Paul Goble
Staunton,
November 4 – Vladimir Putin’s proposal to restore GRU as the name of Russia’s
military intelligence service has opened the floodgates for those who would
like to go even further in bringing back Soviet-era names. Two such proposals
have surfaced in the last 48 hours and more are likely to follow.
On
November 2, Putin proposed restoring the Soviet-era name of Russia’s military
intelligence arm and call it once again the GRU given what he described as its
glorious history (ria.ru/defense_safety/20181102/1532049969.html). As always, other Russians were listening and
waiting to take their cue from the Kremlin leader’s remarks.
The very next day, the National
Committee +60 called on Putin to restore the name KGB to what is now called the
FSB. That is especially timely, it said, now that the GRU is back and that
Russia is pushing to expand the union state with Belarus where the authorities
still use the Soviet nomenclature (znak.com/2018-11-03/putinu_predlozhili_vernut_nazvanie_kgb).
The group said
that bringing back the KGB, the GRU and the militia (in place of the police)
would “receive the full approval of Russians and neutralize the provocations of
the opposition which lives on the generous handouts of the West!”
And
the very next day, poet and commentator Stanislav Kunyayev argued that it was
time to combine the Day of National Unity on November 4 with the celebration of
the 1917 October revolution on November 7 becaue they have “much more in common
than many are inclined to think” (business-gazeta.ru/article/401406
nov 7).
Such
proposals may not gain much traction, but they are an indication of public
attitudes in the age of Putin and of the ways in which his often incautious
remarks lead people to go further and faster than even he would like in
restoring the Soviet past, something Putin at least recognizes could be a
danger to his regime even if some of his most passionate supporters don’t.
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