"Russia as it is: a dead end and a way out"

On March 14, Grigory Yavlinsky spoke at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences as part of the seminar "Russia as it is: a dead end and a way out." The full text of the speech is below.

When you travel around Russia and meet people, sometimes you get into a situation where people tell you about all their problems, and you have to go out to them and say, "Now we'll discuss how to fix it."

That's exactly what I'm going to try to do now. I have a very advantageous position. I must say that with everything that [the head of the Cultural Philosophy Sector] talked about Sergey Anatolyevich [Nikolsky], I actually agree, and I'm ready to discuss "how to fix it."

But first, I want to thank all of you, Sergey Anatolyevich, and the management of the Institute for your attention and for the honor of speaking at the Institute of Philosophy of Russia. It's very difficult and very flattering.

When I was a student, it was the early 70s, and I ended up at the Institute of Philosophy, which was located next to the Pushkin Museum, on Volkhonka.  I was walking along an ordinary shabby Soviet corridor and saw a sign on the same simple door: "Sector of Knowledge". It made such an indelible impression on me that this door with the sign is still standing in front of my eyes. I tried to imagine what was going on behind that door. Some people are sitting there and LEARNING. And I can't even imagine what they'll learn, much less how. That's how I still have an idea of what an Institute of Philosophy is. (laughter in the audience)

I don't dispute the whole thing in any way and I'm not going to argue with the details of what Sergey Anatolyevich said.  What's there to argue with?

To begin with, I want to say that for me, Russian politics is not about opposing Yeltsin or Putin or Gorbachev. It's not about them. These are just people - more educated, less educated - but representing huge historical gaps. Politics is not primarily about personalities, it is a competition with many elements of life, culture, traditions, as mentioned here, with a centuries-old way of life, with what has developed in Russia over many centuries. It is also a competition of history with the current time. And we are a country with the longest and most unpredictable borders in the world. And we are not alone in the world. That's why you can't be late. That's why politics in our country is such a complicated thing.

Then the question arises: maybe it all ended in 1917? And all that happened after that was the final period of self–destruction, and we are still in it? Or is it still possible to find a foothold?

I've been involved in public policy for 30 years, and I keep asking myself the question: "Do I work in intensive care or in a hospice?" Whether there are points of support in order to move on is the most important question for me. Russian Russian culture, especially the Russian literature of the 19th century, which Sergey Anatolyevich also spoke about, is becoming an increasingly important point of support for me, so I want to say this here.

Russian literature of the 19th century, from my point of view (it would be immodest to say), is the greatest global phenomenon. It contains Russian philosophy.  German philosophy developed in other forms. And in Russia, this is a form, but it is an immersion into the most fundamental depths of human thought, thinking, and, moreover, human existence.

We still have to return to the true content of Russian literature of the 19th century after its Soviet propaganda reinterpretation and distortion. I've read about it in your works as well. After all, as a Soviet schoolboy, I read "War and Peace" in the light of Soviet times. "Anna Karenina" and even more so. And completely different meanings were laid, as I now understand, which often did not correspond to the intentions of the authors.  The Bolsheviks could not abandon these works and decided to reinterpret them in their own way. But if we go back to what was originally laid out, then completely different pictures will open up. What a scale that is! It's a pity that there's no time, that a person can't do everything at the same time.

Russian Russian literature In this regard, have you ever wondered why in any bookstore in Europe or the United States you can find Russian literature, the works of many Russian writers: Gogol, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, many, except Pushkin. It's amazing. Why? My answer will be completely amateurish, but maybe you will find it interesting. I think Pushkin is very harmonious. < See Olga Alexandrovna Sedakova about this>. They don't imagine Russians like that. For them, Russian is always a pain in the ass, when everything breaks out from the inside. Like Dostoevsky's. It was as if they had taken everything out from the inside, put it on the shelves and pushed it back. That's the thing!

From all this, I have taken out the points of support that are necessary in my work. I'll try to tell you about them. Here, for example, is a favorite topic and the main question is the question of cyclicity. By the way, does anyone imagine the Apple logo? The Apple logo shows how the circle breaks. It represents a break in the circle. A break in the cycle, if you will. Where else can you tell about it besides the Institute of Philosophy?

So is it possible to break the cycle? Here are some thoughts on this. One of the key features of our lives is a lack or complete lack of self-esteem. A man doesn't respect himself. Not only is he disrespected, he doesn't respect himself and doesn't defend himself. Why? There can be many different reasons, but one of them is the lack of ownership. Even if it exists, it can always be taken away, depriving a person of everything. Or, on the contrary, you can make it so that it is. I am talking only about one side of this problem, which is closer to me as an economist, and about which I may know a little more than the others.

If a person owns a piece of land (not 6 acres, of course), a house that he can leave to his children and grandchildren (and this can be done in the largest country in the world), then self-respect and the need to protect this property will appear.

If you do it in a human way, you will see - there will be a different result. And there will be no need to refer to the code, especially the genetic code.

In the 1990s, they tried to solve this problem. But they did it through vouchers and collateral auctions, achieving the opposite result. They combined property with power and with entrepreneurship in order, as it seemed to them, to strengthen this power. They put it together, thus laying the foundation of the mafia state. And now we live in a mafia state, in a system where property is connected to power, power is connected to entrepreneurship, where there is no court, no law, no prosecutor's office, where power itself has become the most profitable business. From an economic point of view, this system can ensure a prosperous future for about 15% of the population or even less. And the others have nothing to do with it! They just have nothing to do with it! That's how this system works.

Because of the work I do, I traveled a lot across Russia (40,000 km during the last campaign), participating in all campaigns for 25 years, I met a lot of people. And not once have I encountered any kind of savagery, aggression. If aggression is ordered by someone, then anything can happen, but this is a completely different story. In Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok, Ufa, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, and other cities, people come to meetings, talk, and ask questions. I answer them. Someone agrees with me, someone disagrees. There is a normal conversation, normal communication. And there is no problem. It doesn't look like something completely different from what I imagine, or how it happens somewhere else. The level of education may vary. But all people are normal, kind.

And there is one key problem that arises when these people are confronted with the system. This is a care issue. There is such an important concept – the concept of "care". In Russia, a person does not fight the government, but leaves it. He doesn't want to mess with her.

Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachev spoke to me about this for the first time. He talked about how Russia was settled from the south to the north, and explained why it happened that way. He was saying: "It's an amazing thing. Nowhere in the world has it been like this." And why? But because people were running away from power in order to live freely.  Russia is huge, unlimited, so they ran away to live freely. And the government caught up with them and created cities, but not so that they would become centers of, say, crafts or something else. These were her outposts, she wanted to control people. But people were running away from her. Because they had such an opportunity, such a forced geographical settlement. This was the original form of care.

And now there are a lot of forms of care. Alcoholism is also a form of withdrawal. And self–isolation is also a form of withdrawal. And emigration is a form of withdrawal. And internal emigration is a form of withdrawal. And the virtual world. "I will not deal with this power. I don't want anything from her. Leave me alone. Do you want me to vote? Yes, I'll go and vote for whatever you want. And get off me. Just fuck off and don't touch it."

That is why people are not the mainstay of the Russian system of state power. 1917 – the empire collapsed, no one needs anything, the tsar is gone, what a joy, all with red bows! 1991 – The Soviet Union collapsed, everyone is happy, not a single person goes out on the street.

People perceive this system and feel it as someone else's. The gap between people and the state is enormous. And people don't want to defend this state. They don't want to be touched. And this is a matter of principle. My colleague Andrey Kosmynin and I have written a book about this. It is called "Historical and Political notes". I tried to tell you about it there.

After 2012, 2 million people left Russia. These people could become the foundation of a civil society. But they are looking for themselves somewhere else. One of the Yabloko voters is leaving. And then they ask us: "Why do you have fewer voters?"

And this does not mean that the people are submissive or imperial and evil. No. On the contrary, he easily broke up with the autocracy, both in 1917 and in 1991.

 

This means that, in a political sense, we can try to break this cycle. One of the points of this gap, which I have already mentioned, is inviolable private property as the basis of the economy and life.

 

The other one, I'll put it this way, is the institutionalization of respect. This is very important and necessary for people. Respect for the individual through well-known institutions and through the creation of new ones. We do not have a fair, independent and merciful court. No one believes in the court at all. But you can't live without it. There are no real, enforced laws. All people, regardless of their education, understand how the Duma passes laws. Putin wrote that it was necessary to accept – the Duma accepted. Everything is the same as before, under the Soviets. There are no different views, no right, no left, no patriots, no liberals. Everyone votes on command. But this is not a parliament where different opinions should be represented!

 

Another key thing is the church. Big trouble. Everyone knows what's going on here and there. Maybe from a political science point of view, no one analyzes all this. But I think that the essence of the matter is clear to everyone.

 

The following. The current government has no idea about the future at all. They can't say anything: neither what they are building, nor what will happen next. Zero. Nothing. If I was asked: "What needs to be done first?" But we need to make sure that people are not afraid to live. This is freedom.

There is a lot of discussion about what freedom is. Today, freedom is a life without fear. When you're not afraid of the police, you're not afraid of the FSB, you're not afraid that your property and business will be taken away from you, you're not afraid that if something doesn't work out for you, your family will be left without a piece of bread. You're not afraid that you won't be able to teach a child, that your elderly parents will be left without medicines. You are not afraid that your family will be kicked out of the apartment if something goes wrong in your work or business.

Living without fear is the foundation and source of creativity. Freedom plus creativity is the future. And we can create such a future. It's just a pity to lose people who can build this future.

 

Another necessary action aimed at breaking this bad, endless cycle is the healing of the very painful, very serious wounds of Bolshevism. What caused the collapse of the Soviet Union? To answer very briefly, literally in one sentence (and this was happening before my eyes), he fell apart due to the accumulation of a critical volume of lies. And as soon as there was not even freedom of speech, but just the opportunity to speak without fear that you would be kicked out of work, imprisoned, or even expelled from the party, the system immediately began to collapse. People just started saying what they thought. Whether everything was true is another matter. But people started saying what they thought. And the system collapsed.

 

And now an incredible amount of lies is accumulating.

The question arises – why?

Because the current policy is a dead end.

Because the country is following a path that doesn't exist.

There is no way, instead of the future there are some fantasies and inventions. There's no way, but we're kind of following it. So, we need to come up with something. That's where the lies start. As under the Bolsheviks... The Bolsheviks tried to build a war communism, but it didn't work out, and lies and terror began.

 

As I have already said (and I am absolutely convinced of this, I am ready to argue and prove it), we are surrounded by completely normal people, whose consciousness fully corresponds to the stage of history in which we live. And there is no problem with the code or with the mentality. Do you know what the phrase means: "is it possible to do something with these people?" It means the impotence and stupidity of people who carry out reforms, but do not know anything and do not know how. It means the impotence of reformers who are looking for someone to blame.

That's all. You do your reforms in a human, professional, and smart way! Have you ever tried to do something like that? No one has ever tried to do anything, either really professionally or humanly, to make it clear.

However, it is quite obvious that everything was done selfishly, cynically, stupidly, in short— not like that. And all the talk about the genetic code and the peculiarities of mentality is a search for excuses and deliberate self–protection on the part of young and elderly "reformers", "effective managers" and others. And it's not even about the last names. I don't want to name them, you know their last names perfectly well. The very construction of the inferiority of the people is being suggested and imposed. And it, in turn, deprives people of energy, aspiration and confidence.

That's where the withdrawal I was talking about comes from. That's why people turn away and don't want to participate in anything.

But who will do something for them?

To answer the question briefly, what was done in the 1990s? And that's exactly my profile. 

Only 3 steps were taken. 

The first one was in 1992: hyperinflation of 2,600%. Now the inflation rate is 4-5%, and then the inflation rate was 2600% per year. That is, confiscation. There was just a complete confiscation. People were left without savings. 

And then it was necessary to distribute the property. But how should it be distributed if there is no money as an institution after hyperinflation? Well, no one has any savings, no savings, no current income. That's why they came up with a scam — collateral auctions, vouchers. This was the fusion of business and government. It was a criminal privatization. Almost free distribution of huge property, such as Norilsk Nickel, for example, to friends and buddies for kickbacks. 

And then we needed a person who would protect this system. Putin was chosen. 

That's all the 1990s, that's all the reforms. There was nothing else.

If you have to do what I want to say, you need to answer the question – why, why was this done? To continue doing things differently, so as not to repeat mistakes again. Why did they do that? Because they relied on a completely foreign concept of how to do this, invented somewhere very far away. As I have already said (and I am absolutely convinced of this, I am ready to argue and prove it), we are surrounded by completely normal people, whose consciousness fully corresponds to the stage of history in which we live. And there is no problem with the code or with the mentality. Do you know what the phrase means: "is it possible to do something with these people?" It means the impotence and stupidity of people who carry out reforms, but do not know anything and do not know how. It means the impotence of reformers who are looking for someone to blame.

That's all. You do your reforms in a human, professional, and smart way! Have you ever tried to do something like that? No one has ever tried to do anything, either really professionally or humanly, to make it clear.

However, it is quite obvious that everything was done selfishly, cynically, stupidly, in short— not like that. And all the talk about the genetic code and the peculiarities of mentality is a search for excuses and deliberate self–protection on the part of young and elderly "reformers", "effective managers" and others. And it's not even about the last names. I don't want to name them, you know their last names perfectly well. The very construction of the inferiority of the people is being suggested and imposed. And it, in turn, deprives people of energy, aspiration and confidence.

That's where the withdrawal I was talking about comes from. That's why people turn away and don't want to participate in anything.

But who will do something for them?

To answer the question briefly, what was done in the 1990s? And that's exactly my profile. 

Only 3 steps were taken. 

The first one was in 1992: hyperinflation of 2,600%. Now the inflation rate is 4-5%, and then the inflation rate was 2600% per year. That is, confiscation. There was just a complete confiscation. People were left without savings. 

And then it was necessary to distribute the property. But how should it be distributed if there is no money as an institution after hyperinflation? Well, no one has any savings, no savings, no current income. That's why they came up with a scam — collateral auctions, vouchers. This was the fusion of business and government. It was a criminal privatization. Almost free distribution of huge property, such as Norilsk Nickel, for example, to friends and buddies for kickbacks. 

And then we needed a person who would protect this system. Putin was chosen. 

That's all the 1990s, that's all the reforms. There was nothing else.

If you have to do what I want to say, you need to answer the question – why, why was this done? To continue doing things differently, so as not to repeat mistakes again. Why did they do that? Because they relied on a completely foreign concept of how to do this, invented somewhere very far away.

But, moreover, since I have dealt with this issue professionally, I will tell you: this concept was philosophically, fundamentally grounded as a tool for fighting the Soviet Union, as an opposition of individualism to collectivism. This gave rise to John Nash's theory of the zero-sum game, game theory, and the idea that everyone should act only in their personal interests. John Nash is a Nobel laureate who turned out to be mentally ill. And this line was pushed to the limit, it became the dominant policy of Reagan, then Thatcher. It came to us in the form of the Washington Consensus, but it didn't suit us from any point of view. None at all.

We should have done everything differently. But remember what Zhvanetsky said: "The history of Russia is a struggle between ignorance and injustice." So, ignorance couldn't figure it out, especially since there were loans behind it all. It was said, "If you do as we tell you, then we will give you loans." This was the Washington consensus.

And there was also an extremely strange, very disrespectful attitude towards our people. There was an opinion that our people did not understand what private property was. They just don't understand what it is, and they never will. Therefore, we need some kind of vouchers and some kind of collateral auctions. It's all from here. It's just this attitude to everything. And when they saw what this was leading to, they were afraid of the results of their own activities and rushed in a completely different direction, into a variety of archaics.

But we are not alone in all this. And although we are "ahead of the rest of the planet in the field of ballet," we are not even unique. We are absolutely in the global and pan-European trend. We like to repeat that we are constantly returning to serfdom, that we had a modification of serfdom in the form of totalitarianism, and that we are returning now... But in his work "The Relevance of the Holocaust," which I consider very important, Zygmunt Bauman explains, literally lays out on the shelves, that the Holocaust can, in principle, happen now in any developed European and super-European country, at any moment, because the social organization of society has remained the same. By the way, I never thought that at the end of the second decade of the 21st century I would be reading monographs about the mafia state, an EU member state: "Mafia State" by a modern author about modern Hungary (Balint Magyar. "The anatomy of a post-communist mafia state. Using the example of Hungary."), The author describes in detail, very professionally, literally from the bottom up, how the mafia state is built. 

Look at what is happening in Europe now: nationalism, populism, isolationism, mafia. I can give examples of countries where the whole bouquet of these phenomena is flourishing. Although everyone already knows. 

So why are we the only ones to blame for everything? It is not true. All this suggests that we are not alone at all. Our autocracy plus submission, Bolshevism, the Nazi regime and the Holocaust are a mirror image of this, only in a different manifestation...

Here is another important point that I would like to draw your attention to. Have you ever wondered what the state will look like when the mafia government fully masters all modern digital technologies? And this is a total manipulation of literally everything. If the government is not transparent and accountable and has levers built on modern technologies, this is modern, voluntary slavery, which is difficult to imagine. A person who voluntarily buys a phone or computer for himself becomes part of this system, which easily manipulates him.

The first signs have already appeared: accusations of election influence, Cambridge Analytica. The founder of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, wrote in his article the day before yesterday that the Internet is becoming a threat, that it is ceasing to perform public functions. Combining new technologies with the types of government I'm talking about, such as ours, is a very scary prospect.

 

That is why, in order to move on, it is necessary to break this cycle by politically implementing several things that I have called breakpoints. And it needs to be done now, because the system is approaching a crisis. She is already in crisis. This system has many problems, but there are two completely dead-end problems. 

The first is that the post–Soviet era is over. The entire post-Soviet transformation is over. She's gone. She has exhausted the energy, she has exhausted the actors, she has exhausted everything.

And a new era is not beginning, because no one knows what it should be like, what Russia of the future should be like. No one has an image of the future. And this is much more dangerous than what happened in 1989-1990. Because then the image was simple – "We will live like in Europe. That's just how we'll do it now." And I wrote that for "500 days". "Here, we'll do it now, and it'll be like that." But now the political class and the political elite are busy with completely different things and do not want to answer the question – what kind of country should we build, what kind of Russia should be?

What are they doing?

They are busy with the issue of transit of power. It is clear that there are no eternal people, that something must happen, and the government will definitely change. And how? There is no mechanism for a change of power, because there are no elections. There are no political figures because the political field has been cleared. There are no ways to transfer power either. This means that it will be a showdown between different mafia groups, which are law enforcement agencies that have grown together with organized crime. Because it is a cross-cutting and the most powerful structure in our country. Then there are the military, the bureaucracy, the oligarchs. So they will share power among themselves. And they will share it. These showdowns have already begun.

And we, the humanitarian part of society in the broadest sense? What will be our contribution to this transformation? It turns out that we, my constituents – and these are millions of people – do not participate in anything, as if we do not exist? The power will be divided again. Perhaps Putin will stay again. Or maybe he'll find some kind of deputy or successor. That's not the point. The system will remain the same, or it will get worse. And this system is not for us.

The crisis lies in the fact that there is simply no positive vision for solving this problem. And it's not about talking about the country going back somewhere and everything going in circles again. No. The country is simply being pulled out of reality with meat, actively imposing anti-Europeanism on it as a vector of politics and rhetoric, which leads to even greater lies and fear. And that's why the country is following a path that simply does not exist. 

As a result, we have no alternative, people's disbelief, withdrawal and habituation to the absurd.

By the way, here is one of the latest examples of absurdity. Well, tell me, isn't it an absurd decision to transfer the entire examination to the Investigative Committee, which was done this week? The Investigative Committee now initiates a criminal case itself, conducts the investigation itself, and conducts any examination itself. It remains for him to deal with the court, and he will plant it himself. If the state is corrupt, it is necessary to create many decision-making centers in it, rather than combining everything into one fist.

Such decisions are teaching the country to be absurd.

How did the 2018 elections actually end? The 2018 elections ended with everyone losing. Not only I lost, not only my constituents lost, but everyone lost. Those who voted for Putin also lost. Only those who parasitize this system have won. And all the other people lost because they chose a dead end – the end of an era on the one hand and the inability to change on the other. This is a dead end.

People usually shout at me from the audience: "What do you suggest?" They don't shout at the Institute of Philosophy, but judging by your faces, they think the same thing. I am answering this question.

Now it's time to engage in politics, it's time to start forming a big political force. To do this, we have been maintaining the Yabloko party for 25 years now, including 16 years outside the Duma, in order to build it up and create a large mass party. When the transit of power begins, the millionth party will be reckoned with. And if she doesn't, they'll do everything without us.

This is the most reasonable thing that can be proposed now, because I am against bloodshed and violence in principle. The very fact that tens or hundreds of thousands of people have joined Yabloko is a powerful political signal, because everyone knows the main points of our program.

How can we move forward in a country where politics is not institutionalized through political parties? No one in the world has shown this yet. But even walking along the boulevards with balloons – the non-political protest of 2011-2012 – ends in nothing.

A rally for Internet freedom was recently held. A lot of people came to it – 15 thousand. There are many recognizable faces and respected people. So what? And nothing. Why? Because. Because this is not a political protest. Because he has no political demands, no program, no leaders– nothing. Before that, there was a rally in defense of Telegram, as well as the rallies of 2011-2012 - this is about nothing.

Therefore, a large political force is needed. It needs to be shaped. Politicians can have power only if there are people behind them and the conversation is conducted on their behalf.

And if we talk about all this from a philosophical perspective, then I would like to mention two important points.

First of all, I consider myself obliged to fight the widespread view that politics is a dirty business. This popular opinion is deliberately imposed. Because politics is actually the joint creativity of people, the joint creativity of citizens to create their own future and build their own state. It is one of the most complex and highest forms of human creativity. I didn't say that. That's what Hannah Arendt said. And I totally agree with that. Yes, politics looks unattractive today. But people are involved in politics, and it depends on us what kind of politics it should be.

There is good and bad in all people. The question is which elite is in the country, where it leads, and which feelings it activates – noble or base.

The Nazi regime has won in one of the most educated countries in Europe. Without television, which did not exist yet, only with the help of newspapers, street agitation and radio, the Nazis turned a huge nation around and turned it into a monster. That's what activating low feelings is all about. That's how it works.

Now we have a moment when the system is becoming very malleable, and we can do a lot. This is my job, I came with this, but it will happen only if we manage to form a large, serious political force that will interfere in this political process and put pressure on it. This force will not be able to win yet, but it will be able to really and significantly influence, really and significantly move the country away from bloodshed, from extreme forms of mafia, from war.

This is such a moment, such an important period in which we live.

And it will last for the next few years.

It is necessary to make a decision - to participate in politics. You can't be late.

That's it, thanks a lot.