General Meeting: February 2024

Catherine McAteer is a serious researcher in all things Russian and gave us a quite in depth explanation of why it is as it is.  Her talk opened in fluent Russian, which she explained was a language for most of Eastern Europe – not just the current Russia (the Baltic states and Ukraine, etc.).

Churchill had described Russia as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Like a Russian Doll it has many layers, difficult to understand who the Russian people are. Their leaders forged the nation. Catherine repeatedly said the people liked “strong leaders” and gave us a whole list of leaders (whether strong or weak).

Tsar means Ceasar (He took out his rivals). The Tsars even took out their heirs. Ivan the terrible – well named. Peter the Great loved European / French style – he took many ideas back to Russia, but he was seen as weak. Even Lenin was not thought of as “strong” unlike Joseph Stalin (who we would say was a bit nasty?).

The Leaders have taken ideas from Europe but in their own way. Housing developments tended to be much smaller than those it copied (minimal gardens). To do it Russian style - not like the Europeans (but the people still crave blue jeans). The ordinary people put up with food shortages / black markets/ etc. but they are very hospitable. Catherine said they would blow their month's salary to feed their guest.

Lots of people still get ill, but still have a very stoic acceptance of their situation and reluctant to question authority. So much more could be written from this talk.

Eric Rennie