After the Soviet Union collapsed, people thought the last Soviet generation was going to be the great hope for democracy. But that’s indicative to me of a really sad tendency. Yes, and there was an incredible intellectual and emotional focus on the teenagers who were protesting. What about this year’s wave of anti-Putin protests? They were widely attended by Russian teenagers who were born and raised during Putin’s 18 years in power. As the protests died down in 2012, there was no contradiction for them in returning to their regular lives and finding nothing about the regime objectionable. For most people these awakenings are very short-lived. I’m pessimistic about such political awakenings. How important is this form of political awakening in Russia today? In Russia, this something has been postulated as faith and traditional values.Īt least one of the characters in your book also mobilized against Putin during the protests in 20.
Scholars of totalitarianism talk about the importance of this constant movement, this forever war, this need to do battle on behalf of something that needs protection. Because of its history with totalitarianism, Russian society responds with mobilization. In Russia the dog whistle does not elicit cries of protest. And in America the response comes from both sides of the debate, often with people showing solidarity with each other, like the athletes taking a knee.īut Russian society responds to such signals in a very different way. He sends out these signals to his supporters. Trump did this after the violence in Charlottesville and after the athletes began kneeling during the national anthem.
The Kremlin just sends out signals that are actually not that different from Trump’s dog whistling to his supporters, to the people who share his idea of this imaginary past. So Russian totalitarianism comes from the grassroots, not from the top down?
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