![]() ![]() The song describes a man's turbulent relationship with a woman. The most read book at the beginning of last year was George Orwell’s ‘1984.’ Other books selling well include those about everyday life in 1930s Germany, in which people recognize themselves and their fears."Hasten Down the Wind" is a song from Warren Zevon's 1976 self-titled album. And that’s partly because, even today, many Russians continue to harbor views that are critical of Putin and the regime.Īndrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote two weeks ago: “Notably popular in Russia right now are classic works of literature that contain subtle antiwar messages. But, as the post-Stalin “thaw” and Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika demonstrate, Russians can act collectively and autonomously when repression is reduced and the threat of immediate arrest recedes. If the only thing that promoted civil societies were democratic political cultures, Russia would be hopeless. The problem is that, as she says, these tens of thousands of people “have no representation.” And Putin, the career KGB officer, knows full well that preventing a vigorous Russian civil society from emerging is the key to his continued misrule in Russia. Defending political prisoners and writing letters to them.” ![]() Helping the millions of Ukrainians who have ended up in Russia as a result of the invasion - something that I’m involved in. The pseudonymous journalist wrote last month: “Many people continue to do important work. Russians have firebombed scores of draft offices. Thousands of Russians did take to the streets in the immediate aftermath of the invasion. The picture is dispiriting, but not entirely hopeless. Everyone is going into 2023 alone, no matter how many people are around.” In the past year, the secret police has devastated the small bits of civil society - the autonomous social, political and cultural institutions that promote collective action - that had barely survived two decades of Putin’s iron rule.Īs one independent Russian journalist has written using a pseudonym, “in Russia there is no heroism left, whether you stay or leave or go to prison or remain free. Putin has also terrified Russians, making it clear that any act of public protest will immediately lead to incarceration or worse. That metaphor has been taken to a horrific extreme as wave after wave of inexperienced Russians who should not be on the front keep attacking even as Ukrainian troops mow them down. The Russian citizenry became, as many liberal oppositionists in Russia and Ukraine like to say, “zombified” - the living dead. Centuries of a political culture that fostered just these very attitudes didn’t help. ![]() ![]() Two decades of authoritarian rule by a charismatic leader inured them to non-resistance, to self-doubt, to self-delusions. Putin and his propaganda persuaded them that the West was a monster, that Ukrainians were Nazis, that Russians were helpless victims. Petersburg, they have watched since 1999 as Putin constructed a fascist dictatorship - seizing territory in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, and launching a full-scale invasion of the latter in 2022. Except for recurrent protests in Moscow and St. If Russia does in fact collapse, as many experts in Russia and the West expect it to do, Russians will have themselves to blame. ![]()
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