June, 21, 2005
The Way to Slavery. Double III
Our remarkable compatriot Peter Chaadaev almost 200 years ago stated the idea, that Russia , probably, has the historical role to be a certain lesson for other peoples, showing what should not be done anyway. It looks like we continue to play this role for all these 200 years with masochism eagerness. Another outstanding thinker, Austrian economist Fridrih fon Hayek, when he was writing his well-known "The Way to Slavery" (this book has just been republished in Russian), certainly, could not even imagine, that except for two ways to slavery, described by him - fascism and communism - there could be one more, by which they would lead people under the banners of fon Hayek and with his name on their lips.
In one of Vladimir Putin's cabinets there is a bust of fon Hayek. It is not only for recruitment of foreign investors, who sometimes visit this cabinet. Vladimir Putin sincerely enough feels to be such a liberal reformer. Many of his advisers constantly tell him about it. Generally, the elements of Chubaysism and security-officerism are freakishly, but organically combined in his economic outlook and it allows me to name his philosophy to be a model of Chuche.
Generally, ChuChe realizes the golden dream of the Soviet party-KGB nomenclatures, which thought up the perestroika in the middle of 1980th years. And what is the result of it for the 20-years term? The complete concentration of political authority, the same, as before, the enormous personal conditions, which then were inaccessible to them, and completely another style of life (someone is in Kurshevel, someone – in Sardinia ). And the most important is that they have got rid of any social responsibility. Now they do not need to repeat "the purpose of our life is happiness of ordinary people". Already then they were sick of this hypocrisy. Now they will speak, that the purpose of their life is "continuation of market reforms". And they will carry out these “reforms” with absolute social ruthlessness.
Putin's project is an embodiment of the old dream of our liberal economists about Russian Pinochet, who with an iron hand will lead us to liberal reforms. This belief in Pinochet was constantly warmed up by examples of a lot of the countries, where this project was ostensibly carried out successfully: Chile , some states of the East and Southeast Asia .
But the matter is that in all these countries it was a question of solving of the transition problem from an agrarian society to the industrial one with authoritative methods. And this problem was solved effectively enough by Joseph Stalin 60-70 years ago. And also not the most humane methods were applied for solving this problem in Europe in XVIII-XIX centuries.
The problem, which Russia faces today, is a break into a postindustrial society basically can not be solved with these methods, and it is shown, by the way, by the experience of the same Asian "tigers" and "dragons", to which our liberal-adventurers refer. In South Korea , for example, this model was settled already in the end of 1990th years. (By the way, many heads of the local financial and industrial groups, chebolei, as well as two former presidents of the country, spent long terms in prison.) This model does not suit the problems of the postindustrial stage of social development in any way.
And we have also an additional and very serious burdening circumstance: we are rich with raw and power resources. Such a combination, authoritative bureaucratic authority plus resource abundance, is absolutely terrible for development, because it deprives bureaucracy of any feedback with the reality, decomposing and corrupting it completely. The same as it happens before our eyes. It is a classical combination of a somnolent and a laxative medicine. The somnolent one is the oil prices - 50 dollars and more for a barrel, and the laxatives are all this Petersburg brigade of werewolves- security officers.
Therefore the result is quite natural. I only do not understand why Andrei Illarionov names it to be a Venezuelan disease. It is a classical Russian tradition - the patrimonial state, voevodes on feeding. But if earlier a sovereign and his bureaucracy were the only source for the land property and the people, working on it, now before our eyes the aspiration of the sovereign and his bureaucracy intensively grows to become the absolute proprietor of the critical resource of XXI century - to oil and the people, pumping it out. And other people can be coined.
The way, which we are following, is the third way to slavery, and the fourth one does not exist. Because either this system will destroy the country, or all the same we shall find in ourselves courage to step off this way, and then all this Putin's period remains in our historical memory as a certain last inoculation against philosophy of slavery.
Andrei Piontkovskiy, Grani.ru
21.06.05.
http://chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2005/06/21/03.shtml
