Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 28 – The recent
arrests of Abyzov and Ishayev like the earlier ones of Belykh, Ulyukayev and
Serebrennikov are harbingers of still more arrests and clear evidence that “any
effort to establish a dictatorship in Russia will end with one that resembles
Stalin’s,” Yevgeny Ikhlov says.
What is happening now is what
happened earlier: when the ruler runs out of resources, he turns to the liquidation
of his own subordinates to ensure his power, the Russian commentator says. That
is what Stalin did in the 1930s; it is what Vladimir Putin is doing now (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5C9D0416DC132).
Unfortunately, Ikhlov continues, “there
are in Russia no social patterns (behavioral and ideological models) of despotism
except for Stalinism.” And consequently, “any attempts to create a dictatorship
in Russia will end with a Stalinist dictatorship” with almost all the features
of that regime.
Once again, wreckers will be found,
the ruling class will have to be destroyed, and propaganda will become
increasingly shrill in pointing to conspiracies linked to foreigners. And as a result, repression will once again
be “the only reliable instrument of constructing society” according to the
desires of the ruler.
Of course, there is this difference, Ikhlov
says. “Stalinism cultivated asceticism and collectivism while Putinism as one
would expect from a fascist-type phenomenon atomized individualism and private
ownership of property.” But that
difference does not change the underlying nature of a dictatorship in the
country.
“Our ‘Stalinist-Hitlerite’ system
knows only two universal methods of solving domestic crises – a great (eschatological)
war or a great (anti-nomenklatura) terror.” Now, “when all resources of
militarization, xenophobia, and imperial revanchism appear exhausted,” Ikhlov concludes,
“the system organically has begun the transition to … anti-elite purges.”
No one should be surprised, he suggests;
but everyone should be very much afraid.
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