By Patricia H. Kushlis
It’s good to see that Yale Richmond’s book From Nyet to Da: Understanding the New Russia has recently been released in its updated fourth edition. This book, first published in 1992, was designed as a practical guide for Americans interested in conducting business with the newly created Russian Federation as well as other parts of the Former Soviet Union.
What has kept From Nyet to Da from descending into obscurity is that it retains much of its original usefulness. First, not only was it written by a well respected practitioner who spent a substantial part of his US professional career as a negotiator on cultural and educational affairs with the then Soviet Union and learned firsthand how to reach agreement with the Soviets but also because the advice it contains is just plain useful for various kinds of US-Russian negotiations. Moreover, the book is written for the lay person with an interest in Russia as well as the first time negotiator who needs to make use of the advice immediately if not sooner.
Understanding Cultural Differences Is Imperative
What Richmond does best is to 1) explain the importance of understanding cultural and historical differences and nuances when negotiating with Russians; 2) describe these differences by comparing and contrasting American and Russian cultures highlighting how our respective cultures influence our respective negotiating behaviors – so this book should be useful to Russians interested in dealing with Americans too; and 3) provide practical suggestions for reaching successful outcomes.
Along the way, Richmond includes real life vignettes as well as updated data on Russian economic, demographic, geographical, political, legal and social conditions to help provide needed context for the negotiator.
When in Moscow, speaking the vernacular helps
I completely agree with Richmond when he describes the importance of speaking and understanding Russian when negotiating in the country – or the rest of the CIS. It does matter to the outcome. When in Rome, as the old adage goes, do as the Romans do – and speaking the language is a major part of the story. Language study is not just learning and stringing words, phrases and sentences together. Languages are loaded with subtle and not-so-subtle cultural meanings that are crucial for understanding how others think and live.
It’s a sad commentary on American education that the number of American students of Russian has continued to decline since the end of the Cold War. This problem, however, is not just a lack of interest on the part of American youth, rather I think it is more closely related to the downturn in US government funding for programs on and research about this huge part of the globe.
A point of disagreement
Where Richmond and I disagree, however, is with his observation that small talk is necessary to precede successful negotiations with Russians. Even in 1978-80 when everything I did as educational exchanges officer in Moscow involved some level of negotiation – from helping our exchangees get approval for study trips outside of Moscow to participating in the educational exchanges subgroup of the 1979 US-USSR Cultural Agreement negotiations as a member of Richmond’s team. I did not, however, encounter the need – or even the interest – in small talk on the part of the Soviet government officials with whom I dealt.
Whereas, I certainly found the need to speak and understand Russian. This was the language in which we conducted business face-to-face and also by telephone. Even after ten months of intensive training at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, it still took several more months in Moscow for me to bring my skills up to a comfortable level of communication.
This is not to say that I disagree with Richmond when he advises first time visitors to Moscow, for instance, to arrive with names and contact information of trusted Russians to meet or to take the opportunity to see as much as possible of the “real” Russia. These are excellent ideas even though, as he points out, personal safety has become a far greater consideration than in earlier days. Yet in the end, it’s those unique personal experiences which mean exploration well beyond the hotel, dorm room or apartment that make it the fascinating country that it remains.
Yale Richmond, From Nyet to Da: Understanding the New Russia, 4th edition, Intercultural Press, 2009.
WhirledView review of Yale Richmond’s Practicing Public Diplomacy: A Cold War Odyssey. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008.