Global Need for a Universal-Minded Russia
By Emmanuel Todd | Monday, November 22, 2004

The Globalist
Nov 22 2004

President Putin’s recent turn toward authoritarianism seems
heavy-handed. Yet, Russia has a traditionally egalitarian approach to
international relations. Emmanuel Todd, author of “After the Empire,”
argues that — if the country can avoid the pitfalls of anarchy and
authoritarianism — this universalist tradition could help Russia to
become a much-needed global balancing power.

Russia’s temperament is universalist. Equality was inscribed in the
heart of the Russian peasant family structure by a rule of
inheritance that was absolutely symmetrical.

Egalitarian social structures

Under Peter the Great, the Russian nobles rejected primogeniture —
the rule of inheritance that favors the eldest son to the detriment
of the other siblings.

A liberal Russian economy will never be an individualist Anglo-Saxon
style capitalism. It will keep communitarian features.

Like the French peasants who had become literate before the French
Revolution, the Russian peasants who became literate in the 20th
century spontaneously considered all men equal.

Communism spread as a universalist doctrine offered to the world with
— I admit — tragic and disappointing results.

However, the underlying universalist approach allowed for the
transformation of the Russian empire into the Soviet Union.

Bolshevism’s appeal

Bolshevism drew the Russian empire’s minorities into its circles of
power — Baltics, Jews, Georgians and Armenians. Like France, Russia’s
seductiveness flowed from its capacity to treat all men as equals.

Communism eventually fell apart. And today, we find that the
anthropological base of the former Soviet sphere is changing slowly.

Anticipating Russia’s future

And yet, despite these changes, the new Russian democracy — if it
succeeds — will retain certain basic characteristics. We should keep
them in mind if we want to anticipate its likely future behavior on
the international scene.

Unlike Americans, Russians do not go around thinking there is a
prefiguerd borderline separating real men from everyone else —
Indians, blacks and Arabs.

For starters, a liberal Russian economy will never be an
individualist Anglo-Saxon style capitalism. Instead, it will keep
communitarian features, creating horizontal associative forms that it
is too early to define more precisely.

Similarly, the political system is unlikely to function along the
lines of the alternating two-party English and American model.

Russia’s long communitarian tradition

Anyone who wants to speculate about the future shape of Russia ought
to read the classic study by Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, “L’Empire des
tsars et les russes” (1897-1898).

It contains a comprehensive description of the behaviors and
institutions marked by Russia’s communitarian sensibility 20 to 40
years before the triumph of communism.

American and Russian sensibilities

Russia’s universalist approach to international politics will trigger
reflexes and instinctive reactions close to those of France —
evidenced, for example, by the way France irritates the United States
by its “egalitarian” approach to the Israeli-Palestinian question.

Russia’s temperament is universalist. Equality was inscribed in the
heart of the Russian peasant family structure.

Unlike some Americans, Russians do not go around thinking there is an
a priori borderline separating real men from everyone else — Indians,
blacks and Arabs.

They have also not exterminated Indians, at least since the conquest
of Siberia in the 17th century.

Yearning for a universalist temperament

The survival of Bashkirs, Ostiaks, Maris, Samoyeds, Buryats, Tungus,
Yakuts, Yukaghirs and Chukchees testifies to the complex structure of
the Russian Federation.

In my view, the Russian universalist temperament is cruelly lacking
in international politics today.

A place for a strong Russia

The dissolution of the Soviet Union — and with it a certain
egalitarian angle on international relations — explains in part the
unleashing of differentialist tendencies among Americans, Israelis
and others.

The dissolution of the Soviety Union explains in part the unleashing
of differentialist tendencies among Americans, Israelis and others.

The theme of France’s little universalist music is faint indeed
without the power of Russia as amplifier. The return of Russia within
the international balance of power can only help the United Nations.

If Russia can avoid the pitfalls of anarchy and authoritarianism, it
could become a fundamental balancing force in the world — a strong,
non-hegemonic nation expressing an egalitarian understanding of the
relations between peoples.

This attitude will be all the easier to maintain since — unlike the
United States — Russia does not rely on asymmetrical levies
throughout the world for its raw materials, finished goods, capital
or oil.

Adapted from “After the Empire” by Emmanuel Todd. Copyright © 2002
Editions Gallimard. Translation copyright © 2003 by Columbia
University Press. Used by arrangement with Columbia University Press
and Editions Gallimard. All rights reserved.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress