I once read that Winston Churchill said Russia was a mystery
inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma. Or
something to that effect. Unfortunately,
as I sit here writing that, the wifi in this café isn’t working so I can’t fact
check it at the moment. But, I would
have to agree with the esteemed statesman.
Things are not always straight forward over here. I say that having finished working with
Dennis, a Russian guy from Ust-Kamenogorsk who studies medicine in Saint
Petersburg (Or Petrograd if you want to avoid those damnable Germans—that other
name is dead to me).
Dennis came to me earlier this month because he was looking
for an English conversation partner, but the teacher he had felt he couldn’t
really learn from her so she sent him to me.
He was a very thin guy, who never seemed to shave, but was one of those
guys who have not been blessed with as much natural manliness that requires
them to shave twice a day to keep a smooth face. He probably hadn’t shaved since he left Saint
Petersburg.
But I digress.
Working with Dennis was a lot of fun because I didn’t really have to
prepare quite so much for his classes since they were essentially discussion
and conversation. That also meant we
could talk about more interesting topics than just plain, boring English
grammar. I found Dennis a lot of fun
because I discovered we shared many interests—science fiction in particular
stood out. Both of us had a healthy
interest in Sci-fi and more interestingly, he also really liked the book Starship Troopers.
So it is pretty easy to see that we were able to get
along. But we also dealt with some
heavier matters—ethical concerns related to technological developments, current
events, biases in the news, more classical literature, and sundry other topics.
But what does this all have to do with Mr. Churchill’s
famous quote? Not particularly much, but
in just a general sense, I have learned a lot more about modern Russia. I learned a new word: Xeno-nationalists, who
are people who think Russia stinks and should attempt to be more like other
countries (or possibly people who are not loyal to Russia at all and want to be citizens of other countries). I also have learned that Russia, like any
country has people with extremely divergent opinions—while that in and of
itself is not new, what I have learned is to the extent they can vary.
If you look at this Dennis guy and my old boss Victor, you
have two guys who have very similar backgrounds—ethnic Russians who are
Kazakhstani citizens. Victor wants to
study outside of Kazakhstan to finish his education and Dennis is doing his
education in another country. But these
details are pretty superficial and common among many people over here. It is their view of history and
interpretations that mark such a great difference between them.
I may or may not have talked about some of my debates with
Victor regarding Stalin and the Soviet Union.
I’ll summarize—Victor doesn't think Stalin was a good man by any stretch
of the imagination, but that he was “great” in the sense of his purpose and
force of will and his contributions to the Soviet Union were necessary for its
development and survival. I completely
disagree and to put out my own bias, I consider the Bolshevik putsch in 1917
one of the great tragedies of the twentieth century, not just for the Russian
people but the world.
On the other hand, Dennis appears to agree with me that
Stalin was a devil who set up some of the worst atrocities in history as well as
setting up the seeds for the near defeat of the Soviet Union in the dark days
of 1941 and 1942 (to clarify, Dennis is not an Americaphile, he doesn't really
buy the evidence of chemical attacks in Syria for example). What is more interesting is that Victor
completely views the White movement as a reactionary force that wanted to put
people in chains, justifying the purges and repression, while Dennis told me
that the term “White Guard” is used to remember heroes who were fighting a lost
cause to preserve stability and order against a coming chaos and terror. Dennis even said that some people used the
term “Saints” to describe them.
Both views are present in modern CIS countries, both are
polar opposites, and when I talked to both of these guys, they seemed to feel
that most Russians agreed with their point of view. So to me, this is one of those peculiarities
that makes Russia such an enigma..
