Yakov Mirkin: “We strive for an all-powerful state”

“There is one attentive book that has passed by the general reader. “Twenty Years of Reforms through the Eyes of Russians.” It was published by the Institute of Sociology in 2011. It is invaluable in that the same team of sociologists has been asking the same questions for about 20 years, since the early 1990s,” the economist writes on his Facebook page.

“And I received similar answers, no matter what was happening in Russia at that time. Crises, changes of presidents, ups and downs of prosperity, reforms - all the same, the answers showed a very stable model of behavior of the population.

What are the answers?

The first is our love for the state, to be secured and protected, to be with the state, to be owned by the state. Our love for state property, for life in hierarchical structures. Our aversion to high risks, desire for protection. According to the population, not 50% of the economy and banks should be nationalized, as it is now, but much more.

The second is our rigidity, perhaps excessive aggressiveness in communicating with the world. The Russian Internet is probably one of the most strident and contentious in the world. There is a table in the book that is both sad and funny: “Dynamics of the prevalence of the desire to shoot everyone who made life in the country what it is now.” In 2011, 38% of respondents “often felt this desire,” and 38% “sometimes felt this desire.” Only 28% "never felt it."

The share of those who would often or sometimes “shoot everyone” who is to blame for a bad life never fell below 45-46% in 1995–2011.

These facts are neither good nor bad in themselves.

They simply show - in one dimension - why the structures of power are so “vertical”, strong, centralized, why we strive for an all-powerful state and why many of us, loving the state and wanting protection from it, nevertheless live according to the customs of a solitary animal, knowing that in reality no one or few people will protect him when he needs it."