Russian Modernization

Abstract

The Soviet novelist Vasili Grossman, echoing a tradition in Russian historical interpretation, referred to ‘the curse of Russia, the association between its development and unfreedom, serfdom’.¹ The examples he clearly had in mind were Peter the Great and Stalin, but he brought Lenin, too, into his equation. Not because Lenin was guilty of the gross barbarities of his despotic successor, but because of his own fanatical intolerance and its totalitarian implications (though this word was not used by Grossman).

This was a conference paper presented in Turin in December 1987 under the auspices of the Fondazione Feltrinelli. Were I writing this today I would say more about the frustrations and problems attending the process of change, and end on a gloomier note.