The extraordinary protests that followed Russia’s Dec. 4
parliamentary elections continue to resound. Still more
extraordinarily, the Kremlin refrained from using armed force to
put down the massive demonstrations that took place across the
country, a week after the disputed vote. And yet no one can be
sure whether these events are signs of deeper change. In the
run-up to the balloting, former Soviet president Mikhail
Gorbachev emphasized the challenges facing Russia when he
publicly accused the Kremlin of reverting to its old
authoritarian habits and predicted that the contest would be
rigged (charges that the government quickly denied). A long and
brutal past remains very much a living force in present-day
Russia. The ruling elite are the products of centuries of
history, of personal and collective ordeals, of indoctrination,
and of the psychological ability to survive those ordeals and
accept that indoctrination. Chekhov wrote of Russia’s “heavy,
chilling history, savagery, bureaucracy, poverty and ignoran