The best way to describe Russia in the present day is that it is a country in transition. Given the huge scope of the landmass that makes up Russia, it is understandable that change takes a long time. Although having said that, Moscow, the capital city of Russia, is probably the most modern, the most western city in Russia at this time with it’s newly minted billionaires rivaling those of the west.
In the dark past of the Tsars, the Russian populace probably didn’t see much opportunity to change their lot in life. They were stuck on the land, slaving for the landowner, generation after generation. As long as there is nothing else to compare to, people probably just soldiered on and made the most of it.
However, when the opportunity arises for comparison, such as new inventions coming from another country, imported ideas, implements, tools, medicine, fashion, and conveniences such as electricity; suddenly the peasant’s lot does not look too satisfying anymore. People, who have nothing, want everything and if you can’t have it, you become very unhappy. There is a great line in the movie Dr. Zivago that goes “Peasants pray to God and the Tsar. But God is in heaven and the Tsar is far away.”
How do you feel about the characterization of Russia? Do these issues characterize Russia, why or why not?
Under Tsarist rule, people had no power. Under Communism, people had no power either, no individualism; everything was planned by and for the government.
After having put up with dictators one after the other from Stalin to Gorbachev and with the help of modern communications systems, the Russian people finally did have a basis for comparison with how people lived in the West and soon realized that they were getting the short end of the stick. This is why they became unhappy and began to rebel. Russian leaders had no choice but to make changes, which finally came about in 1990.
Changes emulating the west which have most recently taken place in Moscow have come about rapidly because Moscow is the capital city of Russia, the seat of government, the hub of the intelligenzia, and has infrastructure to support a modern society. So it comes as no surprise that franchises such as McDonalds and Starbucks have taken a foothold there.
Leaders of Russia are also concerned about “face”. They want to show the rest of the world that they are modern, educated and can compete with any other Western country. It would not do for foreign visitors to Russia to come away with a negative image. Russians are proud and want to be viewed by the rest of the world as belonging and being as developed as any other First World country. However, scratch the surface and what is there?
What kept Russia lagging behind the parade of modernization was the lack of property rights under Communist rule. If you can’t own the land, what incentive is there for working hard? If you don’t have money, you can’t buy anything nice, like a nice car, or a tractor for the land you don’t own but have to work and till.
In order for a country to have a healthy GNP and move forward there have to be laws and rules that are based on reason. People need to feel secure that if they work hard and achieve some measure of success, that someone from down the road isn’t going to come and take it all away. Laws are there to protect everyone.
Once the population has the assurance of safety and security and they have their own money, they can then being to want things, new things and the consumer society is born. This consumerism will make the economic wheels turn and propel economic growth. The greater the work ethic, the greater the reward, whether that be in consumerism or entrepreneurialship. However, this can only happen in a democratic society where people are free to make their own choices.
When the USSR dismantled in 1990, there was an astonishing rash of entrepreneurialship. Perhaps it is safe to guess that the success of a few was in part due to not only their brilliance but cunning, and because not all the rules, laws and safety measures were in place allowing for some sneaky alliances to be forged. As mentioned before, when people have been without for so long, they want everything and they want it now. They want to start where the West left off.
When in 2009, Russia ordered that the pipelines shut off delivering gas to the Ukraine (and consequently to other European countries) showed that old Russian habits die hard. Such action harks back to the days of dictatorships and oppression. Russia still wanted to play Big Brother and mete out heavy-handed discipline to its errant-perceived neighbour; geopolitical bullying as it was called by Global Pulse News. And what was the Ukraine guilty of? Was Ukraine getting too western? Or did the country really not pay it’s gas bill? What it looks like is that Russia still doesn’t like Ukrainian President Viktor Iouchtchenko and perhaps wanted to put some barbs in his socks. When Viktor Iouchtchenko ran for the presidency back in 2004, he was poisoned and at the time it was presumed that someone in Russia had orchestrated that. These incidents give Russians bad press and bad “face”. A forward-thinking Western democratic country would never do that.
Modernization requires energy and Russia is no exception. All Western countries guzzle energy in huge amounts for their cars, A/C, industries, etc. Now Russia has joined the fray. They need energy and lots of it because their country is so large. They now have inherited the same problems as Western countries of where to get the oil and gas and how to get it where they need it. Let’s not forget the other side of the coin, which is the huge devastation to the biosphere, the indigenous populations and the pollution to follow. In that respect is Russia just like a Western country?
Millennia of serfdom, and generations of Communism are hard to eradicate. It takes many future generations to smooth things out. The bottom line is that people once they are off and running with private land ownership, consumerism and personal freedoms just won’t go back to a more primitive life. Considering where they have come from, where they started, Russia has come a long way in a short period of time. Russia would like to be considered a Western country. However, as long as the people in power dominate, dictate and don’t give the people their voice, they are not a democracy and do not share the values of a Western government. Russia as it is today is still in transition. It will take more education, more exposure to Western ideas and infrastructure, democratic laws and order and the population to have and enjoy their personal freedoms before Russia is a fully-fledged member of the Western world.
