Paul Goble
Staunton, April 20 – Many analysts
and commentators have suggested that the Russian state was shaped in profound
ways by the rule over large parts of it nearly a millennium ago by the Golden
Horde; but now Kharmoos Tyundeshev, a Khakass historian, has gone a step
further. He says Putin’s system is a near-perfect continuation of Golden Horde
rule.
That is, the author of The Great Khan Baty – the Founder of Russian
Statehood (in Russian) argues, Putin rules a Horde-style federation, has
established a totally subservient Duma like the Horde’s kurultai, and acts in his capacity of president just as the khans
of the Golden Horde did (svoboda.org/a/29172315.html).
In his book, Tyundeshev agues that “the
state established by Khan Baty exists up to now,” with the only difference being
that “its state language is Russian, itself a mixture of Slavic and Turkic.”
The contemporary Russian state thus “was formed not on the basis of Kievan Rus”
and “not in competition with the Horde forces.”
Instead, he continues, “Russia arose
on a completely new Muscovite basis, which was an organic part of the Golden
Horde state system. It grew out of the competition of Muscovy with the khanates
which had earlier been included in the Golden Horde for the population of a
great state that was in the process of disintegrating.”
For a long time, “the Golden Horde
was for the Russian [rulers] the most importance source of legitimacy and
prestige of their power. Close ties with the khan’s court, where customs completely
different from ancient Russian ones dominated, customs based on harsh and often
blind subordination could not fail to be reflected in [their] consciousness and
behavior.
Thus, one must conclude, Tyundeshev
says, “Khan Baty was the founder of Russian statehood. All the state system in
Rus created by him was part of the Golden Horde. Now [Russia] would be called its
‘federal subject’ … [As the horde declined,] the center of administration of
the state gradually was transferred to Rus.”
“By its mentality,” the historian
argues, “Russia is an Asiatic country. There is a small part of the population which
prefers a European one. But the grater part, although it belongs to the
European race, has an Asiatic mentality. This is connected with traditional ethics,
the force of habit and ancestors, and the authority of political leaders.”
Not surprisingly, “it is very
difficult to learn to be free.”
“When serfdom was outlawed in 1861,
a large portion of the serfs didn’t know what to do. Then there was a totalitarian
regime, in fact, a form of slavery. Of course, an Asiatic mentality has been
preserved. This is show in the elections, including the presidential ones: I
think there wasn’t any falsification. This is the same mentality. You can’t
change it quickly.”
In the Golden Horde and in Putin’s
system, there is everywhere “a power vertical.” And that means that often “a
presidential decree is higher than the Constitution, as for example, that about
the creation of federal districts, something that itself traces its origins to
the depths of Turkic-Mongol statehood.”
“From the Golden Horde has been
preserved the tradition of life-long or at least lengthy time in office” of
rulers and “voluntarism” in their decisions. But that has serious flaws: “Even
if the leader has outstanding abilities and exceptional morality, in the final
analysis, the state decays and the regime looks for enemies foreign and
domestic.”
“In Western Europe,” Tyundeshev
says, “there exists a clear division of powers. [Russians however] have a super-presidential
republic where the institution of the presidency is above the other branches of
power, and the Duma is not like the parliaments in Western Europe. Here there
is no system of checks and balances. The Duma always votes as the president
says.”
That means that “the president is the
khan of today.”
He gives the following example: In Yoshkar-Ola
last summer, Putin declared that “the languages of the national republics must
not be imposed on non-indigenous residents.”
And immediately officials began enforcing not a law, not a decree, but a
presidential declaration and started banning the required study of non-Russian
languages.
“But we have a multi-national federation;
and in the constitutions of the national republics there is a requirement that
the second state language is the language of the indigenous population of the republic
and all children living in this republic must study it.” An
Asiatic khan could overrule this; a European president wouldn’t.
No comments:
Post a Comment