- Oct 3, 2018
- 3,043
Valya walked to the political section of the university where her morning classes on political and social thought were just beginning. Walking into the elongated halls and the adjoined chairs making up rows. It was nearing class time, and her classmates were only just waddling in. Not that she was any better, joining in the steady stream of young adults. Their Professor, Benjamin Cassidy would come in a few minutes later, the chatter around the room slowly diminishing as the Professor walked down the long stretch of staircases towards the front of the class. Professor Cassidy had always been a source of wisdom and knowledge for the class. Despite being an American, many of the students felt confident to confide in him as an outsider. It was easier Valya thought, to talk with a man who had seen the world and was not tied to the rigid norms and customs of the Russian people.
She opened her notebook as the Professor began showing different charts and graphs he had written before, trying to open the minds of the students. It was still cold in the building, and the thickness of the air made her throat contract as she took a sip from the warm thermos she brought with her.
Beyond personal discomforts, she tried her best to pay attention and listen even with the rumbling around her. The idea of morality and power was what the Professor tried to get them to think and dwell on. He explored the cultural and structural institutions that built us to view an action as moral and immoral, legal and illegal. Whether we admitted it or not, the Professor challenged us all to rethink our entire foundation. Something even the most attentive in the class would shy away from and merely nod their head.
Valya dwelled on it though. How was she being conditioned by society? Believing one thing as right and one thing as wrong. Why is it illegal to kill, but legal for the State to kill? Why was it illegal to steal from the rich, but legal to hoard and steal from the poor? Was it not truly theft if the rich in society hoard the bread from the lowest in their community who are in need? The questions in her mind only grew. It didn't help that a battle ensued in her brain over the simple issue of bread. But, it did open her mind.
In an era of high unemployment, poor health care, growing crime, and no political future it would be hard to find anyone in the public sphere who didn’t think that maybe it was a bad idea to get rid of the Soviet Union. Yet, even if one did, Valya didn’t think the answer was statism. Her mother, a Ukrainian, had told her stories of life during the Soviet Union that made her stomach tremble. Yet things were not improving for her, or her family. When Valya turned 18 she was ecstatic to go to the polls and vote for change. After years of political oligarchy rule, Boris Nemtsov was a voice for change. He was charismatic, charming, and above all else an honest man.
Yet now a year into his presidency, the economy remained stagnant, healthcare remained in a dilapidated state, and parts of the city were criminal safe havens where even the police did not dare to go.
Just then Professor Cassidy said, “Though we lived in a free society, we were not truly free to do what we pleased. Are we free from economic insecurity? Are we free from poor healthcare? Is it peace or silent death which we have in our modern world?” Cassidy asked the class as he looked around.
“In 1991 when the Soviet Union fell, the Western academics were ecstatic. Francis Fukuyama went as far to say that this was the end of history. The global liberal project had triumphed and Russia as well as China had embraced Western liberal principles. A decade later, in Thailand, the 2005 revolution sparked a new wave of socialism. Their leaders were so bold as to claim that they spoke for the world, and they spoke to a world that was marred by exploitation. The Thai revolution has become the biggest threat to global capitalism because it has shown, or some would say has not shown, that communism can work. Even here in Russia, politicians are being inspired for a new form of democratic socialism that is not European in origin but Thai. What do you think?” The professor posited the class as people remained understandably silent on the talk about Thailand.
One of the international students in the back raised his hand and responded. “Back in my home country, during our time of pain and decline the Thai revolution rose to the mantle and retake power from the elites. It inspired me and many others in my home country. I think capitalism is hollowing out our institutions and focusing on profits over people.”
A Russian student in the front raised his hand to rebuke his classmate. “Still, that doesn’t make what Thailand did right. It has expropriated land and businesses from people without just compensation. It is engaged in global malignant acts, and it is trying to rewrite history in its favor. Does serving one class of people over another make them right?” He said, before looking around. “Is what we have any more morally right? If we are still unfree to do what we please...should freedom itself be limited for the great good of society?”
It was something worth considering for the young college students in the class. Valya looked around, she was in a position of privilege that was expanding for many more Russians. Still, did it make it right for her to have these things in life while others still waited? She felt helpless in a way. She thought about her response before her tangent was broken by the sound of students shuffling up and about.
Valya closed her notebook and placed it into her bag as she got up. As her peers trickled out, she joined the sea of students pouring out of the building and back into the open air. She looked out and into the distance seeing the city's skyline. It was beautiful, she thought. She sat on the slopes connected by staircases. On the patches of snow that blanketed the hill, she saw students rushing around. She looked out into the skyline with the wind blowing and cooling the air. She thought about her society at large.
Corruption was both spiritual and governmental in her eyes. Though she had much respect for Nemtsov and the Civic Coalition that came into power a few years ago. It was the first time she was able to vote, she felt such a surge of patriotism when she cast her ballot for change and hope. Yet she began to rethink her thoughts. The power of politics and its corruption has slowly insulated itself as a cancerous cell in our society. She thought, was Nemtsov really the white knight that he was painted, or just another one of the oligarchs?
She still remembers her dad telling her about the days when he went out and marched against the Yeltsin government, signing up immediately for the Civic Coalition. They were to him a party of the people. Much more than any other party ever was. Her mother told her of the times when she'd bake bread and hand it to her brother to take to the protestors as they spent long nights, unrelenting in their desire for a better Russia. The Civic Coalition promised a new vision for Russia, one that was just and brought prosperity.
When Yeltsin’s regime sold our land and our intellectual geniuses to foreign powers, our people suffered high crime and poverty, all we could do was watch. As democratically elected officials selling away the hard work and labor of our people continued, we rose up to defend our nation. When we became free from our imperial masters, we merely became re-enslaved by a new one. When they did nothing for women's rights or the economy, they continued to delight themselves with a little toss of money to the poor here and there. The Federation has done much more in the few years in power than the decades of socialist and oligarchial rule. Being a woman in Russia today is far better than five years ago. Being a woman in today's Russia was full of opportunity and adventure. Still, it was not roses and cherries for women. Systemic issues exist and the ambivalence to harmful words and actions continued to proliferate across the country. To destroy the disease of sexism and harassment was not merely a task for women, but for men as well. But, who would listen to a student anyways? She got up, dusting off her skirt and headed towards her next class in a bit of frustration She calmed herself as she looked around the university campus beauty. Although bits of trash were here and there, they did little to obscure the beauty of the campus. A campus that has often been the site of much obscenity during its early days of being a hub for pro-democracy and anti-socialist professors and academics. A lot of history was ingrained in the seemingly idle buildings.
She continued across the campus where a group of students were handing out flyers once again. A young man walked forward to Valya handing her a flyer. She took it and continued onwards, hovering near a trash can nearby. Before throwing it she read it, the People together to build a prosperous Russia. A unified Russia were class divisions are overcome and the people were united in a single goal. The progress of the nation. Where elitism and crony capitalism was abolished and the people and their land rightfully ruled and cultivated by the Russian people. To achieve this goal we seek the return and re-instating of the Workers' Party. So that the people may hold the government accountable and just. So that the poor are not left behind as the nation progresses. Join us tonight to learn more about our vision. What Professor Cassidy said still stuck to her. She looked down at the flyer...reading it once more...pulling it away from the trash bin and folding it neatly into her bag.
Continuing her way towards the Economics Section of the University for her next class. She had never been into the political sphere of things. Her parents anyways wanted her to focus on better things than the dirty place of politics. What could it hurt? It was interesting to learn more about this vision. Perhaps learn something.
In the birthplace of the movement to bring true democracy to Russia, another vision for Russia was pickling in the dust. Ambivalent and benign. The Russian people had prospered and grown. They were a people with a long history. It was up to every Russian to keep the progress of their nation growing. While one vision was that of the Civic Coalition, an attempt to bring dignity to a people indignified by the corrupt elites, another by the Oligarchs and United Russia. Some began to question that vision. Thinking of their own. To be able to do that, they needed to have the right to speak about their vision and the right to assemble their party to speak in the 'house of the people'. It was a symbolic goal, to challenge the idea that the only way forward was with the National Movement and their party.
In the background on campus, Valya could hear a radio, with a translated speech from Thailand playing.
“Today, as we celebrate the seventh anniversary of our journey toward human emancipation and the realization of a communist society, we recognize the importance of this day for our comrades across the global left. Workers worldwide remain trapped in exploitation, bound by wage slavery, their labor alienated by corrupt employers fixated on profit. Thailand, as the leading socialist state since the fall of the Marxist-Leninist Soviet Union, bears a profound moral obligation to stand with socialist movements worldwide, united in the pursuit of justice, freedom, and human dignity
