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Can Russia be a democratic state ? Russia's history in a nutshell.

• 2022-03-11
• Maciek Szczerba

Putin claims that Ukraine is descended from Russia. Is that so?

Lately, in the evenings, I have been strongly refreshing my Russian history. It reads as if I had followed all the "Game of Thrones" series for 1000 years of history - betrayal, stealth, blackmail, extreme ruthlessness and cruelty. Unlike "Game of Thrones" there are no positive heroes like John Snow or Daenerys. Instead, there are ruthless sociopaths and cruelty: Ivan Kalita, Ivan the Terrible, Peter I, Catherine the Great, Alexander I, Nicholas II, Lenin, Trotsky, Dzerzhinsky (a Polish renegade), Stalin, Brezhnev.

With a 5 year break for the reforms of Prime Minister Stolypin at the beginning of the 20th century, trying to introduce some form of constitutional monarchy (it was quickly abolished) and 10 years of Yeltsin's rule (they were what they were, corruption, perpetually drunk president etc. but it was not a fascist regime like today) Russia was ruled by tyrants. And both Yeltsin and Stoyapin were ousted as quickly as possible. The latter was simply murdered.

15 years of relative normality out of 1000 + years of history.

And as for Ukraine ? Russia originated from Ukraine and not the other way around. And these are simply historical facts.

The Ukrainian state was founded in the 10th century by the Vikings, descendants of the Viking chieftain Rurik. In the following centuries it began to spread over the territory of present-day Russia. However, the baptism of all Rus (as we would call Ukraine and Russia today) occurred first (and twice) in the Grand Duchy of Kiev. According to chronicles, Princess Olga (Saint of the Orthodox Church) was baptised in 957 AD (9 years before Mieszko the First of Poland) in Constantinople. St. Olga's grandson was baptized again in 988 also by the Byzantine Emperor.

During the reign of Vladimir's son, Yaroslav the Wise, Kiev saw the construction of its most important monuments today: the Sophia Cathedral and the Pechersk Lavra.

Unfortunately, Yaroslav the Wise made a big political mistake - he created an overly complicated system of succession to the throne, which led to a 400-year division of Kyiv (in our country it lasted less than 200 years), but at the same time to the northward expansion of Kievan Rus, which is the origin of modern Ukraine. At the same time the Ruthenian princes began to "cut themselves out" and Kiev and the northern principalities separated from Kiev. Kiev as a stabilised statehood went the way of economic development and trade with Byzantium. The northern principalities followed the path of a bloody civil war.

The first mention of Moscow dates back to 1147. It was a small military settlement, while Kiev was a powerful city at the time.

In the 13th century the Mongols invaded the Ruthenian principalities. Mongol rule can be described as constantly playing the princes against each other and collecting tribute from them. Apart from money, the Mongols cared for little else. However, they had no limits when it came to cynicism and cruelty. Someone may say: this is how the Middle Ages looked like. My answer: To some extent yes, but studying the history of both Poland and various civilizations I have not encountered such bestiality and cynicism.

In my opinion, the era of Mongol rule left a huge mark on Russian culture, in a negative sense of course. It taught the princes to lie, to kill secretly, to achieve their goals no matter what the cost. It taught them ruthless cynicism. Machiavellianism level hard ("in the Russian version")

It took 350 years to drive out the Mongols. In the meantime it was Moscow and not Kiev that became the main centre of "All-Russia". In the so-called meantime:

Ivan Kalita, son of the founder of Moscow as a city, Prince Danila terrorised the surrounding princes and cities together with the Mongols, made them pay ransom without any consideration. "Kalita" in Russian means "purse". Some of you will remember the film "Moscow does not believe in tears", which even won an Oscar in 1981. The saying "Moscow does not believe in tears" is much older. It originates from the reign of Kalitsa-if you cannot pay, we will burn you. We do not believe your tears.

Ivan the Terrible killed his own son in a rage. He also established the so-called "oprichnina" - probably the world's first secret police (16th century), a great-grandparent of today's KGB.

The period of the Great Smuta in the 17th century was also a period of secretive murders.

So was the reign of Peter I, a sociopath who tried to force society into forced westernization. His half-sister Sophie, with whom he had a savage power struggle, he generously exiled to a convent instead of liquidating her.

You can go on like this for centuries, until the time of Stalin and putin. But only the decorations change. The mechanisms remain the same.

Someone will say - nothing unusual, such were once the times: brutal and bloody.

And now some arguments that the culture of betrayal and cruelty caused Russia's cultural backwardness by several hundred years in relation to the West. What shaped the so-called "Russian soul".

First universities in Europe - 13th century. Jagiellonian University - 1364.

The first university in Russia - Lomonosov University 1755 (!)- almost 400 (!) years after UJ. Almost 600 (!) years after the oldest European universities.

Abolition of serfdom - In most European countries it was the end of the 18th century, beginning of the 19th century. In Russia 1861, which was not fully observed anyway.

Democracy of the nobility- in Poland and England since the Middle Ages. First constitutions in Europe (Poland, France) at the end of the 18th century. In Poland noble democracy included at least 10% of the whole society.

Russia remained a feudal country until the fall of the Tsar in 1917. Nicholas II (the one murdered by the Bolsheviks) effectively blocked any reforms towards a constitutional monarchy.

I am reminded of a folk and patrotic Polish chant from that time: "Bies will kidnap you Mikołaj, but freedom will be in the country. And people in Poland will hum about Mazury and the miracle. If God had created the world today, he would have made it out of the Mazurians. And in the midst of their wickedness Nikolai for a worry".

Fortunately, the Bolshevik beast has kidnapped Nikolai. I hope they are both sitting in the depths of hell.

And meanwhile in Ukraine- A civilization of Cossacks, free men, arose in the 16th century, who created a so-called war democracy, but a democracy nonetheless. Kiev, as a wealthy merchant city, flourished within the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1667.

What do we learn from studying Russian history today?

Russia is still a feudal country - there was a Khan, there was a Tsar, there is Putin.

Russians do not have any democratic role models.

Only a small middle class, mainly in Moscow and St Petersburg, understands the importance of freedom and democratic values.

The bandit methods of getting rid of 'rebels' remain the same (Litvinenko). Western spy Oleg Pienkowski was burnt alive in a blast furnace in 1963.

In my opinion, Putin has already lost the war. According to Russian tradition, he should be "liquidated" by his boyars. But who will liquidate him in a bunker several hundred metres underground ? And besides, isn't he by any chance the cruellest Khan/Car in history ? Because he is completely unpredictable and boyars are simply afraid of him ?

I am a Germanophile, I have a weakness for German culture. My grandmother, who brought me up, fought against the Germans in the AK in the Swietokrzyskie Mountains. I have a German in my family (a wonderful man). A historian, a university lecturer. He once told me (the spice is added by the fact that he said it in the villa-museum in Wansee)- "After the war the German nation had to be psychologically broken. Denazification was not easy. It was only in 1968, when my colleagues and I took to the streets, that we began to brainwash the German people." Today Germany is a democratic and free country and society.

Let us remember that Germany is not only the militaristic and anti-freedom heritage of Prussia. It is also the western and traditionally free western regions. It is the constitutional monarchy of Bavaria. This as much as Prussia has shaped the Germans.

So, if denazification took almost 30 years in Germany, How much "detsarification" will it take in Russia, where still half the population supports Putin ?