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Catalogue Dream Mates From Russia

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Are you a baffled bachelor? Dashed by the dating game? Some modern-day matchmakers have two words for you: Russian women.

“These ladies, they want out and they also want to have a life and they also are young,” says Ron Schwartz, president of the Russian Connection.

“American men have a particularly good reputation because their entrepreneurial nature has preceded them,” said Schwartz, whose Northern California-based club is one of several linking American men and the Russian women who want to marry them.

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Gazing from the pages of Schwartz’s catalogue are 23-year-old Ludmilla, a tourist guide; 30-year-old Elena, an opera singer, and 29-year-old Helene, a neurologist.

And there’s 31-year-old bank secretary Elvira, who just wants a chance at a better life.

“I have been disappointed in Soviet men,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Moscow. “I have seen that they are somewhat lazy. . . . I’m not satisfied with the life I live here in Russia. You know that life in Russia is rather hard.”

For men who may have languished on the domestic marriage market, the matchmaking services are bridegroom bliss--scores of young, good-looking and well-educated women willing to marry men 10 to 20 years their senior.

“Can you imagine, I’m some American guy who’s well-to-do but not particularly handsome. . . . I go over to the Commonwealth of Independent States and there’s these highly educated, beautiful women,” Schwartz says.

Still, there are drawbacks.

An industry maxim holds that sometimes “first the ladies over there fall in love with your passport, then they fall in love with your money and then maybe they’ll fall in love with you, but probably not,” he said.

“That’s why . . . I say, ‘Hey, talk to these people via letter before you go over there.’ ”

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There’s room for exploitation on both sides because the men generally have the upper hand economically. But Schwartz urges members to “be kind, be realistic,” if they want a happy marriage.

In a pitch that hasn’t been a big hit with feminists, the catalogue’s introduction notes that “Russian women retain many traditional ideals and values sadly lost to our society, and in addition are not obsessed with ‘equality’ or addicted to the often unreasonable habits of so many Western women.”

Still, Schwartz maintains, “these women are not subservient. You get the image of mail-order brides and all that. No way. These men get their hands full.”

Elvira, at least, isn’t looking to be the Russian June Cleaver.

“I have a great desire to work. I think that I won’t be satisfied with the role of housewife,” she said.

Only about a year old, the Russian Connection is a relative newcomer. Other names in the American men-Russian women matchmaking business include the British-based Moscow Connection; Scanna International in Pittsford, N.Y., and American-Russian Matchmaking in Studio City.

The services sprang up in recent years as exit visas became easier to get and a crumbling economy made it more desirable to get them.

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“Business is just growing and growing,” said Ron Rollbland, president of American-Russian.

Generally, the women pay a fee to appear in the catalogues, and the men pay from $25 to several thousand for memberships and trips to Moscow to meet their prospective brides.

Full membership in the Russian Connection costs $625. Members pick out 10 selections, Schwartz and his Russian partner narrow the list to five--based on questionnaires--and correspondence begins.

Of the men who go to Moscow through the matchmaking clubs, “about 70% of them get engaged on that trip and most of the other 30% can’t wait to go back,” said San Diego immigration attorney Larry Holmes, who specializes in bringing Russian fiancees to the United States.

Once engaged, it takes about three months for the woman to get a fiancee visa, good for 90 days. About 70% of the couples who get that far get married, Holmes said.

He said there have been no divorces, although they are likely to show up at the two-year mark, the point at which the woman must show she is still married in order to convert her temporary visa to a permanent one.

The attorney said he handles cases for Russian Connection, Scanna and American-Russian. And because his wife is Russian, he gets an inside take on what’s happening with the couples.

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“Who do you think these girls call when they have an argument with their fiancee or their husband?” he said.

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