A Brutal Day in Russia
I think that most Ricochet members who haven't had daily interactions with Russians would like them.
To me, Americans and Russians share a common swagger - a sense of proportion, that I think comes from being a great power; a frontier-building nation, which gives a certain confidence and pride to everything the two nations do. In my opinion, America and Russia share many more similarities than they do with most European countries.
However, Russia's history and government is like going through the looking glass, darkly. If most things have broken right for the U.S. (and, when you compare countries' histories, America has it about as good as it comes), Russia is the mirror universe, where there's a bearded Spock and an insane Captain Kirk in charge with an agonizer booth. Communism was bad enough (as my country had the misfortune to experience for 50 years), but that's just the tip of the iceberg with the kind of leadership that Russians have suffered under for roughly 800 years.
And the Russian people, for that reason, can be some of the most pessimistic people on the planet because of that history. The glass isn't half empty, it also contains large quantities of mercury and lead.
Today was another ugly (situation normal) day in Russia. Three members of a teen-age female punk band, Pussy Riot, were found guilty of hooliganism and sentenced to two years in jail (after already serving five months awaiting trial), after an impromptu performance in a Russian Orthodox church, in which they called for the downfall of the present czar, Vladimir Putin.
(A little context: Although most people find invading a church for a crude demonstration distasteful, the Russian Orthodox Church has always been hand-in-glove with the ruling parties in Russia. During Soviet times, many of the priests were KGB informants on their own flock, and when Estonia got its independence back in 1991, the Orthodox Church here broke with the Moscow diocese and aligned itself with the Greek Orthodox branch).
No matter how you feel about the circumstances - two years for singing in a church? Really?
During the reading of the verdict, Gary Kasparov, the international chess champion and anti-Putin agitator, was arrested and hauled off. Some reports say he was physically attacked by the police during the arrest.
I have hope that the burgeoning middle class, and access to other media through the Internet might lead to come kind of sea change, but that would be going against type in this particular country. Ask a Russian.
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Nov '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
Yes, but one difference is that the Dixie Chick protested against a government that oppressed no citizen, nor anyone else who didn't deserve it. So even though The Dixie Chicks protested without justice on their side, the regime they protested against would never lock them up, whereas in Russia they are locked up for protesting with justice on their side.
It is a mirror universe, and we here in the good ol' USA don't know how good we got it (if we're good enough to keep it).
Jul '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
This the aspect of our economic struggle that is not talked about. In Russia the 1% is the the political class, they hold the power, the money, the police and the military. This same holds true in China, North Korea, Cuba and many others. In the US and the West this is not true, the people have a vote, the merchant class is the 1% and the money, the political class must regularly beg the people for their jobs and the merchant class for money. They resent it and it shows. More and more you hear the political class talk about how much they love the China model, how elections should be delayed to after whatever the present crisis is over, if it is ever over. Meanwhile the political class is constantly making rules that constrain the other classes, reduce the other classes power and increase the political classes power.
Mar '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
Having a hard time sympathizing with the Pussy Riot supporters when they "protest" by doing stuff like this...
Reminds me of another famous "fight for freedom"...
This seems to be yet another situation *cough*Arab Spring*cough* where the "freedom fighters" are as unsavory as the tyrants.
Jul '12
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
Astonishing: Thank you for this post.
We in the USA are such fortunate naïfs.
Some say the difference is, we had an Enlightenment, and Russia did not. But then, one thinks, sadly, of our Dubya's "I looked the man in the eyes. . . . I have been able to get a sense of his soul." And one thinks, "What enlightenment? What soul?"
My Catholic friends, has The Church offered at least "solidarity" with these brave women? If not, why not? · 9 hours ago
Edited 9 hours ago
One can read probably read a whole library covering this topic. There is an excellent movie "Russian Ark" where the main character is the "ghost" of Marquis de Custine who could be considered the
Tocqueville of Russia.
I think it all went wrong when the children of Russia's growing middle class in the mid and late 19th century choose nihilism and all of its disgusting off shots instead of Classical Liberalism.
Nov '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
The whole point of protecting Freedom of Speech is to protect unpopular speech. If it were popular, it wouldn't need protecting. And yeah, sometimes it means standing up for contemptible people, but principles only mean something when they're inconvenient.
Feb '12
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
Fred Cole
The whole point of protecting Freedom of Speech is to protect unpopular speech. If it were popular, it wouldn't need protecting. And yeah, sometimes it means standing up for contemptible people, but principles only mean something when they're inconvenient. · 17 minutes ago
I agree with you about the "protecting speech" aspect, but free speech doesn't include destruction of property to make a point.
Jul '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
Natalie
Fred Cole
The whole point of protecting Freedom of Speech is to protect unpopular speech. If it were popular, it wouldn't need protecting. And yeah, sometimes it means standing up for contemptible people, but principles only mean something when they're inconvenient. · 17 minutes ago
I agree with you about the "protecting speech" aspect, but free speech doesn't include destruction of property to make a point. · 31 minutes ago
Exactly!! Freedom of speech means just that. It does not mean freedom to destroy property. It does not mean freedom to stalk those that have different opinions and do what you can to destroy their property, reputations, families, livelihoods, religious beliefs. As with all things in life freedom comes with responsibilities, the number one being that you are to use your freedom is a civil and civilized manner.
Jul '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
Fred Cole
The whole point of protecting Freedom of Speech is to protect unpopular speech. If it were popular, it wouldn't need protecting. And yeah, sometimes it means standing up for contemptible people, but principles only mean something when they're inconvenient. · 2 hours ago
Pussy Riot isn't just one band, no more than the tea party is one cohesive group. Ladies set it up as protest theatre, and these women just happen to be arrested.
And their beef isn't so much with Christianity, but with the Russian Orthodox church, which they see as another repressive instrument of the state. Well, that's a reputation, IMO, that is well deserved.
Jul '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
I might add that their performance lasted less than a minute, and they were arrested MONTHS after it, only when the protests started against Putin in the run-up to the election.
Apr '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
Astonishing
...the regime [the Dixie Chicks] protested against would never lock them up, whereas in Russia they are locked up for protesting with justice on their side.
It is a mirror universe, and we here in the good ol' USA don't know how good we got it (if we're good enough to keep it). · Aug 17 at 7:34pm
Here's an interesting juxtaposition: as the aforementioned Russian punk band is being sent off to prison, Tom Morello of LA rock band Rage Against The Machine gives us this.
Rage Against The Machine won't suffer any consequences for their political views or actions (In fact, I'm guessing they make a decent living condemning the 'machine' which they are very much a part of). A courageous gesture means little when there's no real risk involved.
Edited on August 19, 2012 at 6:14amFeb '12
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
Keith, Excellent observation. And perhaps why so many fail to see how easily it could be lost, and exactly what is at stake.
Jul '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
Douglas: Having a hard time sympathizing with the Pussy Riot supporters when they "protest" by doing stuff like this...
Reminds me of another famous "fight for freedom"...
This seems to be yet another situation*cough*Arab Spring*cough*where the "freedom fighters" are as unsavory as the tyrants. · Aug 17 at 11:48pm
I didn't know the source of that photo until today. It's from The Ukraine, not Russia. As they say, "a whole 'nother country".
It's related to a feminist group called Femen, whose political stance I don't even care to learn about.
It's not related to Pussy Riot.
Apr '12
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
The Dixie Chicks and Rage against the Machine are examples of free speech working well in the USA.
Let the market decide the consequences. The very discussion makes everyone use their brains, make decisions about their own views, discusin the bigger issues and sells more Rolling Stone magazines.
My point was to show the US works because it takes the heated conversations and allows the views, left wing bias maybe but there is discussion. Everyone can participate and give their personal views, thus ferment is good at developing the next generation's intellect and moral code. Americans are unlikely to call for Rage to be put in jail for two years because...why?
Is one of the reasons the glass is half empty for Russians is because people know they are helpless? Their opinion in the lical bar will be hushed? Their state leaders will tell them what to think? No putting posters of Pussy Riot on the wall in the university dorm room allowed? Or has Russia changed enough to allow that, EstoniaKat?
Jul '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
Indaba, I think there's something to be said for that. IMO, there have been few periods of Russian history where self-expression has been tolerated, and some of manners of self-expression that Americans take for granted, are new, alien, or repressed.
I do believe new media, mobile phones, flash mobs, the Internet has helped, but there's a certain mentality; almost an inside-joke secret sign on what it means to be Russian.
I dated a Russian-Russian once (Estonian Russians are a bit different). The cynicism, though, was like having an anchor in the water at all times. When the coin flipped, she expected it to be bad. I couldn't take it after awhile.
Jul '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
What one of the girls said during the trial, quoted in the New York Post yesterday said, really resonated with me; that after spending five months already in prison, she realized it is just Russia in miniature.
It's really, really sad, because I've learned to separate the art from the artist. Russians, too, suffered tremendously under communism. They were victims as well (some of the stories I've heard from Russian friends in St. Petersburg about the war would give you nightmares). They've got all the tools to be a great nation, but they can't figure out how to throw off the final shackles.
And, I think, since the '70s, and Brezhnev, it hasn't been about ideology, it's really about people protecting their economic interests by controlling political power. Russia is a gangster society. Putin is just an extension of that.
Mar '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
EstoniaKat
I didn't know the source of that photo until today. It's from The Ukraine, not Russia. As they say, "a whole 'nother country".
It's related to a feminist group called Femen, whose political stance I don't even care to learn about.
It's not related to Pussy Riot. · 9 hours ago
That's a dodge, Kat. They did it FOR Pussy Riot. They stated as much. And I disagree that this is just a protest against the Russian Church. Looking at the history of Radical movements in "all the Russias", they've all taken an anti-Christian slant from one degree to another. This stuff inevitably leads to "Abolish the church!". It's NOT just a matter of destruction of property. It's a symbolic assault on Christianity itself because young radicals see Christianity as standing in the way of their imagined utopia. Again, this is a situation where, when it's traditional Russian autocracy vs Occupy Wall Street-style radicalism, why should I support either side? A pox on both their houses. Don't do things like cut down crucifixes and then ask for my support, or even sympathy. Actions and choices have consequences.
Jul '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
Douglas
It's a symbolic assault on Christianity itself because young radicals see Christianity as standing in the way of their imagined utopia.
That might be your perspective, but I have mine. I don't in any way support the the OWS movement (and we have our own branch here - I keep my eye on their Facebook page, just to keep my enemies close, although they're pretty ineffective here).
I don't think you can appreciate the degree to which the church IS the instrument of oppression in both Russia and The Ukraine. During Soviet times, if you wanted a Christmas tree, you darn well better not tell anybody in your congregation that you were doing so, and keep it behind drawn curtains. The church might as well been the STASI.
Now, different political masters, some of the same methodology. If you feel that they are condemning Christendom, maybe the temporal form over here needs some smacking around.
Two years for a 50-second protest.
Jul '11
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
One more example on how the church and the state function in Russia.
In the Orthodox tradition, at midnight of Easter, you have a ceremony where you take all the icons out of the church, stand outside, and then the doors are ceremoniously opened, an allegory to rolling the rock from the tomb away to find Jesus is gone (I'm Lutheran, but my brother-in-law is Estonian Orthodox, and when the Easter calendars link up, we go to the Estonian Orthodox church in Tallinn's Old Town, and also go to the Russian Orthodox church, too, because those people know how to PARTY).
An aside: Lileks visited my home church this summer, in Freedom Square, and I missed his trip. Bummer.
Back on topic - a church opened in Moscow about, say about 10 years ago. It costs millions. It's beautiful; I've been on the grounds. It has huge gold-laced domes. Come Easter, on Russian national television, they do the traditional opening. When they open the doors to the church at midnight, they find - Vladimir Putin.
Think about that.
Feb '12
Re: A Brutal Day in Russia
EstoniaKat: One more example on how the church and the state function in Russia.
Back on topic - a church opened in Moscow about, say about 10 years ago. It costs millions. It's beautiful; I've been on the grounds. It has huge gold-laced domes. Come Easter, on Russian national television, they do the traditional opening. When they open the doors to the church at midnight, they find - Vladimir Putin.
Think about that. · 0 minutes ago
Yikes! On a number of levels, that is really disturbing. Not to make light, but I hope he's at least wearing a shirt.