Are you apprehensive or glad of Vladmir Putin becoming president of Russia again

  1. breathe2travel profile image74
    breathe2travelposted 13 years ago

    Are you apprehensive or glad of Vladmir Putin becoming president of Russia again?

    replyreport
  2. ecoggins profile image78
    ecogginsposted 13 years ago

    Somewhat apprehensive. Yet, I predicted it before Putin was ever recognized in the Russian political landscape. No, I did not predict that Putin himself would become president, but that a authoritarian-type ruler would return to the helm of the Russian government. In 1988-89 I took two Russian history courses and one Russian politics course. Of course, that was the time of Gorbachev, perestroika, and the fall of the Iron Curtain. Yet, in the courses, I noticed that Russia ran about 200 years behind the rest of Europe in terms of evolution towards a democratic state and society. Mostly the Russians were resistant to the political formulas of their Western European counterparts. The pendulum of democracy began swinging in Western Europe in the 11th century with the conquest if England by William of Normandy. The Magna Carta was signed in the 13th century, and not until the American and French Revolutions in the 18th century were individual human rights and freedoms truly granted. Russia had a similar evolution beginning in the Novgorod Republic (from the 12th to 15th centuries) citizens enjoyed certain individual freedoms. More recently at the beginning of the 20th century and the Bolshevic revolution, Lenin allowed farmers to be free to participate in a free market system. Stalin crushed and collectivized the farms, but the free farmers children (including Nikita Kruschev and Mikhail Gorbachev) did not forget. So the pendulum swung from some freedoms (Lenin) to absolute tyranny (Stalin) to more freedoms (Khruschev) to totalinarianism (Brezhnev) to more interest in freedom (Yuri Andropov) to openness (Gorbachev) and even more democratic reforms (Yeltsin).

    But the Russian people were not entirely ready to rule themselves. Thus, the pendulum has swung back to a more authoritarian regime under Putin. Whether this is ultimately good or bad is yet to be seen.

    replyreport
    1. breathe2travel profile image74
      breathe2travelposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      How refreshing to read someone who knows and understands history. smile

      replyreport
 
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

 Necessary
 Features
 Marketing
 Statistics

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)