Autocracy Then and Now

“Russia’s revolutionary movements at the end of the tsarist regimes produced political values, beliefs, and symbols that formed not only the foreign policy of the time, but shaped the foreign policy of the Soviet period, and even live on today by virtue of their importance in the current leadership of democratic Russia” (Donaldson 37). This is most certainly a compelling statement to make, considering the implications it has regarding Russia’s current government, led by the one and only Vladimir Vladimirovich.

If the beliefs, values, and symbols that were produced by the revolutionaries then live on today, it’s of critical importance to study those beliefs, values, and symbols. According to Donaldson and Nogee, the main feature of the environment produced by those revolutionaries was AUTOCRACY: unrestrained political power in the hands of the tsar, wielded through a strong centralized bureaucracy and augmented by a secret police, and an economy and social order controlled by the state. I automatically tried to make that connection with Putin, and if I go along with the media, it’s not too far off to say that those tendencies still exist in Russia. Of course, I am generally wary of what I learn from the media, especially when I haven’t done a lot research on my own first. So I decided to reach back into the recesses of my mind to see if some of my experiences in the Ukraine would corroborate the claim. I immediately thought of the elections of ’04, the push to get Yanukovich elected, and the plot to poison Yushenko. I then thought about some of the other “autonomous” republics of the former Soviet Union, and the leaders that have been in power there for years and years, and combined that with the knowledge that Putin now appoints regional governors in Russia (as opposed to letting them be elected), and realized that “unrestrained political power” still exists, to a degree. If the accusations of all the poisonings are true, as well as the mysterious deaths of numerous journalists, then it’s clear that this power is augmented by a secret police force. I personally don’t know much about Russia’s economy and how much control the State has over it, but because the first two claims seem to be accurate, I’m willing to accept the third as well.

This is all somewhat troubling to me, and would probably be even more troubling if I weren’t in my safe little bubble in the Land of the Free. As it stands now, I live my life, reading an occasional blurb online about another mysterious death here, another power-grab there, and hope that my friends in Ukraine can continue pushing their slow trek West, leaving the Kremlin behind.