In my previous post I implied that Eastern Europeans, the Slavs, tend to respect autocrats and somehow exhibit autocratic tendencies themselves in their personal lives. An arguable point, I know. But if I am correct in my assumption, even in a general way, perhaps the explanation is that this is a learned trait from having been “autocratized” over several centuries. Perhaps such behavior has its roots in the Stockholm Syndrome: Hostages held captive sympathize with the social concerns or politics of their captors in their effort to survive, thereby rationalizing their humiliating, debasing existence as slaves.

When a government holds their citizens captive to selective prosecutions, sanctioned bullying, racism, and economic subjugation, maybe one survival option is a personal evolution toward one’s own absolutism. Perhaps this idea is worth study in an academic setting. Anyway, I’m pretty sure my father – kidnapped from his home village by Hitler’s Nazis and forced to work as a slave for the war’s duration – suffered from the Stockholm Syndrome given his lifelong admiration for the discipline of the Germans, their focus, their strength. I thought as a child and now that he protested too much on their behalf. But once taken he – and my future mother – lived as slaves, working without pay and restricted in their movements, and with no idea If or when they might ever be free again.

But if Slavs-as-victims has led to such citizens being more accepting of government strongmen, the culture of Eastern Europe has also led to some of the greatest literature, music, scientific achievements, and spirituality the world has known, or at the least, such achievements occurred alongside the autocracy. After all, another coping mechanism for enslaved peoples is to creatively express themselves, immerse themselves in their work, and focus on their families or communities. This has been true with many who’ve been oppressed: the Jewish enclaves in many countries, the American slaves of the south.

The Russians and those they conquered may have accepted one abhorrent government after another for many generations, but every so often, the Slavs have also arisen in rebellion to assure a better future. Sometimes those revolutions ushered in a time of justice and peace (1991), sometimes not (1917). But like tectonic plates moving in opposite directions, the eastern Slavs in particular have sometimes said to their dictators, “Enough is enough!” Sadly, as we are today witnessing in Putin’s Russia, once governments are overthrown, oftentimes the people slogging through the dissolution of empire bemoan the loss of that strongman who “maybe wasn’t so bad” as once thought. And today, many Russian citizens think this of Joseph Stalin, arguably the most murderous dictator in history.

Russia matters because it’s filled with people who are basically good at heart, but who are more than willing to accept the murderous and corrupt actions of a head of government. At present, that role is taken by Vladimir Putin. This is a lesson that should not be lost on the citizens of the Untied States. A corrupt minority can manipulate a good people into becoming co-conspirators in their villainy. Indeed, in America this already occurred when the avarice of a few decimated the American Indians, and when the plantation owners resisted all attempts to eliminate slavery, taking up arms to defend their barbarism. For those who think it can’t happen in this modern age, think again. It is happening.

Minorities are being prevented from voting in many regions because the politicians do not want to relinquish their control. Knowing that minorities often vote for more liberal candidates, conservative and reactionary state and local officials have put obstacles in the way these minorities to prevent them form registering to vote, and barring that, to prevent them from participating in the vote. Some of the obstacles: requiring a photo ID which occurs simultaneously with the state (Alabama) deciding that Department of Motor Vehicle Offices would be open only one day per week. Some offices in the “Black belt” of the state (80% minority) were closed altogether. Such Draconian measures are not limited to the south. Wisconsin recently suppressed 200,000, mostly Black, citizens using similar tactics. The refrain that immigrants are abusing the voting system rallies the reactionaries to act.

This is worth restating in another way. Russia matters because the corrupt government their citizens overwhelmingly support has been successful in its propaganda, education policies, and crafty use of its oligarchs’ wealth. Relying on radical Russian nationalism, Moscow has also been successful in its use of the “Enemies at the Gate” strategy, too. Autocrats and dictators know that one sure-fire way to promote support for the government among its population is to exaggerate the influence of its enemies and to control the media into echoing their concerns. The long-term success of the insidious attempts to fill their citizens’ heads with disinformation depends on eliminating dissidents and political opponents.

As I so often do, I will refer to Ukraine’s historical problems with Russia for examples of how well the Kremlin has indoctrinated their citizens over the years. After all, Ukraine has been the target of Russian disinformation for centuries. Many, if not most, Russians deny that Ukraine is a separate country. They deny that Ukrainian is a separate language, relegating it to a curious, odd dialect. They’ve claimed that centuries ago Ukraine was an empty, unpeopled place, eventually filled with enterprising Russians searching for adventures and a freewheeling way of life. They assert this despite Ukraine being among the most arable land in the world. And if it weren’t for the millions murdered by the despotic Russian and Soviet governments, the 45 million Ukrainians would number much, much higher, very near to the number of Russians.

Russia matters because their political system of oligarchs – hardly changed from Czarist times through the Soviet era to today – is alarming. Small segments of the population, awash in the type of grand wealth with which kings and princes would be familiar, make decisions for Russia that line their pockets while pilfering the nation’s resources with no thought to ramifications on the environment or society. This system of oligarchs running the country maintains a shrunken middle class and entrenches tens of millions below the poverty line. And this is still a society that has provided to the world some of its greatest heroes, writers, scientists, and explorers.

Consider Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He suffered imprisonment in the GULAG because he’d written a letter home critical of army life. After suffering through his internment, he stunned the world with his courage in writing fiction critical of the USSR. His most important project was the writing and smuggling out from the USSR the tome, The GULAG Archipelago. His thoughts on Ukraine? “All the talk of a separate Ukrainian people existing since something like the ninth century and possessing its own non-Russian language is recently invented falsehood.” ( “Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals” 1990 essay)

Alexei Navalny, proponent of democratic values and a political opponent to Vladimir Putin sits under arrest in Russia as I write this. He’s been the victim of an acid attack, beatings, and being thrown out of a window as well as other earlier arrests. He’s spoken twice to the Congress of the United States, and is accepted world wide as a noble man who values society more than his own welfare. But he has cataracts when it comes to the issue of the national rights of the previously captive nations of the former USSR. On a Russian television talk show he stated, “I’m convinced that Ukraine and Belarus are the two most important geopolitical allies of Russia. Our foreign policy should be maximally directed at integration with Ukraine and Belarus. In fact we’re one nation.”

And if the country in question wants to join the European Union instead of huddling with Moscow? Then the Kremlin foments rebellion based on lies, infiltrates the country with spies and propaganda, infects the country’s computer systems with viruses, arms the fifth columnists, and invades with Russian army regulars with their officers directing operations. That’s how Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea and disrupted its Donbas area. Human losses in the conflict are approaching 20,000 and the conflict remains frozen in place, leaving two of the country’s richest areas under the control of a hostile power. And reports reached the West that Putin was decidedly surprised that their efforts at creating an upsurge of Russian patriotism failed, particularly in the Donbas. And so, Russian regulars became necessary. I’m sure Putin believes Ukrainians are misguided Russians, but having been taught that in his youth doesn’t make it true.

Russia matters because good people (and bad ones) can be blinded by propaganda and the labeling as evil those forces opposed to the present leadership. Trump either adopted Russian tactics or is simply a natural when it comes to being a demagogue and an authoritarian. It doesn’t matter if he’s an idiot, has no ideology beyond wanting extreme wealth, and remains a petty shell of a man because of his ability to convince a solid minority of the country that he’s the answer to what ails the nation. That’s dangerous. After all, it was a very tiny percentage of Russians who were known as Bolsheviks, and they were able – through brutishness and bullying – to gain control of the nascent Soviet Union. The results were over twenty million Russian citizens murdered under Stalin alone, and this account comes from a post-Stalin Soviet newspaper. Lenin also had his victims as did Khrushchev and Brezhnev. And what of those who survived the camps, didn’t get a bullet, or only lost their jobs? The number at least doubles.

This may happened in Russia, but Russia matters because its people do form a great nation. Think such events could never happen in the US? If it can happen – repeatedly – to a great nation like Russia, then it can happen once in a while in the United States. Washington may be a place of much avarice and hypocrisy, but we get to choose. Vote. We’re a good people, too. Think critically and vote.