On May 29

1990, Boris N. Yeltsin was elected President of Russia. While during his rule Russians got the taste of basic democracy and freedom, the country suffered an absolute disaster in all spheres of life-- economic, social, cultural, political. See my previous post. Rise of extreme nationalism, free rule of organized crime/mafia, economic dilapidation, severe poverty, educational dumping, etc. His was not leadership, but mere presence. Other, very dangerous people were ruling behind the scenes. It was during Yeltsin's rule that my family moved to the US (1996), giving up on any hope of recovery and security... Anarchy ruled for the entire period until Putin took over...

Russians then decided, they would rather have ORDER with less democracy, than ANARCHY with freedoms... That is why, Putin who brought that long-awaited order became so popular and so loved by Russians... While of course many of the problems associated with Yeltsin's rule have become systematic and not conducive to simple solutions, Putin's intelligent and very thoughtful leadership ameliorated the severity of the effects...


Could there be a third alternative for Russia-- both order and democracy (any style)? Maybe in the future! Freedom is a cherished human need and Russians are not devoid of that... It is ingrained in their very culture, based on a country extending over a vast territory... Certain amount of wildness and rebellion characteristic of gypsies is in the deep psyche of Russia... So, perhaps it is a philosophical question, how much of freedom is enough not to turn into anarchy and disorder?

Freedom, Liberte, Свобода

Horses are free animals, not attached to anything or anyone. If you put the heavy bridle on them, they will run away and never come back... Remember that! Freedom, freedom, freedom is their essence... I think, we as humans are not very different from them. The Declaration of Independence and the French Revolutionary principles (Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite starting off first and foremost with Liberte) come to mind... Freedom of the individual, while not absolute, is a cherished right and should never be underestimated!
Click here for Vladimyr Vysotsky's 'Horses'

(Vysotsky, about whom I posted on this blog below, wrote and sang this song during the dark Soviet years, when his desperate struggle for freedom was doomed. He had to use metaphoric concept of horses to make his point about the repression/oppression of his times).

Freedom and its Attainability

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), a Danish philosopher, wrote in his famous "Either/Or," "For freedom, therefore, I am fighting... I am fighting for the future, for either/or. That is the treasure I desire to bequeath to those whom I love in the world; yea, if my little son were at this instant of an age when he could thoroughly understand me, and my last hour had come, I would say to him, 'I leave to thee no fortune, no title and dignities, but I know where there lies buried a treasure which suffices to make thee richer than the whole world, and this treasure belongs to thee... This treasure is deposited in thine own inner self: there is an either/or which makes a man greater than the angels."
These words of the existentialist equate freedom with choice. Ability to choose is freedom and freedom is the ability to choose... Self-realization of the individual is the prerequsite to the ability to choose and therefore, freedom. But self-realization comes only after knowledge of oneself. "Know thyself" is the old sage's advice... Therefore, freedom is unattainable without self-knowledge... The question then becomes, is freedom possible when most people by virtue of their surroundings, upbringing and other factors are simply not capable of learning who they are... Because of this, true freedom also becomes simply absurd and a figment of our imagination...