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the breakup of the soviet union was a political, social, and
economic event, whose dramatic repercussions were as great as
those of the 1917 revolution. the scale of the upheaval was
revealed in the depth of economic dislocation, explosions of
interethnic violence escalating into local wars, pauperization
of the mass of the population, the magnitude of human suffering,
and other dramatic developments. russia emerged from the
upheaval with tremendous geopolitical, economic, and demographic
losses: it still commanded the biggest territory梠ne-eighths of
the world landmass梑ut had only half the population of the
former ussr. |
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the
new russia cannot turn its back on its soviet experience. as the
dust of the postwar ideological rivalry settles, it becomes clear
that, far from being an aberrant phase, the soviet period was an
organic part of russian history and was largely successful in
turning russia and most of the other soviet republics (many of which
have had no previous experience of independent statehood outside the
russian empire) into modern states. |
the
turbulent 1990s showed clearly that denigration of the soviet
achievement and uncritical copying of western ways leads only to
deindustrialization and demodernization and threatens to relegate
the former superpower to the status of a raw materials supplier for
western multinationals.
at
the start of the twenty-first century, russia must find a synthesis
of western forms with russian content that will take into account
its national characteristics: a huge territory, a northern location,
unreliable agricultural conditions, a peculiar economic structure,
the traditionally significant regulatory role of the state, and the
cultural, religious, and psychological makeup of its population.
russian political and intellectual elites must continue to engage in
the 搘esternizers versus slavophiles?debate about the correlation
between national and 揳dopted?elements within russian civilization
to achieve a better mix of western patterns with usable elements of
the russian past. without all this, russia will not be able to
embark successfully on its remodernization to catch up with its
western competitors in the era of scientific and technical
revolution and postmodern society.
finally, russia must capitalize on its indigenous experience of
modernization and its tremendous achievements, both in the
prerevolutionary era and under the soviets, and not squander it in
pursuit of the latest ideological fads. all the talk to the effect
that russia must decide which of its two 搊ld regimes敆the tsarist
or the soviet梚t wants to inherit is meaningless because it obscures
the fundamental fact that both eras have been essential steps on
russia抯 path to modernity.
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