Alexander Podrabinek: "Stylistics of power"

“About fifteen years ago, only the most meticulous and bile critics of the authorities spoke about the signs of the revival of Soviet style and management methods. They didn’t listen to them especially and even chuckled at them - people, they say, live in the past fears, memories of youth. Then laughter was taken away, and many were alert,” the journalist in the blog on the Radio Svoboda website writes.

"It’s not that the Soviet system again shone in all its glory, but its individual signs began to manifest itself very clearly. One after another attack on an independent press, then legislative innovations of a dubious properties, then military sorties and militaristic rhetoric. It became anxiously political observers and actors."

"Meanwhile, the process naturally developed, without meeting serious resistance. The political opposition did not so much oppose the authorities as it tried to agree with it, accepted handouts from it and participated in events that are ambiguous from the point of view of the principles of democracy and liberalism.

The rollback of Russia to the Soviet past is similar to the descent on the sled along a very long and gentle ice slide: at first the movement is slow and no fears - at any time you can stop. But the farther, the higher the speed and the more difficult it is to slow down. Now the country is so rapidly returning to the past that the saving stop is associated with the risk of cripple, and tomorrow it will have to be paid for freedom and life. ”

"The frivolous carelessness of society and its political part is based on the traditional Russian" maybe "and the belief that everything is somehow formed."

"And yet today's stylistics of power is not a tracing paper with the Soviet. It is more frank, it is less shy. In the Soviet Union, the authorities spent considerable resources to create a favorable impression on itself. It did not work well, but it tried very hard. The party and Soviet nomenclature led to a luxurious way of life. They were based on the embezzlement of social resources. Just like today, just like today, just like today. The mechanisms of theft were different, unlike today, the Soviet nomenclature did not flaunt their well -being.

"The same in the field of suppression of human rights. Russian anti -extremist legislation adequately continues the traditions of Soviet criminal liability for especially dangerous state crimes and crimes against the management procedure. However, the tradition has been violated in extrajudicial repressions.

In the Soviet Union, the authorities categorically denied the existence of censorship, although there was no constitutional ban on it. Accordingly, there was no list of prohibited books. The illegal nature of anti -Soviet literature should be proved in the course of trials. In today's Russia, with the current constitutional ban on censorship, there is quite an officially there is a censorship department. Roskomnadzor maintains a list of prohibited publications, musical works or Internet resources, expanding it at his own discretion or at the proposals of the prosecutor's office and courts.

A similar situation in international relations. The Soviet Union, pursuing an expansionist policy, tiredly insisted on the struggle for peace, and in diplomatic contacts, with rare exceptions, was sufficiently restrained in expressions. Today, the Russian government, pursuing exactly the same policy, speaks of its geopolitical interests and at every opportunity rattle weapons. Even nuclear, which in the USSR practically did not happen. And in what language of street punks the current Russian Foreign Ministry is explaining - a separate conversation. ”

“It is difficult to say which stylistics is worse, Soviet or Russian. What is better - frank or camouflaged, rudeness open or packed in a diplomatic protocol? Discussion question, who likes it. Naturally, however, to assume that, with the Soviet methods of managing the style of power, it will more and more acquire Soviet features.

The heads of some governors and high -ranking officials have already flew, so far only figuratively, not literally. The authorities will certainly begin cleaning the apparatus, this is included in the mandatory repertoire of any totalitarian state, and Russia is confidently moving in this direction. People from Putin’s entourage are still poorly understanding this. ”

"The style of power in Russia may change, but its essence, alas, remains the same."