Teaching Comparative

So much for democratization

eXile is the home-grown Russian equivalent of the US' Onion. In other words it's satire. And often satire with the bite of truth. There's a long tradition of political satire in Russia. Krokodil was founded in the early years of the Soviet Union and published until 1990.

eXile, as far as I know, is a post-Soviet publication, with an online version in English. I first found it online during the Yeltsin years, when it published baseball-like trading cards of Russian political leaders.

In its 2006 year end issue, it featured an article, looking like a college course catalog, describing the "courses" which Russia offered the rest of the world in '06. What bits of Russian political culture and politics could your students pull out of this attempt at serious humor?

One example was SUBJECT: Civics 5

"Course Description: Remember all those Western-backed NGOs that popped up in this part of the world as soon as the Soviet Union fell? You know, because they were designed to give Russia 'non-biased' and 'non-profit' advice to gently guide it along a path to a democratic society by providing a non-partisan counterbalance to red-Soviet/Stalinist inbred ways? The same NGOs which formed the backbone of every 'Color Revolution' (see 'Fingerpainting 121' above) are now consigned to the bone yard.

"Russia is and has always been the undefeated intelligence-gathering/disinformation champion of the world. Do they think that disguising Western spy nests with harmless sounding names and giving them democratic-sounding missions, like Amnesty International or the British Council, can fool the ever-vigilant Russian intelligence services?

"Unfazed at being labeled 'increasingly authoritarian,' Russia enacted legislation giving it the power to shut down foreign-funded NGOs at will. And shut 'em down they will! Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev said it straight: 'Foreign NGO's are being used to spy on Russia.' And just to rub it in, Russia humiliated the MI6 by publicly broadcasting surveillance footage of a British diplomat kicking an electronic 'rock.' What were you guys thinking?"

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:36 AM