Boris Yeltsin's place in Russia's political history
For next year:An analysis of Boris Yeltsin's political career might be a good introduction to a study of Russia. At the very least, enough basic concepts are mentioned here to provide a good chance to evaluate students' understanding of things like political culture, legitimacy, rule of law, and authoritarianism.
The Hero of His Time by Nina L. Khrushcheva
Nina Khrushcheva teaches international affairs at the New School in New York City and is the great-grand daughter of Soviet Premier (1958-64) Nikita Khrushchev.
"Boris Yeltsin was utterly unique. Russia’s first democratically elected leader, he was also the first Russian leader to give up power voluntarily, and constitutionally, to a successor. But he was also profoundly characteristic of Russian leaders..."Yeltsin aimed for the same goal. But he stands out from them in this respect: he understood that empire was incompatible with democracy, and so was willing to abandon the Soviet Union in order to try to build a democratic order at home.
"At the height of Yeltsin’s career, many Russians identified with his bluntness, impulsiveness, sensitivity to personal slight, even with his weakness for alcohol. And yet in the final years of his rule, his reputation plunged...
"The tasks that faced Yeltsin when he attained power in 1991 were monumental. At several crucial moments, he established himself as the only person who could rise to the challenges of transforming Russia from a dictatorship into a democracy, from a planned economy into a free market, and from an empire into a medium-ranked power...
"Yeltsin was quintessentially a product of the Soviet system, which makes his turn to democracy and the free market, though imperfect, even more miraculous...
"But Yeltsin himself never succeeded in fully throwing off the intellectual shackles of the past. As president, he talked of economic performance as if it could be improved by decree. Like most Russians, he wanted the material advantages of capitalism, but had little respect or understanding for the rule of law and dispersion of power, which makes capitalist institutions work...
"Yeltsin’s tragedy, and Russia’s, was that, when the country needed a leader with vision and determination, it found an agile political operator instead. By not permitting Russia to disintegrate into anarchy or leading it back to authoritarianism, Yeltsin kept the way open for such a leader to one day emerge. Unfortunately, that man is not his handpicked successor, Vladimir Putin, who has only perpetuated the vicious cycles of Russian history."
Labels: change, leadership, Russia
posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:29 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home