(Untitled)

[inquisitor_jc]

Taken from Solzhenitsyn sort of autobiography The Gulag Archipelago
(Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spent 11 years in a Gulag for writing a negative comment about Stalin in a letter to a friend)

Each of us is a centre of the Universe, and that universe is shattered when they hiss at you: "You are under arrest

Comments

[building7]

I'm reminded of Slavoj Zizek's description of the Stalinist state, where he explains that the oppressive system has a burning need to convince itself that it is actually doing good, completely in the face of obvious oppression.

He gives an example of a minor provincial party meeting, where members of the local collective would meet, say, on a Monday morning. One man might stand up and exclaim "These collectivist economics are fundamentally flawed", and of course he would be dragged away sometime Tuesday or Wednesday night, off to some gulag never to be seen again.

However if another man in response were to stand up immediately and self-righteously (even loyally) reply "You cannot question Stalin!", everyone knew that this second man would be dragged away sometime Monday afternoon.

[inquisitor_jc]

And to think I find office politics draining enough as it is, let alone if your life depended on it.

Nice example

[malyan]

maybe it's a feature of totalitarian state?

for example, now our authorities do what they want (destroy different samples of architecture, cut down forests, expel people from their flats - often with the help of our lovely police) and the majority of the citizens keeps silence until troubles touch them: "The majority sit quietly and dare to hope", unfortunately

[inquisitor_jc]

Exactly, I fear Russia has very few instances of real open government to draw upon for people to protest. There is always that cold knowledge that even if thousands of you did band together that is hardly a significant number

Has much changed? Do you feel more free and open?

[malyan]

You mean changes since the ussr's collapse?
The 1990s was an interesting period of establishing new rights and freedoms. There were several powerfull political parties and so on.

And current situation is like the Brezhnev's era, I think: the single party, the main officials from KGB, efforts to revise the democratic constitution, lawlessness..

Maybe this economic crisis will make some changes and our people will stop supporting Putin and Medvedev. I hope :))

[inquisitor_jc]

Yeah it does sound very similar to the Brezhnev era,
I wonder how much the economic crisis will affect Russia, to the best of my knowledge your main exports are gas, oil, coal and other energy soucres...these always seem to be in demand so you might be a little sheilded.

However production and such like (I know the Ukraine is hurting from this) is a real issue