FACES AND PLACES: Third Rome resurgent (04/24/05)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Third Rome resurgent

As Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice prepares to travel to Russia to raise U.S. concerns over Russia's fading "democracy," President Vladimir Putin must be laughing up his sleeve.

Mr. Putin, a former KGB officer, knows his people. He understands the three historic instruments of the Russian soul, the ruling troika of autocracy, orthodoxy and "narodnichestvo." He is busy fine-tuning all three.

The one-time intense, pre-Soviet intellectual debate between "Westernizers," who favored democratic processes, and "Slavophiles" who shunned Western ideals, is long past. Autocracy, part of the Russian condition since the founding of Muscovy, won the day.

The Russian nation never experienced the Renaissance, the Reformation or the Enlightenment, cultural phenomena that produced such liberating ideals as that of the independent individual, a person with unique thoughts, feelings, moral conscience, freedom and, of course, control of his/her destiny. From tsar to commissar, the Russian people have lived under a series of brutal sovereigns who ruled with an iron fist.

Democracy never took root in Russia because for many Russians, even today, it is associated with decadence, anarchy and uncertainty. As bad as tsar and commissar were, they provided a certain stability, even predictability. As social psychologist Erich Fromm reminded us in "Escape from Freedom," given a choice between freedom and predictability, people tend to prefer predictability. Individuality can lead to isolation, alienation and bewilderment. Freedom can be confusing and threatening. Conformity is simpler, less frightening. This is especially true of Russians who, according to philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev, constantly seek certainty. "The Russian spirit craves for wholeness," he writes.

Mr. Putin is returning power to the Kremlin, slowly and methodically weaning the Russian people of their quest for freedom. Few Russians seem to mind. According to a poll of Russian sentiment taken in March, Mr. Putin's approval rating stands at 66 percent. Apparently, scrapping the election of governors by popular vote, state control of oil firms, censorship of the media, the brutal repression of Chechnya, and blatant interference in the political fortunes of neighboring nations are not reasons for concern. What matters is that Mr. Putin is bringing stability to his country.

The Russian Orthodox Church, a tool of the ruling elite, whether tsarist or Soviet, supports authoritarian rule because that is how the patriarch and his army of willing clerics remain in business. As the Russian army expanded the empire during tsarist times, the Russian Orthodox Church was close behind pushing conversion as the first step toward russification. During Soviet times, the Russian Orthodox Church was complicit in the destruction and brutal suppression of the Ukrainian Catholic Church - an act of genocide for which we are yet to hear remorse. This outrage continues today as the Russian patriarch demands that Rome shelve its support of the Ukrainian Catholic Church before any further talk of Catholic-Orthodox unification can go forward. "We hope a spirit of competition will be replaced by a spirit of dialogue," stated a spokesman for the Moscow patriarch following the death of Pope John Paul II. "We hope the new pontiff will understand our tradition."

And what is that tradition? The idea that Moscow is the third and final Rome. "It has long been a feeling which was native to Russians," wrote Nicholas Berdyaev in The Russian Idea, "that Russia has its own peculiar destiny, that the Russian people are a peculiar people. Messianism is almost as characteristic of the Russian people as it is of the Jews," which is why, Mr. Berdyaev believes, an "active share of the Jews in Russian communism" was possible.

Finally, there is the question of "narodnichestvo," that mystic veneration of the Russian soul. "Narodnichestvo is not the same thing as nationalism, although it might take on a nationalist color," explains Mr. Berdyaev. The concept has religious overtones in which "the people is a sort of mystical organism which goes deeper into the spirit than the nation, which is a rationalized, historical organization in connection with the body politic ... The people are a concrete community of living persons, whereas the nation is a more abstract idea."

This Russian troika remained deeply inbedded in the Russian psyche even in Soviet times. Autocracy was part of the Bolshevik way. Marxism/Leninism was the new orthodoxy. And the Third International supplanted the third Rome as the new Russian vehicle of messianism.

During the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras, Russia temporarily lost its compass. Glasnost and perestroika were foreign ideals, quickly discarded. After the Soviet collapse, a temporary power vacuum emerged as Communists changed hats and pretended to support democracy. That, too, died. Under Mr. Putin, there is no longer any need for pretense. The third Rome is up and running.

In May Russia will commemorate the "great victory against fascism." The crimes of the past are forgotten. As one Russian told Anne Applebaum recently, "The Gulag isn't relevant any more." No need to acknowledge the evils of the Holodomor, the Nazi-Soviet pact, Katyn Forest, the 40 million murdered by government fiat. Apologize? Only American presidents and popes apologize.

Stalin, the Georgian who came closest to establishing Moscow as the world's third Rome, is back in favor. A survey conducted by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion in March asked Russians if they think their country needs a ruler similar to Stalin. Among those 45 to 59 years of age, 52 percent said yes. Russian youth, those between age 18 and 24, favored the tyrant by 45 percent.

Dr. Rice is a brilliant woman and a Russian expert thoroughly familiar with Stalinism. I hope she succeeds in Moscow, for our sake and the sake of the world. She needs our prayers.

Myron Kuropas's e-mail address is: [email protected].

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