London Review's of Book: Anderson's 'Russia's Managed Democracy'

[Maryna Vinarska]

Mr.Anderson's looooong article evoked my worst memories of the recent years... Couldn't even sleep well... 

In order to get a teaching license giving me the right to get a permanent job and not the one on a contract basis, I had to go through a teacher training called Referendariat. I quickly spotted a teacher who was absolutely bright: unconventional way of thinking combined with encyclopidic knowledges in all imaginable areas, sure of himself, a good actor, etc. So, sure, I chose him as a trainer... That was my first mistake... His behavior turned out to be more than hostile... Constant jokes about bloody drunk Russians, stupid Americans and stupid blonds were just "melochi zhizni"... I couldn't understand the reason of such behavior... Many told me: "Go away from him!", but no one wanted to tell me why... I didn't do that. That was my second mistake. When it was too late I was explained at last that I _myself_  managed to choose a trainer who was a member of a communist party, admirer of Stalin, an author of a book on the dialectics of Marx, Hegel and Lenin, and who claimed
 that Germany could have communism if not those Russians, meaning immigrants, who came and destroyed the country... 
Well... this is probably when one can say: "The fate is not without the sense of irony..." 
Later, in Ukraine, a senior friend of mine (one of our quiet and peaceful communists) gave me a short lecture on western communists, socialists, leftist, etc. I didn't get too much of all those differences, but I saved the main message of his lecture forever... It was as follows: Whenever you meet any of those true western Marxists, RUN, JUST RUN AWAY FROM THEM AS FAST AS YOU CAN!

Best regards,
Maryna Vinarska

P.S. I wonder if Mr.Anderson can't forgive Russians their "verootstupnichestvo" as to all those ideas about the world revolution?..
 

FRISON Philippe <Philippe.FRISON at COE.INT> wrote: Russia's Managed Democracy
Perry Anderson
London Review of Books
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n02/ande01_.html

Except for its tittle and its length, it seems to me to be a good answer
to Simon Jenkins's paper in 'The Guardian'.

Anyway it is food for thought...

Philippe Frison


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