Two Minds

As I write these words, I am trying to reconcile two divergent Russian realities.

The first is the overwhelmingly positive collection of impressions, experiences, and interviews Mikhail Mordasov and I gathered over the course of our month-long Spine of Russia trip (spineofrussia.org) in October and November. We were received well (with one notable exception), the travel facilities were beyond commendable, the food superb, and the people and places we profiled endlessly fascinating. In short, it reinforced all the feelings of affection for Russia I have accumulated over the 30 years I have been following and writing about this country.

The second reality is the collection of overwhelmingly negative impressions of Russia that for the past two years have been lingering front and center in the news and on the world stage: sanctions and counter-sanctions following the Crimea annexation and war in Ukraine; Russia’s antagonism with many nations along its western borders (Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey, Estonia); the crashing ruble; the evaporation of a free, independent media; the use of courts as political weapons; the division of society into “patriots” and “traitors”; the relentless accumulation of Russia’s wealth into the hands of a connected few.

And now this. Yesterday, December 12, was Constitution Day in Russia. A small collection of peaceful Muscovites sought to exert their constitutional right (Article 31) to demonstrate and protest what they felt were illegal incarcerations and the state’s violations of citizens’ rights. But, because their tiny demonstration (there appeared to be more photographers than demonstrators) was not “sanctioned,” the demonstrators were roughed up and detained for things like holding up signs demanding the freedom of specific prisoners. In one case, a middle-aged woman was roughly dragged away for silently holding up a copy of... the Russian Constitution.

Read that last line again: while holding up a copy of the Russian Constitution.

It made my stomach turn. And it reinforced the feelings of loathing for Russian power I have accumulated over the 30 years I have been following and writing about this country.

Most everyone I meet who is a Russophile (and most thinking Russians as well) is, like me, a bit schizophrenic: we love the culture, the history, the people, the food, the country; yet we loathe most of rulers they have (depending on your point of view) either chosen or been saddled with.

I doubt there is any way to reconcile these two realities, and I am fully aware that it is not a new dilemma. It existed under the tsars and under the commissars (it may be, in part, part of what makes Russia so fascinating). But somehow, today, something feels different. I can’t put my finger on what it is. But it is there.

Svetlana Alexievich, in her excellent Nobel Prize lecture (bit.ly/nobel-alexievich) – in which she talks about her art, her life, and our world – may offer some explanation through her profound reflections on how “The ‘Red Empire’ is gone, but the ‘Red Man,’ homo sovieticus, remains. He endures.”

Alexievich offered several thoughts that stuck with me. Here is the first:

“It always troubled me that the truth doesn’t fit into one heart, into one mind, that truth is somehow splintered. There’s a lot of it, it is varied, and it is strewn about the world.”

And here is the second:

“We haven’t had time to comprehend what already has and is still happening to us, we just need to say it. To begin with, we must at least articulate what happened. We are afraid of doing that, we’re not up to coping with our past.”

Enjoy the issue.