Опубликовано в журнале Неприкосновенный запас, номер 4, 2002
DEBATES ON POLITICS AND CULTURE
NZ №4(24) takes a close look at the theory and history of international relations and diplomacy. This issue’s helping of the Liberal Heritage is an abridged version of a chapter from John Rawls’s recent book The Law of Peoples. Under the heading Nonideal Theory, Rawls discusses how liberal democracies should behave at times of war, and how they should treat states which do not accept the international ‘rules of the game’ established by the community of liberal nations. Despite his world-wide popularity, attested even by a Chinese philosopher writing in this issue of NZ, Rawls is virtually unknown in Russia. Our editorial introduction argues that despite what Russian readers may see as Rawls’s naХvetО, it is important to study him since he has produced one of the most complex theoretical expressions available of US liberals’ views on social justice and international relations.
In Great Country Looking for Partner, sociologist Alexei Levinson draws on opinion poll results to chart Russians’ current views on what makes up a country’s greatness and whether Russia, or any other country, may today be called ‘great’. Having established that Russia currently takes second place, between the United States and Japan, in its own citizens’ ranking, Levinson goes on to show that, where international co-operation is concerned, Russians have now come to see the states of Western Europe as their country’s preferred international partners.
There follows a series of Russian and French historians’ articles on Soviet Diplomacy and Foreign Policy. In System Error: Moscow and its Western Neighbours in the 1920s—30s, Oleg Ken shows that far from being a clear-cut matter of an imperialist Bolshevism seeking to subjugate much of Central Europe, the story of inter-war relations between the USSR and its Western neighbours oscillated between co-operation and hostility as the new socialist state struggled to assume the role of a European great power. Maya Lavrinovich draws on recently discovered archival material to chart the evolution of the Soviet war-time discussion about Europe’s post-Hitler future. From the earliest months of the war, surprisingly enough, the architects of Soviet foreign policy had little doubt about its outcome, and prepared for the discussions that were to seal the structure of the continent in the Cold War era (Inventing the Cold War?). To round off this section, Paris-based historians Sabine Dullin and Marie-Pierre Rey look at the social origins and careers of Soviet diplomats, respectively, in the 1920s—40s (New Men? Soviet Diplomats in the Era of Stalinist Repression) and in 1953—1967 (Soviet Diplomacy and Soviet Diplomats in the Thaw Years).
This issue’s look at the Culture of Politics is provided by sociologist Yakov Shchukin, who compares The American Left and the Russian Right, finding that despite these two groups’ seeming differences (the American Left struggling to curb the ubiquitous rule of the market, while the Russian Right seeks to extend market mechanisms), they are natural partners: both speak out for reform in their respective countries, and both do so in the name of the same set of basic values.
Next comes Andrei Zorin’s column, where, under the heading On Meatballs and Flies, the literary historian takes another look at the role of literature and writers in Russian society, and especially at the recent cases of writers Vladimir Sorokin, accused of pornography by the Walking Together youth movement (sometimes dubbed Putinjugend), and Eduard Limonov, currently on trial for inciting ethnic hatred and political violence.
Our second special topic is China. Here we present a selection of views on the state of contemporary politics and thought in that country. First, a Beijing-based West European diplomat writing under the pseudonym of Jean-Paul MЯller charts the current Chinese understanding of international relations, illustrating the heritage of decades of total closure to the outside world, showing that Russian fears of an imminent Chinese «demographic attack» are unfounded, and arguing that much of the West’s policy of humanitarian aid to China may be misguided (The World as Viewed from Beijing). There follows an article by Han Shuifa, Professor of Philosophy at Beijing University, entitled The Development of Chinese Liberalism. Han gives an overview of liberal traditions in Chinese thought and points out that since the beginning of reforms in the late 1970s, liberalism has become a legitimate, though contested, form of political and economic discourse in the People’s Republic. Finally, Sergei Laptev, a Moscow-based specialist on South-East Asia, analyses the history and current predicament of Hong Kong, which Britain returned to the People’s Republic five years ago (Hong Kong: Between the Past and the Future). Laptev draws attention to the many factors that continue to set off Hong Kong from mainland China, but concludes that the latter’s influence will continue to grow over the coming years.
In the Politics of Culture section, historian Wladimir Berelowitch gives a detailed overview of post-Soviet history textbooks for school children (Contemporary Russian History Textbooks: Many-Faced Truth or Yet Another National Idea?). He shows how in a number of these, nationalist myths have replaced the old state-ordained «Marxist-Leninist» lies. While he sees some improvement in the level of textbooks for older pupils, who are increasingly treated as mature and capable of independent, critical thinking, Berelowitch takes issue with the widely used introductory history books for younger children, which, he says, perpetrate the most primitive nationalist clichОs and prejudice.
Our third focus is on the Internet. Roman Leibov, a literary historian and himself a well-known pioneer of the Russian World Wide Web, discusses how the Internet has changed students’ attitudes to education, and how educators may try to overcome the network’s negative effects and turn it to their advantage (The Internet and the Problems of Education in the Humanities: Ideas for Discussion). Anthropologist Ilya Utekhin takes a close look at the words and expressions ordinary Internet users enter into search engines, and discovers the variety of ways in which people try to find pornographic pictures on the World Wide Web. Irina Kaspe’s article is entitled The Russian Version of livejournal. com: Weep For Him While He’s Still Alive. The literary critic analyses the functioning of this amateur writers’ forum and the reasons for its recent popularity among Russian-speaking users.
The Morals and Mores section is devoted to recent French and German debates on anti-Semitism, illustrating the cultural role of newspapers in the German-speaking world, which is also the focus of this issue’s Review of Journals. Lothar Baier, editor at Zurich’s Wochenzeitung, explains why he is unhappy with labels of “New Antisemitism” (Weakening Brakes: The “New Antisemitism” and Old Delusions). We then publish a translation of the open letter by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung editor Frank Schirrmacher which set off the debate about anti-Semitism in Martin Walser’s latest book, followed by yet another article by Lothar Baier, Chasing Anti-Semites in Fun Germany, which questions the quality of Walser’s novel, but also Schirrmacher’s motives and the role that Germany’s foremost newspaper has played in legitimising Walser’s new nationalism.
Continuing a topic that has been central to NZ in the past, Revekka Frumkina, in a Letter to the Editors entitled Proposed Circumstances, replies to Maya Turovskaya’s article on the Soviet middle class from NZ № 1(21)/2001, arguing that Turovskaya’s view is blurred by her privileged social position in the late Soviet period.
The New Institutions section presents the recently created Committee for Russia in a United Europe, which acts as a steering group for Russia’s eventual membership in the European Union.
The issue is rounded off with a Review of Intellectual Journals featuring an overview of recent Russian periodicals and a presentation of cultural journals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; and a number of Book Reviews which focus on China.