海角大神

The future is history because, as the Russians say, 鈥淏udushego net," there is no future.聽

Masha聽Gessen, the sterling Russian-American journalist and activist, has been outspoken in recent press articles about the threat of totalitarianism in America. But in her latest book, Future Is History, she never mentions America鈥檚 problems.

Here, instead, she examines what is wrong in her native country and lets readers, wide-eyed, draw the聽parallels. She notes that, in Russia, 鈥渁 constant state of low-level dread made people easy聽to control, because it robbed them of the sense that they could聽control anything themselves.鈥�

The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, with various republics spinning聽off into their own situation-tragedies or into an alternative-reality show (i.e., Ukraine). What did Mother Russia have as soil in which to聽cultivate a new political system? 鈥溾�� Soviet institutions had become聽Russian institutions after 1991, and soon the Russian bureaucracy聽began to guard many Soviet secrets like its own.鈥� Poisoned聽ground!

Gessen聽asks: 鈥淗ad the ideas of freedom and democracy really been forgotten no sooner than they had apparently won?鈥� Apparently聽so. Gessen聽delivers answers in her usual emphatic way: 鈥淥ld聽government, Party, and KGB hands had filled the many voids at all聽levels of the bureaucracy and had resumed their ascent up the power聽ladder, as though the end of the Soviet Union had caused just a聽temporary layoff.鈥�

Why should we care about how and why Russians lost the chance to purge聽the Soviet system from their souls? Why should we care about the聽earnest and hopeful intelligent young people who came of age in the聽new Russia and who slowly found themselves in the clutches of the聽Soviet zombies that have come back to power (not life, but power)?聽

Gessen聽was herself one of the hopeful, but she has preferred in this聽book not to discuss her own situation or her experiences trying to聽fortify a budding open society in Russia. She lost that battle to聽Putin when the Russian government passed laws allowing it to abduct聽children from gay parents, and she had to retreat to America for the聽sake of her marriage and children. The Russian government seems to want to pretend that gay people (not corruption,聽violence, racism, religious and cultural intolerance, economic聽inequality, alcohol, and drug abuse) are the primary source of the聽nation鈥檚 ills. However, charges Gessen, much of the inspiration for such cruel bigotry聽was imported from America. She writes that Russian homophobes love the American聽academic Allan Carlson鈥檚 鈥淲orld Congress of Families,鈥� a 海角大神聽group 鈥渄edicated to the fight against gay rights, abortion rights, and聽gender studies.鈥�

Gessen聽takes turns focusing on four particular earnest brave resisters聽to the totalitarianism of their country, Zhanna,聽Masha, Seryozha, and聽Lyosha. It never becomes exactly clear, though, why Gessen chose these four. She聽seems to have known them all for many years, since their childhoods,聽but are they random representatives of Russian life? No. They鈥檙e more聽similar to Greek mythic tragic heroes, like Antigone, Electra, and聽Orestes 鈥� smart and capable, admirable for their persistence and integrity,聽and for their necessary courage in opposition to tyranny.

Zhanna鈥檚 father, Boris Nemtsov, a politician regarded as dangerous by聽the Kremlin because of his faith in democracy, was assassinated in聽2015 in front of Red Square, his murder covered up by the government.聽Lyosha, a careful, cool, optimistic gay rights advocate and sociology聽professor, has had to move to New York for fear of his life.聽This is a grim book.

In her attempt to define the requirements of a totalitarian system,聽Gessen聽quotes a priest who fled Mussolini鈥檚 fascist Italy: 鈥淓veryone聽must have faith in the new state and learn to love it. From the聽schools up to the universities conformity of feeling is not enough;聽there must be an absolute intellectual and moral surrender, a trusting聽enthusiasm, a religious mysticism where the new state is concerned.鈥︹��

The dictator-president Putin鈥檚 cynical play to nationalism has created聽a swamp of intolerance, and the country has taken on a fearful though familiar ugliness, bringing back Soviet-style denunciations,聽censorship, and self-repression. If the thugs would only leave people聽their privacy. But no, those who stand out and speak up for social聽justice, for religious tolerance, for democracy, risk being denounced聽and losing their jobs or being beaten and jailed.

A pioneer in Russian psychoanalysis, Marina Arutyunyan, one of聽Gessen鈥檚 primary sources, diagnoses Mother Russia as depressed and聽suicidal, which leads to聽Gessen鈥檚 conclusion: 鈥淭his country wanted to聽kill itself. Everything that was alive here 鈥� the people, their words,聽their protest, their love 鈥� drew aggression because the energy of life聽had become unbearable for this society. It wanted to die; life was a聽foreign agent.鈥�

All of which leaves the reader asking: Can Russia save herself? It's not clear that even the courage of resisters like聽Zhanna,聽Masha, Seryozha, and聽Lyosha offer grounds for cautious hope.

Bob Blaisdell is writing a biography of Tolstoy.