Word: soviet
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Bubka, 32, has been tilting at limitations for years, ever since he began vaulting at age 10 in the Ukrainian coal town of Lugansk, against the wishes of his father, a Soviet army sergeant. "It was a very hard time," he recalls. For nine years he persevered, unheralded, until the 1983 World championships in Helsinki. There he cleared 18 ft. 81/4 in. on his first try, a jump that won the gold and presaged dazzling things to come. So green was Bubka at the time that he failed to show up at the required press conference afterward; he had already...
Since then, he has founded a one-man sports dynasty of the sort that most athletes can only dream of achieving. He claimed his first world record (19 ft. 2 1/4 in.) in 1984, the same year the Soviet boycott forced him to miss the L.A. Olympics (two weeks before, he jumped six inches higher than the eventual gold medalist). He won a gold of his own at Seoul in 1988, and then set his sights on 20 ft.--a seemingly superhuman barrier that like the four-minute mile and the 8-ft. high jump, was regarded for years...
...charge is not without weight. Since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., Bubka has become the most successful pitchman to emerge from the wreckage of the Soviet sports machine, striking a fat endorsement deal with Nike that has made his face as familiar to Europeans as Bo Jackson's and Michael Jordan's are to Americans. Marketing savvy has served Bubka well, establishing him not only as a man of the world record, but also as a man of the world, who maintains for his family a pied-a-terre in Berlin, a condo in Monaco and an apartment...
...recently returned from two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. I had expected to find people embracing democracy and enjoying their newfound freedom. Instead, most yearned for the Communist days, when products were cheap. As Americans, we are frustrated to hear that Russians may choose communism over democracy, since freedom is our most cherished idea. Freedom is supposed to empower people. But it is a lot easier to choose and appreciate freedom if you have bread on your table. It's true that economic reform takes time, but Russians are sick of being...
...their national pride. Efforts to expand nato membership eastward, minimizing Russia's voice in world affairs and backing Yeltsin on every issue, are slowly paving the road for Zyuganov's victory. He will appeal to his countrymen's self-esteem and empty pockets, and to what remains of the Soviet totalitarian regime. Who would have thought that the U.S. policy toward communism would fail this way? JUAN CARLOS VELTEN Mexico City...