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In a statement to the Soviet parliament, Alexander Yakovlev, an aide to Mr Gorbachev, conceded the secret protocols did exist. The Supreme Soviet then declared the deal illegitimate, heralding the collapse of Soviet rule over the Baltic states.The exhibition includes a map of Europe showing a divided Poland, signed by Stalin in blue crayon, and by Hitler’s Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, in red ink. “We all know what happened but we are so used to being deceived that we like to see everything with our own eyes and touch the facts.”Soviet leaders, including Mikhail Gorbachev, for decades denied there was a deal with Nazi Germany to divide Europe.It was not until 1989 that Moscow ceased stone-walling. But it marks an important effort to open up Russia’s vast historical archives for public display.”This is really sensational,” one of its organisers, Tatiana Pavlova, an official at the State Archive Service of Russia, said.

FROM ANDREW HIGGINS

in Moscow
For the first time since Hitler and Stalin carved up Eastern Europe in 1939, a map bearing the Soviet dictator’s signature, and other long-classified documents, have gone on display in Moscow, the final act in Russia’s tortuous struggle to come clean about the infamous “secret protocols” that underpinned its lost empire.As part of an exhibition at Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery marking the 50th anniversary of Hitler’s defeat, the material provides concrete evidence of Moscow’s darkest and almost suicidal exercise in diplomatic realpolitik: the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 23 August 1939.The exhibition adds little to what has long been known about Stalin’s dealings with Hitler before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. South African politicians expressed disquiet about another potential route, around the Cape of Good Hope.”We call upon the governments of Japan, France and Britain to dispel our doubts by removing the secrecy shrouded around this shipment,” said Peter Mokaba, chair of the Standing Committee on Environmental Affairs in Cape Town.. BY RICHARD LLOYD PARRY

The secret route of the British vessel Pacific Pintail, which is transporting 14 tons of Japanese-owned nuclear waste from the French port of Cherbourg, took it within 17 miles of Plymouth yesterday, according to the environmental group Greenpeace.
By yesterday afternoon the Greenpeace tug NV Solo had tracked the Pintail to the Isle d’Ouessant, near the French port of Brest, from where it was heading south on the way to Japan.The ship’s operators, Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd (PNTL), a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels, have refused to disclose details of the Pintail’s course during its six- to eight-week journey, despite protests from environmentalists and states along its potential routes.The government of Chile yesterday followed Argentina and several Caribbean and Pacific countries in barring the ship from its coastal waters, including those around Cape Horn. The IMF, which has lent Russia $4bn, has linked approval of the standby loan to passing and sticking to a tight budget.A Western diplomat said the vote “combined with Yeltsin’s veto of the minimum wage bill has put the budget in very good shape for the IMF negotiations. The standby would be an important source of non-inflationary financing and is a critical contributor to bringing down inflation in Russia and stabilising the economy”.President Yeltsin on Thursday rejected a draft law which would have more than doubled the minimum wage, saying it would cost Russia an extra 159 trillion roubles (£23.27bn).Russia’s military campaign in Chechnya has raised questions about whether Moscow should receive further foreign loans..

Deputies approved the draft at a third reading by 268 votes to 93 with three abstentions as the latest talks between Russia and the IMF began in Moscow. A final reading is required but is seen as a formality.
The budget foresees expenditure of 248 trillion roubles (£35.8bn), revenues of 175 trillion roubles (£25.15bn) and a deficit of 73 trillion (£10.7bn), equivalent to eight per cent of gross domestic product. Moscow – The prospect of Russia being granted a crucial $6.3bn (£3.9bn) loan from the IMF increased greatly yesterday after the lower house of parliament passed the 1995 budget, Reuter reports. And, as always in Russia, it is women who must wait patiently in the queue.Andrew Higgins.

Feminism, she says, is best avoided, at least so long as Russia’s sexual demographics are stacked in men’s favour.”Women should try to obey, or at least make it seem as if they are obeying.” When it comes to mating and marriage, the grim rules of Soviet-style supply and demand still apply: no matter how shoddy the product, shortages ensure it rarely gets left on the shelf. There should be no trembling, no reaction, no excitement.”She tells pupils to avoid mini-skirts and plunging necklines at work but urges them never to neglect their femininity. After 10 years working with potential suicides, she knows how to put people at ease. Good manners, she says, grow from peace of mind.Her basic precept is “never panic”, especially when confronted with an unwelcome suitor: “A woman must stay calm but create a distance Any emotion can provoke the man.

The Soviet Union went through a sexual revolution in the 1970s but many women, she says, remain deeply confused, lurching between matronly reserve and outrageous promiscuity.Her teaching methods borrow heavily from her previous job as a group therapist. Her programme for new entrants includes lessons in “psychology of attraction, psychology of sexual partnership, strategies for finding and preserving love, secrets of a successful marriage, deportment, fashion, make-up, etiquette, business style and the psychology of formal relations.”More and more women, says Mrs Sobchik, a 40-year-old psychology graduate from Moscow State University, are fed up with being classified as bimbos or babushkas. The Sharm-Biznes Kolledzh offers a sandwich course in astrology, accounting and etiquette; Kontakt runs what it calls a professional course in “female culture and attractiveness”.Mrs Sobchik, something of a pioneer in the field, mixes romantic fantasy with the facts of life. (The bank provides a third floor room free of charge in return for etiquette courses for staff). It is still a far cry from the Smolny Institute but, says Mrs Sobchik, the new address is a marked improvement on previous premises next to a communal bathhouse full of drunken, sweaty men.Rivals in the self-improvement field are legion. Reviving what passes for tradition is a lucrative business.After several years shuffling between rented classrooms and ramshackle palaces of culture, Mrs Sobchik now operates from the more salubrious quarters of a lavishly remodelled Russian bank. You won’t be sorry.”Selling charm, like any other commodity, no matter how scarce, is an aggressively competitive industry in Russia these days.