The high-minded man must care more for truth...

...than for what people think. - Aristotle, Ethics

Almost Getting It

By J.R. Nyquist

On March 4 the Wall Street Journal carried an opinion piece by Nina Khrushcheva titled “Vova the Dread.” It begins in the usual way, with the personalizing of Russia’s KGB regime: “Vladimir Putin’s presidency proves that Stalinism will never end in Russia.” The article talks about Russian dictatorship “changing only in name.” This is good, as far as it goes. But I am waiting for someone from the Wall Street Journal to acknowledge that a man named Anatoliy Golitsyn predicted this outcome more than 20 years ago in a book titled New Lies for Old.

I am reminded of an article I wrote for WorldNet Magazine in February 2001. It was titled “The ghost of Stalin in Putin’s Kremlin.” I began by quoting Vasily Grossman: “This fear that millions of people find insurmountable, this fear written in crimson letters over the leaden sky of Moscow – this terrible fear of the state….” It is the case, indeed, that to understand what is happening in Russia one must grasp the enormity of Stalin’s crimes. These crimes are so black and bloody that Russia’s oligarchy would employ any expedient to wipe away its associative guilt. And yet, the great monster was so successful at extending his power and advancing his personality cult, especially through murder and falsehood, that the example remains forever seductive to his successors, who have been torn between two ways of governing: the Stalin way and the less vile alternative.

The question that has puzzled Kremlin rulers since 1953 is how to perpetuate the house Stalin built without acquiring Stalin’s evil reputation. Unwilling to forfeit their control over Russian society, and unable to fully appreciate the devilish efficacy of arresting and executing millions arbitrarily, the Soviet ruling class charted a middle path that would pacify the West without losing the essential components of empire. This middle path, which brings us to Vladimir Putin, combines low profile red-brown totalitarianism with lip service to democracy and free markets. It is a case of power retained. Instead of genuine democracy, Russia is guided by secret totalitarian structures that govern through fictitious political fronts. In essence, there has been no capitalism in Russia since 1991. There has been no democracy. It was all an elaborate KGB hoax.

The mask that hides the totalitarian face of Russia isn’t perfect. It has fooled the experts and pundits only because they wanted to be fooled. The inhumanity of Stalin’s regime was so great, its injustice so mind numbing, that good people don’t want to believe that Stalin’s system was and is a work in progress. We don’t want to admit that Stalin’s murder machine is undergoing renovation, that we ourselves may be included among its next victims. Such an admission would turn our world upside down, and such a turning is not at all desirable – especially when we consider that Stalin saw Hitler as “the icebreaker” of the Revolution. This leads us to the unpleasant possibility that Putin may see Osama bin Laden as an “icebreaker” as well.

In December 2000 a Cuban journalist asked Putin whether he was right wing or left wing. The Russian president replied: “Call me a pot but heat me not.” A few days after this statement, Putin demonstrated what it means to be a fake pot. He attended a celebration of the 83^rd birthday of the Soviet secret police. In the midst of the festivities, Putin warned the security service against repeating the mistakes of the Stalin era. “We recall the history of state security,” said Putin. “We know this history is ambiguous. There are lessons to be learned, however bitter.” Even more ominous, Nikolai Petrushev (the FSB chief) noted that the main threat to Russia was that foreign spies might “uncover the true plans of the new Russian government in what concerns domestic policy.”

Democracy did not fail in Russia on account of sociological factors. It was strategically managed to fail.

Return to Main Page