160 Tanja Penter
is visible in the letters mentioned above from victims of the radioactive contamination in Chelyabinsk, when they asked for support and evidence to be
able to obtain urgently needed medical services. Thus, in November 1994, the
former military member and invalid of the second group, Yuri Evgenevich
L., appealed urgently to the mayor of Chelyabinsk: “My health is getting
worse every day, the doctors are advising me to stay in the hospital, but there
is no place available. I sincerely hope for your understanding and support.” 102
The generation of pensioners often suffered particularly from the economic and social upheavals following the end of the Soviet Union. 103 In
December 1999, for example, an old woman from the city of Bryansk in
Russia and former forced laborer wrote to Otto Graf Lambsdorff, the Special
Representative of the German Government for the compensation of Nazi
forced laborers: “I am 81 years old and live on the miserable Russian pension. I live under the most difficult conditions. Our Russian pension is only
enough for half a month for basic foodstuffs.” 104
Pensions and wages had not risen at the same rate during the transformation years. In 1999, the average pension in Russia was only 70% of the
subsistence minimum, and in the following years, it leveled off at about the
subsistence minimum. This did not change until 2009, when pensions were
raised significantly as part of the Russian government’s anti-crisis program.
In Russia, as in Ukraine and Belarus, there were major deficits, particularly
in nursing care for the elderly and in the health system. These areas particularly affect the elderly. According to the Russian Constitution, medical
services should in principle be free of charge for citizens, but in practice, they
must increasingly be paid for by the citizens themselves. In addition, medical care differs greatly between Russian regions and there is an urban-rural
divide, so that poor people in villages or small towns often cannot receive
the necessary treatments. 105 The social legislation divided pensioners into different pension categories with graduated rights and benefits, thus creating
social and economic disparities. At the top of the pensioners’ care pyramid
in Russia are still war veterans, whose health care is regulated by law. This
also reflects the continuous central importance of the “Great Patriotic War”
in Russian history policy and culture of remembrance. 106
Various victim groups competed for scarce resources of the post-Soviet
social welfare systems during the difficult transformation period after the end
of the Soviet Union. Sometimes this also led to the phenomena of “competition between victims” as described by the philosopher and sociologist
Jean-Michel Chaumont. 107 In the successor states of the Soviet Union, in particular, the relationship between victims of Stalinism and National Socialism
or between Jewish and non-Jewish victims was sometimes very tense. After
a visit to Minsk in November 2000, a representative of a German association
for victims of Nazi persecution noted in his travel report: “This resigned
basic mood – mixed with envy of the Jewish victims of persecution – results
in widespread anti-Semitism, even among those victims who themselves suffered in the concentration camps.” 108
is visible in the letters mentioned above from victims of the radioactive contamination in Chelyabinsk, when they asked for support and evidence to be
able to obtain urgently needed medical services. Thus, in November 1994, the
former military member and invalid of the second group, Yuri Evgenevich
L., appealed urgently to the mayor of Chelyabinsk: “My health is getting
worse every day, the doctors are advising me to stay in the hospital, but there
is no place available. I sincerely hope for your understanding and support.” 102
The generation of pensioners often suffered particularly from the economic and social upheavals following the end of the Soviet Union. 103 In
December 1999, for example, an old woman from the city of Bryansk in
Russia and former forced laborer wrote to Otto Graf Lambsdorff, the Special
Representative of the German Government for the compensation of Nazi
forced laborers: “I am 81 years old and live on the miserable Russian pension. I live under the most difficult conditions. Our Russian pension is only
enough for half a month for basic foodstuffs.” 104
Pensions and wages had not risen at the same rate during the transformation years. In 1999, the average pension in Russia was only 70% of the
subsistence minimum, and in the following years, it leveled off at about the
subsistence minimum. This did not change until 2009, when pensions were
raised significantly as part of the Russian government’s anti-crisis program.
In Russia, as in Ukraine and Belarus, there were major deficits, particularly
in nursing care for the elderly and in the health system. These areas particularly affect the elderly. According to the Russian Constitution, medical
services should in principle be free of charge for citizens, but in practice, they
must increasingly be paid for by the citizens themselves. In addition, medical care differs greatly between Russian regions and there is an urban-rural
divide, so that poor people in villages or small towns often cannot receive
the necessary treatments. 105 The social legislation divided pensioners into different pension categories with graduated rights and benefits, thus creating
social and economic disparities. At the top of the pensioners’ care pyramid
in Russia are still war veterans, whose health care is regulated by law. This
also reflects the continuous central importance of the “Great Patriotic War”
in Russian history policy and culture of remembrance. 106
Various victim groups competed for scarce resources of the post-Soviet
social welfare systems during the difficult transformation period after the end
of the Soviet Union. Sometimes this also led to the phenomena of “competition between victims” as described by the philosopher and sociologist
Jean-Michel Chaumont. 107 In the successor states of the Soviet Union, in particular, the relationship between victims of Stalinism and National Socialism
or between Jewish and non-Jewish victims was sometimes very tense. After
a visit to Minsk in November 2000, a representative of a German association
for victims of Nazi persecution noted in his travel report: “This resigned
basic mood – mixed with envy of the Jewish victims of persecution – results
in widespread anti-Semitism, even among those victims who themselves suffered in the concentration camps.” 108