MUST READ----The Face of Russian Radicalism

The first one to be published only on the Web, has radicalism as its central theme. We deliberately avoided using the term “extremism,” because it is often abused by both the government and the opposition, always eager to liken their opponents to Joseph Stalin-style communists or fascists. Radicalism is a much broader term, with more positive connotations in Russia’s history and the national psyche. In the early years of perestroika, in the late 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev called his economic reforms “radical” and “revolutionary,” obviously seeking to draw a parallel between himself and Vladimir Lenin. In fact, the economy was precisely the sphere where Gorbachev was least radical, seeking little more than a cosmetic renovation of Leonid Brezhnev’s “real socialism.” But history moves in mysterious ways. 

Gorbachev’s cosmetic experiments sped up the collapse of the Soviet economy, and thus made the subsequent Boris Yeltsin’s reforms radical and revolutionary indeed. 

Somehow, periods when radicals ruled Russia were never particularly pleasant to live in. Radical Westernization under Peter the Great, totalitarian modernization under Lenin and Stalin, the scrapping of the Soviet system by Yeltsin and Yegor Gaidar are all remembered as times of poverty, demographic decline and sometimes even hunger. So how is it that two out of four of Russia’s parliamentary parties (the communists and Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s liberal-democrats), as well as the vast majority of “informal” political groups, can be called radical, if not extremist, by their ideology? What makes radicalism so perennially popular in Russia? 

Seeking an answer to this question, Russia Profile’s reporters interviewed a wide spectrum of experts and political actors, from the xenophobic Movement against Illegal Immigration to the leftist New Revolutionary Alternative. Despite the numerous differences, all of these groups fall under the definition of radicalism coined by Boris Orlov, one of the ideologists of the Russian Social-Democratic party (RSDP). “Radicalism is an attempt to find simple solutions to complicated problems,” Orlov said. 

No one argues that illegal immigration is not a problem for Russia, which trails only the United States in the number of labor migrants. No one denies that economic inequality in Russia takes grotesque forms, with the richest ten percent of the population reportedly being 14 times richer than the poorest ten percent. But addressing these problems in a serious way requires some complicated moves, which the public somehow just does not believe in. It requires such dull things as a state policy on migration, differentiating between different kinds of migrants; it requires free elections which would allow the poor to exert electoral pressure on the authorities; it requires a free and open discussion on all of these issues, which, in turn, requires a vigorous reading public, and not the distracted mass of consumers eager to be constantly entertained. And, worst of all, solving the country’s problems requires years and years of hard work. 

The public often finds all of this unpractical, uninteresting and simply too complicated. It is much easier to find the scapegoats among the dark-haired streetwalkers, as the Russian skinheads do. Or to blow up the newly-built statues of Russia’s czars as symbols of the returning autocracy, as members of the New Revolutionary Alternative did until their arrest. Such actions are always more “direct” and spectacular. They can be watched, filmed and touched, which makes them immensely more interesting to the media than the dog’s work of municipal officials or human rights activists. Radicalism sells well and does not need advertising. 

But the problem is that radicalism does not bring long-term positive results either. Hence the cyclical character of the Russian history. When a problem emerges, the most obvious and usually the most radical solution is applied. In a few years (if not in a few months), the medicine happens to be worse than the disease. And, again, the most obvious and the most radical solution is used to right this wrong. And Russia’s history returns to its circuits. 

With thanks, 

Dmitry Babich 

Posted in: SOCIAL MEDIA