Russians are Creating Their Own Kind of Civil Society by Taking Actions to Get Around Foolish Decisions of the Powers that Be, Yury Dolgoruky Telegram Channel Says

Paul Goble
    
    Staunton, Apr. 14 – Fifteen years ago, everyone talked about the desirability of creating a civil society in Russia; but they never defined just what such a society would look like in the Russian case. And then after the protests in 2011-2012, those in power decided no such society was needed; and Russians stopped talking about it, the Yury Dolgoruky telegram channel says.

    But in the years since, Russians have continued to “demonstrate a high degree of adaptiveness and cooperation” of the kind many view as the core of civil society as they take action on their own in response to foolish decisions by those in power, the channel continues (rosbalt.ru/news/2025-04-14/telegram-kanal-yuriy-dolgorukiy-vlasti-sozdayut-problemy-rossiyane-ih-reshayut-5369015).

    When the government tries to impose a ban on alcohol, they “buy vodka under the table;” and when it cuts back on bus routes, they hitchhike, the Yury Dolgoruky channel says. Moreover, the Russian people “collect money for medical treatment, install traffic lights at their own expense, and carry out ‘social gasification’ on their own.”

    But what sets the Russian version of civil society apart from others is that it doesn’t press the state to do things but rather responds to the mistakes of the state by taking action on its own, thereby creating a kind of civil society that few recognize but that may be the most appropriate for a country like Russia, the channel concludes.

    At some point, these self-organizing Russians may decide to pressure the government to deliver; but for the present, most of them seem to think, the Yury Dolgoruky telegram channel concludes, that those in power create problems and it is up to those who aren’t in that establishment to solve them, typically on their own.