The Crimean spring is upon us once more, and Russians see themselves as the most innocent people on earth; their consciences unsullied. Russians believe that all through their country’s history they have always been the victims – a martyr people, a suffering people, an icon-bearing people.
In their imaginations, Russia is surrounded by predatory and despicable peoples to whom they open their hearts, and are bitten and insulted in return. Their list of grievances against their neighbours is endless. These neighbours are in debt to Russia for access to its “great culture”, for Yuri Gagarin, for the Russian mystique. Russians, on the other hand, don’t owe their neighbours a kopeck. And so, should the need arise, Russians will happily strike back, because they feel slighted by everyone.
A reconciliation with the past…
Guilt is an unpleasant thing. It is hard to live with. The Germans, for example, stubbornly resisted it for a long time. As historian and theoretician Aleida Assman writes in ‘The New Discontent with Memorial Culture’, recently published in Russian, it was easier for Germans to invent excuses, however flimsy, for their actions, than to admit to their being just wrong.
