Thread by @RadioFreeTom

In forty years of studying #Russia the thing I always struggled to get my arms around is that this remarkable and immense nation, a source of cultural and scientific genius, is also so riven by ignorance and insecurity that it is incapable of living in peace with the world. 🧵 /1

I'll write more on this another time, but it is astonishing that Russia - a nation also capable of remarkable feats of heroism and achievement - has never been able to overcome its own political culture. You can blame the Soviets for a lot of this - I do - but not all of it. /2

Other nations have managed to overcome ugly histories. Sometimes through defeat in war, sometimes through development and progress. Russians, ardently embracing a sense of victimhood, claim a special exemption, especially after WW II. They cling to it. /3

And yet Russians themselves have had the same debates for centuries: Why are we so backward, are we really Europeans, why are we always on the outside, etc. Russia experts debate the same things: Is it the sheer geography? History? and so on. But I wonder if it really matters. /4

At some point, you cannot keep blaming "history" as a culprit. Cultures are the sum of individual choices as much as they are the sediment of history. Many Russians blame "history" as a kind of generic excuse. I have called bullshit on this while in Russia talking to Russians. /5

And so much projection. Russia's Putinists claim to be fighting against immorality and decadence, but Russia is a deeply decadent state; it is a country where even the nationalist, hawkish elite (including Putin, his family, and the Patriarch) live swanky, luxury-filled lives. /6

In any case, the great promise at the end of the 20th century was that we no longer had to be prisoners to our histories. Two world wars and a Cold War gave way to a world with choices, including in Russia. And yet, we're going backward, Russia murderously faster than anyone. /7

Ironically, one of the greatest Russian literary works of all time (The Grand Inquisitor) includes a chapter on why freedom is a burden.
Maybe it is. Maybe too much so for many of us. But it is also a responsibility. A test. Many of us are failing it, as people and nations.
/8

The Russians have never faced up to this responsibility. I thought after 1991 they would; really, I was almost certain they would.
Americans (to change the subject) always met this challenge head-on, even when we fell short. But millions of us no longer seem to care. /9

This is a dark time for democracy. #Ukraine - a place I would not have expected to lead the way, given its early post-independence history - is now fighting for freedom. I'm glad Americans are united in supporting the Ukrainians. But I hope we have the fortitude to stay. /10

We need to know that this isn't a struggle that will end tomorrow, or end in Ukraine. And I'd hope that this realization would wake the rest of us up.
But I guess if gas is four bucks a gallon, we'll call it a day on democracy. /11x