Russians Read All About It

What’s black and white and green all over? Smaller than a breadbasket. And in Russia, this hot item--made right here in the Valley--sells for five bucks on the black market.

One more clue, you beg?

It’s full of life--hopes, ambitions, struggle, love--but it has never been alive.

Meet “We and America,” a Russian language monthly newspaper just 3 years old and getting bigger each year.

Its audience is Russian-language readers, particularly newcomers who are trying to make a go of it here.

The free paper, with its black, green and white masthead, is the only Valley-based Russian language paper, its publishers say.

Izzy Gold, 46, a native of Vilnius, Lithuania, who now lives in Encino, and Mark Kab, 40, of Agoura Hills, a Latvian immigrant from the capital of Riga, are co-publishers.

In addition to their newspaper venture, Gold is a CPA and Kab works as a security consultant to several former Soviet republics.

The paper is based out of the Encino law offices of Kab’s wife.

On first glance, it could be any Ventura Boulevard legal firm.

However in a couple of the small offices, the discussion isn’t about depositions and court filings, but about how to help Israeli businessmen reach Russian customers. One desk away, an Internet designer is updating the paper’s Web site.

Because the writers and columnists are freelancers who work away from the office, there’s no hubbub of reporters yakking and tapping away at computer terminals. And the paper is printed at a Valley printer, so no tell-tale newsprint and ink stains muss up the plush carpets.

But listen to the conversations in the office, and you can tell by the talk of deadlines, stories and circulation that journalism is at work.

The paper’s advertising and content is quite different from its American counterparts.

Almost all ads are in Russian and advertisers include telephone service companies hawking cheap rates to Slavic countries, English language schools and Russian-speaking dentists and attorneys, such as Kab’s wife, Marina.

And though many Russian papers in the States focus on celebs and news from home, We and America writes plenty about practical stuff: how to land a job in the States, where to find free entertainment and services and how to use coupons (there’s no Soviet equivalent).

Yet much of what its readers find amusing, befuddling, or a combination of both, has to do with Americans themselves.

The American way, it seems, makes for good copy.

This month, in what is likely to generate some raised eyebrows, if not outright grumbles, among more conservative Russian men, one feature is about girl power, Yankee style.

Forget the Spice Girls.

This is for women--far away from home in Kiev and Tashkent--who have lived in the States long enough to pick up, well, that independent, liberated American mind-set.

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The article was written by “a Russian woman who has lived here for 25 years,” said editor Greta Adamova. “This woman says to men, ‘Why do you want to tie us to the home? We want to be like American women.’ ”

It isn’t a one-sided forum. Editorial glasnost is lively at We and America.

Last month, the paper featured “American women in the eyes of Russian men,” Adamova said.

Back in the former Soviet republics, many men hold conservative attitudes about women’s roles, Adamova said. A common complaint is that American women spend too much time at work and not enough time at home with the children.

And, of course, American women have that darned independent, carefree, have-it-all streak--though I doubt all American females do belly-button baring cartwheels in crosswalks, like the photo accompanying the story on how Russian men view American women.

“People are looking for our newspaper because they want something about American life,” said Adamova, 52, a native of Odessa, Ukraine, who also taught journalism at Odessa University. “Even if they are reading about an artist, they can match their life to his. They can match their destiny to his.”

The paper started out humbly enough, as a newsletter to keep law clients in touch with the legal system, but it got passed around to other readers, Kab said.

Readers begat more readers.

Maybe, Kab and Gold thought, we can try expanding into a newspaper.

With just $1,400 in start-up costs, the inaugural 16-page issue was born June 18, 1996. About 10,000 copies were printed.

Today, the paper is distributed free locally at markets, bookstores and other businesses that cater to Russian-speakers. It is a specialty niche. In Los Angeles County, there is a sizable Russian-speaking population. Although the 1990 Census estimated about 20,000 people in the county speak Russian at home, several Russian-language publishers insist their market is far larger.

Kab and Gold said their national circulation is about 45,000. A home subscription is $9 a year and copies are mailed across the country as far away as Georgia, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

You can find the paper at points even farther east . . . as in Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

And if you are at the main airport in Moscow, you might even see a guy handing out copies to U.S.-bound emigres.

“They get the paper, and they already know us,” said Gold, who is wise to hook in-flight readers dying to keep their minds busy during that long, long flight.

In Los Angeles, there may be about a dozen Russian newspapers and magazines, said Irina Parker, managing editor of the Russian paper Panorama, which is based over the hill in the West Hollywood area.

Parker, a Moscow native, said she often takes a look at We and America. “It’s a very good paper,” she said. “It tells me about the American way of living.”

And that’s just what the publishers want to do.

“We don’t touch politics. We don’t touch religion,” Gold said of the paper’s editorial philosophy. “We want to be for everyone.”