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The Appeal of Autocracy and Empire: A Threat to Russian Democracy
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20710 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
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9 / 1992 |
10,082 Words |
| Author
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Rolf H.W. Theen
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One of the keenest and most penetrating political observers in modern history, Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote in his preparatory notebooks for his classic study, Democracy in America:
There are people who live under despotism, but yet have a strong feeling of nationality and whom one can see making immense sacrifices to save a fatherland in which they live without share and without rights. But then one must note well it is always religion that takes the place of patriotism for them. The continuity, the glory, and the welfare of the nation is a religious dogma for them. In defending their country they defend that holy city in which they are all citizens…
The Russian, who has not even a share in the land on which he was born, is one of the bravest soldiers in Europe, and he burns his crops to ruin the enemy. But it is the hold empire he is defending…
What makes despotic governments formidable is when the people whom they rule are moved by religious enthusiasm. Then the unity of power instead of damaging social cohesion simply directs it. The nations in such conditions have the strength of free peoples without the disadvantages of liberty.
What the despotically ruled, "servile" Russian people have been able to accomplish in times of adversity is a matter of historical-record that is widely known and admired. Enslaved as they were under serfdom, they defeated the proud armies of Napoleon and then, as the victims of a new form of servitude and bondage under Stalin called "collectivization"--a system infinitely worse than serfdom because of the addition of concentration camps and the oppressive force of a would-be totalitarian state--they destroyed the seemingly invincible Wehrmacht of Hitler, who led a Germany "gone berserk."
In pondering the nature and consequences of despotic government, Tocqueville also observed that when the faith of a servile also observed that when the faith of a servile people weakens, it loses its fighting power. As long as the Turks had perceived the conquests of their sultan as the triumph of the religion of Mohammed, he noted, they had been invincible. But now that their religion is going and they have only despotism left, he concluded, "they are falling."
Quo Vadis, Russia?
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