Russian Political Culture

Russia is a land of contradictions. It is a modern superpower, capable of challenging the military might of the United States. Yet, it is also a country in which citizens routinely stand in long lines to buy milk, meat, and potatoes, and where items such as fresh fruit, toilet paper, and typewriters are in chronic short supply. Soviet youth today wear Levis purchased on the black market and listen to the latest Western rock music, yet their attitudes and values are not Western. There is a mysticism, a fatalism, an attachment to the Russian soil that transcends simple patriotism. As one citizen remarked, “My parents and grandparents—like me—were born out of this black Russian soil. And when they died, they returned to the soil. This is my place, this is where I belong.”1