Richard Lourie: Russians Must Take Responsiblity for Themselves
[Richard Lourie is author of “The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin” and “Sakharov: A Biography”]
As a rule, I’m not much one for statistics, but every so often one stops me cold. In the December issue of Russian in Global Affairs, political scientist Igor Zevelev pointed out in his article “Russia’s Future: Nation or Civilization” that “Russians … now make up almost 80 percent of the country’s population (compared with 43 percent in the Russian Empire in the late 19th century and 50 percent in the Soviet Union).”
The statistics that are usually bandied about concern Russia’s horrific death rate and shrinking population, though that’s showing signs of leveling off. But what Zevelev is telling us speaks of an emergence, not a diminution. For the first time in centuries, the Russians are a majority in their own country....
Throughout its history, Russia’s development has typically been thwarted by tyranny, invasion and war. The country’s nascent capitalism was, for example, booming at the beginning of the 20th century — Russia was the world’s leading oil producer in 1898-1902 — but that promising trend was cut short by two wars (Russian-Japanese and World War II) and two revolutions (1905 and 1917). Many thinkers concluded that what Russia needed was a stretch of peace combined with a not overly oppressive government.
Well, that’s what it has had for the nearly 20 years since the Soviet Union imploded. The Chechen wars and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s crackdowns are relatively mild by Russian standards. There is no real enemy like Nazi Germany was during World War II or the United States during the Cold War. So the question is: Now that the Russians are a majority and have had a break from the exigencies of history, why haven’t they created a better country for themselves, one with a clear and definite Russian identity? And to paraphrase a perennial question, what can still be done? This is a question that only the Russians themselves can answer, with their choices and their actions.
Read entire article at Moscow Times
As a rule, I’m not much one for statistics, but every so often one stops me cold. In the December issue of Russian in Global Affairs, political scientist Igor Zevelev pointed out in his article “Russia’s Future: Nation or Civilization” that “Russians … now make up almost 80 percent of the country’s population (compared with 43 percent in the Russian Empire in the late 19th century and 50 percent in the Soviet Union).”
The statistics that are usually bandied about concern Russia’s horrific death rate and shrinking population, though that’s showing signs of leveling off. But what Zevelev is telling us speaks of an emergence, not a diminution. For the first time in centuries, the Russians are a majority in their own country....
Throughout its history, Russia’s development has typically been thwarted by tyranny, invasion and war. The country’s nascent capitalism was, for example, booming at the beginning of the 20th century — Russia was the world’s leading oil producer in 1898-1902 — but that promising trend was cut short by two wars (Russian-Japanese and World War II) and two revolutions (1905 and 1917). Many thinkers concluded that what Russia needed was a stretch of peace combined with a not overly oppressive government.
Well, that’s what it has had for the nearly 20 years since the Soviet Union imploded. The Chechen wars and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s crackdowns are relatively mild by Russian standards. There is no real enemy like Nazi Germany was during World War II or the United States during the Cold War. So the question is: Now that the Russians are a majority and have had a break from the exigencies of history, why haven’t they created a better country for themselves, one with a clear and definite Russian identity? And to paraphrase a perennial question, what can still be done? This is a question that only the Russians themselves can answer, with their choices and their actions.