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On Freedom of Choice - reflections on Putin's re-election in March 2004.   

By Andrei Shkarubo.

“Motherland, Like parents,

Is not in one’s choice,”

Cautions a Russian saying

Which I first heard back in communist times

            From a KGB investigator

Right after my arrest near the U.S. Embassy

            In Moscow,

Which I had contacted in an attempt

            To emigrate.

20-odd years on,

            and it’s the very same people

            who still interpret for us

            the common wisdoms of our forefathers,

            still caution us in various ways and terms

            against questioning what country we live in,

            or what authority we live under,

            because they think such matters are really

                        not up to us

                                    to choose.

Of course,

            There are people in Russia

            Who still prefer to hold their own opinions,

            Who believe that this saying

            Simply directs us to take the reality

                        For what it is,

            No matter what our desires dictate.

They believe such approach leads us to sound judgment

            And correct decision,

            A good remedy

                        For Russia’s scourge

                                    Of fatalism and apathy.

Of course, there are things in which

            We have no choice,

            And which we,                   

                        Therefore,

                                    Must accept;

But there are ways of acceptance:

            Do we accept to go down and out,

                        Or to rise and improve?

20-odd years on,

            and we still have people

            of independent judgment

                        who cherish

                                    their right of choice.

But the choice for those

            Who insist on

                        Exercising this right

            Now seems as limited as before:

Either go into exile or prison.

This choice becomes increasingly

            The only alternative

            Which the present trappings and trinkets

            Of Putin’s democracy have left

            To those evading

            Being drafted in the corrupt

                        And outright criminal mob

                        Of KGB officers and bureaucrats,

                        Officially known as the

                                    “United Russia” party,

            the only alternative left

            to joining the chorus of

                        Russia’s castrated patriots

                        And Putin stooges,

            The chorus which in the hearts of

Believers in Truth

Rings as bleak and hollow

As the cheap bells

of our new state institution,

           the Russian

Orthodox

Church,

            Whose sound resembles

                        A piece of rail

                                    Slammed

            To signal a roll-call

                        In a labor camp,

            The sound so devoid of

                        Richness

           And happy vibrancy

of a free life

The dismay and gloom

            Is rapidly affecting

                        All strata of society,

            For it’s equally disheartening

            To watch the rape and ruin of human integrity,

            Be it an oil tycoon who used to spend his money

            To support

                        Democracy

                                    In Russia,

            But now,

                        After six months in prison,

            Turned penitent, a convert

                        To patriotism,

            And a devout supporter of

                        President

                                    Putin;

            Or be it a common workman

                        Selling his vote

to save his job,

            It’s disheartening

                        And scary

            To see the fate of those

            Who missed or ignored

            Their chance to become a patriot,

                        Like,

                                    Say,

            The young Russian scholar

            Recently sentenced to

            15 years of imprisonment

            for alleged treason,

            a charge preposterous

            in the case of a person

                        with no access

                                    to state secrets,

            but quite handy to stop all

            unauthorized contacts between

                        the Russian scholars

                                    and their Western counterparts,

            or bring them under the control

                        of the

                                    Russian

                                                Secret

                                                            Services.

The toll of 1 million the pervading apathy

            Takes annually

            On the population of Russia,

            Which now leads the world

            In suicide rates,

                        Violent crime,

                                    Pandemics,

                                                And other social scourges.

This heavy toll only deepens the feeling of doom,

            Creating a social paradox

            Which Western observers

                        Strain to solve:

Putin’s high popularity ratings among ordinary Russians.

They seem to forget that in a doomed society

            A phenomenon of close kinship,

                        A kind of perverted intimacy,

            Between the oppressors

                        And the oppressed

            Is not uncommon:

The psychologists’ witness accounts of the life

            In Nazi concentration camps

                        Are the case in point.

Of course,

            This doesn’t apply to a Chechen nation

            Whose 99 percent voter support

            For Putin is nothing

                        But a jest,

            A display of mock loyalty

                        To Kremlin phonies,

            A demonstration of scorn

            Of the resistance fighters

                        Who cast their votes

                                    In daytime

                        And mine the roads

                                    At night.

The parallels drawn from the Nazi history

            Are not accidental,

For our present state fits amazingly

            The definition

                        Of a fascist regime

            Being run by the secret services

            And monopoly capital,

            The oligarchs

                        (with the exception of a few

                        maverick billionaires

                        now either exiled

                                    or imprisoned).

What it visibly lacks

            For a classic fascist state

            Is some rabid ideology

            Which helps justify

                        And perpetuate

            The stark socio-economic division

            Between those who

                        May-and-have

            And those who

                        May-not-and-have-not.

The absence of such ideology allows the Kremlin regime,

            Though fascist in essence,

             escape being publicly branded

                        as such.

The ideologic sterility of the legion

of featureless spooks

            who now run the country

is fully compensated by their talent

            for mimicry,

 ability essential in spying,

            but pernicious

                        and disgusting

                                    in leadership.

The absence of fascist ideology makes it easier

            To conceal and exonerate

            The most heinous of the regime’s crimes

            In the eyes of those who are blind

                        To the issue

                                    Of morals,

            Those who prefer to look,

            But not to see,

            Who juggle with statistics of alleged

                        Economic growth,

            Citing the number of Casinos

                        And restaurants

                                    On the streets of Moscow;

            Those who  prefer not to see

            That the Kremlin’s announced fight

                        Against poverty

            Is in effect the fight

against the poor;

            Who prefer not to see

            That the children of refugees

            From former southern republics

                        Have begun dying their hair

            To escape the regular attacks

                        Of the fascist mobs;

            Not to see that the fresh tombstones

                        In our cemeteries

            Belong mostly to men in their 30s,

            The very people on whom the

                        Country’s future rests –

                                    Our future,

            Which every year is buried

                        Deeper

                                    And deeper,

            Giving ground to cynicism,

            The only thing that now unites

                        The fragmented nation –

            Who dare not yet question

                        What country they live in,

                                    Or what authority

                                                They live under.

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