A lesson for Russians: in the new century, democracy is more effective than totalitarianism, even on the battlefield

By Abbas Gallyamov for the channel "We Can Explain" 

telegra.ph

2 min

May 10, 2023

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As you know, turnover kills the ability to see the whole situation. And now, the event field is so saturated that a general assessment of what is happening - such that one does not exchange for details - becomes almost impossible. Intensely watching the preparation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the counteroffensive, trying to capture as many details as possible, we completely forgot what, without exaggeration, a miracle we are actually witnessing. 

Remember the first day of the war, when Russian troops rushed to Kyiv, and Kremlin propagandists competed with the US military in terms of who would give Ukraine less of a chance? Now imagine that at this very moment I am telling you that the time will come when Putin's warriors will literally burrow into the ground, terrified waiting for the Ukrainian counteroffensive. What would you answer me then? That's right, I screwed up.

Nevertheless, this is exactly what is happening now - Russia has removed all the equipment and workers it could from Moscow construction sites, and for six months now it has been pouring concrete into the Donbass, building one fortified area after another. Well, you yourself have heard about the longest trench in the world and dug up Crimea. 

Paradoxically, I see in what is happening a source of hope specifically for Russia. Not in terms of war, of course not. In terms of what's next. I mean the prospects for building effective political institutions capable of making the weak strong and the hopeless promising.

We could brush aside the American or Korean experience — this is, they say, “another civilization,” but it will not be possible to brush aside the experience of Ukraine. No wonder Putin says that we are "one people." So this is nonsense - we, of course, are different peoples. Our civilizational matrix, however, is common. And in a culture with history, there is also a lot of things for two, so if they can do it, then we can do it too. As the saying goes: "God is not without mercy, the Cossack is not without happiness." 

Ukraine's military victories contain the essential ingredient for the success of Russia's liberal opposition: these successes represent a victory for democracy against dictatorship. The defeat knocks out the last support from under the domestic supporters of authoritarianism - the myth that Russia can be strong only thanks to a “hard hand” and the suppression of all kinds of freedoms.

Putin's failures in the confrontation with Ukraine clearly demonstrate that democracy is more effective than authoritarianism, even on the battlefield. 

So after the end of the war, it will not be particularly necessary to persuade the Russians to democratize.

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