I've managed to find a version of it hiding at this site: <http://www.carnegie.ru/en/pubs/media/8741What%20Russians%20Think%20and%20Want.rtf>
Contained in the article are these gems, which go unanalysed:
"Democracy is widely viewed as a fraud. There is a prevalent perception that Russia's politics have been "privatized" and are controlled by powerful clans. Seventy-eight percent of respondents in a 2003 survey said that democracy is a facade for a government controlled by rich and powerful cliques. Only 22 percent expressed a preference for democracy, whereas 53 percent positively disliked it."
- Yet Pipes does nothing to link this back to the excesses of the Yeltsin era, preferring to leave a respectful silence which can only lead one to think that Russians are, what?, too backward to believe in the benefits of liberal capitalist democracy? Pipes goes on:
"Russian attitudes toward private enterprise and property rights are hardly more positive. Here, too, the prevailing mood ranges from indifference to cynicism to outright hostility. Eighty-four percent of those surveyed in a poll published in January 2004, for example, said that wealth in Russia can be acquired only through connections. Four out of five respondents stated that the inequalities in wealth in modern Russia are excessive and illegitimate, and most blamed the country's widespread poverty on an unjust economic system."
- Again, Pipes chooses not to comment, perhaps to let the Russians speak for themselves in their backwardness. "They don't understand!", he wants to say. As if any of it was not true! As if Yukos or Sibneft never existed! For Pipes presumably the huge inequalities in wealth either don't exist or they aren't 'excessive and illegitimate'. (*Someone - and I've just spent the last 15 minutes in the archives looking for it - posted a statistic claiming that x percent of sixteen year olds in Russia won't live to 60 ... or some such configuration - can anybody repost?*)
Finally, Pipes does not understand that Russia is not America:
"Enhancing personal freedoms and improving civil rights do not attract much support. When asked to choose between "freedom" and "order," 88 percent of respondents in Voronezh Province expressed preference for order, seemingly unaware that the two outcomes are not mutually exclusive and that in Western democracies they reinforce each other. Only 11 percent said they would be unwilling to surrender their freedoms of speech, press, or movement in exchange for stability."
- Pipes shows an amazing faith in the direction of American and British democracy if he thinks that freedom and order 'reinforce each other'. Try telling that to those detained under the Patriot Act/Anti-Terrorism laws.
In light of articles like this, which, despite his 'expert' status, make you wonder whether Pipes has even set foot on Russian soil, one is thankful for Peter Lavelle's tentative version of the Russian political lexicon, which, I think, has already been posted to the list <http://www.untimely-thoughts.com/index.html?cat=Jun%202,%202004&type=3&art=592>, as well as an earlier piece on Western clichés which are employed when writing about Russia <http://www.untimely-thoughts.com/index.html?art=439>.
Pipes seems not to realise the damage done to Russia during the rule of Yeltsin. Similarly, he fails to understand that, with Russia only beginning to rise out of this poverty, people might well have different attitudes towards private property and believe they are owed a fair and equitable share - especially as their own share is not very much at all.
Finally, he seems surprised that Russians don't seem to be flagellating themselves about having been a Communist country. The fact is that people would like to have pride in their country's achivements. People don't like to feel as if they constantly have to apologise about their past. As Lavelle says, "Many Russians consider [the Cold War], with Russia as the legal and historic successor of the Soviet Union, as a source of pride -- international prestige (even if it was actually feared), technical advancement and economic prosperity at home."
It's impossible to imagine Pipes writing a similar article on public opinion in the US. Even the title is a disgrace ... This article treats Russians as children and it's a trend we are seeing more and more.
Simon
___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - sooooo many all-new ways to express yourself http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com