Russia's Search for Liberty: Part VI. Conclusions

Democracy has very strange ways of determining a people's lot in extremely short sighted terms. If you are hungry, you want food now, not some time next week. If you are unemployed, you want a new job now, not by the end of next month. If the current government are corrupt, you want them gone from power now, not in two or three years. These realities often give rise to fringe parties who effectively exploit the perceived power of the protest vote. Although this concept has many inherent dangers, the rigorous allegiance to law and order Mr. Putin exercises also has many dangers that have been repeated many times throughout Russian history.

A state cannot simply hold a few elections, declare itself a democracy, and retain control of the most valuable economic assets. Can people long trapped in serfdom to nobility and an omnipotent state grasp the notion that they can decide their fate? Will Russians endure another generation of hardships, shortages, and misery, or will they return to authoritarianism? Did Mr. Yeltsin truly create a new Russia, or was he simply the Kerensky of the 1990s? All indications imply the latter is much more likely than the former. But no amount of external advice will answer these questions. Their answers rest solely with the Russian people.

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