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Another meeting of YABLOKO’s Discussion Club took place in YABLOKO’s main office in later April. The main speakers on the topic “Russia: an Empire or an Autocracy” were Prof. Vladimir Kantor, writer, historian of Russian culture, professor of philosophy of the Higher School of Economics and Prof. Irina Busygina, prize-winner of the European Academy, professor of political science of the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations. The anchor was Galina Mikhalyova, Executive Secretary of the Political Committee and Chair of the Gender faction of the YABLOKO party.
At the beginning of this speech Vladimir Kantor dwelled upon historical forms of empires and autocracies. According to Prof.Kantor, in autocracies the state is ruled by one sovereign, whereas all the other citizens are his salves and notions of a common goal or a national welfare are absolutely absent there. In the case of an empire, “all the nations have equal rights”, a state is “polynational” and demonstrates emergence of “a system of national welfare and law”. He also noted that “there can be no liberal empires, as an empire always implies a rigid structure and it can exist only as a rigid structure”. In Russia Vladimir Lenin built an autocratic state after Bolsheviks came to power, which was further developed by Joseph Stalin.
Photo: Vladimir Kantor, Galina Mikhalyova and Irina Busygina
Prof. Irina Busygina noted that both the variants of governing are unfavourable for Russia. She also pointed out that “an empire can not be small in its territory, whereas an autocratic state lacks such a correlation”, “an empire in contrast to an autocracy always has a final institute” and, in addition, “an autocracy represents a centralized system, whereas an empire represents a decentralized system due to its large territory”. Prof.Busygina also stated that both the forms of governing are very costly, additional resources are always required for either broadening of an empire or maintaining of an autocracy, and in the modern world such forms are inefficient. She also proposed to apply the term “federation” to a new state form. “Russia’s huge territory puts restrictions on its power structure” and only federalism “allows to join together the advantages of a politically autonomous living with living on a broader and safer territory”.
Chairman of the YABLOKO party Sergei Mitrokhin also participated in the discussion. In his speech he pointed out the differences between the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire and also draw a parallel between the Roman Empire and Vladimir Putin’s governing. Sergei Mitrokhin also noted that “the institutes that emerged due to social progress in Europe in Russia are created by the government with the help of growing autocracy”.
The anchor of the discussion Galina Mikhalyova said in her closing speech that “any problem can be viewed at from different angles and with the help of different methods. However, we have only one object for our analysis – our country, its past, present and future”. |
