Biography and episodes of life Georgy Mirsky. When born and died Georgy Mirsky, memorable places and dates of important events of his life. Scientist Quotes, Photo and video.

Years of life of Georgy Mirsky:

born May 27, 1926, died January 26, 2016

Epitaph

“...he will no longer return and will not see his native country.”
Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

Biography

Professor Georgy Ilyich Mirsky was known to the public as the main Researcher Institute of World Economy and international relations RAS, a talented political scientist, one of the most influential Russian experts on Middle Eastern issues. Acting as a publicist, he was always distinguished by his keen and independent opinions and a fresh look at political problems. Despite Mirsky's recognition as an expert on Arab world issues, due to his wide range of interests, his opinion was considered competent in many political and historical areas.

Georgy Ilyich was only a few months short of his 90th birthday, and even at such a respectable age he remained energetic, proactive and active, retaining good spirits and excellent intellectual shape. gave him strength continuous operation, incessant thinking process and public demand. Wherein life path The scientist cannot be called simple; his biography is inextricably linked with the thorny history of Russia.

Georgy Mirsky was born on May 27, 1926 in Moscow, where he spent his childhood. His father died in 1940, and in 1942, at the age of 15, the work activity George. At first, Mirsky worked as a loader, then as a sawyer, mechanic, orderly at a military hospital, and driver. Such hard work made a depressing impression on Mirsky, motivating him better than any slogans to receive a full-fledged education. Having completed the last classes of school in parallel with work, he, by chance, entered the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, in 1952 he successfully completed the main department, and three years later he also completed graduate school.

“Cult of Personality” with the participation of Georgy Mirsky

Mirsky’s further fate is closely connected with the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, where he worked from 1957 to last days life, having gone through all stages of a scientific career. In addition to his native institute, Grigory Ilyich lectured at MGIMO, Moscow State Linguistic University named after. M. Thorez, Russian State University for the Humanities and National Research University Higher School of Economics, and in the 1990s. fruitfully collaborated with a number of American universities. He became the author and co-author of many scientific works, and in the last decade of his life he became widely known as a publicist. Without abandoning his studies in science, Mirsky maintained a popular political blog on the Echo of Moscow website and was invited to comment on radio and television. Due to permanent political tension in the Middle East, his demand as a specialist on Arab-Israeli conflicts, international terrorism and Islamic movements grew.

Georgy Mirsky died on January 26, 2016 after surgery for cancer.

Life line

May 27, 1926. Date of birth of Georgy Ilyich Mirsky.
1952 Graduated from the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies.
1955 Completion of graduate school.
1957 Start of work at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations.
1982 Arrest for dissident activities of one of his subordinates, removal from the post of head of the department, work as chief researcher.
1991 Start of work in the USA (Institute of Peace, American University in Washington, New York and Princeton Universities, Hofstra University in New York).
1992 Awarded a MacArthur Foundation Award.
December 28, 2015 Nezavisimaya Gazeta published Mirsky’s latest review article, “Five wars in Syria: is there a breakthrough visible?”
January 22, 2016 The last column in the author's blog on the Echo of Moscow website.
January 26, 2016. Date of death of Georgy Mirsky.

Memorable places

1. Moscow, where Georgy Mirsky was born.

2. Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, where Georgy Mirsky studied.

3. American Institute of Peace, where Georgy Mirsky worked as a visiting fellow.

4. Institute of World Economy and International Relations, where Georgy Mirsky worked until his last day.

Episodes of life

In 1944, 18-year-old Mirsky was sent to the labor front, where he had 50 people under his command, mostly teenagers and elderly women. Managing this team, he understood the price of good and evil, developing his own moral guidelines.

Mirsky made his first independent decision at the age of 14, when, after graduating from seven years of school, he decided to enter (and entered) a naval special school. The second decision is also related to this: learn English. And in a few months, with the help of a pre-revolutionary self-instruction manual, he coped with this test. The third fateful decision was made in the same tragic year of 1941. The school was evacuated to Siberia, so there was a separation from my mother, who was supposed to be sent to Kazakhstan (according to her passport, she was registered as German). Mirsky took the documents and stayed with his mother in Moscow.

After graduating from the 10th grade of the school for working youth, Mirsky planned to enter the history department of Moscow State University or MGIMO, but this required Golden medal, and he only had a silver one. Quite by accident, from a classmate’s friend, he learned about the existence of the Institute of Oriental Studies and submitted documents there, dreaming in his heart of going as a secretary to a foreign embassy.

In the 1990s, Mirsky worked at the American Institute of Peace as a visiting fellow. In August 1991, he flew to Russia on the very day when the putsch happened, and commented on subsequent events for the ABC television company. Literally a couple of days later, when it was time to fly back to America, the putsch ended.

Testaments

“Besides the fact that Russia is my native country, this is where I grew up and was formed, of all the literature I love Russian most, this is the country of my culture - something else is important: it’s more interesting to live here than anywhere else.”

“And, of course, a very important quality is the ability to endure difficulties. I believe that perhaps Russians are the most talented people. These are the most resilient people, perhaps. This is a people who can endure the most incredible hardships and horrors, and yet something will remain in them, will be preserved.”

“During the 20th century, there were actually three genocides - the Civil War, Stalin’s terror and the Great Patriotic War. In all three of these terrible situations, the best died. And yet the people survived.”

“It was then, during the war, that I felt how good it is when you do something kind to a person. When you do something good to a person, then you yourself feel better about it. IN Soviet times it was easy to trample a person. I've never done this. I instinctively knew how bad I would feel later.”

Georgy Mirsky in the program “Cult of Personality”

Condolences

“On behalf of the YABLOKO party, I express my condolences on the death of Georgy Ilyich Mirsky. His accurate, historically informed assessments of events in the Middle East provided a complete picture of what was happening in this complex and conflict-ridden region. Georgy Mirsky was and will remain a true moral authority. I offer my condolences to the family and loved ones of G.I. Mirsky.”
Emilia Slabunova, chairman of the YABLOKO party

“Georgy Ilyich Mirsky was a true uncompromising scientist, whose judgments did not depend on the political situation, on the so-called demands of the time. His reputation has been and will remain impeccable. Georgy Mirsky is an example of a truly intelligent person with the highest moral principles. This is a heavy and irreparable loss for our social thought. I offer my condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Georgy Ilyich Mirsky.”
Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the FPC of the YABLOKO party

“...The eras were different, and each tested the people who passed through them - for strength, for honesty, for dignity. Not only will I never be able to erase from my memory the intrigue that was started by the KGB officers who arrested young IMEMO employees in 1982. Senior party officials tried to incredibly inflate this matter and direct punishment against the Institute, which was known as a hotbed of free thought. Under the raised ax, people behaved differently. And G. Mirsky, the head of one of the “at fault” departments and therefore attracted to himself the demonic forces of evil, remained a model of courage and dignity...”
Victor Sheinis, close friend of Georgy Mirsky

“There was, essentially, only one such person - Georgy Mirsky. At the same time, he was in no way like many experts who speak in memorized slogans and verbal formulas. Whether in scientific works or in expert comments, he always remained first and foremost a scientist. Scientists with a capital letter. Russian scientists."
Gennady Petrov, editor of the international department of the newspaper “Novye Izvestia”

“This is a big loss for Russian oriental studies. Wonderful person and good specialist left us. Georgy Ilyich was always smart, despite his already venerable age, he was always collected and devoted himself to Russian oriental studies to the last. He allowed himself to disagree with the main course in many ways and could criticize when he considered it necessary. This quality is also not present in everyone today.”
E. V. Suponina, candidate of philosophical sciences, orientalist

“And now I’m sitting with this book and crying, although I don’t remember when in last time cried. They write in the news: a famous political scientist has died... He is not famous, but the one and only. Our prayers did not help during the operation, the Lord cleaned up. Farewell, unforgettable Georgy Ilyich."
Svetlana Sorokina, Russian journalist, member of the Russian Television Academy

This book is not intended to be a memoir in the true sense of the word. My life is not so full of interesting and especially extraordinary events that it makes sense to talk about it publicly. But the fact is that during this rather long life I have seen a lot and heard even more that may be of interest to those who are not indifferent to the history of our country beyond last half century with more. Many curious (in my opinion, of course) and characteristic details of our era will remain unknown if I do not share with the reader what I witnessed.

I did not hold any important positions, was not acquainted with outstanding statesmen, although I had the opportunity to see with my own eyes Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Mikoyan, Gorbachev and many others, and with Primakov I studied at the institute and for a long time worked together. I managed to create my own opinion about all these people. More importantly, it seems to me that I was able to feel the spirit of the times, the spirit of each of the three eras in which I lived. In front of me Soviet Union lived through times of prosperity, decline and collapse, and the typical signs of each of these periods are engraved in my memory. In this book I tried to find answers to some very significant questions regarding the causes of the decay and death of Soviet power. Being just a researcher, the head of one of the divisions of the Academy of Sciences, I, nevertheless, for a long time had access to the upper echelons of power - to the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also had the opportunity to travel throughout the country as a lecturer in international relations and thereby become familiar with many aspects of life in our society. Some of my colleagues and acquaintances told me about things that were practically unknown to everyone, and I remembered them.

I had the opportunity to write sections of reports, speeches and interviews for Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Suslov, Gromyko, etc., give a lecture for Gorbachev, participate in parliamentary hearings in our State Duma and in the Congress of the United States of America. Gradually, quite a lot of material accumulated, providing food for analysis of events, and it began to seem that it makes sense to talk about it. My friends in Russia and America advised me to write a book in which, against the backdrop of the events of my life, the main attention would be paid to the peculiarities of the social atmosphere of the Soviet and post-Soviet times. I decided to do it. This book is not an autobiography. My personal life, in the literal sense of the word, remained outside its scope; wives, children, friends, meetings, novels - all this is of interest only to me and a small circle of people close to me, no one else needs it. But if this book helps, even to a small extent, to recreate the picture of life in the country over several decades, I will consider my task completed.

Moscow communal apartment

Now most people, even if they have heard this word, can hardly imagine what it really meant. Born into a family of modest employees, I naturally lived in a communal apartment, like almost all my peers and acquaintances in general. (As far as I remember, until I was twenty-five, I had never even visited people with a separate apartment.) Six families lived in our apartment near the Patriarch’s Ponds, about fifteen people in total; there was one bathroom, one toilet, a shared kitchen and a telephone in the hallway. It was considered good conditions, in many communal apartments the population density was much higher. The bathroom consisted of a washbasin, in which everyone took turns washing, and a bathtub itself (of course, without a shower, which was unheard of at that time), usually filled with linen; We took turns doing laundry, once every ten days we were able to take a bath for a few minutes, but in general, in order to wash ourselves properly, we went to the bathhouse about once a month.

I had to read nostalgic memories of communal apartments with their friendly life and communal solidarity. This was partly true, it all depended on the character of the residents; Fortunately, we had no drunkards or rowdy people, relations between people were decent, although not without squabbles and scandals. Subsequently, when my mother and I were the first to buy a TV in our apartment, we always invited our neighbors to watch movies. But this was already ten years after the end of the war, and in the thirties there was only a radio dish in every room. Everyone knew almost everything about each other - who was having what for dinner (six primus stoves were making noise in the kitchen), who was coming to whom, what conversations were being conducted on the telephone hanging in the hall (there was a piece of paper with a pencil next to it, and it was noted who called how many times, to calculate at the end of the month how much each family should pay).

Again, now some people say: “Under Stalin there was no theft.” In fact, there were a lot of pickpockets in Moscow, but I really hadn’t heard about apartment thefts in communal apartments. What was there to steal? The standard of living was so meager and miserable that people had practically no property. In my school class, for example, only one boy had wrist watch, two have a bicycle, one or two have a fountain pen (“self-writing”); these were the children of relatively high-ranking employees, and the vast majority had nothing at all.

The food was just as meager. Remembering now what I ate as a child, all I see before my eyes is a plate of soup without meat, cutlets, porridge (buckwheat, semolina, millet), liquid tea with sugar, a piece of bread and butter (occasionally with sausage, sometimes with cheese, but... I had never even heard of ham), herring, cheap candies, cookies.

In such conditions I spent my entire childhood (with the exception of the war, when it was much worse, but more on that later), youth and youth. My father died of a heart attack before the war, when I was fourteen years old; many years later, when I was filling out another form, the personnel officer demanded that in the column about my father I indicate not only that he “died in 1940,” but also where he was buried. At first I didn’t understand why such a detail was needed, but then I realized: after all, many in those years did not die a natural death, and in the footage it was necessary to know whether the person died in the camp. And after my father’s death, my mother and I lived together in the same room for many years. Only at the age of thirty-seven, thanks to Khrushchev, who organized cooperative construction, I was able to buy a cooperative two-room apartment for the two of us, and sixteen years later, having already become a doctor of science and a professor, purchase a separate one-room apartment nearby for my mother. So, it turns out that until I was forty-three years old I did not have my own home.

Songs of the thirties

There are many nice girls in the team, but you will only fall in love with one. You can be a zealous Komsomol member and sigh at the moon in the spring.” This is a verse from one of the popular songs of that era. Keywords here - “in a team”. This famous term “collective” defined the essence of our lives. We lived in a collectivist, or more precisely, in a pseudo-collectivist society. From the very beginning of life, we were taught that the main thing, the only valuable thing, is not an individual person, but a people. “One - what? One is a small number,” as Mayakovsky wrote. “Man is a cog,” “We have no irreplaceable people,” we believed. How similar are all totalitarian systems! One of the slogans Hitler's Germany read: “You are nothing, your people are everything!” True, in our country the term “people” did not mean the entire population, but primarily workers and peasants, they were considered the masters of the country, the rest were fragments, remnants of the exploiting classes, although some of them could be “reforged”, and thus the “labor intelligentsia” arose , which was graciously given the right to be part of the people - not a class, but at least a “stratum”. And there were no exploiters at all, because they were capitalists and landowners destroyed by the revolution.

We should have hated them in absentia, these enemies of the working people. The fact that landowners and capitalists (and at the same time, of course, priests) were liquidated was proof of the destruction of all types of oppression and exploitation; if someone were to say that the state itself could be an exploiter, he would be looked at at best as an idiot. But such a thought could not even occur to anyone. Our ignorance was limitless. If, for example, I had been asked at the age of ten: “How do people live in capitalist countries?” - I would answer: “Terrible. Oppressed, oppressed, half of them are unemployed, starving, sleeping under bridges.” We sincerely believed that our system is the best and fairest, because we have no masters and servants, the people themselves rule, we are the masters of the country!

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Georgy Ilyich Mirsky(May 27, Moscow, USSR - January 26, Moscow, Russia) - Soviet and Russian political scientist, chief researcher, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Arabist, professor. Participant of the Great Patriotic War.

Biography

In the 1990s, he worked at the American Institute of Peace as a visiting fellow. Conducted research on the topic “Interethnic relations in the former Soviet Union as a potential source of conflict” (a grant from the MacArthur Foundation). He gave lectures at 23 US universities, taught regular courses at Princeton, New York, American universities, and Hofstra University.

His works on the topic “Army and Politics in the Third World” have become classics. As of now, his professional interests are: Islamic fundamentalism, the Palestinian problem, the Arab-Israeli conflict, international terrorism, countries of the Middle East.

He often appeared as a guest expert on the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

He spoke Russian, English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic and Polish.

He underwent surgery related to cancer. Georgy Ilyich Mirsky died on January 26, 2016 after a long illness. The urn with ashes was buried in the columbarium at the Novodevichy cemetery next to her parents.

Family

• Parents are auto technician Ilya Eduardovich Mirsky (1889, Vilna - 1940, Moscow) and Victoria Gustavovna Mirskaya (1905-1989).
• Wife - Isabella Yakovlevna Labinskaya (born 1937), employee of IMEMO RAS.

Proceedings

• The Baghdad Pact is a tool of colonialism. M., 1956
• Material for a lecture on the topic “Suez Canal”. M., 1956 (co-authored with E. A. Lebedev)
• Suez Canal. M., Znanie, 1956 (co-authored with E. A. Lebedev)
• About prospects economic cooperation countries of Asia and Africa. M., 1958 (co-authored with L. V. Stepanov)
• Iraq in troubled times. 1930-1941. M., 1961
• Asia and Africa are continents on the move. M., 1963 (together with L.V. Stepanov).
• The Arab peoples continue to fight. M., 1965
• Army and politics in Asian and African countries. M., Nauka, 1970.
• Classes and politics in Asia and Africa. M., Knowledge, 1970
• Third world: society, government, army. M., Nauka, 1976.
• The role of the army in political life Third World countries. M., 1989
• "Central Asia's Emergence", in Current History, 1992.
• "The 'End of History' and the Third World", in Russia and the Third World in the Post-Soviet Era, University Press of Florida, 1994.
• "The Third World and Conflict Resolution", in Cooperative Security: Reducing Third World War, Syracuse University Press, 1995.
• "On Ruins of Empire", Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, 1997.
• Life in three eras. M., 2001.

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Literature

• Georgy Ilyich Mirsky (1926-2016) // New and recent history. - 2016. - No. 3. - P. 249-250.

Notes

Links

• . Radio Liberty (05/09/2015).
• (26.01.2016)
• // Lenta.ru, 01/26/2016

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Excerpt characterizing Mirsky, Georgy Ilyich

– But why didn’t I need to “clean” anything? – I was surprised. – Anna is still a child, she doesn’t have too much worldly “dirt”, does she?
- She has to absorb too much into herself, to comprehend the whole infinity... And you will never return there. There is no need for you to forget anything “old”, Isidora... I am very sorry.
“So I’ll never see my daughter again?” I asked in a whisper.
- You'll see. I will help you. And now do you want to say goodbye to the Magi, Isidora? This is your only opportunity, don't miss it.
Well, of course, I wanted to see them, the Lords of this entire Wise World! My father told me so much about them, and I dreamed about them for so long! Only I could not imagine then how sad our meeting would be for me...
North raised his palms and the rock, shimmering, disappeared. We found ourselves in a very high, round hall, which at the same time seemed like a forest, a meadow, a fairy-tale castle, or just “nothing”... No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t see its walls or what was happening around. The air shimmered and shimmered with thousands of shiny “drops”, similar to human tears... Overcoming my excitement, I inhaled... The “rainy” air was surprisingly fresh, clean and light! From him, spreading with life-giving power, the finest living threads of “golden” warmth ran throughout his body. The feeling was wonderful!..
“Come in, Isidora, the Fathers are waiting for you,” whispered Sever.
I stepped further - the trembling air “moved apart”... The Magi stood right in front of me...
“I came to say goodbye, prophets.” Peace be with you...” I said quietly, not knowing how I should greet them.
Never in my life have I felt such a complete, all-encompassing, Great POWER!.. They did not move, but it seemed that this entire hall was swaying with warm waves of some kind of power unprecedented for me... It was real life!!! I didn’t know what other words could be used to call it. I was shocked!.. I wanted to embrace it with myself!.. To absorb it into myself... Or just fall to my knees!.. Feelings overwhelmed me with a stunning avalanche, hot tears flowed down my cheeks...
- Be healthy, Isidora. – the voice of one of them sounded warmly. - We pity you. You are the daughter of the Magus, you will share his path... The power will not leave you. Walk with FAITH, my dear...
My soul strove for them with the cry of a dying bird!.. My wounded heart rushed towards them, breaking against an evil fate... But I knew that it was too late - they forgave me... and pitied me. Never before had I “heard” the deep meaning of these wonderful words. And now the joy from their marvelous, new sound surged, filling me, not allowing me to sigh from the feelings that overwhelmed my wounded soul...
In these words lived a quiet, bright sadness, and sharp pain losses, the beauty of the life that I had to live, and a huge wave of Love coming from somewhere far away and, merging with the Earth, flooding my soul and body... Life swept by like a whirlwind, catching every “edge” of my nature, leaving no cage , which would not be touched by the warmth of love. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to leave... And, probably because of the same fear, I immediately woke up from a wonderful “farewell”, seeing next to me people amazing in their inner strength and beauty. Around me stood tall elders and young men, dressed in dazzling white clothes, like long tunics. Some of them had a red belt, and two had a patterned wide “belt” embroidered in gold and silver.
Oh look! – my impatient friend Stella unexpectedly interrupted the wonderful moment. “They are very similar to yours.” star friends“How you showed them to me!.. Look, is it really them, what do you think?! Well, tell me!!!
To be honest, even when we saw the Holy City, it seemed very familiar to me. And I also had similar thoughts as soon as I saw the Magi. But I immediately drove them away, not wanting to entertain vain “rosy hopes”... It was too important and too serious, and I just waved my hand to Stella, as if saying that we’ll talk later, when we’re alone. I understood that Stella would be upset, because, as always, she wanted to immediately get an answer to her question. But in this moment, in my opinion, this was not nearly as important as the wonderful story Isidora was telling, and I mentally asked Stella to wait. I smiled guiltily at Isidora, and she responded with her wonderful smile and continued...
My gaze was caught by a powerful, tall old man who had something subtly similar to my beloved father, who suffered in the basements of Caraffa. For some reason, I immediately understood - this was the Lord... the Great White Magus. His amazing, piercing, powerful gray eyes looked at me with deep sadness and warmth, as if he was telling me the last “Farewell!”...
– Come, Child of Light, we will forgive you...
He suddenly gave off a wondrous, joyful White light, which, enveloping everything around in a soft glow, embraced me in a gentle embrace, penetrating into the most hidden corners of my pain-torn Soul... The light penetrated every cell, leaving in it only goodness and peace, “washing away” pain and sadness, and all bitterness accumulated over the years. I soared in a magical radiance, forgetting everything “earthly cruel”, everything “evil and false”, feeling only the wondrous touch of Eternal Existence... The feeling was amazing!!! And I mentally begged - if only it would not end... But, according to the capricious desire of fate, everything beautiful always ends faster than we would like it...
– We gifted you with FAITH, it will help you, Child... Hear it... And sling, Isidora...
I didn’t even have time to answer, but the Magi “flashed” with a wondrous Light and... leaving the smell of flowering meadows, they disappeared. Sever and I were left alone... I sadly looked around - the cave remained just as mysterious and sparkling, but it no longer had that pure quality in it. warm light, penetrating into the very soul...
– This was the Father of Jesus, wasn’t it? – I asked carefully.
- Just like the grandfather and great-grandfather of his son and grandchildren, whose death also lies to blame on his soul... ( 1926-05-27 ) (86 years old) A country:

Russia

Scientific field: Place of work: Academic degree: Academic title:

Georgy Ilyich Mirsky(born May 27, Moscow) - Russian political scientist, chief researcher, Doctor of Historical Sciences.

Youth

Georgy Mirsky about Russia and the West

I will never agree with those who preach that Russians are a completely special people, for whom the laws of world development, the centuries-tested experience of other peoples, are not a decree. We will sit without a salary, die of hunger, slaughter and shoot each other every day - but we will not get bogged down in the bourgeois swamp, we will reject the values ​​​​of Western democracy that do not suit our spirit, we will be proud of our incomparable spirituality, conciliarity, collectivism, we will go looking for the next world idea. I am convinced that this is the road to nowhere. In this sense, I can be considered a Westerner, although I have no antipathy towards the East and even by my education I am an orientalist.

Proceedings

• Asia and Africa are continents on the move. M., 1963 (together with L.V. Stepanov).
• Army and politics in Asian and African countries. M., 1970.
• Third world: society, government, army. M.. 1976.
• "Central Asia's Emergence", in Current History, 1992.
• “The ‘End of History’ and the Third World,” in Russia and the Third World in the Post-Soviet Era, University Press of Florida, 1994.
• "The Third World and Conflict Resolution", in Cooperative Security: Reducing Third World War, Syracuse University Press, 1995.
• "On Ruins of Empire", Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, 1997.
• Life in three eras. M., 2001.

Notes

Links

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
• Scientists by alphabet
• Born on May 27
• Born in 1926
• Doctor of Historical Sciences
• Born in Moscow
• Russian political scientists
• HSE teachers
• IMEMO staff

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Georgy Ilyich Mirsky (born May 27, 1926, Moscow) - Russian political scientist, chief researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Contents 1 Youth 2 Education ... Wikipedia

The famous historian believed that the Yeltsin regime was completely adequate to the moral level and condition of the people as a whole

An extremely interesting chapter “Yeltsin’s Russia” from the book of memoirs of the Soviet and Russian historian, orientalist-Arabist and political scientist Georgy Ilyich Mirsky (1926-2016) “Life in Three Epochs” was published in LJ by philologist Nikolai Podosokorsky. The main and, alas, the only conclusion that can be drawn after reading these lines is this: nothing is changing in Russia. Not for years, not for decades, but for centuries.

“I’m sitting at the Gorbachev Foundation, at a round table meeting on the problem of globalization. In the questionnaire distributed to all participants I read: “How can you characterize the current regime in Russia?” When it’s my turn to speak, I say: “You can call it whatever you want - oligarchy, nomenklatura capitalism, kleptocracy, and so on, all this will be true to one degree or another. Another thing is important: to understand that this regime, in general, is more or less adequate to the current state of our society, that the point is not in a few odious figures who are being attacked today, in many respects fair - Yeltsin, Gaidar, Chubais, Chernomyrdin - but in the fact that after the collapse of Soviet power, the economic heights in the state in any case would have been captured by precisely the people of the social category that we see now, which is in charge of us and is building a new system of relations of power and property.” Gorbachev is clearly unhappy and looks gloomy.

However, he is not vindictive; soon he invites me, on the advice of Anatoly Chernyaev, to his office so that I can give him a lecture about Jordan and Arab countries in general: he was invited by King Hussein to Amman, and when he was president he never visited Arab world. By the way, I never cease to be amazed at how good Gorbachev looks, despite everything he had to go through. They say this is because he is always either out of town or abroad. I think it's not just that. I remember what Alexander Yakovlev told me, answering my question: “What, in your opinion, is Gorbachev’s main drawback?” “He never admits to his mistakes, he will always find someone to blame. He did everything right, and if something was wrong, he was set up, let down.” Perhaps this is true. Happy man- He can sleep peacefully, his conscience is clear. God will be his judge, of course.

In my personal destiny, Gorbachev played a role like no other person in my entire life. Thanks to him, I traveled all over the world. As already mentioned, when abroad I always raise a glass to his health. By the way, one cannot help but give him credit for refusing to try to drown the opposition movement, including the national-separatist movement, in blood at the turn of the 80s and 90s. But he could have done it, and almost our entire establishment would have supported him. And in general, if he had not started his reforms, but had been content with power, without touching the basically bankrupt, but still quite viable system, he would still be sitting in the Kremlin.

Of course, Gorbachev and his team hate Yeltsin and see him as the root of evil - this is humanly understandable. But now I remember such a case. Once on a plane flying from New York to Moscow, my fellow traveler turned out to be a former junior researcher at our institute, who became a successful oil businessman: a good position in the largest American oil company, an apartment on Park Avenue, a chain of gas stations in Arkhangelsk region. We started talking.

It turns out that in the early 90s, when oil export quotas were being distributed, he received a license from a very high minister in Moscow to export fuel oil from one plant in Ukraine. He bought fuel oil for 70 rubles per ton and sold it abroad for 40 dollars. He quickly became a millionaire. I leave aside the question of the origin of the initial capital, which is necessary, among other things, to bribe both the Moscow minister and the Ukrainian director of the plant. This is always a dark question.

A well-known young capitalist in Moscow at one time, German Sterligov, owner of the Alisa company, in a conversation with me in Washington, said that initially someone lent him several hundred dollars; Let's leave it up to him.

So, the question arises: if the moral climate in the country at the decisive moment, when Soviet power was on its last legs, was such that members of the government, for huge, of course, bribes, were ready to hand out licenses to export oil (and this is exactly how the careers of many began of today's famous oligarchs), then what do Yeltsin and Gaidar have to do with it? And who else could take advantage of a unique situation, a fabulous opportunity to get rich almost in a matter of days, if not those people who were already ready in advance - both psychologically and in terms of financial resources - to start a business “on a big scale”?

It is possible to identify several categories of such people: firstly, this is part of the former party and state elite, people who initially had both the necessary connections “at the top” and access to party and Komsomol money; secondly, the former “shadow workers”, underground businessmen who created cooperatives under Gorbachev, this fundamental basis of future powerful semi-criminal structures; thirdly, educated and enterprising young people (the notorious “candidates of physical and mathematical sciences”), who suddenly discovered the talents of a businessman and most often joined the first two categories. This is how the “new Russians” appeared, whose elite consisted of those who are commonly called oligarchs. This is how financial empires arose. Could all this have been avoided if neither Yeltsin nor Gaidar had existed in the world? I doubt.

The collapse of Soviet power, the end of regional committees and the State Planning Committee created an economic vacuum, which was immediately filled by hustlers and swindlers brought up under the old system. They were the only ones who could float to the surface of economic life; the Soviet government simply did not prepare people of a different kind. There are, of course, exceptions; Among my acquaintances, for example, in the United States there are excellent young businessmen, highly decent and completely civilized people. But such people are in the minority, and they were largely formed under the influence of the American environment.

I admit that Gaidar’s reform, as well as Chubais’s privatization, were objectively carried out in such a way that, regardless of the intentions of their initiators, they contributed to the transfer of a significant part of the economy into the hands of new businessmen, who shamelessly and rapidly enriched themselves as a result of a “bond” with a thoroughly corrupt bureaucracy. Probably a lot could have been done differently, with much less damage to the population. But we must pose a fundamental question: where in this huge country could tens of thousands of honest, conscientious, competent officials, administrators, and directors of enterprises come from, capable of resisting the temptation of easy and unpunished criminal enrichment, this terrible temptation of corruption in conditions of inflation and a precipitous decline in living standards? Anyone who is able to imagine a typical psychological image of a Soviet official can easily answer this question: there could only be a small percentage of such people.

And no matter what course the president pursues, no matter what fair and formidable decrees he issues - in the vast expanses of Russia, all this would disappear into the sand, remain on paper; after all real life goes there, in the outback, where literally everywhere everything is done and everything is run by people of the same old Soviet formation. Those who believe that it is all down to Yeltsin's ill-fated team would do well to look at what is happening in other former Soviet republics.

Neither in Ukraine, nor in the states of Transcaucasia and Central Asia there is no Yeltsin, no Gaidar and Chubais, but who can argue that there is less corruption, abuse, mismanagement there than in Russia? Quite the contrary. Moreover, even, for example, in Lithuania, where I visited not so long ago, in a country of a different, European civilization, I heard the same complaints: they steal, take bribes, engage in unscrupulous fraud...

The Baltic countries, in terms of their genotype, could probably live about the same as their Scandinavian neighbors. But let’s not forget half a century of Soviet power. But in Russia this power existed not for fifty, but for seventy years - why be surprised? Yeltsin, Zyuganov, Yavlinsky - who cares, no one could prevent or reverse the process that began with Gorbachev’s perestroika, the process of promoting and elevating a very specific type of people, the only type that was ready and capable of seizing the levers of the economy in the conditions the transition from the “socialist system” to capitalism, if we can call what we have capitalism - and again, the collapsed Soviet society could not give birth to any other type of capitalism from its ruins.

Does this mean that there was no alternative to the “Yeltsin system” at all? No, I already wrote that I do not believe in the “iron determinism” of events. There was an alternative, but what? Let's go back to " subjunctive mood" If Yeltsin had died at the very beginning of 1992, his place would have been taken by then Vice President Rutskoi. Knowing his character and his behavior in 1993, we can assume that nothing good would have happened. Let us remember that at that moment the “battle of sovereignties” was unfolding, Tatarstan was on the verge of declaring independence, Chechnya had already separated, separatist sentiments were also rising in the Russian regions of the federation - in the Urals, in Siberia. It is unknown whether Rutskoi would have been able to preserve the integrity of Russia - after all, he did not have Yeltsin’s authority, won in 1991, and in general does not have what Yeltsin was fully endowed with by nature: merciless will, courage and determination, that inner “iron” ”, which in English is called guts - “insides”.

Yeltsin knew how to instill fear in obstinate regional leaders and at the same time, if necessary, come to an agreement, a compromise; the same Tatarstan - best example. I was in Kazan in 1992 and I remember what kind of campaign the supporters of independence launched then. Yeltsin and Shaimiev managed, by balancing on a wire, to prevent a rupture that would have had irreparable, fatal consequences for Russia (it would have been much worse than Chechnya; one has only to imagine what would have happened if Moscow politicians, obeying their “sovereign instinct,” refused to recognize the results of the Tatarstan referendum, and many were inclined to do so, even talking about the possibility of establishing an alternative structure for governing the republic, not subject to Shaimiev). Shaimiev, with the support of Yeltsin, was then able to stop at the line designated by the term “sovereignty”, without reaching “independence”.

I doubt that Rutskoi will be able to resist the Moscow “hawks” and reach an agreement with Kazan. The integrity of Russia would be under threat. And even if Rutskoi had not managed to stay in power - which is quite possible - which of the politicians of that time had sufficient authority and willpower to radically stop both the centrifugal tendencies and the ambitious endeavors of the leaders of the Supreme Council, to generally restrain those various disagreements between themselves, but stormy, essentially destructive political forces, which, having suddenly become emboldened after the collapse of Soviet power, have already begun to drag the country into different sides? After all, the communists, who had recovered from their fright, were already raising their heads again, the chauvinistic proto-Nazi groups were beginning to make themselves known more and more loudly - in other words, that “red-brown” opposition had already begun to form, which Yeltsin was able to suppress with tanks firing at White House, only in the fall of next year.

And all this happened in an atmosphere of complete confusion and disorientation of society. A truly powerful will was required in order to maintain a single state power, and only Yeltsin had such a will.

If we talk about economic reforms, then - I repeat - they could have been carried out if there had been neither Yeltsin, nor Gaidar and Chubais, in a different manner, more softly and smoothly, without the convulsions of “shock therapy” (by the way, economists are still arguing whether there was whether this “shock therapy” was actually applied or not; the fact that the population suffered terribly is a fact, but how exactly it was necessary to create a new type of economy in the transition period - there was no single convincing opinion).

For me personally, two things are clear: firstly, in any case, it was still necessary to look for new ways economic development, reforms were inevitable to replace the Soviet type of economy with something else, and, secondly, no one except the same entrepreneurs " new formation"(shameless, greedy, corrupt) was not "at hand" as the building material of a new economic system based on private initiative.

This is the essence of the matter: after the collapse of the state, planned, command-administrative system, only an alternative system could be formed, built on the primacy of private entrepreneurship. But there was simply no other type of modern Nepman, a representative of the elements of nascent capitalism, other than those who emerged from the Brezhnev and Gorbachev overcoats. And therefore, an alternative to the Yeltsin system could only be in particulars, in details, methods, pace, and not in the main direction. No matter who sits in the Kremlin, swindlers and corrupt officials would still fill the post-Soviet economic space.

It cannot be denied that Yeltsin, regardless of his views, wishes and intentions, gave the green light to corrupt elements and turned a blind eye to rampant theft; this became a black, indelible stain on the entire reign of “Tsar Boris,” just like the war in Chechnya. Did he know about everything? It's not that significant. I think that I knew a lot, guessed about something, deliberately preferred not to go into details, and brushed aside unpleasant information. He was busy with political confrontations, fought, combined, built ingenious and clumsy structures to support his power, looked for forces that would help maintain his popularity, which was steadily falling after Gaidar’s reforms, and when he was convinced - “it is necessary to give customs benefits to such influential elements of society as church, athletes, Afghan veterans,” he agreed, perhaps not wanting to even think about what this would lead to.

They say that all corruption comes from above, that people in the lower echelons of power, understanding what was going on in Moscow, felt their impunity. "The fish rots from the head". But only dead fish rot, not living ones. And Russia, after liberation from Soviet power, resembled anything but a dead fish. What an instant rise in human initiative, suppressed and frozen for decades, what a surge of entrepreneurship, what a flourishing of commerce, the service sector, construction, and the free press! Millions of people felt an entrepreneurial spirit in themselves, rushed into business, and rushed “shuttles” abroad. How many different offices have appeared on the streets of Moscow, what rapid housing construction has unfolded - and not only in the Moscow region, I was recently in Nizhny Novgorod, there is the same picture. And the insane abundance of cars? After all, most of them are not luxury limousines of oligarchs, but “Zhiguli” and “Muscovites” of people who make up that middle class, which is sometimes said to not exist in Russia at all, only, they say, a handful of millionaires and impoverished masses. No, it exists, and its vitality, dynamism, ability to survive, pivot, adapt, earn money by hook or by crook - this is a truly amazing phenomenon.

Foreigners are amazed: “We thought that the Soviet government had eradicated all initiative from the Russians, killed all entrepreneurial skills, people had become passive robots, capable only of reacting to impulses coming from above - and now, just think about the scope of the newborn business, how the Russians scattered across all over the world, instantly found their bearings, got involved in international business operations, and show such ingenuity and resourcefulness that you’re amazed!”

And the whole point is that abroad they didn’t know one simple thing: already in Brezhnev’s times, many energetic and enterprising people mastered the art of finding semi-legal ways to increase their income, using connections, cronyism, circumventing laws, maneuvering on the brink of crime, obtaining scarce goods. goods, to somehow earn extra money or trade, to grope for the spheres of action of the “shadow economy” - in a word, “if you want to live, know how to move around.”

All these skills, completely unfamiliar to foreigners who are accustomed to living within the framework of the law, in a normal society - how useful they were at this turning point, when all the barriers and slingshots, all the formal clamps and hoops that fettered personal initiative, flew away, when they opened up - for the first time in life! - new, breathtaking opportunities, when the motto became: “strike while the iron is hot”, “grab what you can, every man for himself.” But the psychology remained the same, the Soviet mentality - “if the authorities don’t see it, do what you want.” Public morality, a sense of duty, civic responsibility, respect for the law, religious norms - where did all this come from? All this was long ago erased, discarded, trampled. And Homo Soveticus, in the conditions of the emerging “wild capitalism,” showed himself exactly the way, and only the way he should have shown himself, being ideally prepared for such a situation.

So the fish is alive, and it does not rot from the head. Life abounds. And that rampant corruption, lawlessness, and immorality, which is so noticeable in the capital, exactly reproduces - only on an incomparably larger scale - everything that is happening in the provinces. The ugliness comes from below just as much as from above. The Yeltsin regime was completely adequate to the moral level and state of the people as a whole - such an unpleasant thing, but - alas! is an indisputable fact. Therefore, capitalism, which began to emerge, could not be anything other than quasi-capitalism - ugly, criminal, thieves and speculative. No less important is that this is not only the capitalism of businessmen who rob the state and bribe officials, but also state capitalism, bureaucratic capitalism. Officials steal the country's wealth and contribute to its degradation no less than businessmen.

As ancient as Russia itself, the dominance of bosses of all ranks, officials with their callousness and self-interest, incompetence and stupidity, with their permanent desire to evade responsibility, with clerical contempt for people, an ineradicable tendency to arbitrariness, to show off and eternal lies - in short, everything that was described a thousand times in Russian literature of the nineteenth century - all this weighs on Russia with a terrible, deadening burden. How can “normal” productive capitalism develop here? And is it any wonder that our business began to take shape as a financial-speculative one, rather than a production one?

When I asked the young businessman German Sterligov, whom I have already mentioned, why he does not invest money in industry, he replied: “I recently decided to build cement factory, but when I calculated how many problems there would be with raw materials and equipment, with sales of products, with officials at all levels, I decided to abandon this idea.” Yes, it is easier and more profitable to engage in financial and export-import operations or show business. And then, overnight, Moscow became a city of bankers and brokers (although after the default of 1998, their number decreased), a city of services and entertainment for the rich; I heard that in 1998 there were about fifty casinos in the capital.

What about industry (with the exception of oil and gas)? And our unfortunate Agriculture, especially cattle breeding - an industry that seems to be dying out just as the cattle themselves are dying? Who needs it? How much money can you make from this? And everything is measured in “bucks” today; The dollar became king. System public education... It becomes disgusting when they say that in the most prestigious Moscow universities, teachers, for example, in English They directly tell poorly performing students that they can count on a good grade only if they, the same teachers, take private lessons - $50 per hour. On the other hand, they pay, they take these dollars from somewhere. Where? An eternal mystery of our country. What earnings were used to buy these two million private cars in Moscow? How much money do girls in Moscow universities use to dress like this: after all, compared to them, American students are just runts...

But the system exists. She's holding on. No riots, no signs of popular unrest, the strikes were long forgotten. If you look on TV at what is happening in many other capitals of the world, you will be overcome with horror: the police with batons, fire cannons and tear gases disperses the raging crowds of demonstrators. And we, thank God, have nothing similar, except maybe football fans are being beaten at the stadium.

Calm country. Everyone is grumbling, no one is indignant or protesting, everyone goes to the polls, listens to reports about high presidential ratings... Why such passivity from a seemingly rebellious people, rebellious in spirit? When the stratification of society began and part of it began to quickly become rich, in principle two types of reaction were possible. The first (Soviet, but having much more ancient roots in Russia than Bolshevism): “a neighbor bought a Mercedes and is building a villa for himself - such bourgeois must be killed!” Second: “if this bastard was able to earn such money, then why am I worse than him?”

Fortunately for Russia, the majority of young people preferred the second type of reaction, otherwise we would have had Civil War. Namely, we can talk about young people, because the old generation, pensioners, veterans, the unemployed, the poor, who were unable to find a niche for themselves in the new society - they all have neither sufficient energy nor organization. Young people have chosen a career, business.

When I give lectures in America, the audience sometimes cannot understand whether I am an optimist or a pessimist about the future of Russia. “I’m an optimist,” I answer, “because I don’t believe in catastrophic scenarios. I don’t believe that Russia will fall apart or that there will be a civil war or a fascist dictatorship. For fascism, Nazism, millions of young people are needed who are ready to die and kill in the name of an idea; they need the Hitler Youth or the Komsomol of the twenties. Where do we have these millions, where is the idea for which they are ready to fight to the death?

Communism, fascism, democracy, great Mother Russia? Perhaps the latter, Russian patriotism, and then only if it is shown on TV that Russians are being killed on the streets in one of the former Soviet republics. But the signs of this are not noticeable, and therefore the Russian youth cannot be captivated by any grandiose idea, they will no longer follow any great leader, the times of ideological enthusiasm and sacrifice are over, for Russia this is the past.”