One of the best known moments in the great
Greek mythological legends is the story of the decision by the Greek hero
Odysseus on how to sail his ship safely without considerable loss of life
between two hazards, the equally dangerous sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis,
threatening all who seek to pass. Today, Russian president Vladimir Putin
is in a similar perilous situation, navigating between two political hazards in
deciding how to commemorate the Russian revolutions of 1917. What is to be
celebrated: fervor for revolutionary change or stability? The decision,
important for internal and external reasons, is important within the country
and also for those trying to understand Russia today.
President Putin has proudly asserted that "we are a single
people, a united people. We have only one Russia." The problem
is that not everyone in the population agrees with this view. The
disagreement was symbolized at an art exhibition in St. Petersburg in November
2016, when a picture was shown with a dual canvas, Tsar Nicholas II on one side
and Vladimir Lenin on the other, the old and the new.
The issue has again come to the fore with the controversy over the
showing of a film that was cleared for public exhibition by the Russian culture
minister. The film, Matilda, directed by Alexei
Uchitel, is the story of a passionate love affair between the last tsar,
Nicholas II, and a ballet dancer named Matilda Kshesinskaya, the half-Polish
teenage ballerina at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, a lady who was also
the mistress of three grand dukes.
Banning of the film was suggested by conservative and religious
critics, especially the Christian State-Holy Rus because it would offend the
feelings of religious believers. Insults of this kind were made a
criminal offense in 2013. Russia's largest cinema chain has decided not
to show the film for fear of attacks on cinemagoers. President Vladimir
Putin, however, has said that no official is trying to ban the movie. On
the contrary, he called for dialogue about it, though a dialogue conducted
within the framework of decency and within the law. He is political
president, but he is also the defender of traditional Orthodox Christian
values.
The problem is compounded by two facts. One is that Tsar Nicholas,
who was murdered with his family in July 1918, was canonized by the Orthodox
Church in 2000. The other is that favorable sentiments toward the old
tsarist regime have been increasing. Monuments to the tsar have been
going up. On the 99th anniversary of the murder of the tsar and his
family, thousands of pilgrims, carrying icons, crosses, and portraits of
Nicholas, walked 13 miles to the place of execution near Ekaterinburg.
Lenin did not organize the executions but approved them after they
occurred.
Somewhat surprisingly to outsiders, a certain number of Russians
favor the restoration of monarchy. A special school, named St. Basil the
Great School, has been established in a Moscow suburb to teach tsarist history.
This is interesting not only in itself, but also because the
school was founded by Konstantin Malofeyev, a multimillionaire, an
"Orthodox oligarch" close to the Kremlin and Putin's associates and
sometimes called "Putin's Soros." He funded the rebels in East
Ukraine, has an Orthodox TV channel, and asserts that he is preparing a
"new elite." His own office in Moscow contains Orthodox icons
and a large portrait of Tsar Alexander III, a fierce opponent of representative
government and supporter of Russian nationalism and of Orthodoxy. Malofeyev's
St. Basil the Great Foundation is Russia's largest Orthodox charity, and his
aim is to restore Orthodoxy not only in Russia, but in the world.
Equally, he has pointed out that seven of the ten wealthiest countries in
the world are monarchies.
Malofeyev is supported by like-minded individuals. Probably
the most significant are Leonid Peshetnikov and Vladimir Yakunin.
Peshetnikov is an ex-general of the KGB and SVR and head of the
foreign intelligence service, the Institute of Strategic Studies, and now head
of a group in Moscow called the Double-Headed Eagle Society. He is
anti-American and asserts that it was the U.S., not Stalin, who was responsible
for the Iron Curtain and that a strong Russia is a guarantor of justice.
In unusual fashion, he compares the two countries. In the Russian
civilization, unlike the American, the spiritual has always predominated over
the material.
Yakunin, head of Russian Railways until recently and a close
friend of Putin, is a significant figure in the Orthodox fraternity, as well as
a believer in the return of the Russian Empire.
More significant is Malofeyev's fulsome praise of Putin: "Who
would have guessed that Putin would come to us and Russia would start becoming
Russia again?" Other praise is more surprising. In the U.S.,
every child up to age 70 has seen the film Lord of the
Rings based on JRR Tolkien's novel, which, though a fantasy adventure
tale, has affected modern culture. Malofeyev says he is influenced by it,
perhaps by the spectacle of unequivocal protagonists preparing for One Ring to
rule the other Rings of Power.
Putin has been careful in not adhering to a particular position,
not lauding the tsarists and not endorsing the Soviet Union. Like Scylla
and Charybdis, his choice is whether the Bolshevik Revolution was a great
historic event or a tragedy for Russia. For him indeed, the memories and
echoes of the revolutionary years remain. Perhaps Putin does not travel
by subway, but stations in Moscow 's metro system are named after October and
after Pyotr Voikov, who arranged the execution of the tsar. Putin must
ponder his path now that in a recent survey of the population, a majority of
respondents had a favorable view of Lenin.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/09/steering_the_ship_of_state_in_russia.html
