Miss Moscow Shatters Stereotypes During Visit

It was not her breathtaking smile, as wide and sparkling as sunshine in Siberia. Nor was it her statuesque, leonine presence. Rather Mariya (Masha) Kalinina, 19, believes it was her intelligence and personality that two years ago earned her the title of Miss Moscow--the first official beauty queen in the history of the Soviet state.

It probably didn’t hurt that she also sewed a dress for the judges in 20 minutes. And showed them a serious aerobics workout.

In Orange County for an unofficial visit to tour college campuses and promote her career, Kalinina drew slack-jawed stares Wednesday at the Sports Club Irvine, where she is keeping in shape.

“Who is she?” said Steve Holmes, 31 of Laguna Hills from an exercise bike. “Is she free for dinner?”

“How about breakfast?” piped Scott Kersh, 32.

Kalinina is the guest of Paul Tatum, president of Irvine-based Americom International Corp., who met her on a Soviet talk show, “Moscow Review,” last month as he was promoting the American Trade Center. When it opens next year, the project, a joint venture with Intourist and Radisson hotels, will be the first American-managed hotel and business center in the Soviet Union.

Tatum insists they are just friends, saying even his girlfriend hasn’t complained.

Under his sponsorship, she arrived last week in Washington, where she met President Bush and Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) at a private meeting of Republicans. Cox was quoted as saying: “She’s certainly not the old stereotype of Moscow women.”

In fact there are many beautiful women in the Soviet Union, Kalinina said, walking up to the club. She waits while others go through the door first.

Until she became famous, she said, people on the street were always mistaking her for someone else.

Ignoring the stares of passersby, she explained she feels better without makeup, but uses it to change her image. “It’s interesting,” she said.

A descendant of Prince Fiodor A. Kurakin, a hero of the war of 1812 and a character in “War and Peace,” Kalinina is the only child of a doctor and a hotel administrator. As a child she said she always wanted an unusual life and yearned to be a contestant on “Hey You Girl,” a Soviet game show pitting beautiful women in athletic competition.

She was 15 when glasnost arrived, and with it, the first beauty pageant in Soviet socialist history. Most contestants did not know what to do, and received private coaching from the state in makeup and how to walk. They stood in lines in swimsuits and evening gowns, sang Russian songs and danced. They answered such questions as, “What are you going to do if you win?”

Kalinina said she would write a book about being in a beauty contest.

When she won, she was pelted with roses that fell so hard from the ceiling that they knocked off her crown. But in the manner of American pros, she kept on smiling.

She is still the reigning Miss Moscow, but the contests have proliferated and have produced a Miss USSR and local titles such as Miss Leningrad and Miss Kiev. While judges do not check for silicone implants or extra padding, she said the contests are not so important as to tempt women to cheat.

Her life has changed drastically as a result of winning, she said.

She has traveled extensively in Europe, modeling and appearing in one Italian film, “Pay Attention to Perestroika. “ She has cut a record, “Love Me,” in French, in France. And she has written a book, “Me, Miss Moscow: The Diary of a Beauty Queen.”

She said she was shocked to read in some Western newspapers that she had agreed to pose for Penthouse and Playboy. She said she refused because it is contrary to her image. (However, her English is not yet fluent and in explaining her refusal, she confused the words, accept and reject.)

The beauty contest has cost her some friends, who are jealous of her success, and the anger of some older people who don’t understand, she said. “They say, ‘What for? What for a beauty contest?’ ”

And a Soviet feminist movement opposes the contests on the standard American grounds that they exploit women.

“What can I say?” she said, shrugging and smiling. “I am here because of Miss Moscow. I like challenges and new situations.”