Thread by @SlavaMalamud

Here is Slava's Short Explanation on Why Russian States Collapse.
Spoiler alert: American presidents have zero things to do with it.
Basically, it goes as such. The Russian state has basically remained the same since its founding by Ivan III in the late XV century...

https://twitter.com/SlavaMalamud/status/1410360909281873926

It stands on the following pillars:
* Absolute centralization (any self-rule is lethal to the state)
* Primacy of state's interest over individual rights
* A sanctified absolute ruler
* The laws are relative and exist not to ensure justice but to support the power structure

This system is not without its merits. It can be very effective in warding off external threats, mobilizing the nation to combat (or at least weather) crises and holding together an ethnically diverse empire by the force of sheer cruelty.
But it's not designed to evolve or reform

As soon as any type of reform is proposed (usually when the state suffers a humiliation, like in Crimea in 1855 or Japan in 1905, or begins to slowly rot from the inside, like in the 1980s), the entire structure begins to wobble. Any opening, any new freedom can kill it.

Inevitably, these reforms get rolled back, sometimes successfully (by Alexander III in the 1880s or Brezhnev in the 1970s), sometimes unsuccessfully (by Nicholas II or the 1991 putsch), and in the latter case, everything comes crashing down fast.

The Russian state is heavy, massive and extremely brittle. It's designed for stability and conservatism. It cannot withstand political reform, even when it's extremely urgently needed. It just dies. And immediately reassembles itself along the same stupid lines.

And that's how it goes.
Not because of Reagan, not because of Afghanistan, not because of the 1972 Canadian hockey victory.
The Russian state carries a massive self-destruct mechanism. It's literally programed to die rather than reform.
You are welcome.