Is Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the racist demagogue whose party took a surprisingly big chunk of the vote in the new Russian parliament, an incipient Adolf Hitler? No. Is Russia, in the painful throes of transition to capitalism, another Weimar Ger-many? No. Are we pumping up this man's support by insulting voters who used him as their vehicle of protest? Yes.
He won a Perot-size slice of the ballots by organizing a party first; by outspending his dozen rivals on television in the final two weeks; by staying on his message of resentment of corruption, crime, unemployment and loss of national pride; by inheriting the support of fringe parties foolishly banned by a remote Boris Yeltsin; and by running against an establishment slate that took its pompous campaign style from Thomas E. Dewey.He won a fourth of the seats in half of the lower house at the same time a constitution squeaked through that shifts power from parliament to president. Russians split their vote, as some of us concerned about dictatorship had hoped - but with a vengeance.
That sometimes happens in democracies. It's no cause for "a new Hitler wins" in Germany's largest paper; for France's Le Figaro to castigate "a bewildered, exhausted and desperate" electorate; for Britain's foreign secretary to find it all "alarming"; and for Vice President Al Gore, in Moscow for what he assumed would be a Yeltsin celebration, to mix into a local scrap by declaring the winner's views "anathema."
Although the big Z tried to adopt a moderate stance in his press conference here - "I am not a fascist" - he soon blamed Jews on television for creating anti-Semitism.
Then, asked about coalitions with like-minded parties, he made a tasteless wisecrack about the Women of Russia movement, whose 9 percent vote had also stunned the experts: "In our Cabinet we have a number of intelligent, good-looking men who are in good shape in all senses."
Yeltsin has created a constitution that gives him the power to advance reform but gives his successor the power to reverse it. He will now use the threat of Mr. Z to discipline his own support. We should not let Yeltsin use the same threat to manipulate the West.
Zhirinovsky has a kooky charisma but lacks the key quality - trust - that takes politicians to the top.