Gorbachev’s Passing Highlights How Far Russia and Other Former Soviet Republics have Diverged from One Another, Portnikov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 1 – Russian reactions to the death of Mikhail Gorbachev are those of people who view him as having once been their leader with some praising and others denouncing him for what he did, but reactions in other former Soviet republics have been different. There he is viewed not as their leader in the past but as a foreign one, Vitaly Portnikov says.

            According to the Ukrainian commentator says, reactions in the 11 other former Soviet republics and the three formerly occupied  Baltic countries have been a combination of the reactions of other countries who valued or not what Gorbachev did and of people who are glad they got a chance to escape from Moscow’s rule (graniru.org/opinion/portnikov/m.285857.html).

            This highlights the very different trajectories Russians and non-Russians have followed over the last three decades, Portnikov says. The Russians still view the Soviet past and its leaders, including Gorbachev, as theirs, however much they may dislike what this or that Kremlin leader did.

            But the non-Russians overwhelmingly view the late USSR as another country, one from which they are glad to have escaped rather than as some common heritage they share. That they feel that way is being demonstrated every day on the battlefield in Ukraine and also now with Gorbachev’s passing in the media of all of them as well.

            To the extent this is the case, Putin’s hope to restore the Soviet empire faces are faces a far great obstacle than almost anyone is talking about now.