I agree with you on these issues. But as I said, the loss of liberties happens in stages and some nations seem to know and recognize these stages better than others. In fact, no one can take away your freedom if you are not yourself willing to give it up in the first place. There has to be a fraction of your population who are already willing to trade this in return for a promise of a better economy etc. The Russians did not have an experience in any of this. They knew only communism since 1919. That’s three generations. The Ukrainians on the other hand have the memory of both Nazi and Soviet invasion. They know what it is like to not be free. And they have an experience of fighting for freedom.
Gorbatchev gave freedom to the Russian people. They didn’t earn it themselves. They didn’t have to fight for it. So they were less vigilant. And now they lost it.
I think that these things have a lower chance of success when they come from top to bottom. Like the American or the French Revolutions for instance. See, in Turkey almost all the guardrails were there. We had a free and fair court system, we a constitution, a secular education system, even the army was given the role of “preserving and maintaining the Turkish Democracy until it is able to walk on its own two feet”. Yet, since the very beginning I would say, there is this mass of people who are simply resisting democracy because democracy challenges their millennia-old habits of monarchic / feudal rule and society.
So I think it’s the same in Russia. They were used to a different system. They don’t understand the new system. So they hate it and they are looking for a savior. If they had fought to end communism (which they didn’t really do) I think there wouldn’t be any Putin.
Gorbatchev gave freedom to the Russian people. They didn’t earn it themselves. They didn’t have to fight for it. So they were less vigilant. And now they lost it.
I think that these things have a lower chance of success when they come from top to bottom. Like the American or the French Revolutions for instance. See, in Turkey almost all the guardrails were there. We had a free and fair court system, we a constitution, a secular education system, even the army was given the role of “preserving and maintaining the Turkish Democracy until it is able to walk on its own two feet”. Yet, since the very beginning I would say, there is this mass of people who are simply resisting democracy because democracy challenges their millennia-old habits of monarchic / feudal rule and society.
So I think it’s the same in Russia. They were used to a different system. They don’t understand the new system. So they hate it and they are looking for a savior. If they had fought to end communism (which they didn’t really do) I think there wouldn’t be any Putin.
