Notes on lecture ‘From Lenin to Putin: Political Leadership in Russia’s Revolutionary Century’

Juvenalia: Writing by a younger, less sophisticated me. Read on, but remember that this belongs to the old world. 🥚

Yesterday, I attended an evening lecture by Dr. Nina Khrushcheva of the New School in NY on the past century of Soviet and Russian political leadership.

Disclaimers: The usual; shadowquoted to the max. This is a typed transcript of what I recorded manually; I’ll let you know when the records might be off using [brackets]. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily represent those of Russia Reviewed.

Keywords

Strong leader, strong state, war rhetoric, stagnation, continuity, unifying narrative, propaganda.

Давайте начнём.

There was a little script-flipping tonight, as instead of the expected lecture on political leadership, Dr. Khrushcheva shared the story of a journey across Russia she took [this summer], and what it taught her about modern Russia, its leaders, and its symbols. But not before giving the audience a run-down on the present domestic situation.

• In Russia there’s always fear of public discontent. It’s especially intense now due to Western sanctions, Russian countersanctions, and the upcoming presidential election in 2018. Putin may run as an independent, but rumors swirling around Moscow (sources unmentioned) say that he won’t, instead selecting another “seatwarmer” presidential candidate.
• There is a surge in patriotic and nationalist rhetoric. The purpose of this rhetoric is to keep people interested in patriotic education, and to ensure that anyone who disagrees is immediately labeled the “5th column” and marginalized. And to make it easier for Putin to win the next election if he chooses to run.
• Russia is a stagnant entity with war rhetoric. Things are quiet now, but it may be the calm before the storm. Dr. Khrushcheva cannot say for certain whether there will/won’t be another revolution soon.
• Why wasn’t the 100th anniversary of the Revolution commemorated in a very grandiose manner? Because “Putin doesn’t like revolutions. Revolutions upset the order. Revolutions change power.”

So, what are Dr. Khrushcheva’s takeaways from her trip from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok?

#1: Russia is coherently incoherent.

To illustrate this point, Dr. Khrushcheva displayed a photo she took in Kaliningrad of framed pictures being sold at the airport. In it one could see an old sailing ship, Putin beside the imperial double-headed eagle coat of arms, and [some vaguely Soviet insignia (which I couldn’t make out due to location in the lecture hall)]. She showed many photos of Lenin busts and statues from across Russia, including a giant Lenin head in Ulan-Ude. She explained that although these statues are no longer politically significant, they provide Russia with a sense of continuity. Also pictured was a Lenin statue that, after the Soviet collapse, had been moved to another location and replaced with a figure from Russian Orthodoxy – “Russia is as vigorously Orthodox Christian now as it was once vigorously Communist.”

Dr. Khrushcheva says there are fewer Stalin statues, and the ones that do exist were built mostly on private initiative. Other statues she saw included one of Ivan Groznyy, and one Vladimir I – which, by the way, was constructed “because Vladimir Putin needed his own Vladimir”.

[My records get messy here, but Dr. Khrushcheva mentioned it might have to do with disputes over the original Vladimir I statue in Kyiv.]

Closing out this section, Dr. Khrushcheva said that like the perpetuation of some Stalinesque personality cult, these all seem to be monuments to Putin himself. Or rather, to historical strongmen to which Putin thinks he is a successor.

#2: Russia lives in the past.

Dr. Khrushcheva made mention of a Russian Cult of Victory (in WWII, athletics, election interference (yes…)), and noted that, barring election interference, all such victories happened in the past. She also claimed that war with the West, while maybe not an imminent concern for the present Russian government, is a very convenient unifying narrative, as it has been for centuries of Russian history.

She displayed a photo taken in Moscow of a statue of Kalashnikov beside a statue of St. George, both in front of a Stalin-era building, again highlighting the incoherent mishmash of symbols.

Khrushchev and Gorbachev have fallen out of history, says Khrushcheva, because “these are the ones who shed Russian territory, […] gave away Russian greatness.” Yeltsin is largely missing too, except at the recently opened Yeltsin museum in the Urals. But even then, this museum is a “piece of well-constructed propaganda”, as inside, the Yeltsin era is recalled rosily.

#3: Russia is remarkably homogeneous.

Dr. Khrushcheva does not dispute that Russia is a multiethnic, multicultural, multiconfessional nation. But she does argue that it is very homogenous in its worldview. Because of Russia’s size, it requires a common narrative to hold it together. Often the narrative is imaginary, but it does its job. At present, that narrative is one of Russian greatness. And #КрымНаш and so forth. Dr. Khrushcheva displayed several murals from across Russia to that effect.

Miscellaneous

• “The best president for Russia would be the one that changes every four years […] that’s how you refresh the blood, so to speak.”
• At the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Khrushcheva mentioned in passing that Putin needed to protect his “vast wealth”, and passed on rumors that there might be a palace coup.
• “Putin fully believes that the U.S. is influencing world politics and taking out leaders they don’t like […] so he’s doing the same.”

Closing

Dr. Khrushcheva ended her lecture by saying that Russia still matters, and that it’s best for all if the U.S. and Russia work with each other instead of squabbling over influence. I recorded approximately 0 questions from the Q&A afterward because frankly, they were pretty standard.

There you go. I hope you’ve enjoyed what will likely be the only set of lecture notes I share this semester. I’m debating whether to post some commentary next week… but let’s see how the comments for this turn out first. Might be able to save some breath.

---

Relevant link: Dr. Khrushcheva has a WordPress blog. It appears to be inactive.