Confessions of a Russophile

From the review for “Walking on Ice. An American Businessman in Russia” from Russia Profile magazine, by its editor, Andrei Zolotov, Jr.  

Of the legion of Western entrepreneurs who came to Russia in the early 1990s in search of opportunities, many came here guided not just by greed, but by a quest for adventure. But there were few who had become infatuated with Russian culture built their businesses as a cultural matchmaking of sorts. They had the inquisitive minds and open hearts of cultural interpreters, which helped push their projects in the land, where, as one such person, Frederick R. Andresen put it, “everything is difficult—and everything is possible.”

Andresen put his insightful observations into a tenderly written, concise book, which is neither an academic study, nor a memoir; neither a business manual, nor a cultural history. Yet it somehow manages to serve all these purposes and can be recommended as an easy and highly educational read for aspiring Russia scholars and people preparing for a tour of duty in Russia.

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The “Russian Soul” and Russian Business—a connection?

 I was asked by the respected Russia Profile magazine to consider if there is a connection between the legendary “Russian soul” and the chaotic world of Russian business today. My answer was absolutely yes!

My resulting article, “The Piety of Soil and Spirit” is featured in the summer special edition of Russia Profile, the most respected English language magazine published in Russia and offering the most comprehensive and concise view of business, economic, political and cultural trends and processes underway in today’s Russia. See http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php?pageid=About  and on that page in the left “Special Edition” column click on “The Piety of Soil and Spirit.”—that’s my article. There are more articles, really good ones, on this or similar subjects.

I learned soon after coming to Russia to start a business back in 1992, that business in Russia is like business anywhere else—but different. I call it “the third side of the Russian coin.”  In the RP article I write that “Soul” is important to a Russian. It explains the unexplainable. It is that conscious or unconscious essence that makes a people identify who they are. For the Russian, it is the “sense” of being Russian, a deep piety of soil and spirit.

There is too much to say on this topic for a short post, but if you go to the Russia Profile website you will see all the articles on “the Russian Soul” and it is very good reading.  And of course, read my book “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia” for a “from the trenches” account of my many years in that fascinating and challenging land.

Buy the book here  “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

Review on “Walking on Ice…” from top Russian magazine.

 New Book on Business in Russia – American author brings a fresh and honest look at doing business in today’s Russia

 From Andrei Zolotov, Jr., Editor, Russia Profile, Moscow:

Essentially, it is a collection of essays, although one part of the book is structured in chapters on Russian geography, demography, culture, business and politics, while the other is simply called “An Essay Collection.” These pages bear an openly Chekhovian description of a weekend spent at the dacha with an extended Russian family next to a carefully worded account of the role of crime and corruption in business practices and how they can be worked around; a tribute to Boris Pasternak next to a report about the October 1993 revolt and the shelling of parliament from an unusual perspective of a businessman whose operation was headquartered in the Comecon building at the very center of those dramatic events.

The author analyzes the role of the Orthodox Church in shaping the Russian psyche and identity, and categorizes Russian women in types which would make some of them blush. What brings these essays together is a transpiring love for both the strengths and weaknesses of this country and its people.

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Three steps forward and two backward!

  “Nothing is impossible in Russia but reform.” Oscar Wilde

I think Oscar Wilde was wrong—but it will take time to know. The efforts to transform Russia into a viable and democratic economy, one that fits comfortably with the rest of the free world, will at best jerk forward over the coming years. But it is happening. Three steps forward and two backward. Still, one residual step in the right direction is something to be grateful for in a land of such immense potential. That is an improvement over Lenin’s assessment of Russian progress, “One step forward and one back.”

History has not been kind to the Russians. Seventy years of cruel rigidity under Communism within the context of a thousand years of autocratic rule has fostered a blind dependence on central authority, as de Tocqueville says “of servitude,” a resulting lack of personal responsibility and self confidence, and a fatalistic distrust of the future.

 Historically, and largely because of their geography, Russians missed out entirely on the pivotal events of Western development. A thread running through their complex political history is the fear of and acceptance of an all-powerful and sometimes arbitrary central authority, the influence of constricting medieval orthodoxy, and the mystical unifying force called the “Russian soul.”

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