Fwd: Re: Kagarlitsky on Chechnya

[Chris Burford]

At 12:41 03/02/00 -0500, you wrote:
>At 09:39 AM 2/3/00 -0500, you wrote:
>>From: "GBK" <goboka at online.ru>
>>To: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
>>Subject: Re: Kagarlitsky on Chechnya
>>Date:   Thu, 3 Feb 2000 10:21:24 +0300
>>
>>I never said that it was so secret. On the contrary - half of Moscow new
>>that all long before my article. The only problem was that no-one dared to
>>publish it.
>>
>>Boris
>
>
>
>Boris:
>
>Thanks for your response.  The reason for asking that question is that,
>being a product of a soviet-style society (poland) myself, I know the
>profound role hearsay play in that part of the world.  I can cite scores of
>truly fantastic stories, from food being secretly shipped out of the
>country in coal containers or hidden in secret storage facilities, to
>various conspiracies and cover-ups  that were repeated and eagerly believed
>as 'explanations' of political events.  Moreover, the underground
>publications, or 'samizdaty,' actively participated in that process,
>circulating various unconfirmed rumors and stories.
>
>
>To look into the roots of that "para-information" we need to consider the
>following:
>- the aura of secrecy surrounding political decision-making in e. europe an
>x-ussr;
>- the alienation of power elite from society
>- the low lever of education in society
>- feeling of disempowerment in society
>- high level of social solidarity facilitating 'social processing' of
>information (as opposed to lone individulas facing the media in the US) and
>the importance of 'stock knowledge' (i.e. a set of shared beliefs that
>cannot be conformed or denied by considered to be true for purposes of
>everyday life)
>- vicious propaganda campaign waged by the US (Rado Free Europe, Voice of
>America, etc.), spreading rumors and accusations designed to delegitmate
>and destabilize the regimes.
>
>As I argued elselwhere, rumors and conspiracy theories play multiple roles:
>from imposing some sense on situations which people do not understand and
>control, to ritualistic revenge against powerful elites (the "At least I
>screwed their evil plans by exposing them" thing), to propagandistic
>manipulations (by foreign and domestic agencies), and to solidarity bonding
>and social reproduction of  "stock knowledge."  
>
>There may or may not be some truth to the conspiratiorial explanation of
>the Chechnya war.  I personally favor the explanation that it is a plot of
>Pakistani and US intelligence - a leftover form the Afghan war. Those
>secret operations never die, even if their usefulness expire, the spooks
>and war mongers keep on fighting the old battles - as the case of the
>totally irrational US policies toward Cuba suggest.  But it is just a
>speculation.  Unless we have material evidence, anytheing we say on the
>subject is .. welll, let's call it stock knowledge or social construction
>of reality.
>
>
>cheers
>
>wojtek

The *politics* of this war are fascist. 

The right to self determination of the Chechen people should not be ignored
because  several models of social construction of reality are happily
possible.  

If the Chechens are so determined, why has the bombing of Russian blocks of
flats stopped?

Whether one thinks the war can be put down to a left-over of Pakistan and
US intelligence or whether there are problems of national oppression of a
people who even under socialism should have had a right to
self-determination, is a matter of conscious political preference. 

Why give the benefit of the doubt to oligarch capitalism just because it is
Russian?

Chris Burford

London