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#12 - JRL 2008-62 - JRL Home
Russia Profile
March 24, 2008
The Point of No Return
The Only Road to Survival is Through a Three-Point-Turn

Comment by Alexander Arkhangelsky

Whether it’s true or slightly made up, rumor has it that when the issue of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s arrest was being decided, an interesting conversation took place between two top-ranking officials. One of them had serious authority at the time, while the other, in the recent historical past, was in charge of making verdicts.

“Why are you doing this? Don’t!” urged the latter. “Sure, he’s the enemy, fight him, but don’t let your people cross the line; after that the situation will change so much you’ll be sorry.”

“No!” objected the former. “You don’t understand; you’re out of the loop. The decision is tough, and it’s not good, but there’s no other way. Look out this window: you see that area in front of the State Duma? You see the Moscow Hotel? And now imagine that Khodorkovsky did buy off the Duma and leads the majority there. And he is blocking all the decisions. That is, he’s taking over the power. You got lucky in 1993, the insurgent White House was clearly visible, with the bridges in front of it. And here there isn’t enough space for a tank to make a U-turn.”

The decision was made; Khodorkovsky was jailed, and we, along with the verdict maker, are caught in the aftermath. And we went down a narrow path in the given direction– toward the Basmanny court, spy rocks, new property sharing among the elites, significant growth of corruption and the weathering away of the meaning of our social life – against the backdrop of the clowning scumbags like Nashi. I am not sure that the people who personally fought against Khodorkovsky really enjoy this--they are smart and they understand that the stakes turned out to be incredibly high, and that the choice in 2003 was made between a U-turn (not for tanks) and the point of no return (for everyone). It is going to take a long time for us to wash off the heavy residue and overcome the mass poisoning; sooner or later we will, but the time need for collaboration in fixing our beloved country will be hopelessly wasted.

The events in 2003, however, took place at the very top, in the rarefied atmosphere where the feeling of common reality disappears, where the phantoms of imaginary power over history roam, and nobody is forced to go there. If you don’t want to participate in the business of the elites – then don’t. Today, the problem of choosing between a U-turn and the point of no return has come down, and projects itself onto the life surrounding us. And there’s no way to get away from it. Either we slowly, calmly turn around toward the new (also the eternal) norms and rules of human coexistence, or we will never be able to go back to hoping. For me, the symbol of this struggle between the U-turn logic and the tactic of no return is the situation in Tarusa, which I had written about recently and, as it turned out, too optimistically.

After meeting with the cardiologist Ossipov, the Kaluga Region’s governor stated in a broadcast of a local TV channel (I am quoting the letter sent to my LiveJournal blog by representatives of the Tarusa community): “This is a classic example of blatant, cold, inhuman bureaucracy. I can’t put it any other way.” These words are music to a patriotic ear. It was popularly believed that mayor Nakhrov had resigned that same morning, that the cardiology center is about to start functioning, and that all of Russia will have seen a vivid example to follow and learned that unselfish self-government is stronger than selfish tyranny. Society’s desire to establish a normal life in spite of the reigning habits is undefeatable. We applauded and wrote optimistic texts. But soon, it turned out that Nakhrov is just on medical leave staling for time; that the district assembly is trying to use the hospital story to depose its chairman, Mikhail Dobriyan, who supported and helped the doctors; that the doctors are seriously accused of working for the CIA, and that the regional FSB department is having “correctional talks” with the hospital’s former head doctor…

Without going into detail, the outline of these events is as follows: the local tyranny is waging an internecine battle against the local self-government. Whose interests will the Tarusa assembly express and protect? The local oligarchs’ or the common people’s? Those of the free society of responsible people, or those of the small landlords, who have blissfully conjugated with the state and spread it out beneath themselves? The fate of the cardiology center depends on how these questions will be answered. As does, and I apologize for the pathos, the fate of the country.

If in the end the situation in Tarusa gets resolved and settled, it will mean that all of Russia, outside the transcendental Moscow, will receive a signal: the last line of defense of a healthy life still stands, and don’t try to repeat the experiment. Territories will not be used as buy-outs (maybe in Chechnya, and that’s only out of complete hopelessness); yes, politics in its metropolitan manifestations is temporarily dead, and any attempts to stop free people from improving the organization of Russia’s everyday life are doomed. And don’t ask why it happens all the time at the top levels, and why it’s not allowed at the lower ones. Because they’re lower, that’s why. Nobody makes you climb up to the top, and it’s impossible to drive you any lower than the low level – there’s nothing there.

Moreover; the happy outcome of the Tarusa situation will sooner or later (later rather than sooner) reverberate up at the top; Russia’s subordination is from top to bottom, but it is built from the bottom up, and in no other way. Moscow’s fatal mistake of 2003 echoed in Tarusa in March of 2008; Tarusa’s correction of the mistake will one day have to be registered in Moscow, too. But if today Nakhrov’s followers get the best of it and crush it under themselves, it will be a universal signal to attack. Which would mean that the matrix cannot be abated. The Procrustean bed is working at its full potential. Nobody needs real, vivid life. I assure you, the signal will be accepted, much more willingly than an order to observe the law and moral norms. It will be the start of mass molding, conveyer-line production of unlimited arbitrariness. The roller will start moving downhill – with no brakes. And then we’ll have no chance of survival. At least not in the foreseeable future. The last frontier line will have been crossed; the real point of no return will have been reached.

And in this case, the current events in Tarusa (and is it only in Tarusa?) are much more dangerous than what was ascribed to Khodorkovsky in 2003; there, a coup of the regional power took place and a revolution of landlords crept up. Saluting the party slogans and greeting the legitimate government, kissing all the appropriate places with their tender lips, the local oligarchy will have taken control of the whole country. And there will never be enough tanks for all the regional and district assemblies. So, we’ll repeat again and again: there is only one direction away from the point of no return, and it’s through a three-point turn. This way is still open. We still have hope. But the clock is ticking louder and louder. We will hear it ring soon enough.