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in
russian history transitional periods have invariably been
accompanied by the immense suffering of its citizens and have always
been very protracted and painful. in this sense, the transitional
era opened by gorbachev抯 perestroika and continued by yeltsin抯 liberal
reforms conforms fully to the russian tradition. neither gorbachev
nor yeltsin was able to achieve his objectives. the result of both
reform efforts was a society in a state of acute economic and
political crisis. |
there are
examples of reforms in other countries when a cautious and well
thought out approach allowed governments to reduce substantially the
burdens of radical reforms. in the 1930s, for example, president
franklin d. roosevelt was successful in bringing about changes that
gave the u.s. government a new role in both domestic and foreign
policies. to counter the great depression, he enlisted the powers of
the federal government to promote the economic welfare of the
american people. his measures seemed anticapitalist and even
搒ocialist?by american standards. yet they relatively quickly
brought benefits to the middle and lower classes and, far from
undermining the capitalist foundations, reinvigorated them.
other examples
of relatively painless and swift transitions from totalitarian to
liberal-democratic societies include postwar west germany, italy,
and japan, as well as spain of the 1970s. somehow russia has never
been able to emulate foreign examples of successful evolutionary
transitions. the russian tradition has never known such precedents.
in order for
us to understand the reasons for the high social and economic cost
of a russian-style modernization, it is necessary to complement the
theory of modernization with a theoretical approach that can be
called 揷ivilizational.?by 揷ivilization?most scholars understand
a group of societies (or a single society) of the same type that
throughout their history display certain stable economic,
socio-cultural, and political characteristics. russia meets this
criterion, and, for this reason, many analysts treat it as a
distinctive civilization.
there is, in
the west, even a popular view of russia抯 搊therness?that has been
famously epitomized in winston churchill抯 characterization of
russia as 揳 riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.?
