a bit of reaction, e.g. getting in touch with the glorious past
Isn’t that what Putin is doing? I am not sure this is a great idea. The past glories tend to be associated with nationalistic wars.
Another issue is what would unfucking entail—turning East Europeans into Scandinavians? National cultural characteristics tend to be pretty persistent :-/ Otherwise, the canonical answer seems to be a long period of civil society, rule of law, etc. I am not holding my breath.
Russia is a super interesting special case. An interesting alternative history to ponder, re: Russia, is what would have happened had Novgorod predominated and not Moskva. Novgorod was sort of “the Lowlands of the East” in terms of the way they did things. Moskva was quite culturally nasty, and they got ahead by being basically the tax collectors for the Mongols.
Isn’t that what Putin is doing? I am not sure this is a great idea. The past glories tend to be associated with nationalistic wars.
Another issue is what would unfucking entail—turning East Europeans into Scandinavians? National cultural characteristics tend to be pretty persistent :-/ Otherwise, the canonical answer seems to be a long period of civil society, rule of law, etc. I am not holding my breath.
Russia is a super interesting special case. An interesting alternative history to ponder, re: Russia, is what would have happened had Novgorod predominated and not Moskva. Novgorod was sort of “the Lowlands of the East” in terms of the way they did things. Moskva was quite culturally nasty, and they got ahead by being basically the tax collectors for the Mongols.