Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 18 – Some Russian
talk show hosts and commentators said that the Notre Dame fire symbolized the the
death of liberal civilization “under the pressure of immigrants and because of the
short-sightedness of liberal elites.
Some more thoughtful Russians talked about the failure of people to
react equally strongly to the decay and destruction of churches in Russia.
Both those reactions – and especially
the first – have garnered much coverage in Moscow and the West, but according
to the editors of Nezavismaya gazeta,
the reaction of ordinary Russians pointed in a different direction, one that is
much more important for the future of the country (ng.ru/editorial/2019-04-17/2_7559_red.html).
“Hundreds of
Russian users of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posed in social networks
photographs of Notre Dame de Paris made during their visits to France,” the
editors say. “Some have been there
several years ago, some last summer and some not long ago. Many have been to
Paris many times.”
“For them, the cathedral is not simply
a symbol but a place to which they are personally attached. This is a natural
reaction, indicative and important” because it shows that Russians are quite ready
to “consider someone else’s cathedral and someone else’s symbol their own,” a
very different approach than the one Russian political leaders suggest.
“If one believes what politicians
say, Russia is counterposing itself to Europe and the West and defending its
special path.” But the reaction of Russians to the fire in the center of Paris says
just the opposite “Russian citizens consider themselves and their country as
part of the European cultural and civilizational space.”
To be sure, Nezavismaya gazeta continues, “in the Russian social-political
realities, there are Asiatic aspects” such as the subservient attitude of Russians
toward their rulers regardless of whether they are tsars, general secretaries or
presidents. For the people, “the state is more important than the individual,
and the individual must be grateful to the state for all good things.”
But despite that, “Russia with its
cities, architecture, dress and cuisine is a European country,” the editors
say. “Russians learn European languages
and even emigrate to the West but not to the East.” Even those who want to oppose the West do so
from within it, speaking of it “not as something alien but as their own.”
At the present time, “a very great
deal is being done so that a wall between Russia and Europe (and more widely
the West) will become real, institutionalized and not limited to words alone,” Nezavisimaya gazeta continues.
Moscow officials routinely argue
that “it is much easier for us to deal with and reach agreement with China,
India and other growing Asian countries” than with European ones. But “in practice,”
Russians don’t believe this or act on it. Instead, “the majority of them do not
know the languages of Asian countries, their culture, literature, art of
history.”
“Mentally, a Chinese or an Indian is
for them far more mysterious than any European,” and “no Asian architectural
ensemble, even the most popular equals Notre Dame de Paris,” the Moscow paper
says.
The Petrine breakthrough to Europe,
with all its twists and turns, “has turned out to be a success. Russia is
accustomed to think of itself as part of European and Western civilization even
though sometimes its elites begin to deny this.” Isolationist impulses may
appear to be carrying the day, but reactions to the fire in Paris show that
they won’t for long.
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