The will of
change and a constant Russian problem!
Mostly the
best way of deconstruction is to analyze how something is built up or
constructed.
The most
common or natural way of making clear that something is wrong is to protest
against it. Though that way will not only show the weakness of what is
protested against, but it will also show the high price of deconstructing it.
Clearly: the weakness is showed in the way and amount of violence used against
the one or ones making the protest. The examples are much too many.
To begin
with there is a very interesting book to read about Russia. Russia : People and
Empire 1552-1917, by Geoffrey Hosking, 1997. To get a grip of the main problem
it is enough reading the first chapter. Two words are of interest, the author claims.
Russkij – the people. Rossijskij – the dominion.
Russkij is a diversion from Rus, a word normaly
used about the Kiev and Moskau states in their early days. Rossijskij is a
diversion from Rossija, a latin form presumably first used in Poland. During
the 16th century the word reached the Moskau state and came into
common use during the 17th century. Exactly in time when the empire
was founded and expanded.
There are two forms of viewing upon the being of Russia. One having connection to the people, the language, and the Duchys existing before the czar empire. The other being connected to the territory, the multinational czar empire, the European Great Power.
So far Hosking. The author quotes Georgij Gatjev in the first chapter: "Rus became a victim of Rossija". Further on another quote is made, taken from Russkaja duma: portrety russkich mylitelej (Novost, Moskau, 1991) p. 150-151. "Rossija made the Russian people rootless, allured them from Rus, transforming the farmer to soldier, organizer, manager - he was no longer an agriculturist."
Geoffrey Hosking says that the making of the
empire blocked the possibility of creating a nation. This is what the Russians themselves
always have been thinking. A nation would then be, regarding to Hosking, a
feeling of mutual connexion, or sharing of the same faith. Mainly it is a
question about two parts. One civic, and one ethnic.
This split seems to start early. During the 9th century, due to the Nestor chronicle, the local societies felt a need of help sorting out the ongoing fights and wars. Help "from the other side of the sea". These persons coming were named Rus by the local people. A realm was founded in Novgorod, 862. The word Rus is from the same strain as Roden, which is the old name of a district at the Swedish coast of the Baltic Sea.
*
When a new government was set to work after the end of the Soviet era, many things could probably have gone another way. Exactly how and why Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin came into his position is probably something that later historians will tell about.
The concert in the Salvator Cathedral in Moskau,
by the group Pussy Riot, which ended in the arresting in March, 2012, of three
of the four members, Jekaterina Samutsevitj, Maria Alechina, and Nadezja Tolokonnikova, is obviously
much a question about the words used.
The text sung was a petition or prayer to S:t Mary for not supporting Putin "and his bishops". Since it is a group of artistic persons, using words as art in a form that do follow a tradition in terms of protesting, it has to be understood that those bishops mentioned will hardly be the ones connected to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Their own description of their mission is to protest against political corruption, restrictions upon freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and the use of faked accusements towards the political opposition. Things that are fully normal to protest against when they show up. The major problem is that these things do show up in Russia today. Something went badly wrong after that the attempt to a coup in August 1991 had been taken care of.
It is only Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin himself who can answer all the questions, but he don't. Because he has his own reasons. We can only speculate about them. There are accusements about cooperation between the government of Putin and criminal associations in Russia. A very severe allegation, and far more severe if it is true.
What actually happened after the attempt to a coup in August 1991 remains the big question. Because it might be that Putin have had to occupy the old guard of former high Soviet officers, using the wars on Tchetchnija and Georgia. And it all went out of his control. Or it might be that he is a part of the group, being the one able to show an intellectual face towards the world. As long as this question remains unanswered Russia will have problems. An ongoing problem since centuries.
Is it Vladimirovich himself having personal problems? Or is he stressed, read forced, by his surroundings, and because of that creating certain situations? Or is he, still stressed, using all of his strength to keep the persons from the coup in August 1991 busy, and in that way under control?
Maybe the main question is whom is ruling Russia? It still isn't the Russian people, Russkij.
Lennart Arivall
