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- PEOPLE, Page 88No Longer Factory-BuiltBy Emily Mitchell/Reported by Jeannie Park
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- To many Westerners, Soviet women often seem to resemble heavy
- farm equipment. But glasnost has started to strip away that myth.
- Last week the first-ever pageant to name Miss U.S.S.R. took place
- in Moscow. Hundreds of hopefuls smiled their way through more than
- 500 regional contests across the Soviet Union to get to Moscow.
- Only 35 long-legged finalists made it, and all of them behaved as
- if they were to the beauty pageant born. In the acting competition,
- each young woman dutifully made a dramatic declaration of love and
- shouted "Fire!" The contestants smiled in evening gowns, they
- smiled in bathing suits, and they kept on smiling even when a
- chintzy prize was announced ($500 and a free trip to Australia).
- Viewers watching the live telecast at home voted by phone, and
- their choice matched the judges' selection. One look at the winner,
- Yulia Sukhanova, 17, was enough to make the smiles universal. Yulia
- clearly has no need for perestroika.