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Putin-Russia-Ukraine
If you are at all interested in these matters, I can highly recommend the 20 minute video; an interview with the very perceptive Stephen Kotkin, & no, I won't give a summary, other than to say that the 'Great Russia' has always been (& still is) something of a fantasy.
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Yes Kotkin sums it up nicely when he says Russia has aspirations of greatness and a sense of its destiny but lacks the ability to get there (and sort of knows it). It explains so much.
Where I’d go further is to point out that Putin is ultimately the end product of a process that started even before the fall of the Soviet Union, namely the exercise in self-preservation by the KGB who realised communism was dead and wanted a life beyond. Putin’s exact place in that KGB/FSB process is I think still not entirely clear, but what is clear is we are not just up against one man. Far from it.
Where I’d go further is to point out that Putin is ultimately the end product of a process that started even before the fall of the Soviet Union, namely the exercise in self-preservation by the KGB who realised communism was dead and wanted a life beyond. Putin’s exact place in that KGB/FSB process is I think still not entirely clear, but what is clear is we are not just up against one man. Far from it.
Looking back at its history, it has always suffered from a large amount of hubris. Peter the Great (Putin's hero) may have tied together several separate regions to form a greater whole, but in the wider world achieved very little compared with what the European countries did.
And yes, they have produced some notable writers & artists but when you take into consideration the sheer size and population (150m.) of the country they never really did as well artistically per capita as Germany, France or Britain etc.
I have been told that my great (or maybe great, great) grandfather went to Russia in the 19th century to teach the engineering, I've never heard of them teaching us anything at all, well, - maybe chess! :0)
And yes, they have produced some notable writers & artists but when you take into consideration the sheer size and population (150m.) of the country they never really did as well artistically per capita as Germany, France or Britain etc.
I have been told that my great (or maybe great, great) grandfather went to Russia in the 19th century to teach the engineering, I've never heard of them teaching us anything at all, well, - maybe chess! :0)
interesting video, I did watch it all as I have recently started to study the Russian state. Once again I offer this paragraph from the Excellent Book, "Red Notice" by Bill Browder:
"Once I had the office, I needed people to help me run it. While tens of millions of Russians were desperate to make a living, hiring a good English-speaking employee in Moscow was almost impossible. Seventy years of communism had destroyed the work ethic of an entire nation. Millions if Russians had been sent to the gulags for showing the slightest hint of personal initiative. The Soviets severely penalised independent thinkers, so the natural self-preservation reaction was to do as little as possible and hope that nobody would notice you. This had been fed into the psyches of ordinary Russians from the moment they were on their mother’s breast. To run a Western-style business, therefore, you had to either completely brainwash a fresh young Russian about the virtues of efficiency and clear thinking or find some miraculous person whose natural psychology had somehow defied the pressures of communism. " - this shows one aspect of why Russia will never match the west.
"Once I had the office, I needed people to help me run it. While tens of millions of Russians were desperate to make a living, hiring a good English-speaking employee in Moscow was almost impossible. Seventy years of communism had destroyed the work ethic of an entire nation. Millions if Russians had been sent to the gulags for showing the slightest hint of personal initiative. The Soviets severely penalised independent thinkers, so the natural self-preservation reaction was to do as little as possible and hope that nobody would notice you. This had been fed into the psyches of ordinary Russians from the moment they were on their mother’s breast. To run a Western-style business, therefore, you had to either completely brainwash a fresh young Russian about the virtues of efficiency and clear thinking or find some miraculous person whose natural psychology had somehow defied the pressures of communism. " - this shows one aspect of why Russia will never match the west.
Interesting. But Putin isn't interested in discussion. He's not even keen on pretending he is. Furthermore to be acceptable to the West (and any moral, civilised nation) it is an imperative there is no indication that a country which commits unjustifiable acts of aggression can gain something to put in it's back pocket while it looks for the next thing it wants. So I see no situation that can be acceptable to all at this point.
The only thing one can do is to try to find ways to halt any further advancement, let attrition do it's thing, while the situation becomes more & more hopeless for Putin; maybe in the hope that others in power realise he's messed it up and has to be dethroned.
A new leader that knows they have few or no reasonable cards to play may well opt for retreat back to pre-Putin borders just to end the mess and further destruction of their nation, it's military, and it's economy. And if they don't it may prove difficult to put the whole Russian nation into camps.
The only thing one can do is to try to find ways to halt any further advancement, let attrition do it's thing, while the situation becomes more & more hopeless for Putin; maybe in the hope that others in power realise he's messed it up and has to be dethroned.
A new leader that knows they have few or no reasonable cards to play may well opt for retreat back to pre-Putin borders just to end the mess and further destruction of their nation, it's military, and it's economy. And if they don't it may prove difficult to put the whole Russian nation into camps.
jno: After taking power in the 1920s, Joseph Stalin killed at least 9 million people through mass murder, forced labour, and famine, but the true figure may be as high as 60 million.
From the 1920s through his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union through fear and violence. He instituted punitive policies that resulted in devastating famines, sent his enemies to prison camps, and executed those he believed opposed him.
And it's still a peasant economy; as Kotkin points out, the wealth of Russia comes from doing nothing, & simply extracting oil, gas & minerals from the ground.
From the 1920s through his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union through fear and violence. He instituted punitive policies that resulted in devastating famines, sent his enemies to prison camps, and executed those he believed opposed him.
And it's still a peasant economy; as Kotkin points out, the wealth of Russia comes from doing nothing, & simply extracting oil, gas & minerals from the ground.
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