Andrei Zorin Introduction to Transformations in Russia History

Andrei Zorin Introduction to ‘Transformations in Russia’. (History and Culture) Wisdom to tell the difference "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change things I can, and wisdom to always tell the difference. " Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, Chapter 3. (Borrowed from the Talmud).

I. Change, History and Culture 1. Diametrically opposite, but equally unproductive approaches to change. Technological fallacy (“American approach”): All problems are solvable, all changes are achievable. What you need is a good plan and identifiable skills to realise it. Normally a plan that worked in one case can be reproduced in a similar one. Fatalistic fallacy (“Russian approach”). Nothing can be changed because this is ‘the way things are done’. This approach is usually justified by words like “tradition” and “mentality”. Thus every country, society, nation has “a way of its own”. (Особый путь).

I. Change, History and Culture 2. Historical approach. - Each situation is a unique constellation of repeatable factors. Understanding the dynamics of transformation means understanding the motivation and logic of the people involved, i. e. their values and culture. - “Culture matters” (Huntington and Harrison), but it is not a destiny, but man made and ‘ready made’ patterns according to which people tend to act, think and believe. Cultural patterns have dynamics of their own and are resilient, but they can change and do change. - The important step in changing cultural pattern is understanding it

I. Change, History and Culture The ways values and cultural patterns are disseminated - Religion and its rituals - Historical myths - Customs - Language - Art - etc.

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 1. Russian attitude to transformation - Russian version of Christianity has no purgatory as perspective for the next life, only hell and paradise, i. e. no middle ground between absolute sin and holiness. - The world is taken by sin and evil, gradual improvement is hopeless and useless and the only way to salvation is an immediate, total and radical regeneration.

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 2. The Vision of Transformation - The transformation of a place. The creation of a closed Paradise where you can retire from the sinful world. - The transformation of soul. The worst sinner becomes the greatest saint. Dostoevsky’s characters. ‘Широк русский человек’. - The transformation of the country. The leap into the future. Gogol The Dead Souls. From the world of ‘dead souls’ to ultimate regeneration.

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. Не так ли и ты, Русь, что бойкая необгонимая тройка несешься? Дымом дымится под тобою дорога, гремят мосты, все отстает и остается позади. <…> Русь, куда ж несешься ты? дай ответ. Не дает ответа. Чудным звоном заливается колокольчик; гремит и становится ветром разорванный в куски воздух; летит мимо все, что ни есть на земле, и, косясь, постораниваются и дают ей дорогу другие народы и государства. N. Gogol “Dead Souls” (1842)

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 3. Two versions of backwardness - We will be the first in spite of the fact that we are the last - We will be the first because we are the last В судах черна неправдой чёрной И игом рабства клеймена; Безбожной лести, лжи тлетворной, И лени мёртвой и позорной, И всякой мерзости полна! О, недостойная избранья, Ты избрана! Алексей Хомяков «Русь» (1854)

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 3. How is it reflected in history National Wars. - XVII century. Time of troubles. Poles occupy Russia. Miraculously the militia of Minin and Pozharsky emerges and save the country. - XIX century. French occupy Moscow which is burned. Russia regenerates and Russian troops occupy Paris. - XX century. Hitler occupies a quarter of the country and approaches Moscow. Soviet army wins the war and ends in Berlin

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 3. How is it reflected in history Modernisations - They start out of feeling that otherwise the country will not survive and will be smashed by competing powers. - The feeling that the time span you have for modernisation is short. You have to achieve in years and decades what other countries had done in centuries - You need completely new and modernised elite to achieve this goal. - The dimension of challenges implies the special role for the state.

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 4. Modernisation of Peter the Great. - New capital. A Paradise on the seashore - New calendar. The time starts from scratch. - New elite, dressed in European dress, shaved like Europeans, educated in European way and behaving itself in the European manner. The new statesman: Мудры не спускает с рук указы Петровы, Коими стали мы вдруг народ уже новый Антиох Кантемир (1730)

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 5. Modernisation of Peter the Great. - New capital. A Paradise on the seashore - New calendar. The time starts from scratch. - New elite, dressed in European dress, shaved like Europeans, educated in European way and behaving itself in the European manner. The new statesman: Мудры не спускает с рук указы Петровы, Коими стали мы вдруг народ уже новый Антиох Кантемир (1730)

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 6. Soviet Modernisation - ‘The chain of the capitalist countries will be broken in the weakest link’ (Lenin). - Socialism will be built in one country (Stalin) - New calendar. New era – the dawn of a utopian age. - Accelerated industrialisation: ‘Пятилетку – в четыре года’. - Creation of Soviet atomic bomb. The cluster of closed cities. - Moscow will become the sample communist city (Brezhnev)

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 7. What worked and what did not? - The modernised elite that could fight and win modern warfare was created. Russia became a European power in XVIII century. Soviet Union was industrialised and achieved nuclear parity with USA in the XXth. - The elite created by the state went out of control and started to confront the state that created it. Finally it managed to destroy the state to be buried under its debris.

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 8. Post-Soviet Modernisation - Started as usual from the total collapse of the previous system. - Basic ideology was completely different. Russia was aspiring to become ‘a normal’ country and to leave like ‘all civilised world’. But:

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. Я прошу прощения за то, что не оправдал некоторых надежд тех людей, которые верили, что мы одним рывком, одним махом сможем перепрыгнуть из серого, застойного, тоталитарного прошлого в светлое, богатое, цивилизованное будущее. Я сам в это верил. Казалось, одним рывком -- и все одолеем. Одним рывком не получилось. В чем-то я оказался слишком наивным. ОБРАЩЕНИЕ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА Б. Н. ЕЛЬЦИНА К ГРАЖДАНАМ РОССИИ 31 ДЕКАБРЯ 1999 ГОДА.

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 9. Current modernisation: - Technological breakthrough. The concept of innovations. - New strata of entrepreneurs, scientists and innovators. Educating new generation of Russians. - Skolkovo. The new utopian zone.

II. Major Russian Transformations and Modernisations. 10. Will it work? Let’s discuss.

Thank you!