Library of Congress's 'Russia' Connection By David Streitfeld Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 1, 1998

James Billington hosts "Face of Rusia." (File Photo)

Yet casual viewers of "The Face of Russia," a three-part series that began June 17 and ends tonight, will be hard pressed to understand why. The Library of Congress has the most comprehensive holdings of Russian material outside Russia itself, but the institution's name is never heard during the three hours. Nor is there an exhibit at the library that ties in with the show.

Instead, the principal connection is the boss. The host for this examination of Russian culture is James Billington, introduced merely as "one of America's foremost Russian historians," but better known in this city as the librarian of Congress.

"The library is benefiting from this," Billington said in an interview. "I think everybody benefits. It's a win-win situation."

Billington stressed that no library money was used to make the series, which cost $2.25 million. He also said he cleared his involvement with both the library's general counsel and the House ethics committee. Still, "The Face of Russia" is an unusual mingling of public and private interests, and it marks several firsts for the library.

Making the series was a dream of Billington's since the early '70s. During his 1987 Senate confirmation hearings, he noted he had gotten "a small pilot grant from the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Foundation to develop an educational television project and course on Russian culture."

The librarian, whose 1966 book "The Icon and the Axe" is a standard text in Russian studies, is not only the host and narrator for the series, but he also wrote the script and a forthcoming companion book. He did it all, including extensive location filming in Russia, on his own time, he said. "I typed the book myself. Want to see my hard drive?"

Billington, whose library salary is $125,900, declined to discuss his earnings from "The Face of Russia," saying, "I don't think it's anybody's business."

His most recent financial disclosure forms note that he was to receive $120,000 for his work on the series. While Billington is subject to a $20,040 outside earned income limitation, the ethics committee agreed to let him spread his fee over the last 11 years. Only $4,960 could not be allocated this way, and that sum was declined by the librarian.

The library is not just helping promote the librarian's work. It's also a partner with him. The library is one of the producers of "The Face of Russia," along with the local public television station WETA, Malone Gill Productions (which actually made the series), Public Media Inc. (a video distributor) and Media-Most (a Russian media conglomerate).

"The library had an interest in getting involved in this. I was looking for ways to dramatize and get better attention to our foreign collections," Billington said.

But he said it wasn't his idea to associate the library with "The Face of Russia," it was "some members of my staff." Asked who those staffers were, he said, "I don't remember."

It's unusual for the Library of Congress to co-produce a major television series. A spokeswoman said the only three previous occasions where the library was a producer or partner were all explicitly about the library and its collections.

In addition to "heightened public awareness of" the library's Russia collection, Billington hoped "The Face of Russia" would provide "some favorable general notice of the library on TV" as well as "some revenue . . . if the series brought in money over basic production costs."

In 1994, a contract for the series was signed among the various partners, including Billington (acting in his personal capacity) and the library. Signing for the library was Suzanne Thorin, then Billington's chief of staff.

The library had a "substantial editorial role in the production, particularly in the early stages," spokeswoman Jill Brett said. "It's not all that unusual for us to do this, even if we're not co-producers." In the future, she added, it may be even more common. "We want to be more closely involved in more television productions, and this was a good first step."

The contract called for all the parties to do fund-raising, including the library and Billington. Despite this, Brett said, "the library did not have a fund-raising role."

The funders were the George Soros's Open Society Institute, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Archer Daniels Midland, Dresser Industries, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Public Broadcasting Service. Billington said he tried only to hit up people to whom he did not go in his role as a fund-raiser for library projects.

But even when Billington didn't make the pitch himself, the library's involvement helped generate interest. "The library certainly adds to the authenticity and legitimacy of this," said Jonathan Howe of the Davis Foundations, which gave $250,000.

Said Phylis Geller, executive producer for the series at WETA: "To my mind, the library being a producer was a benefit. It certainly gave the show a prestigious imprimatur – a very strong mark of credibility."

If the series had been six episodes, as planned, some of the library's work might well have been showcased, as Billington hoped. But only enough money could be raised for three hours. The fact that the Malone Gill production team was based in London, as well as the filmmakers' desire to do as much location shooting as possible, also meant that the library's role was diminished.

WETA's Geller said that the library's role in the final product was "minimal. There are photographs that come from their collections. And they helped us get a print of one of the Eisenstein films. But this really isn't 'The Treasures of the Library of Congress.' "

The ad in the current issue of Civilization: The Magazine of the Library of Congress might give the opposite impression. The top of the page plugs the series, noting that it's hosted by "one of America's foremost historians of Russia and the Librarian of Congress." At the bottom is an invitation to the reader to become a Library of Congress Associate.

"When we did the ad, we were under the impression that a lot of the materials here would be referenced in the shows," said library spokeswoman Brett. The library didn't pay for the ad; under the deal with Civilization, which is edited outside the library, the institution gets one free page every bimonthly issue.

Yet if "The Face of Russia" didn't talk about the library, the library nonetheless ended up being one of the copyright holders. While as a federal agency the library is usually not allowed to own copyrights, it can be assigned a copyright interest. In this case, WETA assigned a partial interest in copyright to the library.

"I can't give you a rationale for that," Geller of WETA said, adding "it was part of the deal" before she came aboard the project.

This makes the library eligible to receive "back-end" money from "The Face of Russia," although any earnings are for the moment hypothetical. If there is any worldwide distribution of the series, the library, as well as Billington himself, will each receive between 7.78 and 10 percent of the net revenues, spokeswoman Brett said.

This assumes there are any net revenues. "Historically these kinds of documentaries are not big moneymakers," said WETA's Geller.

Meanwhile, Billington owns the copyright to the underlying script as well as the forthcoming book. Ten thousand copies of the $29.95 book will be issued in September by TV Books. "That's more than what we normally do, because of the name recognition of the author," publicist Sommer Hixson said.