A Radical, Romantic Conservative: Explaining Vladimir Putin
3. It strives for a close alliance between church and state, seeking legitimacy in God's favor. The nation, after all, has a special providential character and is predicated upon old-fashioned morality.
4. Finally, it relies upon a strong sovereign power that aims at decisive corrective action.
Putin's words and deeds correspond neatly to each of these categories. Putin has made it plain many times that he looks fondly upon a lost golden era, famously saying, nearly a decade ago, that he considers the dissolution of the Soviet Empire to be "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [twentieth] century." And he has made an effort to stir Soviet-era nostalgia, reviving old medals and awards, presiding over war memorials, and minimizing Stalin's atrocities, even while eulogizing his accomplishments. He's even sought to commemorate Leonid Brezhnev's rule.
But it is not nostalgia for the Soviet Union that energizes Putin so much as it is wistful fondness for the grandeur of the czars. His most recent presidential inauguration occurred in the old czarist throne room. He has opened museums to pay homage to the memory of the Romanov dynasty. His yearning for Finland is of a piece with this. The Romanovs, after all, built their dynasty upon steady geographic expansion, from Poland and Scandinavia in the West, to the Bering Sea in the East, even claiming Alaska and colonizing parts of coastal North America. In his reminiscences, Putin is conjuring up some powerful ghosts.
This was, however, not some pro forma prayer service that one might encounter in the West. Putin has expended large amounts of political capital in reconstructing the Russian Church into a semblance of its former glory. He has rebuilt old church buildings and commissioned new ones. When the punk rock group Pussy Riot staged a bit of performance theater in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February, 2012, Putin took a hand's off attitude as the Church sought -- and obtained -- harsh, two-year-long jail terms against the women involved. Not surprisingly, Patriarch Kirill gushed his enthusiasm over Putin, calling him a "miracle of God."
Recently, as the Pussy Riot verdicts indicate, the Church has been moving in the direction of a militant social conservatism. Patriarch Kirill has denounced liberalism and feminism as grave threats to the political and moral order. But he has reserved most of his harshness for gays. In this, he has enjoyed the full cooperation of Vladimir Putin and the State Duma, which has enacted anti-gay legislation. Indeed, the word "gay" has now become a common slur in Russia, used as shorthand to denounce all sorts of perceived Western "corruption."
Finally, there is Putin the sovereign leader. He is notorious in the West for his many athletic stunts -- riding horses, hunting, fishing, hang-gliding, posing bare-chested, equal parts bravado and testosterone. But there is a method to his seeming madness. And that is the desire to present himself as the strongman so many Russians crave. More substantively, Putin's agenda aims to deliver on that expectation, most spectacularly, of course, in the wars he has helped to launch, first against Georgia and now against Ukraine. He truly aims to be the "Twenty-First Century Czar."
Does Putin really believe in a radical, romantic conservative agenda? Or is he still the clever KGB operative, manipulating symbols near and dear to the Russian soul so as to consolidate power? Or is he acting from desperation, fearful that if he does not arouse the passions of nationalism, the Russian people, already in steep demographic decline, will sink into the mire of apathy and ennui? My own guess is that he is moved by some admixture of each of these elements. Putin may not even be sure himself where the pose ends and his true political commitments begin. Still, whether he is posturing or acting from deep, sincerely-held belief, he is playing with fire.
Previous article by the author on Facts & Arts:
Explaining America's New Place in the World
by Charles J. Reid, Jr.Added 29.03.2014
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