In his introduction, Alexander Obolonsky notes that Russian history
and life are full of paradoxes, most of them rather sad. Why, he
asks, have the Russians, who have not only been endowed by nature
with enormous natural, human, and intellectual resources, but who
have also developed a great literary and scientific heritage and
made significant contributions to world civilization, proved unable
to arrange the conditions of their own existence to realize their
great potential? "What fundamental deficiency," he wonders, "made
this great anomaly possible?"Alexander Obolonsky has undertaken the
formidable task of reinterpreting Russian history from the Time of
Troubles and the reign of Ivan the Terrible to perestroika,
glasnost, and the dismantling of the Soviet system under Gorbachev
and Yeltsin. He seeks to understand the present and assess the
social trends that will shape the future through a careful
reconsideration of Russia's past.In his sweeping analyses of
historical trends, Obolonsky structures his analytic narrative
around two opposed concepts-a system-centered understanding of
social existence in which individuals are viewed as "cogs"
functioning for the sake of the whole, and a liberal
person-centered paradigm in which society seeks to promote the
development of the individual.Obolonsky distrusts all monistic
explanations, from Marxism and geopolitics to scientific and
technological models. He prefers to utilize a variety of
variables--ethical, economic, sociopsychological, cultural--to
explain Russian history, presenting its course as a long-term and
ongoing struggle between two competing models of life. Oblolonsky
is neither a determinist nor a romantic. In his thought-provoking
and historically grounded analysis, he challenges standard
interpretations regarding Russia, the USSR, the role of political
leaders, and the Russian people. Far from satisfied with Russia's
past, Obolonsky worries that Russia's future will be tainted by the
persistence of an anti-individualist mentality and attitudes shaped
by centuries of autocratic rule and by a conservative mass
consciousness rooted in Russian experience.Students of Russian
history, politics, and culture, and also those interested in the
broader issues of twentieth-century society will find this
informative magnum opus of a senior Russian scholar insightful and
thought-provoking.
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