The reading this week, “State Suppression of Baikal Activism” an article by Kate Pride Brown, was obviously a radical departure from the literature, poetry, and art we have been analyzing each week. But, in a way, it had the similar goal of teaching the reader about Russian identity, and its people’s relationship with their country. The article posits that “Democracy has never successfully taken root in Russian soil.” A claim the author backs up by describing a country with an ambivalent relationship to the law, an ambivalence that seems to influence every part of a Russian’s daily life.

The author defines this ambivalence as “Legal nihilism.” A term that measures the willingness of Russians to break the law and the willingness of the law to unjustly target Russians. It is the pervasive idea in Russian society that laws are political tools, meant to be broken and abused. It seems that how widespread this idea is across Russia is a testament to how cynicism is intimately tied to the mindset of the average Russian. Russian society has suffered one setback after another, not too mention facing the brunt of two world wars, countless devastating famines, and a series of autocratic regimes with an affection for prison camps. These tragedies are even more terrible when contrasted with the potential Russian society has shown throughout its history. From its immense and powerful empire to its trailblazing step as the first society to (arguably) successfully realize a Marxist revolution, Russia has often had the latent desire and means to be a truly successful world power.

Of course, this modern pessimistic mindset was exacerbated by the chaos of the fall of the Soviet Union and the turbulent nineties, but this reading makes it clear that this way of corrupt governing was present in the tsarist autocracy and throughout the span of the Soviet Union. This is clearly shown when Jennie Sutton is at the courthouse arguing against an unfounded accusation and when she succeeds in getting only the police chief on her side, her case is dismissed. Russians, correctly, see the law as situational and volatile, which makes life unpredictable and which will weigh down on the spirit of a people, as well as impact their relationship with the concept of power. And if power is malleable and impermanent, it will inspire nothing more than a culture of irreverence and skepticism.