They say Vladimir Putin wanted to resurrect the Great Russia of real or imagined history, but he has not only damaged Russia’s image in the world, including in nations right next to Russia. He has caused Russians who are in touch with reality to feel ashamed and offended.
More than fifty years ago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, one of the 20th century’s most famous Russians, declared: “One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.” In these last weeks, the world has seen more than one video of the shaming truth that is being enacted in Ukraine. Inside and outside their country, many Russians, too, have seen that truth. It will probably outweigh a million tons of propaganda and eventually pierce the thickest iron curtain.
Meanwhile the world prays, whether or not realistically, that before long the skies over Ukraine will be cleared of missiles, that the shelling of Ukrainians and their surviving buildings will cease. This praying or hoping world knows, too, that the countless humans who’ve been blown to bits on Ukraine’s soil include children, the old, women in maternity hospitals, people about to board a train to safer stations, other civilians, soldiers – and also thousands of young Russians who were ordered without instruction or training to move into Ukraine.
It will be impossible to hide the deaths of Russian soldiers from their families, and almost impossible to prevent the impact of questions the Russian people must be asking. Putin’s rule is surely much shakier now than it has ever been. Thanks entirely to his obsession with Ukraine, and the blunder produced by the obsession.
Governments, agencies, organizations, and individuals in Europe and North America have provided vital support to the Ukrainians, including smart deadly weapons that have surprised the Russian army and air force. But the Ukrainians’ fighting spirit has been the most compelling element thus far of the war’s story.
Sundered abruptly from loved ones who were forced to flee beyond the border, Ukraine’s soldiers and airmen of diverse ethnicities and beliefs have battled with a fierce sense of solidarity. And with an equally fierce sense of a righteous cause.
This spirit was hardly a given. Ukraine’s democracy had been the butt of derision. Corruption was said to be rampant. But the hour roused the braver angels of Ukraine’s nature.
That does not reduce the horror of what we’ve witnessed and continue to witness from Ukraine. Are there lessons to draw from what’s happened?
One apparent lesson could hearten other places in the world. “Strongman rule” may last long, but it seems to carry an expiry date. Human weaknesses seem to push powerful leaders into committing blunders.
There are related lessons. Romantic appeals to past glory may work for a while. Appeals to ethnic or religious dislike may work for a time. Populist welfarism may be effective for a spell. But not for ever.
For a leader, security from blunders, or repair after a blunder, does not come, it appears, from adulatory or worshipping followers. Or from a controlled society. It can, however, come from frank and critical counsellors, from a free media, from an independent judiciary, from independent opposition parties.
Another reflection may be in order. As an Indian presently living in the United States, I’ve been struck by the spontaneous eruption in the Western world of emotional and tangible support for the people of Ukraine and their remarkable president, Volodymyr Zelensky. With many, it’s a support that will withstand high levels of inconvenience, even hardships, even grave danger.
But I cannot forget that “Putinism”, as it has sometimes been called, i.e. the agenda that has devastated Ukraine, greatly damaged Russia, burdened Poland, Hungary, Rumania, and other neighbours, and sent prices rocketing across the world, is hardly the world’s sole display of callous, obsessed, domineering behaviour. This “Putinism” has various incarnations in different countries, where it’s given other names.
Ukraine is a searing, unforgettable story of folly, bravery, and solidarity. But in different forms and degrees, and with other sets of participants, the coercion/humiliation to which Ukraine has been subjected has also been seen elsewhere in the wider world, usually without inviting adequate attention, let alone action.
In a world more just than ours, the imposition of supremacy would evoke global rejection and global opposition wherever it occurs, by whoever, on whoever.