Russian McCarthyism?

I spent the better part of September in Russia, meeting with writers, translators, photographers and partners, as well as working on a few stories that you will read in the months ahead.

On a cold, rainy day late in the month, toward the end of my trip, I met Alexander Skobov for coffee at a Shokoladnitsa at the base of Nevsky Prospekt. A taciturn, modest man with a thick, graying beard and a receding hairline, Skobov has seen plenty over the past forty years. He was a political prisoner under the Soviets (six years in psychiatric hospitals – a common destination for political dissidents who were “crazy” enough to protest Soviet power) and today remains an outspoken critic of the powers that be. After the Soviet Union fell, he worked for nearly two decades as a high school history teacher.

I was interested in getting the longer-term view on current events, of hearing what a dissident of the past regime felt about recent demonstrations, or what the opposition must do to help create a truly pluralistic society.

Skobov began by saying that Russia is embroiled in “a rampage of obscurantism with significant limits on civil freedoms” that has a close parallel with McCarthyism. This offered an intriguing context for understanding the witch-hunts against Pussy Riot and others. He sees a continued screw-tightening ahead, with no serious oppositional force developing, unless the bickering parties can set aside their differences and agree to some sort of joint program.

I mentioned that nearly everyone I had met with over the previous two weeks had – unprompted – told me of friends and acquaintances who were so disgusted with the political and social climate (or the schools or the traffic or the general khamstvo) that they had left Russia to take up residence abroad. “All the families of high-ranking officials are abroad,” one person told me, with no data to back this up. Skobov agreed this may be the case among a certain section of the population – those that have the means to emigrate, and that “to some extent, it serves as something of a safety valve – for letting off steam. If this were not there, dissatisfaction would accumulate much more quickly.”

We naturally progressed to discussing the general apathy toward politics and the increased consumerism that is everywhere evident. “One needs to understand,” Skobov replied, “that in the 2000s our Russian people, or at least a large part of the urban population, perhaps for the first time in many, many decades, were able to eat their fill. They had a chance to consume whatever they wanted, to the extent of their earnings... Therefore, perhaps it was a natural reaction that, given their previous state of hunger, they first of all focused on consumption. But at some point, when satiation arrives, people may well start to think about something else.”

Meanwhile, enjoy the issue, which has very little else to say about current politics, but plenty to offer about mythical creatures, astronauts, historians, artists, Nutcrackers, publishers and a church.

Please also find several pages of advertising for our books, calendars and what not in the center of the magazine. This is in lieu of a catalog and will hopefully help you with your holiday shopping. (It’s the least we could do...)

Happy Holidays and New Year!

Paul Richardson

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