The Rule of Law and “The Rule of Thumbs”

For over a thousand years in Russia the rule of law was whatever the ruler ordered. Then, the interpretationand application of his decisions depended on those down the line, which in practice may not even be what he intended. It was more like what I call “The Rule of Thumbs.” Everyone had a thumb to put on top of another. Sometime I think nothing has changed. It is what happens in a “top down” bureaucracy. What is understood by “The Rule of Law” by one party, such as the Westerner, may often not be the same it means to another (such as in an autocratic regime, a dictatorship.) Indeed, today laws are being made, and step-by-step they are coming closer to the universal meaning.

 In a democracy the laws are made by duly elected representatives of the people. Russia is not there yet. In many ways it is still “The Rule of Thumbs.” Often it seems that everyone seems to have his thumb on someone else, and under the thumb of someone above. Even the lowest guy on the totem pole looks for someone lower on whom he can put his thumb, maybe a parking attendant. As de Tocqueville says, ““The American struggles against the natural obstacles which oppose him; the adversaries of the Russian are men.”

 Excerpted from “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

“Miracle, Mystery, and Authority”

When I first went to Russia, I was told by a Russian advisor that Dostoevsky’s “Brothers Karamazov” was required to understand the Russian. She was right. I particularly discovered in that great book the chapter entitled “The Grand Inquisitor.” It is not only great writing, but as usual, a “third side” of the Russian coin that I always talk about. For if Ivan, the narrator of this chapter, gave us a tirade against the Catholic Church, which seems obvious as it was a tale set in the Spanish Inquisition, what was the hidden meaning? To me it was a veiled attack on the autocracy of Czarist Russia and a prescient preview of the violent revolution that followed shortly after this was written. But even on its surface it is a clever and grand statement for the silent omnipotence of the healing Christ.

In Ivan’s story (he being an atheist) to his brother Alyosha (he being a wannabe Orthodox priest) the Grand Inquisitor in Spain sees a returned Jesus walking out of a city having healed a girl. The Inquisitor orders Jesus arrested and then visits him in prison and lectures the silent Jesus on the folly of freedom and of individual choice and says to him, “There are three forces, the only forces that are able to conquer and hold captive forever the conscience of these weak rebels (the people) for their own happiness—these forces are: miracle, mystery, and authority.” As the monologue continues, the whole rationale for an autocracy, be it religious or political, is explained. Also obvious is the fact that Jesus, in his silence, wins the argument. The Inquisitor’s lengthy exposition does not hold up to reality of man’s potential for self government if set free.  In the end, Jesus is released.

Dostoevsky, living in the last days of Czarist Russia, so cleverly made it clear. He wrote into the mouth of the Grand Inquisitor that three things are generic to the traditional Russian character: the idea that good, if any, will come from some unexpected outside source (miracle); that man is not ordained to be responsible for his own welfare and progress (mystery); and that guidance and protection come only from constant dependence on and obedience to another (authority). Today that situation is slowly changing as the young emerge from the shadow of Soviet imperialism, but it is a latent obstacle that still gets in the way at times. You can run into it every day.

 Excerpted from “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

“Suddenly”

The monarchist Vasily Rozanov said that in Russia change happens quickly—in one-and-a-half or two days. Examples given were the Czar and the Army disappearing in two or three days, the elimination of the Patriarchy under Peter, and more lately, the demise of the Soviet Union. One day there was the Hammer and Sickle flying over The Kremlin, and the next day it was gone. The eminent Oxford professor Andre Zorin quoted Rozanov at a Summer Literary Seminar in St. Petersburg in 2004.

 “Suddenly” is a word much used by Russians. I remember in a past writing workshop we were told never to use the word “suddenly” —that only Dostoevsky could use that word. That nothing in fiction happens without a stated or hinted reason. In Dostoevsky’s “White Nights” he uses the word seven times in the first five pages. I used the word in my poem, “Russian Rivers,” “Suddenly, a foreign ray permeates the ice.” In Russian history it is often the foreign ray, or light, or idea, or perspective that drives Russia and Russians–sometimes crazy. Zorin used two words repeatedly in his lecture—“suddenly” and “incredible.” Those two words are apt when discussing Russian history and culture.

I mentioned to Zorin that it seemed to me that, like an earthquake, human events do not usually happen quickly. We feel them in a moment, but underneath the causal elements were long before inexorably moving toward a future explosion. We, on the surface of things, measuring only what our senses tell us or what we want to believe, feel only the culminating shock. I held up my hand and offered that The Russian Revolution started long before 1917—maybe in the 1860s when the artists in St. Petersburg, “The Wanderers,” rejected the European influence and moved near Moscow and began the great paintings of the Russian common man. Other hands went up and the protest was “No, it was the writers like Belinsky, Bakunin, etc. early in 1830s and the influence of the Enlightenment. The Czars were blind to this. Likewise, the Soviet Union was crumbling years before the flag came down, but we didn’t know it or want to know it. (Military-industrial complex pressures?) The Twin Towers collapsed in 102 minutes. Surely the inertia for that disaster began years before, unnoticed or ignored by political leaders.

Then on the other hand, there is the unpredictability of everyday Russian life. Do things happen suddenly, or are the shocks of life always the lack of a preconscious ignorance of predicting clues? If we were so smart to notice and measure all the tremors of coming explosions, we might be prepared for the resulting shocks. But then life, especially ironic Russian life, would not be judged so eloquently by the masters like Dostoevsky.

 Excerpted from “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

My First Lesson ~ Getting around "No"

The Cold-War stereotype of the Russian was a man in a gray suit and brown shoes who simply said “no.” One of my first lessons in doing business in Russia was learning that image is both true and false. In the stark and crowded 21st floor room in what was to be our office for a few years I, an American nice guy with no telecom credentials, discussed some business plans with a few potential employees. It was an atmosphere of awe and wonder. “What is the crazy American talking about?” they were thinking. “Doesn’t he know this is Russia?”

 It was Russia indeed, 1992 in fact, only a few months after The Hammer and Sickle came quietly down over Red Square and the whole of what was then The Soviet Union. But these were not gray suited men or babushkas shoveling snow. These were sharp and eager young graduates, men and women, from the top technical school in Moscow. But, their initial reaction still reflected the centuries of Russian resistance to taking initiative and personal responsibility. But I quickly learned how to get around that cultural block and get something done.

 At first I presented the new business idea to the young Russians as I would do at home. But, often I would get a silence, maybe a head shaking, in any case a definite “no, it can’t be done.” They might have reasons to put forth, but those were seldom pertinent. Then the thought came to me to get on their side of the table and say, “I know it would be difficult, but if we had to do it, how would we do it.” Then, the lights would come on, the discussion would catch on fire, and solutions would come forth.

 I quickly learned that the Russian, especially during Soviet times, was often blocked from doing what he wanted, but under the new environment and if approached pro-actively, he expressed a resourcefulness like nothing I had experienced in my decades of international business management. From that start we built a major telecom company in the new Russia with a team that grew to over sixty and delivered state-of-the-art telecommunications to the rapidly expanding expatiate business community and to some top Russian clients, too.

 I also learned quickly that you have to be part of a dedicated team. With good leadership, they then will get excited with the potential of successful creativity and work hard to achieve the goal. It’s all about relationships.