May 01, 2008

Cold War, Terrorism and Culture

The New Cold War

Edward Lucas (Palgrave Macmillan), $26.95

That this book was hastened to press is evident from the numerous typos that occasionally blunder over into silly factual errors (Henry Truman, Kirgistan). The prose is also, while engaging, at times under-edited.

Yet one wants to overlook these shortcomings, as Edward Lucas is an important and influential observer of things Russian, having served for several years as the Economist magazine’s bureau chief in Moscow.

Drawing on this experience, Lucas recounts a decade of Russian domestic and foreign policy crises, arguing that Russia is a dangerous foe, bullying its neighbors, cornering natural resource markets, crushing internal dissent and defrauding foreign investors. “Repression at home is matched by aggression abroad,” Lucas writes. “Russia is reverting to behavior last seen during the Soviet era,” yet now it is not “the Kremlin’s tanks thundering into Afghanistan that signal[s] the West’s weakness; now it is Kremlin banks thundering through the city of London.”

Yet, Lucas notes that, while Russia’s “tactics are increasingly clear and effective… the goal is still puzzling.” Imputing intent from actions, he concludes that Russia “…wants to be respected, trusted, and liked, but will not act in a way that gains respect, nurtures trust, or wins affection. It settles for being noticed – even when that comes as a result of behavior that alienates and intimidates other countries. It compensates for real weakness by showing pretend strength.” In short, we should be worried about Russia because it is reasserting itself in the world, and it is doing so with methods that scorn (or undermine) the cherished values of Western Liberal Societies: free trade, primacy of individual liberties, the rule of law.

Fair enough. The facts of the Putin-era events are presented well. And his argument is logical. Yet flawed. For none of these things are certainties: that a richer, more emboldened Russia will threaten international stability, that Russia will become more authoritarian over time, rather than less, that Russian civil or commercial interests will continue to quietly acquiesce in the erosion of civil liberties, that Russian actions over the past decade are part of a coordinated Eastern Front in a New Cold War.

This latter is the weakest leg of Lucas’ argument. Many Russian actions internally and externally over this period have been reprehensible. But to assert that those actions belie an orchestrated intent is to give Russian policymakers more credit than is their due.

In fact, events seem to show nothing so much as that Russia is blundering about blindly in its foreign policy. There is no wizard behind the Kremlin curtain, shaping a cohesive international plan. Indeed, The New Cold War is a ruthless cataloguing of Russia’s nearly unbroken string of foreign policy failures since 2000: Chechnya, Estonia, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia… Lucas repeatedly shows how Russia has overplayed its hand in its attempts to influence and cajole its neighbors, in the end assenting to an outcome it initially insisted was untenable (e.g. the current missile defense debate). Russia, Lucas writes, “is too weak to have a truly effective independent foreign policy, but it is too disgruntled and neurotic to have a sensible and constructive one.”

So which is it? Should Russian foreign policy make us tremble with fear or with laughter? Maybe both.

Lucas’ treatment of domestic issues suffers from the same disconnect. Recounting the decline of pluralism and a free press, and the rise of corruption and statism in business, Lucas forecasts gloom and doom while at the same time pointing out the massive inefficiencies of state-run enterprises. It is not clear: are the behemoths taking over the economy or teetering on the brink of collapse? And if one believes (as Lucas seems to) that modern commerce needs a free and open society to survive, how can one not have confidence in the power of the market to eventually overrun any government gates that hem it in?

The mind yearns for simple, logical explanations. But it is not always good to give the mind what it wants. Sometimes it is best to accept complexity and not try to explain irrational behavior with logical arguments. Recommendation: Read this book for its superb account of the Putin era, but overlook its typographical and theoretical errors.

The Silencing

Alix Lambert (Perceval Press) $35

It is indisputable that Russia is one of the most dangerous places in the world to do journalism. Dozens of journalists have been killed in Russia over the past two decades just for trying to get at the truth, for trying to tell stories that will help Russians live their lives better, more honestly, with greater accountability.

This new bilingual book addresses the issue in a powerful way. It takes six cases of murdered Russian journalists and pairs photos of the murder sites with first-person accounts of the journalist’s work and life – from the people who knew and loved them. The result is an indelible image of hope amid catastrophe... of individuals’ belief in the power of words and truths to make a difference... of lives brutally cut short... of the incomprehensibly rich complexity of others’ lives – so separated from our own, and yet so jarringly close.

Angel of Vengeance

Ana Siljak (St. Martins) $24.95

One could draw up a very long list of the ways Russia has influenced the world – artistically, politically, economically, militarily. Somewhere on that list, likely buried halfway down, hiding in shame, would be “political terrorism.”

Russia did not invent terrorism. That “distinction” traces back at least to the Jacobin Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. But Russian anarchists and revolutionaries, impatient with the pace of reform in Tsarist Russia, employed new, easily portable technology (handguns, bombs secreted on their person) to assassinate political leaders in hopes of inciting revolution or in retribution for “crimes against society.” They initiated the idea that one could carry out murder for a “greater good.”

It was revenge for the brutal beating of a prisoner that seems to have driven Vera Zasulich, a shy, distraught noblewoman, to shoot the governor of St. Petersburg in 1878. Her trial and subsequent acquittal, alongside her transformation into an “avenging angel” on behalf of socialism, helped place terrorism on Russia’s political menu. Three years later, Tsar Alexander II was blown up by one of the world’s first suicide bombers.

Siljak uses the Zasulich case (offering plenty of useful backstory) to paint a vivid portrait of Russia in the second half of the 19th century, when no side in the political debates seemed to understand or tolerate the other, when lines were being drawn for a civil war that would break out three decades on. Rich with first-person accounts and well-placed citations from literature, this is far more than the account of the trial which forms its narrative core. For what Siljak wants to get at is what motivated terrorists like Zasulich – how love for one’s fellow humans can lead one to kill.

The Magical Chorus

Solomon Volkov (Knopf) $30

In Russia, it has been said, “a poet is much more than a poet” (Pushkin), and “a great writer is like a second government” (Solzhenitsyn). Indeed, in few countries is culture so intertwined with politics. Particularly during the last century, when art (be it film, literature, music or painting) was unceremoniously dragooned into the service of the State.

How Russian politics and culture battled during the 20th century is the subject of Solomon Volkov’s fine new book, a volume that is part memoir, part history, part rumination on the Russian worldview. Sprinkled liberally with first-hand accounts (many of the author himself), it brings to light fascinating episodes, from the various Nobel Prize scandals, to the real roots of the Thaw (American films, perhaps?), to bards like Vysotsky and Okudzhava, made popular by official scorn.

Through it, there is a sense of continuity, of politicians hopelessly trying to reign in culture, to dictate what shall be proper and sanctioned, of artists giving a nod to the Powers That Be, then quietly writing “for the drawer” or singing subversive songs for friends.

In one episode, Volkov tells of the buses full of riot police, hunkered down outside the Taganka Theater during Vysotsky’s wake there in 1980. It brought to mind more recent deployments of excessive OMON legions against a miserly collection of liberals and oppositionists. In Russia, after all, a demonstrator is much more than a demonstrator. ◗

Two superb new textbooks have been published by Yale University Press for advanced students of Russian. The first, Advanced Russian Through History, centers study on 36 graded, glossed readings about everything from the Decembrists to Stalin. Difficult words are underlined and become the basis for some excellent vocabulary and discussion exercises online. Included is a CD with audio lectures on the same themes as the readings. The second text, Russian in Use, takes a similarly interactive approach, with lessons organized thematically (geography, education, etc.). It entails a rigorous focus on building vocabulary (200 or so words per chapter) and the exercises (in the book itself, versus online, as in the first book) are well-focused to get the most out of the glossed readings and the video listening comprehension lectures on the enclosed CD.

For a student who has completed two or more years of college study, either of these books would be an excellent tool for self-guided study, to a point. Certainly a student can work through the readings and audio/video pieces independently, but to get the most out of the exercises, be they online or in the book, one would likely need a teacher or native language tutor.

May 01, 2008

Cold War, Terrorism and Culture

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14,000 Kilometers Across the Rivers of Russia

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