Snubbed Ceremony : Officials Miss L.A. Tribute to Victims of Soviet Coup

Los Angeles officials didn’t stand on ceremony the other day when a memorial was unveiled at Griffith Park to honor the three Russians killed in August’s short-lived Soviet coup.

They didn’t stand anywhere, in fact.

Not a single dignitary or city representative showed up when a marker and a newly planted magnolia tree were dedicated at the city park in a ceremony organized by the son of a Russian immigrant.

The Oct. 31 dedication had been organized after the visiting mayor of Moscow was a no-show for a ceremony planned a week earlier.

“I was very disappointed,” said Skip Chernov, a Hollywood resident who, along with a friend, purchased the ground-level stone marker and engraved it with the names of the three coup victims, who are considered martyrs by many Russians.

“I guess officials are too busy for small things. I guess they don’t realize that the big picture is made up of small things,” Chernov said.

Chernov, a 53-year-old racehorse trainer, had hoped that Moscow Mayor Gavriil Popov would dedicate the memorial Oct. 22, when he was visiting Los Angeles for a World Affairs Council luncheon. But when Popov fell behind schedule that day, the park ceremony had to be canceled.

Oct. 31 was picked as an alternative date after Mayor Tom Bradley and City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky promised to attend, Chernov said. To round out the group, he invited a priest and a rabbi and scribbled out a few thoughts of his own to say.

But Chernov found himself standing alone with Father Alexei Smith of St. Andrew Russian Greek Catholic Church and Rabbi Philip Warmflash of the Jewish Federation as the ceremony was to begin.

After a few awkward minutes, the two clergymen offered brief prayers. Chernov kept the scrap of paper containing his own short speech folded in his coat pocket.

This week, Chernov returned to the park to linger over the marker, inscribed with the names of Ilya Krichevsky, Dmitri Komar and Vladimir Usov. The three died Aug. 20 in a clash with an armored personnel carrier outside the Russian Federation headquarters.

“These guys are the reason Russians will never again lose their freedom. They won’t give it up now,” Chernov said quietly.

“It’s wonderful to be able to say I’m a Russian-American. I’m very proud of it. This is the first time I’ve ever been able to express it.”

At City Hall, aides to Bradley and Yaroslavsky were expressing their apologies.

The mayor had been tied up with a prior commitment on the day of the dedication and his staff had attempted to ask Chernov to reschedule it, a spokesman said.

The councilman had been eager to attend the ceremony, but he was never informed of its day and time, a spokeswoman said.

Chernov wasn’t buying any of that, however. He suggested that he was snubbed because he is a little guy--and because he is a newcomer who is not yet in tune with Los Angeles politics.

He moved here two months ago from Rhode Island, where he worked as a concert promoter before taking up horse training as therapy after a heart attack. Chernov’s Russian-born father, Samuel, 84, lives in Oceanside.

“I don’t know anybody. Nobody knows me. I started out by calling the City Hall switchboard and asking who I should talk to about a memorial,” he said. From there he was directed to the offices of Bradley and Yaroslavsky. He received Recreation and Parks Department approval to place the marker at the park.

“I sense there’s some rivalry between the mayor and this Zev guy,” Chernov said with a shrug.