[lbo-talk] Russians, was Bakunin on Marx

[Chris Doss]

--- cgrimes at rawbw.com wrote:
The point is I got the impression that Russians are a
head strong and
a very, as the OT says of the Jews, stiff necked
people. In other
words something about the naive Russian character, if
there is such a
thing, demands strong arm leadership, so that things
don't get out
of hand. Russian kids must be outrageous brats. 

--

I haven't noticed anything particularly bratty about
Russian children.

But anyway you are on to what I think is one of the
main engines of Russian history -- the dialectic
between "volya" and "vlast." "Vlast" means either
"government" or "power" or "authority," as in
"Sovetskaya vlast," usually translated as "Soviet
government" or "Soviet power," or as in "Vsya vlast
Sovietam!" ("all power/government to the
Soviets/councils!"). Russian has two main words for
"freedom" -- "svoboda" and "volya." "Svoboda" roughly
translates to the English word. "Volya" however also
means "will," as in "Norodnaya Volya" (People's Will),
and has connotations of irresponsibility, selfishness,
and orgiastic release and violence -- peasant
insurrections, pogroms, that sort of thing.
("Svobodnaya volya" -- "free will," literally -- is a
contradiction in terms.)

If you may note, Russian history is mainly a swinging
back and forth between the two poles of authoritarian
"vlast" and anarchic "volya," or rather usually a thin
veneer of authoritarianism over a deep boiling sea of
"vlast." Russian daily existence is chaotic and has
always been chaotic. The vlast exists as a reaction to
it and to keep it under control. The trick is to
achieve some kind of balance between the two
(something Putin has done remarkably well BTW). You
can probably see something of this in the Soviet
harnessing of peasant messianism to its modernization
product.

(By the way, failing to notice this is part of what
dooms something like 90% of Western commentary on
Russia to irrelevancy. E.g. Putin is supposed to
establish something called "rule of law." How exactly
is he supposed to do this? Change the entire society?
"Rule of law" has never existed in Russia. Russians do
not obey laws; Russians do not enforce laws, unless
the Vlast really starts yelling at them to do so.
Thus, Putin or whoever is in charge has to go about
doing the urgent business of doing what needs to be
done WITHOUT the "rule of law," which neither he nor
anybody else can create.)


       
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