Ex-communist Europe Eastern approaches
Protest in Russia
The bourgeois revolutionaries
Dec 26th 2011, 13:17 by The Economist online
IN RUDYARD KIPLING'S "The Jungle Book" Mowgli is led astray by the Bandar-log, a tribe of monkeys who, explains Mowgli's chum Baloo, ignore all the rules and “throw nuts and filth on our heads.” Only Kaa the Rock Snake, an old and fickle hunter, is able to entrance these undisciplined apes and make them do his bidding.
Such was the unfortunate image that Vladimir Putin chose to conjure earlier this month when he spoke of his attitude to tens of thousands of Russians who had come out to issue a protest against December 4th's rigged parliamentary election. The demonstrators, claimed the prime minister, were paid by foreign powers: “What can one say, in this case? One can say, in the end, ‘Come to me, banderlogi.’”
Yet if Mr Putin ever had Kaa-like powers of hypnosis, they are failing fast. His suggestion that the protesters were nothing but simian wreckers surely drove only more Russians to join a new rally on Moscow’s Sakharov Avenue on December 24th, as did his assertion that their white ribbons looked like contraceptives.
Up to 80,000 citizens showed up for Saturday's demonstration, about double the turnout for the previous protest, on December 10th. That in turn was the biggest the city had seen for 20 years.
The crowds streamed into the broad avenue in the north of the city, named after the Soviet-era dissident Andrei Sakharov, to face a stage emblazoned with the words, “Russia will be free!”
Among them was Sergei Shashko, 53, a farmer from Kaluga region, in western Russia. “This is a bourgeois revolution against a feudal state,” he said. “Today people have a little more money and they want something different. They’re no longer happy to go to a bureaucrat for help and be kicked or ignored instead.”
On the stage, the diverse leaders of Russia’s political opposition gave fiery speeches. Alexei Navalny, the blogger-lawyer and heart-throb of the protest movement, fresh from serving a 15-day prison sentence following a previous demonstration, cried: “I see enough people here to take the Kremlin and the White House [Russian government] right now. But we are a peaceful force. We won’t do that—yet.”
There was a clear consensus in the crowd. Protestors spoke of endemic corruption and predictable politics. Some expressed their wishes to emigrate. Many demostrators held witty signs or inflated condoms, referring to Mr Putin’s barbs. A giant python on a placard squeezed the life out of Russia. There was a group of banderlogi: young men in chimpanzee masks.
Roman Dobrokhotov, a 28-year-old anti-Kremlin activist, released a huge portrait of Mr Putin on a steel frame, attached to helium balloons. “Crawl away, worm!” read the slogan on one. To cheers, the portrait was sucked into the sky, disappearing from view.
The tipping point for many Russians, said Mr Dobrokhotov, was Mr Putin’s announcement in September that he would return to the presidency next March, replacing his one-term stooge, Dmitry Medvedev.
“The protesters are no longer just classical democrats, the intelligentsia, and pensioners,” he said. “Now they are also students, and people in their thirties and forties with good cars and nice clothes. They feel a lack of freedom. They know they can choose a new phone, choose the food they want. But they can’t choose their political leaders.”
Eastern approaches deals with the economic, political, security and cultural aspects of the eastern half of the European continent. It incorporates the long-running "Europe.view" weekly column. The blog is named after the wartime memoirs of the British soldier Sir Fitzroy Maclean.
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How many people were "demonstrating" a while ago in the streets of London? Ah yes but those were hoodlums whereas the ones in Moscow have "good cars and nice clothes".
It would be nice to have a fresh view on Russia from TE. After all, the price of oil is at all-time high and I'm sure there will be some left over for BP if they behave nicely.
There there don't fret dear TE.
Yes, I suppose all is well when they are bourgeois revolutionaries, but any civil unrest from the proletariat is not to be tolerated.
oh,oh.Look,what a mess out there!And in comparison,how peaceful and quiet China is!So you can't say that dictatorship is all bad.And I think in terms of freedom,the capitalist country leaders should force their education ministers to add one term into the students' books-There's no absolute freedom-freedom is historical and it is relative as well.Every Chinese is quite familiar with this saying,so maybe that's partly the reason why China has hardly seen such chaotic congregations in recent years(or more than a decade).
well,just for fun.Don't be serious with my comments.I neither support or oppose communism....I just live my own life as it is.politics-nonsense to me coz my words never changes anything.
Not sure if just joking... or if it is one of Putin's zombies.
This is not about freedom or democracy. This is about a few robbing the respective countries through legal or illegal corruption.
In the case of Russia, many of these oligarchs (with the exception of Putin) have already ran away to Israel or London after robbing the country.
It is time for Russia to demand these scum bags to be returned and face justice.
I've worked in a company of around 250 people in Moscow for 8 of the last 10 years, including last year. I'm one of a handful of foreign employees - the rest are Russians. Primarily middle class - upper middle class, but also including the children of the wealthy and the lower middle custodial and support staff.
In Putin's first years, you might hear the occasional Western educated or well traveled liberal fringe complain, but for the most part everyone was happy to get their year on year 15-20% pay raises and finally be able to afford their own apartments and cars. 10 years later, there's an almost universal consensus that politics are important and the country's not going the right way.
No one went to the first, smaller protests. A larger group, still no more than 10, went to the protests on the 14th and even more went to the 24th. Politics is still spoken of mainly through dark humor, spreading viral videos and the occasional barb at Putin and Medvedev.
This is not a mass movement yet. But this is certainly not a concern only of the Russian intelligentsia. Politics is an emerging middle class concern. People are more connected through social networks than ever before (Russia spends more time on social media than any other country in the world) and online protest feels like a mass movement. It's only a matter of time before that massive social consciousness moves from the web to the streets. It's happened already to an unprecedented degree, but there's a lot more discontent out there than even the 80.000 reflects.
There's a definite feeling that this is going somewhere. Politics, in Soviet times only spoken of in the kitchen, today mainly on-line, will again be on the streets, out in the open. Putin will not be able to claim this is a movement of the minority for much longer.
Classic defensive deflection. This article is about Russia's problems, not London's rioters (who by the way never claimed to be political demonstrators).
Stay focused and stick to rational and logical arguments as the author of this article does well. Russia needs better government.
I believe if this trend continues Russia will change in 6 years. I’ll give Putin another 6 year term of presidency. These protests must shape into some sort of a right-wing or liberal political party. Transition must be smooth one, not some sort of condom revolution. The parties represented now in the parliament are all rubberstamp bodies and stooges of current regime. Except maybe for the communists but still all are yes-man and lackeys like Kipling’s jackal Tabaqui waiting for their chance to grab the power and go back to communist paradise.
When will world leaders learn that all politics ends in failure if they stay in power too long? They almost always go on to serve one term too many.
Putin's now in tricky situation. Will he yield? Or will he have blood? Will this be a Russian Spring?
I knew it Russians won’t buy Putin’s schemes to remain in power. They are just like the rest of Europeans, they want the cars and the malls but they also want to elect their leaders.
Gorbaciov summarized well when he addressed Putin: ”Dude, you’ve already had three terms, it’s time to let go.”
Bourgeois of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your (fill in the blank)
A prize will be awarded for the most entertaining submission.
It's Russia, so whatever the political outcome, something witty and literary results.
For those who understand Russian:
Sergei Bykov writes (and Mikhail Efremov performs) a clever Rudyard Kipling parody: http://f5.ru/pg/post/391571
Putin has brought Russia to be one of the strongest economic power in the world. With the crisis in Europe, it is riskfull for Russian to have a new leader. Russians shouldn't forget what they have achieved in Putin's regime especially in the time of crisis.
To the (dis)united proletariat of the world: read this:
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/vladimir-kara-murza/too-little-t...
"...strongest economic power.."
What fantasyland do you live in ?
The USA and various European nations better pay attention, substantial change happens when the middle class aligns with the working class.
You Sir read my mind!!
Similar to the "Arab spring".
People unite against one person or the system.
Watch the Presidential election next year for the rhetoric as to what the opposition candidates are "for". Maybe it's the media coverage, but all I've seen in the past are candidates calling the leaders names.
As someone long ago pointed out, it is easier for those out of power to complain than to govern when they gain power.
We'll see how things go, going in forward in Libya, Egypt, etc.
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- A resident of a city in western Libya says at least two people were killed after gunmen ransacked a home in search of a regime figure once loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.
Basem al-Tarhoni says angry residents in Tarhouna retaliated by torching the headquarters of some 100 fighters who helped topple the longtime leader from power.
Regards
You said: "People unite against one person or the system."
The power abuse in Russia has been a SYSTEMATIC ABUSE for centuries. Putin is not ruling Russia alone. Its the 'siloviki' who keep Putin in power as long as he can continue to provide them with wealth beyond anything they could ever dream about.
The 'siloviki' couldn't care less about ideology, - they want power and more wealth. Much more.
",,,all is well when they are bourgeois revolutionaries, but any civil unrest from the proletariat is not to be tolerated."
Pat, just two points:
a) civil unrest of proletariat has never happened in history.
Proletariat is either hired as troublemakers - to sell its labor for different purposes is what proletariat is all about, aren't they? Or they are too busy exerting themselves from being proletarians...
b) revolutions are always, with no exceptions, a bourgeois endeavor.
You need brainpower before you need muscle for a revolution, dontcha?