Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 12 – It has been
observed that Spain is the only country in modern times in which the
restoration of the monarchy helped a country to move in a more liberal
direction because King Juan Carlos played a critical role in overseeing the
dismantling of the fascist regime of Francisco Franco and the revival of
democracy there.
But if some Russians get their way,
their country could become the second exemplar of that possibility given that
almost a third of them say that they would like to see the restoration of the
monarchy but far fewer imagine that Vladimir Putin, the current Russian
president, would be a viable candidate to become tsar.
According to a VTsIOM poll, the
results of which were released over the weekend, approximately 28 percent of
Russians say they are for the restoration of the monarchy in Russia or would
not oppose its return, but only a small share of those think that Putin would
be appropriate in that role (svpressa.ru/society/article/77290/).
Six percent of
those polled suggest, VTsIOM says, that a descendent of the Romanovs should
assume the throne, while 13 percent said that any new tsar should be elected by
national referendum or at a new zemsky sobor. That means, although the polling
agency did not say so, that fewer than one monarchist in three or one Russian
in ten sees Putin as the inevitable choice.
Speaking with “Svobodnaya pressa,”
Pavel Svyatenkov, a political scientist, said he was surprised that the
percentage of Russians backing monarchy was as high as it is but suggested that
no one should interpret this as a reflection of a desire of the Russian people
for a strong hand. Instead, he said, it shows just the reverse.
“Monarchy,” he said, is more about “a
legal and legitimate authority than about force in the dictatorial sense. That is, a monarchy must not be a dictator;
he must be the incarnation of law, order, and justice.” Consequently, the
attitudes found by the pollsters reflect “a longing for legality and justice
rather than a search for a strong hand.”
Russians are considering monarchy,
Svyatenkov says because “the institutions of civil society are not working” and
because the current constitution, the result of the violence in 1993, is viewed
by many as illegitimate.
Asked whether Putin could become
tsar, the Russian commentator suggested that there were two obstacles in his
case. On the one hand, such a monarchy would be inevitably “bonapartist.” And on the other, “who would be his heir”
given that Putin has no sons and is divorced.
Vladimir Semenko, who works at the
Moscow Institute of Religious and Social Research, said he wasn’t surprised by
the amount of support for monarchy among Russians. “People don’t see alternatives” to the
historical form of Russian statehood, and many follow the Orthodox Church in
believing that a restored monarchy would help restore the moral health of the
people.
Civil society is still only in its
infancy in Russia, he continued, and it does not yet play a “system-forming
role,” the religious specialist said. Instead, that is played by corruption and
the “entire power vertical” which exists and operates on the basis of massive
corruption. Consequently, people want an
escape from this.
They are not interested in “a strong
hand,” as some think, but in “moral and spiritual authority;” and they
recognize that “the power of the monarch is limited by his conscience and
personal faith and by the church,” which has always viewed absolutism as a
promoter of “secularization.”
Not everyone agrees with these
assessments. “Svobodnaya pressa” cites Sergey Kara-Murza of the Institute of Social-Political
Research of the Academy of Sciences. He dismissed the poll as pointing to any
conclusion beyond one: “People simply think that the [current] government is
bad, they are fed up, and they will use any chance to say so.”
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