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- PEOPLE, Page 88No Longer Factory-Built
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- By 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.
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