Paul Goble
Staunton, Sept. 5 – In Soviet times, Russians came up with anecdotes about their leaders; but now, there are few such stories. The reason for this change is two-fold, Aleksandra Arkhipova says. On the one hand, people fear repression; and on the other, they are now focused on other Russians rather than the leader alone.
The Russian anthropologist who now lives in Paris says the lack of anecdotes is thus part of the adaptive strategies Russians have adopted to cope with the new era and the evolution of Russian society which has more information about more things than did its predecessors (svoboda.org/a/gena-rabstva-ne-suschestvuet/33846353.html).
In the course of a wide-ranging interview with Radio Liberty, Arkhipova makes three other particularly noteworthy observations:
First, she says that she “does not really believe in a specifically Russian model of behavior or in some specific ‘slavery gene’ about which people began to speak a lot in 2022.” The Russian state “is able to do terrible things with people,” but it is far from alone in that. And like other peoples, Russians adapt to the way the state acts.
Second, she observes that Russians grow up with the view that they must keep as much distance as possible from the state, although some use it as a social elevator and thus look on it more positively. Since Putin came to power, Russians have participated in new loyalty rituals, but that doesn’t mean the view that they should keep their distance from the state has changed.
And third, she points to the fact that today, urban legends are spreading in Russia as a way for people there to cope with the cognitive dissonance generated by the sharp contrast between what the Russian authorities are saying about the weakness of Ukraine and what Russians can see with their own eyes when it comes to drone attacks and returning dead.
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