread to the users who inject that batch of drugs. In The Polar Truth, the characters would most likely use homemade drugs because of their limited economic means. This kind of use makes them self-sufficient in that they don’t need to rely on a dealer for their drugs, but it also requires skill in making the drugs so they do not end up accidentally making something that will kill them.

Drugs are also connected with being social and hanging out with friends, especially among Russian youth. Teenagers sometimes refer to drug use as “relaxing,” which connotes a leisure activity rather than an uncontrollable habit (Pilkington 39). There are often other elements of relaxation involved in drug use, such as watching television or eating junk food (Pilkington 40). Even though young people do not necessarily consider drug use to be a bad thing, they do think it is something they need to watch carefully and regulate (Pilkington 33). Some social circles have even designed certain rules for “safe” drug use, such as controlling the frequency of use, not exceeding a certain dose, and knowing that the drug is “pure” and hasn’t been mixed with any other drugs (Pilkington 33-4). As long as they follow these designated rules, these teenagers feel that they are being smart and safe with their drug use and therefore have no qualms about injecting (Pilkington 34). The characters in The Polar Truth inhabit a similar world of drug use. Drugs provide a common cultural reference point and even a bonding activity. Characters feel they have a handle on the rules of safe use, and yet the dangers – of HIV infection, of deadly concoctions and of violence at the hands of users and dealers – help to define the harsh reality of their world.

Works Cited
Pilkington, Hilary. “‘For Us It Is Normal’: Exploring the ‘Recreational’ Use of Heroin in Russian Youth Cultural Practice”. Journal of Communist Studies and Transitional Politics. 22.1 (2006): 24-53. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.

Reilley, Brigg, Dave Burrows, Vitalec Melnikov, Tatiana Andreeva, Murdo Bijl, and Hans Veeken. “Injecting Drug Use and HIV in Moscow: Results of a Survey”. Journal of Drug Issues. 30.2 (2000): 305-322. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Apr. 2009.

Veeken, Hans. “Russia: Sex, Drugs and AIDS and MSF.” British Medical Journal. 138.2 (1998): 138-40. Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 15 Apr. 2009.

Abby Grimsley
Senior, Theatre Arts

HIV Epidemic in Russia

The truth is HIV. Because HIV shows what a person’s worth. In real terms. Ask yourself what you’d do if you were going to die in ten years. Your answer to that question will show how much truth you have in you.
Tapeworm

Russia’s HIV population is among the largest in the world, with close to one million people infected as of 2007 (CIA); it’s also one of the most ignored. Due to the lack of knowledge surrounding this topic in Russia, HIV and AIDS are not commonly understood, but rather feared as are the people who have the disease. If the disease is not addressed by the Russian government and if accurate steps are not taken to suppress the spread of HIV, Russia’s future looks bleak. According to scholar Timothy Heleniak, “the disease has the potential to be crippling for Russia, demographically, socially, and economically” (235).

HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, is the underlying primary cause of AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome. AIDS causes the human immune system to weaken progressively and allows other viruses and diseases to infect the human body. HIV appeared fairly recently in Russia, with the first case being diagnosed in 1987. However, the rate of infection since 1996 has grown exponentially, in part due to unprotected sexual encounters and intravenous drug use that has increased dramatically since the fall of the Soviet Union. The prevalence of these activities in prison makes the incarcerated population particularly vulnerable to the disease.

A main form of transmission of HIV is through sexual contact. Heterosexual or homosexual contact between the Russian people and foreigners is believed to be the initial transmission of the virus (Heleniak 236). The country has also seen a dramatic increase in the number of sex workers in recent years. In 2003, Moscow was reported to have about 13,000 to 30,000 prostitutes and St. Petersburg estimated that their population was about 8,000. Sex workers are at high risk both to contract the disease and to help spread it to other populations. The drug culture in Russia has contributed to the transmission of HIV as well. During the 1990s, the number of intravenous drug users in Russia grew drastically, as did their rate of HIV infection. By 1996, over 66 percent of the cases of HIV were attributed to the sharing of needles and other drug paraphanalia (Heleniak 236). What researchers have seen in Russia’s HIV population is that a large percentage of those with HIV are young, because most of the population of drug users is young. 78% of that population consists of young males between the ages of 20 and 30. With the drug culture being a huge aspect of young people’s lives in Russia, health workers worry that infection among drug users will continue to spread throughout the population in increasing numbers. Prison culture has been another contributing factor in the spread of HIV in Russia. Transmission in the prison system is generally through unprotected sex and drug use among prisoners. The Russian prison system serves as an incubator for the spread of HIV as well as other infectious diseases and serves as a vehicle for spreading HIV to the general population when inmates are released.

The Polar Truth examines many of these activities and populations in the form of individual human beings inflicted with the disease. It also depicts the social, economic and emotional effects on those individuals when the larger community cannot find a place for them and their illness. In both ways it seeks to tell the truth of HIV in Russia.

The Russian Federation is on the verge of an HIV epidemic that will be very difficult to contain.
Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, Nov. 2000

Works Cited
CIA. “Russia: People.” The World Factbook. Web. 9 Oct. 2009.

Heleniak, Timothy. “Population, Health and Migration.” Understanding Contemporary Russia. Ed. Michael L. Bressler. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2009. Print.

Popova, N.V. “College Students’ Attitudes Toward People Infected with HIV.” Ebscohost. 2007. Web. 19 April 2009.

“Russia’s Aids catastrophe growing.” BBC NEWS | News Front Page. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.

Tedstorm, John E. On the Frontline of an Epidemic: The Need for Urgency in Russia’s Fight Against AIDS. CIAO 2003. Web. 19 Apr. 2009

Theodore, Gerber P., and Sarah E. Mendelson. “Crisis Among Crises Among Crises.” Ebscohost. 2005. Web. 23 Oct. 2009

Lauren Guy
Junior, Theatre Arts

Francis Cabatac in The Polar Truth at Towson University. November 2009. Photo: Tina Staffieri