Just an Ordinary Couple

A Siberian honeymoon for Christina and Sergei

Seeking to learn more about her new husband's country, Christina Onassis recently asked a friend: "Who is Dostoyevsky?" One wonders what the great Russian novelist, a master of morbid psychology, would have made of last week's strange marriage in Moscow. Would he have found a chapter in The Possessed for impulsive, dark-eyed Christina, 27, the twice-divorced, jet-setting daughter of the late shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis? Would another Karamazov brother have emerged from his reflections on her spouse, Sergei Kauzov, 37, a former sales representative of the Soviet ship-chartering agency Sovfracht?

Conceivably, Dostoyevsky might have been intrigued by the circumstances of the wedding itself, which, as Greek newspapers reported with some acidity, was "short, simple and cheap." It cost $2.15. The couple pulled up to a Moscow "wedding palace" in a battered, lemon-yellow Chevy Nova lent by a Greek diplomat. As a piano and string quartet played Mendelssohn's Wedding March, they entered a dark-paneled chamber. The bride and groom promised Klara Remeshkova, the equivalent of a justice of the peace, that they would preserve their love for all their lives, be faithful and loyal and stand together in love and sorrow.

With Remeshkova's admonition to Sergei ("Wherever you go, do not forget your homeland,") ringing in their ears, the newlyweds made their way down a red carpet, accompanied by the recorded sounds of church bells, to their honeymoon car, a cream-colored Volga sedan. Christina, who was wearing a violet print dress, nearly stumbled before getting into the Volga, which Sergei had trouble starting. Finally the couple managed to pull away to face their incongruous future.

A throng of Western newsmen and Soviet reporters (who have yet to report the big event in Moscow's Russian-language papers) looked on as the newlyweds departed. The wedding itself was attended by only eleven guests, none of whom were from the bride's family. Like other members of the tight-knit international shipping community, they are uncertain what impact the marriage will have on the $500 million Onassis fleet, in which Christina has a 48% interest. (The rest is held by the Monte Carlo-based Alexander Onassis Foundation, which is run by a troika of Ari's cronies.) About 90% of the fleet's tanker business involves the transportation of Saudi Arabian oil. The anti-Communist Saudis may be reluctant to renew their charters in the future and would have no difficulty in finding replacements for the Onassis fleet.

Family sources discount rumors that the Greek government will nationalize the Onassis holdings to forestall a Soviet takeover, but they are nonetheless worried about what the Russians might do. "They are sure that one day the romance will be over, and what then?" says a family friend. "Will the Soviets brainwash Christina or somehow confiscate her property? They are afraid the Soviets will swallow her up."

The newlyweds gave no sign that they were troubled by the speculation. After a couple of quiet days in the Moscow Intourist hotel, they prepared to depart for a Siberian honeymoon at Lake Baikal and the town of Magadan, the site of several Stalin-era prison camps. Afterward, the couple will share a 2 1/2-room flat with Sergei's mother until they buy an apartment of their own. Christina says that she will assume the quiet life of a Russian housewife and start a family. "I don't know why reporters want to find out something spectacular about Christina and me," says Sergei, who earns $120 weekly tutoring pupils in English. "We are just ordinary people." Perhaps so. But it remains to be seen how long Christina, who longs for some peace and quiet, will be able to stand all the peace and quiet she is likely to get during the long, cold Moscow winter. -

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