Yeltsin's Russia and the West by Andrew s> Felkay (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 37I (p. I76) an endorsement that finds echoes in many post-Soviet opinion polls. As these examples show, the book has many a juicy quotation for studentsto use. There is certainly much food for thought, presented in an accessible style that is a pleasure to read (although the over-use of 'etch' when 'sketch' is probablymeant was irritating,aswas 'linkage'for 'link'). On details, the book can be challenged. Apart from the occasional factual inaccuracy the invasion of Czechoslovakia was on 2I not 25 August I968 -there are contentious points of interpretation.It was not necessary, for example, to go to Czechoslovakia for original ideas on interests in a socialistsociety:these were firstanalysedin the Soviet Union by G. M. Gakas earlyas 1955, and thisand a rangeof otherconcepts significantfordemocracy were explored by, among others,the late Georgi Shakhnazarov,who became an adviserto Gorbachev and whose name shouldundoubtedlyhave appeared alongside those of 'dissidents'in Chapter Eight, 'The Alternative Tradition'. As for Gorbachev, it was as early as the Twenty-Seventh CPSU Congress, in March I986, that he referredto the Party's'infallibilitycomplex' not midI989 (P. 2I9); arguably, Andropov, in stating in November I982 that there were no ready-made recipes (a phrase taken up by Gorbachev), had already conceded the limitsof the party'sideological insights. Department ofPolitical Science RONALD J.HILL Trinity College, Dublin Felkay, Andrew. reltsin'sRussiaand the West.Praeger, Westport, CT, and London, 2002. Viii + 258 pp. Tables.Notes. Bibliography.Index. ?49.95. EL'TSIN was a big man, with paradoxesto match. He had remarkablepolitical instincts, willpower and courage. For much of his career he was a rather conventional Partyofficialon the make. He showed little interestin ideas. He was better at destruction than creation. He was vengeful and imperious. He treated his entourage with all the arbitrary caprice of an autocrat. He preferred dubious cronies to colleagues of stature. He was willing to shed blood in Chechnia and outside the White House in Moscow. And yet time and again, when the chips were down, he came out inconsistently and intermittently in favourof democraticand economic reform. How and why did he do it? In the West the view at one extreme is that it was El'tsinwho brought democracy and marketreformto Russia, who faced down and emasculated the Communists so that the country could never return to the past. This view is represented at its most enthusiasticby Leon Aron, who compares El'tsin the saviour of his country to de Gaulle and Lincoln. On the other wing are those who believe that, whatever merit El'tsinmay have acquiredin the lastyear or two of the Soviet Union, he forfeitedit by his willingnessto presideover the corruptionand degradationof the Russianstate during his term of office, his indifference to the complex taskof building the institutions of a modern democracy, his flirting with nationalism to the detrimentof Russia'srelationswith the West. 372 SEER, 8i, 2, 2003 Inside Russia, his huge popularity as an opponent of Communism and a decisive foil to an increasingly bewildered Gorbachev was soon dissipated. Russians began to blame him as much as Gorbachev for the loss of empire and prestige abroad, and for the decline in living standardswhich all but a minority experienced. They were furious at the way, as they saw it, that he allowed a handful of villains to plunder the property of the state. They felt personally humiliated by his erratic behaviour, his drunkenness,the bizarre incidentswhich puncturedhispublic appearances,and by his lengthy bouts of sickness. They were unpleasantly reminded of the humiliating years of the Soviet gerontocracy at the turn of theig80s. They embraced El'tsin'syoung, sober and decisive successoras soon as they got the chance. Now is perhapsnot the best time to be publishinga new book about El'tsin. The instant books, the journalistic accounts have all been published. El'tsin and many in his immediate entouragehave alreadygiven theirown versionof events: the rascallymemoirs of his former bodyguard are amongst the most engaging, provided you add the necessary amount of salt. In his massive biography(reltsin.ARevolutionay Life,London, 2000), LeonAronhasexamined and digested much of the availablematerial.He went backto El'tsin'srootsin Ekaterinburg,then called Sverdlovsk.He interviewed those who had known El'tsin as...