One can understand why many Russians would gladly return to days of dictatorship and communism.
It is not at all difficult to understand why many "free" Russians long for the alleged good old days of dictatorship and communism. Their lives have become increasingly disjointed, uncertain and fearful since the Berlin Wall fell and "democracy" was espoused in the former Soviet Union sphere earlier this decade.
There has been ineptness and corruption by leaders ill-equipped to deal with a free society and its economy. Most had jobs, though low-rewarding ones, and there was a unique sense of "law and order." Crime has spiraled far beyond anything even pessimists could have imagined and things get worse by the day. Now there is the increasing terror of violence and murder by "demonstrators with a cause," whether it be against the government or just people in general.
Such things were seldom the order of the day under the totalitarianism emanating from the Kremlin in Moscow. People were poor, suffered and had numerous deprivations, but they were not so regularly assaulted by the kinds of tragedies they regularly encounter now. The Kremlin managed some kind of control.
Recently, bombs have torn through Moscow public areas such as shopping malls, and apartment buildings have been blasted. Dozens of long-suffering Russians have been killed and hundreds more injured. Many have been left homeless. There is little faith in national leadership and virtually everyone, even high-ranking, well-paid officials, feel under attack.
"This threat of terrorism is especially frightening because it is invisible and can occur at any moment to anyone," says Vladimir Dryzhinin, a psychiatrist with the Russian Academy of Science. "The general level of alarm and uneasiness in our society is growing by leaps and bounds."
"We are afraid to go to bed now; what are we to do?" asks a 62-year-old pensioner who was thrown from her bed when an apartment blast occurred. "We are not living, we are surviving."
That has been the case for million of Russians and Soviet Union people for so long, during the czarist period, the revolution, the war scenarios and now "peace and democracy." Suffering has forever been a Russian trademark, a legacy; it is getting worse than ever.
"Nobody is ruling this country."We need a leader, a strong leader," says 65-year-old Lydia Morozova, who then adds: "We need Stalin."
It is easy to see why many Russians for all their newfound "freedom" long for the days of the brutal Josef Stalin, even though he was guilty of the deaths of more than 20 million people, most of them his own countrymen. At least those who survived seemed to do better than many do now.
Such a preference is a ghastly testimony to the desperation and fear many Russians experience by the minute. And there currently seems little prospect for drastic change for the better.
Such an environment provides an ideal climate for a ruthless strongman to take over leadership of this huge country. It also creates an unhealthy, unstable, potentially volatile situation that should worry Washington political and military leaders.
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