Fifteen years ago, about the signs of a revival of Soviet style and methods of management spoke only the most meticulous and bilious criticism of the authorities. To them especially did not listen and even laughed at them – people, say, living past fears, memories of his youth.
Then the laughter diminished and many cringed. Not that the Soviet system once again shone in all its glory, but some of its signs began to be shown very clearly. One after another attack on the independent press, the legislative innovations of dubious quality, military raids and militaristic rhetoric. Alarmingly it was political observers and actors. Uncomfortable. Still not dangerous, but not quietly.
Meanwhile, the process in a natural way developed without encountering serious resistance. The political opposition is not so much opposed the government tried to agree with her, took her handouts and participated in the events ambiguous from the point of view of the principles of democracy and liberalism.
Rolling back Russia to the Soviet past is similar to descent on a sled on very long and gentle hill ice: first the movement is slow and no fear – at any moment you can stop. But the farther, the higher the speed and the harder it is to slow down. Now the country is rapidly returning to the past that saving the stop associated with the risk to get hurt, and tomorrow it will have to pay for freedom and life. No units like this, and all, all the people.
The frivolous light-heartedness of the society and the political part of it is based on traditional Russian “Avos” and the belief that things would work out. As I wrote on Facebook one lady, most of her friends are determined to sit and wait until Putin “resolve”, while doing nothing.
This amazing Russian laziness in relation to their own fate uses a relatively small bunch of thugs who know how to take risks for the sake of power and money. They do not Shine with intelligence, poorly educated, often illiterate and inarticulate, but they have dog scent and dog fighter. They can’t come up with anything of his own, nothing new, so the lighthouse – Soviet past. To paraphrase Stalin, its ideological mentor, each of them would say: “Another past I have not.” They have really one – the Soviet KGB. They were born in it, it is native to them, understandable. Any other social system is perceived as alien.
And yet the current style of government – a carbon copy of the Soviet. She is more outspoken, less shy. In the Soviet Union, the government spent considerable resources to make a favorable impression. She was bad at it, but she tried very hard. Party and Soviet nomenklatura were a luxury in those days a way of life. The welfare was based on the theft of public resources. Exactly the same as today, only the mechanisms of theft was other. However, unlike today, the Soviet nomenklatura did not flaunt their wealth. This was considered unacceptable. It was carefully concealed. Today, officials of state power to steal openly, mechanisms of corruption are exposed. Bribes, if not institutionalized, inscribed in the price list, which is not a secret.
It’s the same in the field of suppression of human rights. The Russian anti-extremist legislation is worthy of continuing the tradition of the Soviet criminal liability for especially dangerous state crimes and crimes against a management order. However, extrajudicial repression of tradition is broken. In the Soviet Union, the government categorically denied the existence of censorship, although the constitutional prohibition of it. Accordingly, there was no list of banned books. Illegal anti-Soviet literature had to prove in court trials. In Russia today, under the current constitutional ban on censorship, it is officially there is a censorship office. Roskomnadzor maintains a list of prohibited publications, music or Internet resources, extending it at their own discretion or at the proposal of the prosecutors and courts.
Similar situation and in international relations. Soviet Union, pursuing an expansionist policy, tirelessly insisted on the struggle for peace, and in diplomatic contacts, with rare exceptions, was quite restrained in expressions. Today, the Russian government, pursuing exactly the same policy, says on its geopolitical interests and at every opportunity, rattles the saber. Even nuclear, which the Soviet Union almost did not happen. And what the language of the street punks speaks of the current Russian Ministry of foreign Affairs – a separate conversation. A mixture of criminal slang, rudeness and poor vocabulary – the norm of international relations of Ministry of foreign Affairs, as, indeed, President Putin.
It is difficult to say which style is worse, Soviet or Russian. Which is better – camouflaged, or outright lawlessness, rudeness, open or Packed in diplomatic Protocol? Debatable, as you like. Naturally, however, to assume that as a return to Soviet methods of management style of government will increasingly become the Soviet line.
Now and flew the heads of some governors and high-ranking officials, while only figuratively, not literally. The power will certainly begin the cleaning apparatus is included in the mandatory repertoire of any totalitarian state, and Russia is steadily moving in this direction. The people around Putin are still poorly understand it. Perhaps you’ll understand when you’re going in the cells of remand centres for discussion of the perennial question “why?” and the belief that there has been a slander or a miscarriage of justice.
The style of government in Russia may vary, but the gist of it, alas, remains the same.
