Putin's Sense of Russian History

president vladimir putin has described russia's military objectives in ukraine as quote noble and we uh aware that today our officers are participating in the special operation in donbass in ukraine there are many ways of thinking about history and today i want to talk about putin's sense of russian history in comparison to an assumption about history that we often adopt in the west i think ironically it's our sense of history that's often misguided and while putin draws the wrong conclusions his diagnosis of history the model of history he's a product of contains some surprising truths russia's difficult relationship with europe and its strained and unique relationship with its own identity has a long history that goes back long before putin of course but it's one i think he kind of believes in and he's strengthening some of its elements it has a rich tradition as we'll see in philosophy poetry literature in anti-rationalism in romanticism but i think if we approach it carefully it can teach us a lot about what our model of history often leaves out [Music] we often adopt a model of history in europe and america that historian timothy snyder calls the politics of inevitability it's come in various forms hegel and marx's dialectics the idea of an ever-progressing linear historical path what used to be called wigish history francis fukuyama's the end of history the argument that after the fall of the soviet union the liberal model was the endpoint of historical progress the assumption often is that progress is inevitable automatic out of our human hands snyder says that it's a sense that the future is just more of the present that the laws of progress are known that there are no alternatives and therefore nothing really to be done if history is something that happens automatically the politics of inevitability doesn't need anyone to do anything it doesn't need ideas it doesn't need action it doesn't need fighting for or defending history like an escalator to freedom or a journey floating along a river just is snyder continues that the politics of inevitability is the idea that there are no ideas those in its throat deny that ideas matter proving only that they are in the grip of a powerful one the cliche of the politics of inevitability is that there are no alternatives to accept this is to deny individual responsibility for seeing history and making change life becomes a sleepwalk to a pre-marked grave in a pre-purchased plot the politics of inevitability gives the impression that once certain conditions are met markets property rights freedom of speech class consciousness maybe freedom will then flourish automatically this idea comes from many places you could say it goes back to the biblical idea of millenarianism that life on earth will get progressively worse until christ returns and reigns over a golden age of a thousand years but in its modern form its roots can be found in the idea of universality during the enlightenment there again it was interpreted in many ways voltaire believed in commerce expanding across the world the global businessman leibniz believed in a universal language emmanuel kant thought that there was a universal model of morality that everyone should adopt hegel thought that the rational was real that anything that happened was rational and marx believed in a universal concept of history moving forward scientifically they believed that these things were inevitably true independent of individual people author pankaj mishra writes that the rationalist idea of the enlightenment which we're all a product of presented quote a unified project of individual emancipation inaugurating the necessary and inevitable passage of humankind from tradition to modernity immaturity to adulthood what this meant was that when each nation each country each group or individual discovered understood and accepted these universal truths they would inevitably catch up with countries like england and france who were already on the road of inexorable progress and as snyder argues most of us in the west still tacitly accept this model [Music] but on a parallel track but still with roots in the enlightenment runs a different model a counter model a powerful critique one that might be summarized as anti-rationalist or anti-universal the adherents of this model were people like rousseau herder dostoevsky and nietzsche and they all criticized the idea of the universal history in different ways [Music] take just one part of an opposing view the idea of a national identity it's the idea that what defines a people's character that essence their spirit is not reason or enlightened individualism or rational individuals approaching the world with a cold logic but a presupposed integral national identity that grounds them in the first place the sociologist leah greenfield has argued that in fact more than the escalator of expanding rationalism and freedom nationalism national identity is the most fundamental factor for understanding how the world we live in developed and ironically there's a logic to how national identities have developed imagine two countries france and england during the enlightenment say a few french thinkers argue that england is ahead of france economically spiritually culturally there are two main ways that france can respond first they could argue that england is on the right track the one universal track forward and emulate england in a bid to catch up alternatively they could argue that while england is admittedly ahead france is on a different track a better track they could argue that history has multiple tracks going in different directions that there's no right or wrong track and in fact our track may be behind now but once we develop it a little bit it will be a superior track a stronger and a faster track in her now celebrated study greenfield argues that rather than the first universal model comparison and resentment between developing nations has been a central force driving history resentment she says following nature is a psychological state resulting from suppressed feelings of envy and hatred she argues that nations have often interpreted the values of stronger nations as inappropriate for them wrong-headed dangerous and that this in turn has fueled the development of new internal national values this has happened many times across history of course but most significantly it happened during the period of modernization during the enlightenment in germany and russia germany and russia both came late to modernity and they both looked westward for emulation and inward for inspiration throughout the 18th century the russian czars peter the great and catherine the great were both modernizers they imported european ideas strategies political models philosophies and sciences while also purposefully fostering a new sense of russian national identity peter the great was the first monarch to refer to russia as a fatherland he built secular schools reformed many of russia's institutions imported european military tactics and even enforced dress codes and etiquette implementing attacks on beards to encourage a western style many of peter's officers traveled abroad and were introduced to european enlightenment ideas the poet and playwright alexander sumarkov wrote you travelers who visited paris and london tell me do people there crunch their nuts while watching drama and when the performance is on the stage do they whip drunken and quarreling coachmen causing alarm to the floors balconies and the whole theatre catherine the great continued peter's project wanting to develop an enlightened russian middle class catherine corresponded with voltaire and met deidre when paid dalembe to tutor her heir she read montesquieu and became known along with peter as enlightened despots voltaire wrote that russia under peter the great represented perhaps the greatest epoch in european life since the discovery of the new world catherine let the philosophers publish their work in russia when they were banned in france she argued for equality under the law and she founded new schools and universities but it was the french philosopher john jack rousseau who first became critical he wrote that peter wished to introduce at once germans or englishmen when he should have begun by making russians he prevented his subjects from ever becoming what they might have been by persuading them that they were what they were not it's in this way that a french tutor trains his pupils to shine for a moment in childhood and then to be forever a non-entity in russia intellectuals began having a strained relationship with their own sense of inferiority to the countries they were attempting to emulate greenfield argues that a feeling of inferiority can only last so long and can quickly turn to resentment she argues there are two common responses to any socio-political problems within a nation shame and denial [Music] she writes that shame is a rare reaction given how singularly unpleasant this feeling is it must be difficult to sustain it over a period of time of any length instead many russian intellectuals and politicians denied that they were further behind on the same singular path for example the playwright dennis ivanovich von vazin asked how can we remedy the two contradictory and most harmful prejudices the first that everything with us is awful while in foreign lands everything is good the second that in foreign lands everything is awful and with us everything is good the writer and father of russian socialism alexander hudson wrote like janus or like a two-headed eagle we were looking in different directions while a single heart was beating in us [Music] if the example set by europe was to be rejected russians had to turn inwards and develop a russian consciousness a russian spirit a different path for russia and so the russian language was developed through literature and poetry pride was fostered through the church slavic that distinguished eastern orthodox christianity from the latin that was used in churches in europe national histories were written karamzin wrote look become equal to them and then if you can surpass them he continued we had our own charlemagne vladimir our own louis the eleventh zarlowan our own cromwell god enough and in addition such a ruler whose like is nowhere to be found peter the great many intellectuals became critical of european standards arguing that they shouldn't be emulated at all after a trip to paris von vicine wrote that one has to renounce all common sense and truth to say that there is not much of what is very good and deserving of imitation here he said a frenchman would never forgive himself if he ever missed an opportunity to cheat his god is money dalam bears deed rose in their own way are as much charlatans as those i meet every day on the streets all of them are cheating people for money and the difference between a charlatan and a philosoph is only such that the latter to his greed adds an unparalleled vanity he recommended instead that russians feel pride in their own ways he said a cattle yard in the holdings of our honest gentry is much cleaner than streets in front of the very palaces of the french kings karamzian said so let us honor and glorify our language which in its natural richness almost without any alien admixture flows like a proud majestic river roars thunders and suddenly if need be softens murmurs like a tender brook and sweetly pours into one soul forming all the rhythms which may be contained in the falling and rising of a human voice [Music] of course this phenomenon was not unique to russia in fact it started in france with russo spread to germany through the romantics and to england as well and it could be argued that it found its most distinctive form in russian culture but it can be found all over the world rousseau's emphasis on feeling on emotion on localism on culture and on the community was picked up by young discontented provincials in a not yet unified germany that was lagging behind the rest of europe mishra writes that german writers like herder and feechter simmered with resentment against a largely metropolitan civilization of slick movers and shakers that seemed to deny them a rooted and authentic existence romantics in germany who felt resentful of french dominance and enlightenment rationalism responded by imagining an authentic german culture a volk the german philosopher johann gottfried herder criticized the rationalist philosophs writing that as a rule the philosopher is never more of an ass than when he most confidently wishes to play god when with remarkable assurance he pronounces on the perfection of the world wholly convinced that everything moves just so in a nice straight line that every succeeding generation reaches perfection in a completely linear progression according to his ideals of virtue and happiness instead of following the philosophs he asked germans to spew out the ugly slime of the sane speak german oh you german the discontented romantics throughout europe responded to a modernity where as marx came to argue everything that solid melts into air and instead they emphasized national myths and fables religion emotion local culture poetry and song by romanticizing local landscapes and emphasizing the feelings of the downtrodden commoners trampled on by the swift steel boots of modern commerce modern factories and modern assumptions the romantics contrasted the cold calculations of reason and logic and reflection with the very real feelings and experience of everyday life with the immeasurable with the qualitative with the spontaneous [Music] in russia many turned to and emphasized collective ideas ethnicity blood and soil the russian soul the unified people pan-slavism the poet n.a lavov wrote that in foreign lands all goes according to plan words awaited steps are measured there one sits hour upon hour and then begins to think having thought one rests having rested once makes a pipe then thoughtfully goes to one's work there are no songs no pranks among us orthodox however work is like fire under our hands our speech is thunder so that our sparks fly and the dust rises in columns the common theme was unity oneness harmony since the reformation western churches had moved towards the individual with their own singular relationship to god they could read the bible themselves the russian church instead emphasized soberness quote the idea of unity in multiplicity in the russian theologian kamiyakov's words the church is one he wrote her unity follows of necessity from the unity of god for the church is not a multitude of persons in their separate individuality but a unity of the grace of god living in the multitude of rational creatures submitting themselves willingly to grace this thinking applied to russian communes too a commune wrote sergi aksakov is a union of the people who have renounced their egoism their individuality and who express their common accord this is an act of love in the commune the individual is not lost but renounces his exclusiveness in favor of the general accord and there arises the noble phenomenon of a harmonious joint existence of rational beings there arises a brotherhood a commune a triumph of human spirit and before publishing his first major work notes from underground theodore dostoyevsky went on a tour of europe in london he visited the international exhibition at the crystal palace a grand fair of world products and the greatest example of western commerce of individualism of capitalism he wrote you become aware of this colossal idea you sense that here something has been achieved and here there is victory and triumph you even begin vaguely to fear something he then wondered must you accept this as the final truth and forever hold your peace it's also solemn triumphant and proud that you gasp for breath look at these hundreds of thousands these millions of people humbly streaming here from all over the face of the earth people come with a single thought quietly relentlessly mutely thronging into this colossal palace and you feel that something final has taken place here and something has come to an end but then in the rest of london he saw people quite half-naked savage and hungry he saw that liberty only existed for the rich and he worried about quite a principle of isolation of intense self-preservation of personal gain of self-determination of the eye of opposing this eye to all nature and the rest of mankind as an independent autonomous principle entirely equal and equivalent to all that exists outside itself he returned to russia with his mind made up russians shouldn't mindlessly import these european ideals nietzsche read the book dostoevsky wrote next notes from underground which drew from these experiences and from it nietzsche derived his own idea it wasn't reason or divine truth that drove world history it was resentment mark the date well august 19 1991 historians are likely to be analyzing the events of this day for generations to come military leaders and the soviet secret police have taken control of the government and now vice president gennady yanayev is sitting in the president's seat the hardliners say the country has become ungovernable because of perestroika tanks are moving into the capital taking up positions near key government buildings outside the russian parliament building crowds began gathering early this morning to hear russian president boris yeltsin call for a general strike to protest what he calls an unconstitutional coup first no one knows exactly what putin is thinking who he really admires what his true motivations are and i'm not saying he's consciously adopted this tradition or this model of history or this particular thinker it's important though to understand the trend that he's in many ways a part of and is able to draw some kind of strength and russian unity from these anti-western anti-liberal anti-rationalist there are many ways to frame them sentiments became even more fertile in russia during the crisis of the 90s when russia was plunged into internal conflict when gangs rose when hyperinflation happened when the provinces started to ignore moscow or declared independence in short russia was in chaos in 2013 putin said the question of finding and strengthening national identity is of a fundamental nature for russia scholar sergey medvedev has written that in the 2000s quote resentment was transformed into state policy he said it used a myth of geopolitical defeats humiliation and pillaging of russia by world liberalism and its henchmen yeltsin gaidar and chubbiest he continued all of russian society from putin to the last appointment are all equally the bearers of resentment for putin the source of the non-recognition of himself and of russia as equal and respected players on the world stage for the pointsman his helplessness in the face of the police officials courts and bandits the resentment fantasies of the authorities at a certain moment entered into a strange resonance with the resentment fantasies of ordinary people in a conservative orthodox publication asked in 2005 is it possible to satisfy the west is it possible to ever be recognized as equals and so we wait quietly for them to let us become like they are to let us into the club of equals but the answer is never this new wave of resentment has led to the adoption of two new thinkers that in some ways carry some of this historical tradition into modern conservative russian culture they are even illian and carl schmidt the german philosopher carl schmidt was a conservative and fascist thinker who was a member of the nazi party and whose work responded to the crisis of democracy in weimar germany in the interwar period before the nazis took power schmidt was to put it simply a philosopher of order he saw liberalism in interwar germany as leading to all the things that some russians were seeing in the 1990s hyperinflation depravity chaos he saw liberal democracy as fundamentally flawed because it couldn't deal with the political conflict that's inherent in all politics under liberal democracy no one single person or party was strong enough to prevent that conflict and in fact schmidt thought that liberal rights handed the enemies of liberalism the tools that could be used to destroy liberalism itself he said the organizations of individual freedom were used like knives by anti-individualistic forces to cut up the leviathan and divide its flesh among themselves instead he sought to homogenize the masses through a single will of a sovereign he thought a strong leader could stand above the law in a state of exception so that disorder could be dealt with more effectively after the chaos of the 90s as political theorist david lewis states karl schmidt's influence became one of the most important influences in russian conservatism in the 2000s the other philosopher that putin has specifically quoted is the conservative spiritual thinker even ilyan a counter-revolutionary who admired mussolini and hitler and putin even re-buried him in a ceremony in 2005. ilyan's philosophy looked backwards to a time when god the world and the universe were united in one and like schmidt ilion criticized the individualistic disjointed and morally relative world view of liberalism he thought that god had made a mistake by dividing himself from the world and dividing the world and people into parts he wrote when god sank into empirical existence he was deprived of his harmonious unity logical reason and organizational purpose he continued the empirical fragmentation of human existence is an incorrect a transitory and a metaphysically untrue condition of the world ilion saw the nation as a single harmonious organism but importantly he simply thought russia was at the center of the world the center of this harmony god was russian ukraine was of course russian the truth of russia of god of everything was singular and eternally in the past and it was about reclaiming this and a single leader must do that and lead for the purpose for the glory of all russians anything from outside of this single eternal truth is considered a threat he said that mussolini hardens himself in just and manly service he is inspired by the spirit of totality rather than by a particular personal or party motivation he stands alone and goes alone because he sees the future of politics and knows what must be done the russian filmmaker nikita mikalkov introduced ilyan to putin mikalkov himself wrote that russia was a spiritual material unity that was at the center of eurasia which was an independent cultural historic continent organic national unity geopolitical and sacred center of the world putin similarly has said that the great russian mission is to unify and bind civilization in such a state civilization there are no national minorities and the principle of recognition of friend or foe is defined on the basis of a common culture like schmidt ilyan argued that por israel the lawlessness of the leader standing above the people in a state of sovereignty in a state of exception was better than a leader under the law the leader was the exception to the law and putin has also spoken of a dictatorship of the law this is obviously a complicated history the linear universalistic rationalistic model of history assumes that chaos moves inevitably towards an ordered enlightenment society but i think what history actually shows is that chaos that arises from those very things sometimes is just as likely to create the conditions for this nationalistic conservative spiritualistic authoritarianism that we see in parts of russian intellectual life today and to call a spade a spade it's fascism of course much of what i've painted here is a generalization and it's a snapshot of a part of russian history there are many sides to history russian and everywhere else we have to take a nuanced view on history like this we have to understand that those things that don't fit in our liberal rationalists logical model those romantic elements national identity spirit feeling localism language culture poetry there are many elements but they are part of us too part of what's driven history and a big part but they're also the things that like bundles of sticks of latent tinder can be twisted into authoritarianism into expansionism into fascism [Music] thank you as always for watching and a huge thanks of course as always to my patreons without which this just wouldn't be possible so if you want to see scripts if you want to chat in the discord server if you want your name in the credits but most of all if you just want to help support make this content then click the link in the description below if not you can like you can share you can leave a comment all those things that help the algorithm thank you so much and i'll see you next time [Music] do do you

Channel: Then & Now

Views: 135,561

Keywords: putin, russian history, russian nationalism, fascism, vladimir, dostoevsky, rousseau, romantics, ukraine, conflict, ivan illyin, carl schmitt, russia war, anti-western, enlightenment

Id: DVLr10FEroA

Length: 36min 7sec (2167 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 25 2022