More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
In her otherwise marvelous post below, "Around the World In Three Minutes," Claire offers this, referring, in her last line, to a longish post that I put up over the weekend:
Medvedev posted what the Kremlin has termed an "inappropriate retweet" on his official feed to the effect that: "Today it became obvious that if somebody writes the phrase 'party of swindlers and thieves' on a blog, he is a stupid [edited] sheep." Peter, I'm sorry, but Russia's not going to be joining the West any time soon.
But the Medvedev tweeting incident doesn't undermine my point, Claire. Au, for goodness's sake, contraire.
A thousand years of unrelievedly bleak history conditioned Russians to submit to--even to celebrate--autocratic government, from the Kievan princes to Ivan the Terrible (who really was pretty terrible) to Peter the Great (who was pretty terrible, too) to Stalin and Brezhnev and Andropov.
When Gorbachev permitted the Soviet Union to collapse, he wasn't responding to anything like genuinely democratic sentiment among ordinary Russians but to the sheer exhaustion and hollowness of the Soviet regime itself. Along came Yeltsin, who instituted genuinely democratic reforms--from which, as the idea of democracy became mixed up with the experience of economic collapse, the entire country recoiled. While observing the forms of democracy--while complying, that is, with the letter of the new Russian constitution--Putin represented a reversion to the old autocratic norm. And? Well, such measures of opinion as existed all tended to show that Putin had the overwhelming support of the Russian people. They wanted a strong man.
But now? Tens of thousands demonstrated this past weekend and across the nation. On behalf of a particular party or agenda? No. On behalf of democracy itself. A new generation of Russians has come into its own. Using the social media, they are insisting--I repeat, for the first time in the one thousand years of their history, ordinary Russians are themselves insisting--on fair elections. Medvedev, the president of Russia, retweets a tweet by a young blogger, Alexei Navalny, who is spending 15 days in jail for his help in organizing the protests. What's significant about this? That Navalny is in jail? Hardly. That's just Russians being Russian. What's significant is that the president of the country felt compelled to respond.
Maybe it'll take decades for Russia to turn into a functioning democracy--for that matter, maybe there will be some sort of horrible convulsion that brings the present movement to a bloody and final end. But still. Ordinary Russians, demanding democracy. That's new, and it's hopeful. It suggests a basic shift in consciousness, at least among the rising generation. And, yes, it demonstrates a desire to join, at long, long last, the wider world of the West.
This just in (added about an hour after I put up the original post). From the Wall Street Journal online:
MOSCOW—Russian billionaire tycoon and Nets basketball team owner Mikhail Prokhorov Monday said he will run against Vladimir Putin in next year's presidential election....
"These past two-and-a-half months, my colleagues and I have been quietly and calmly working to build an infrastructure that will allow us to gather two million signatures," Mr. Prokhorov said. Under Russian law, Mr. Prokhorov has to collect the signatures to face Mr. Putin and other presidential candidates from parties with parliamentary representation.
Russia is still Russia, I'll grant you. But someone has the guts and resources to defy Putin by mounting a serious campaign for president? And believes he can gather the signatures of two million ordinary Russians? Try as I might, Claire, I can see no way to construe this as anything but good news.
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Re: More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
Peter, I want to be optimistic. And I'm American, so I will be. But I've also lived in Turkey for six years. My response to this should really be a long post--I have lots of thoughts I've been storing up for a long time about this, about how hard, possibly impossible, it is to create a truly democratic culture in a country with an ancient and completely antithetical authoritarian tradition. I'll save it for another day, but for now, I'll just say that I want you to be right. Badly.
Jun '10
Re: More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
What Claire said but still hopeful and encouraged by the latest reaction by many Russians. I, too, have to write something about this, but can't today. I'll try to do something soon.
Re: More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
Well, Claire and Dave, I hope I'm right, too--but I also hope you both find the time to put your thoughts in writing and pop them up right here at Ricochet.
Jun '10
Re: More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
I just read a funny quote from a Moscow protestor that gives a good insight into what politics is really like there. "I didn't vote for these bastards!! I voted for different bastards!! Recount!"
Humor laced with reality.
Dec '10
Re: More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
Does anyone have information on why they are protesting for democracy? Is it to them just a means to the end of getting the guy they want in power? Have they been reading from the West and now see individual liberty as the pinnacle of mankind and democracy as the only way to ensure it? Whether they want democracy as a bludgeon or a shield matters immensly.
Re: More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
I spoke with a young Russian woman –a filmmaker–visiting San Francisco from Obninsk (just outside of Moscow) and I inquired what she made of the protests over the recent elections. Her cynical response, which is what I fear to be all too common among young Russians: "The elections? They don't matter. And these protestors–I don't know why they're protesting. All Russian politicians are the same thing."
When I asked her whether or not she like or approved of Putin she said that no, she didn't like him. "But there is no one else," she added.
Re: More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
Diane Ellis, Ed.
I spoke with a young Russian woman –a filmmaker–visiting San Francisco from Obninsk (just outside of Moscow)....
When I asked her whether or not she like or approved of Putin she said that no, she didn't like him. "But there is no one else," she added. · Dec 12 at 9:34am
Ah, but as of a couple of hours ago, there is someone else. See the addendum I added to my post.
Russians must learn to face the truth about their country...even when it's good.
May '10
Re: More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
There's cause for cautious optimism. We need to understand that, Like Bob, Russia has just read Dr. Marvin's book and is learning to take baby steps.
Re: More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
Peter Robinson
Diane Ellis, Ed.
I spoke with a young Russian woman –a filmmaker–visiting San Francisco from Obninsk (just outside of Moscow)....
When I asked her whether or not she like or approved of Putin she said that no, she didn't like him. "But there is no one else," she added. · Dec 12 at 9:34am
Ah, but as of a couple of hours ago, there is someone else. See the addendum I added to my post.
Russians must learn to face the truth about their country...even when it's good. · Dec 12 at 9:38am
My response to your addendum here.
Nov '11
Re: More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
Re: Tyranny or Democracy in Russia.
The handiest thing to borrow from Aristotle is his division of regimes into types. His first cut divides regimes into two groups: the good and the bad. (Well, duh!) The second divides according to the number of rulers: one, few, many. So Aristotle identifies six types of regimes, three good, three bad, in descending order of goodness: kingship, aristocracy, polity, democracy, oligarchy, tyranny.
By this account, a regime ruled by one person alone is either the best (kingship) or the worst (tyranny). Rule by many is either the worst of the good (polity) or the best of the bad (democracy). (Democracy as "best of the bad" perfectly fits Churchill's pronouncement--if one believes there are no good regimes in reality, that government is at best a necessary evil.)
But nowadays, one begins to wonder whether Aristotle got it all wrong, whether in our times tyranny is actually a form of democracy, because a modern tyrant cannot retain power without support of the many, not just implicit consent, but actual active support of the people.
The lesson of Arab Springs and Russian Winters? Between democracy and tyranny, how little the distance . . . and difference!
Re: More Good News From Russia, Or, In Which I Disagree (Very Politely, Of Course) With Claire
Solzhenitsyn attacked the Western view (advanced by George Kennan among others) that Russian history is simply a long story of tyranny.
I recommend _August 1914_, especially the chapters on Stolypin, for a view of how Russia could have gone down a moderate constitutional path before WW I. (Stolypin was assassinated by a sort of conspiracy of ultra-left and ultra-right.)