I certainly hope it stays "democratic". However, since political
power and money still go together, anything is possible.
Russia misses its superpower status, so nationalists may get a
chance. The life of ordinary people became much harder.
Imagine, you earned, say, $60,000 per year. Now you would
be earning $6,000. Then, you had, say $400,000 for retirement,
which now would become $400. For Russia, the equivalent is much
less, but that's to paint the picture roughly.
You would also now have to pay
for medicine, good schools, etc. (Unless you went into business,
or work for business - as many do) You also see how people
around the power center in Moscow (Berezovsky, for example)
getting lots of former state property for nothing, and
not that he deserved it - he just was at the power center. Who
would you vote for? What do communists want? They want to
get the power and enjoy the $$$. So, I guess, the majority are
just fed up with politics, so the political situation is fairly
unstable. However, I hope all that huge money will support
reformists. I also think many people will because they think another
government will be like hungry crooks, who will steal more.
Transition to democracy is not going
to be easy. And Russia will never be as democratic as America.
It will always remain structured. This does not mean, however, that
the economy won't pick up. An example of success of the economy
in a very structured non-democratic society is Japan.
As for literature and music - I don't really know. The last
century hardship and oppression was nothing compared to what
people had to live through this century. I think only hundreds or so
were killed by tsarist regime. Tens of millions (I think, 50 million
or so) were repressed by Stalin, and that was done in extremely
cruel fashion. But for some reason literature, music, science often
blossom under such conditions (I guess, they get more funding??)
Not that my view is very pessimistic - I have seen that a lot
of companies have appeared which are doing some kind of normal
business, headed by young energetic people who have become
very rich. So the hope is, the crooks some day will be replaced.
-Vi |
