Spectators Gasp at List of Prizes : Svelte 16-Year-Old First ‘Miss Moscow’

A 16-year-old student who praised Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s reform movement won Moscow’s first beauty pageant and walked away with a wealth of prizes that drew a gasp of amazement from the audience.

“I felt exactly like Alice in Wonderland,” Maria Kalinina said Sunday after her warm smile and svelte figure won over the 12 judges, who chose her from six finalists in a contest that emphasized bathing suit competition.

Photographers were waiting for her as she arrived at school today and hurried to a second-floor classroom to take the equivalent of her high school final examinations.

Izvestia Speedily Reports Grades

Izvestia, an afternoon paper, reported with almost unbelievable speed for the normally slow Soviet press that Kalinina received the highest mark in her Spanish test and top grades in literature and math exams as well.

The “Moscow Beauty ‘88” contest, made possible by Gorbachev’s more tolerant policies, was the first of its kind in the Soviet capital. Millions of Soviets watched a live television broadcast of the pageant.

As the master of ceremonies read out the list of prizes for Kalinina, the crowd of 11,000 in the Palace of Sport sighed in amazement. The prizes included a cruise on the Adriatic Sea, a trip to Austria, a television and mounds of cosmetics from the Western and Soviet sponsors of the event.

Falling Roses Knock Off Crown

Kalinina was the youngest contestant in a field of 36 that included an accountant, two librarians and two actresses. The oldest was a 26-year-old doctor who did not reach the final round Sunday night.

The third and final night of what was a gala event by normally austere Soviet standards went smoothly until the glittering crown was placed on Kalinina’s head.

At that moment, long-stemmed red roses began to rain from the ceiling, knocking off the crown and causing the beauty queen to duck and dodge, although she never lost her smile. The next shower of roses was aimed a little in front of the beauty queen and did not disrupt the ceremonies.