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The End of Peter the Great's Road?

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Tsarfan:
The Russian government and the Orthodox Church have recently joined in a series of anti-gay legislation that smacks almost of fundamental Islam in its severity and that has left western observers scratching their heads about what is going on.  To give an idea of the stridency of these measures, the adoption of Russian children even by heterosexual couples in countries that have legalized gay marriage has been banned.  Another new law allows the police to arrest and hold foreigners for up to two weeks who are "suspected" of being gay or "pro-gay".  This is raising concerns about the safety of athletes competing in the upcoming Olympic games in Sochi and spawning talk of boycotting the games.

A recent editorial by a European man living in Dubai commented on the conviction there of a Norwegian woman who had been sentenced to 16 months in jail for reporting a rape by a male colleague.  The writer reminded westerners that our assumptions about the universality of correct principles of law, human rights, due process, and government reach are simply wrong.  People in eastern cultures might flock to MacDonald's, might wear blue jeans, might drive Mercedes' and BMWs and Buicks, might listen to western music and line up for western action movies.  But the notion that, in the process, they are becoming more like us in the west is an illusion.

All this brings back into focus for me a question that I have pondered on and off for the past several years, particularly as I have watched the "managed democracy" of Putin take root and his courtship with Russia's autocratic legacy find its legs.

Is Russia reverting to its Asiatic roots?  Is she coming to the end of the road paved by Peter the Great three centuries ago as he forcibly turned the eyes of Russia's social and political elite westward?

I'd like to start with two quotes (one I recently posted on another thread):

From General A. E. Tsimmerman, a frequent commentator on Russian society during the reign of Nicholas I:

"Generally we in Russia are normally much closer to Constantinople and Tehran than to Paris or London.  The very understanding of the Russian people about good and evil, about right, about law, and justice, comes closest to that of the eastern peoples.  In government, the people respect and particularly want to see strentgh.  Our common people love to see in their ruler a powerful and stern sovereign."

And from Count Reiset, a member of the French embassy to St. Petersburg in the mid-19th century, to a Russian friend in Paris:

"I am resolved to direct all of my efforts towards a struggle against your influence [in European affairs] and to drive you back into Asia whence you came.  You are not a European power; you ought not to be, and you will not be if France remembers that part which she should play in Europe.  Our government knows very well your weak points and they are precisely the ones by which you are tied to Europe; let those ties be weakened and, of your own accord, you will flow back towards the East and you will become once again an Asiatic Power."

The reference to "weak points" was to the fact that Russia's Great Power status at that time rested only on the size and perceived strength of her army (something which was soon to be revealed as a chimera by the Crimean War).  In terms of law, civil rights, social organization, and manufacturing economy Russia was a backwater from a European point of view.

And that same charge could be and was leveled against the Soviet Union in the Cold War era a century later -- a perceived military colossus manned by millions with no rights to those things that, to westerners at least, define life in an advanced civil society.

Then, for a brief moment in the late 1980's as Glasnost and Perestroika seemed to bloom into hopes of fully-fledged democracy, many westerners thought that Peter the Great's long, torturous road had finally led Russia into the full light of western modernity.

We know by now that those hopes were forelorn.  Within a few years, Russia had descended in a chaos of corruption and crony oligarchy under an alcoholic president, Boris Yeltsin.  And from the collapse of that rickety house emerged an obscure KGB agent to whom power was handed in return for his promise not to pursue Yeltsin and his cronies for their sordid stewardship of Russia's affairs.

And today we have the "managed democracy" of Vladimir Putin and an era of rigged elections, political murders, press muzzling . . . and youth camps fostering worship of the demigod Putin, accompanied by large doses of xenophobic anti-western propaganda.

Has Peter the Great's road ultimately been nothing more than the longest detour to the biggest dead end in Russia's history?

edubs31:
Interesting take Tsarfan and there isn't much in your statement I can argue with...

We have touched on these issues in other threads...our general consensus seeming to be that Russia's window for political transition has closed. It's been 22-years now since the official end of the Soviet regime. Democracy for Russia, sadly, seems to be like the poor young lady a guy dates for a prolonged period simply because he's reached an age where he doesn't want to be alone. They've cohabitated for quite some time now but he's constantly (and not so secretly) looking around for a "better" option to come along. He finds her intriguing but awkward, she's well-liked by his friends and family, has a steady job and is stable, but remains uninspiring to him and his unconventional tastes. Communism for Russia became a loveless marriage, but Democracy is little more than a physical relationship undermined by deceit and betrayal. (note how I'm careful to characterize this metaphorical relationship as being between a man and woman given the country's xenophobia)


--- Quote ---People in eastern cultures might flock to MacDonald's, might wear blue jeans, might drive Mercedes' and BMWs and Buicks, might listen to western music and line up for western action movies.  But the notion that, in the process, they are becoming more like us in the west is an illusion.
--- End quote ---

It's probably an illusion I agree, but worthwhile none the less. Cultures that can find common ground have a better opportunity at being peaceful with one another. Democracies, "managed" and illusory or otherwise, don't tend to war with one another. Russia's long and complex history, unique geographical/regional identity, and corrupt leadership along with other idiosyncrasies make it something of a peculiarity. It's a fault line where Europe and Asia connect, and like all fault lines occasional earthquakes come about grinding "progress" to a halt and shaking the country to its foundations.


--- Quote ---And today we have the "managed democracy" of Vladimir Putin and an era of rigged elections, political murders, press muzzling . . . and youth camps fostering worship of the demigod Putin, accompanied by large doses of xenophobic anti-western propaganda.

Has Peter the Great's road ultimately been nothing more than the longest detour to the biggest dead end in Russia's history?
--- End quote ---

It's disturbing to say the least. Russia clearly wants it's own identity but cannot seem to figure out what that identity should be. Even the Soviets had goals, something to strive for. Russia seems uncomfortable being pluralistic yet it resists identifying with its traditional roots. A hodge-podge collection of influences old and new, European and Asian, Communist and capitalist, Democratic and Tsarist, Proletarian and Intellectual, etc.

TimM:
Sounds like Russia is tinkering with the same thing Germany did 80 years ago.  We all know what THAT led too.

edubs31:

--- Quote from: TimM on July 25, 2013, 02:15:54 AM ---Sounds like Russia is tinkering with the same thing Germany did 80 years ago.  We all know what THAT led too.

--- End quote ---

I'm left to wonder how the modern world would react if another dictator such as Hitler rose to power. Watching the likes of Iran and North Korea rise in their power and nuclear capability despite pressure and sanctions from the global community makes me think such an unimaginable occurrence as what took place inside Germany, Japan and Italy in the 1930s and 40s, and how that effected the rest of the world, isn't so unimaginable after all.

Should even a significant minority of Russians favor Putin/Medvedev's continued power grab and bizarre social and political outlook, a path towards 21st century re-branded totalitarianism could be reached much sooner than a true Democratic republic which has remained only fledgling to this point.

Interesting how I mention "totalitarianism" with regards to Russia because that's what at least one prominent member of the Russian Orthodoxy is accusing the west of...

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=18567

Tsarfan, I imagine you especially will get a kick of this statement; In legalizing same-sex marriage, France “consciously and demonstratively ignored demands of people and used tear gas to disperse them,” Metropolitan Hilarion said as he criticized efforts to make “immorality normal.”

TimM:
The Hitler pattern is being woven in Russia by this targeting of gays and lesbians.  Nazis need someone to hate to hold their movement together.  Right now gays and lesbians seem to be the target.  Who's next?  The Jews?

Or since religion seems to be in part fueling this, Russia might become an Iran style theocracy.  Just with a radical ROC, instead of radical Islam, at the helm.

Ironic that the ROC seems to have learned nothing after decades of persecution by the Communists.  They seem happy to dish out that same kind of treatment to the gay community now.

Unless something is done, Russia is so screwed.  I could see a Balkan style civil war happening.

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