"COMRADE GENERAL, WELCOME TO OUR FINEST SUITE."
VILLA ANDROPOV WHERE THE ELITE PARTIED
ELYSEE INVITES YOU INTO LT. HADINOV'S FAMILY RETREAT.
Excerpted from my book: OUR SUMMER IN ESTONIA Amazon.com
It was my idea, while in Parnu, to stay at the Villa Andropov. Their web site, otime military guy, was the name. Andropov was the next to last Soviet General
Secretary, before Gorbachev, being in office only sixteen months before
he died at the age of sixty-nine of kidney failure. He was KGB all the way,
having been head of the Soviet secret police for fifteen years. The Villa
Andropov was started under his administration as General Secretary, as
a retreat for high ranking Soviets in Estonia, similarly ranking Estonian
communists, and leading Soviet state visitors. That it was named after
such an exalted figure as Andropov testifies that this place was meant to
be where the elite meet.
During its prime, Villa Andropov was heavily guarded by military
forces around the clock. Estonians were unaware of its existence and
kept away at all times. The beach was private and long enough to secure and screen
at each end from public viewing. The Villa had its own cinema, seating about
100, and therein is a tale.
The projectionist was Estonian. He would be escorted to the projection room by a back door, screened from any chance to see who was in the audience, and spirited away as soon as the show was over.
With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 the resort/retreat
was abandoned and came under Estonian state ownership. The Villa was
falling into disrepair and was bought from the State in 1997 with plans for
renovation as a resort, linked to the already well known summer resort
of Parnu. An 18-hole golf course was completed in 2005 and the Villa and
its properties are open now as a resort. It is still dilapidated, in need of
major renovation, and in its present condition gives off an eerie sense of
a long neglected graveyard.
During our first night, except for a wedding party, we were the only
guests. The place is simply weird. Our lodgings were in a compound
separate from the main building; a two level, family-style timshar-like
motel. It was set up to be a family retreat but had no utensils in the
kitchen, but there was a functioning sauna. The main building, which
also had guest rooms, was really getting to be rundown. It either needed
bulldozing or it should have been shut down for a couple of seasons for
repair and rebuilding. Looking at some of the suites that held the Soviet
elite, we were seeing a 1970’s time warp. Although furnished in the 1970s,
the furniture and fixtures looked like leftovers from a Hollywood set
in the 1950s. Formica tables and lava lamps?
At breakfast the next day I had the sense of being witness to the final stage of Soviet collapse as though the trains had stopped bringing supplies some months before. The buffet breakfast had a platter of cold fried eggs, there was only white
bread, no butter or spread, salty tasting coffee leading to thoughts that the sea had invaded the plumbing, cereal without anything but milk to
go in the bowl, and a plate of something that might have been meats
and other unidentifiable products.
I sensed the ghosts of Soviet’s past roaming the empty corridors, staggering after their negligeed Olgas, swilling vodka from the bottle, demanding service from a cringing staff, their drivers and aides waiting outside in the snow. It was like the last days of Pompeii, Soviet style. The place has promise, but it needs investment
and attention quickly. I’m glad I saw the place, but Elysee and I quickly
agreed, one night was enough. I saw how the other half lived, and it
wasn’t very pretty. Elysee and I were elated to be back in our love nest a
day early. One more night with the ghost of Yuri Andropov, and the men
with white coats would be coming after me.*
* When I was a member of the United States’ arms control delegation negotiating with the Soviet Union on theater nuclear weapons (1981-1983) Yuri Andropov was then the Secretary General of the Soviet Union. The negotiation went nowhere. Andropov died in 1984. Gorbachov came to power in 1985, and by 1987 he and Ronald Reagan signed the INF treaty. The right men do make a difference.
