Where Were We

Since we last spoke, a few things have happened in Russia.

The Russian Duma voted 237-69 to reinstate the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky to the pedestal in Lubyanka Square (later rejected by Moscow city) … Leading democrat and activist Galina Starovoytova was assasinated outside her apartment in St. Petersburg … President Yeltsin shook up his “kitchen cabinet” of advisers, handing over several key posts to officials with KGB pedigrees … The IMF refused to dole out promised installments of its loan aid package to Russia … Four foreign telecom professionals were brutally murdered and beheaded by Chechen rebels, in an act eerily reminiscent of the murder 170 years ago of Alexander Griboyedov (see page 24) ... Russia recalled its ambassadors from the US and UK in response to the bombing of Iraq, which has raised great hue and cry within Russia … The Duma, on a parallel track with the US Congress, continues to seek President Yeltsin’s impeachment.

Did I leave anything out? Oh yes, the harrowing economic crisis continues with little prospect of immediate relief.

There are those who look at these and other recent events and conclude that Russia is on the brink of the abyss … again. And, indeed, just as one thinks things cannot get any worse, that the only way is up, another minor cataclysm ensues.

What to make of it all? Is Russia on the brink of famine, chaos and political reaction? Are US-Russian relations coming apart at the seams because of the bombing raids on Iraq?

Not likely. But to be patently honest, it is difficult to say, paraphrasing Gogol, toward what future Russia is rushing. Russians themselves don’t really know. Which may be the problem.

Russia still has no real economy, no real democracy, no real government, no real foreign policy – all because the consensus of a unifying national identity (the elusive Russian National Idea) is absent. It was sucked out seven years ago last Christmas eve, when Soviet Communism was tossed on the ash heap of history.

Perhaps the only way to prognosticate the future is to reflect on the past. The noted, sad parallel between the 1829 and 1998 assassinations, respectively, of Griboyedov and four foreigners by fanatics might lead us to conclude that things haven’t changed much in 170 years. But nothing could be further from the truth. A look at some of even just this issue’s other stories clarifies this.

Gone are the days when a trumped up conspiracy could terrorize the Russian nation as it did in the Leningrad Affair (page 44). Gone are the days when a budding writer like Yuri Olesha (page 46)  – or Samuil Marshak or Daniil Kharms (see page 53) – could be stifled by a state ideology. And gone are the days of politically dictated sexual and social mores (page 12). Unfortunately, however, the productive prosperity of the Stroganovs (page 36) is a long way off.

When we consider the progress of change and reform in Russia, it is absolutely valid to be critical of how far there is yet to go, of how much suffering remains. But such criticism should never be made without a recognition of the distance already traveled. Yes, in many respects, 1998 was a difficult year. But it was a far sight better than 1918, 1938 or 1948.

But then, perhaps there is consolation in the Russian folk wisdom, “when it’s all too easy, it is just not interesting enough.”

Enjoy the issue.

Paul Richardson