Over the past 25 years, the world has bent to the vision of one man. In the course of a generation, he not only short-circuited the transition to democracy in his own country, and in neighboring countries, but set in motion a chain of events that has shattered the transatlantic order that prevailed after World War II. In the global turn against democracy, he has played, at times, the role of figurehead, impish provocateur, and field marshal. We are living in the Age of Vladimir Putin.
What this ridiculous “great man theory” style analysis tells me is that even in decline, they refuse to take responsibility for anything. They tried to have total control over Russia and couldn’t, tried to encroach on it and overextended in the effort, and now they’re acting like it was a grand game of chess they were outplayed on instead of the material conditions on the ground. Infantile reductionist framing of complicated factors involving many countries.
The great man theory shit is especially insane here because Putin was literally allowed into power by Russian and western oligarchs as a compromise to the Russian people to prevent communism from coming back. Its actually hard to even imagine a more clear example of important people being a result of their societies and conditions rather than the other way around.
What this ridiculous “great man theory” style analysis tells me is that even in decline, they refuse to take responsibility for anything. They tried to have total control over Russia and couldn’t, tried to encroach on it and overextended in the effort, and now they’re acting like it was a grand game of chess they were outplayed on instead of the material conditions on the ground. Infantile reductionist framing of complicated factors involving many countries.
The great man theory shit is especially insane here because Putin was literally allowed into power by Russian and western oligarchs as a compromise to the Russian people to prevent communism from coming back. Its actually hard to even imagine a more clear example of important people being a result of their societies and conditions rather than the other way around.
Have any good articles on this? My knowledge of that period of Russian history is pretty spotty.
That’s a great point.
They didn’t even try though, yeltsin asked to try NATO and 90s Russia was ripe for western investment (exploitation)
The west could have integrated Russia into the capitalist world order, but instead made it clear that cold war sentiments were going to stay