USSR or RUSSIA?

[Reza_Rahmani]

I met plenty of Russians during my travels in the Former Soviet Union who were fed up with the chaotic conditons during the 90s. All of the perks under the Soviet regime were gone. Especially cynical and unhappy were some of the formerly highly-placed families who had held positions of bureaucratic power. Their affairs were in a shambles.

Among the formerly poorer families there was dismay about the end of subsidised education and other social programs.

Memories of the reality of the Gulag was not much of a concern among people whose heating gas was cut off.

"Freedom" does not mean a rose garden. In Europe it came to be defined within developed nations deeply affected by the Enlightenment philosophies. Since Russia has had little in the way of a "nationhood" experience, there is a penchant for imperial hierarchical organization, which of course is contrary to freedom linked to grassroots involvement, a motivated public consciousness, and power growing spontaneously from the bottom up.

Nevertheless, as Sato has pointed out, Russia really has no other direction in which to go but liberal democracy, in spite of possibly some temporary lapse into an analogue of the old autocracy. It seems that if Woland's idea of a "Europe-Russia" entity stabilizes, then Germany et al (the EU, and ECC) will be calling a lot of the shots in Russia. This would be good for awhile for Russia, while the transition is passed.

Meanwhile the oligarchs and Putin's attempts to control them are the chief players. Not much freedom there; but even less to be had by turning back to the Soviet style of government.

Reza