Yanks for Stalin
Interview Transcript

Abel Aganbegyan    (cont)

A.  Yes, when the protections were removed from our Hermitage and other museums, and we sold off valuables and antiques, which we did not consider to be of great value, such as symbols of the Tsarist era.  Why not, if we destroyed temples and great bells, which were artistic masterpieces.  We broke them apart, threw them away, no one cared for them.  That was our attitude.  All this splendor was not ours.  We would raze the entire world.  Why would we need these Tsarist trinkets?  That was our ideology, to part with the past so that we could establish our own, new art.

Q.  Do you think that Hammer took advantage of this?

A.  Yes.  And not only Hammer.  Look who owns the famous Faberge collection, the eggs.  Forbes.  The Queen of England.  How did they get these things?  They bought them, these, the famous Easter gifts from Faberge to the Emperors, the famous eggs.  Currently, just one of those eggs costs approximately $1 million.  And they all were bought for a song.  You probably have seen these eggs…

Q.  Yes.  How many times did you meet Hammer?  What did you like about him, and what didn't you like?  Perhaps you met his father.  Were they alike?

A.  No, I didn't know his father.  I only met Hammer in his later years.  He was in his early seventies when we first met.  Generally speaking, we would meet at various conferences concerning Russia.  He was usually invited as an honored guest speaker.  I was part of a working group at the East-West Institute in New York, this was during perestroika, and these were international groups, mostly Russians and Americans, but there were some Europeans, too.  These groups studied the further development of cooperation in East-West relations, and I was chairman of a group studying economic cooperation.  Also in this group was the governor of Illinois, from Chicago, the president of Pepsi-Cola, and other significant figures.  At that time we were organizing our conferences annually in different countries.  One was held in Moscow, for example, another in Chicago.  Hammer was invited to several of these conferences.  We would discuss issues, and he would give his speeches.  I visited him in his offices several times when I was in California.  He would invite me over.  We would talk.  He would ask me about Russia, about the conditions there.  He would send greetings to various high-ranking officials.

Q.  What did you like about him, and what did you dislike about him?

A.  I really can't give you a complete assessment of him, although I carefully read his autobiography, a big book.  He practiced philanthropy.  He gave a lot of money to the fight against cancer.  Not many people know that in Russia.  He was very rich, thanks not only to Russia, but to his business dealings in the Middle East, mostly in oil.  His company generally dealt in oil and chemicals.  He was a very successful capitalist.  He differed from other capitalists in that he had the ability to use political conditions to his advantage; he always became acquainted with leading political figures.  He learned how to do so in Africa and the Middle East, where authoritarian regimes ruled.  Apparently, he was able to use this knowledge in Russia.  In this sense, he was sufficiently successful.

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