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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

The Old Guard

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

“It was the Old Guard that Napoleon called upon in crucial moments to win a battle. And as a rule he was not mistaken,” Gennady Kulik, former Agricultural Minister of the Soviet Russian Federation and now newly appointed Vice Premier of the Russia’s Government began a conversation with me.

I have nothing against Mr. Kulik. A pleasant man: sociable, ironic, even seems to be realistic. His characterization of the process of forming the Primakov government alone speaks volumes. We used to have a situation like that in Ukraine when Vitaly Masol, former Head of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, was elected Premier of independent Ukraine. Once again: what bad can one say about him? He is not to blame that times and the economy have changed.

The folks now occupying top offices of the young reformers in Russia’s White House are also trying their best. They are convinced that the experience of heading Gosplan and Gosagroprom will help them to find right solutions. They cannot even imagine this will only hamper them. The same applies to those advising Primakov these days. Just look at those names well-known from the papers of Gorbachev era: Volsky, Abalkin, Petrakov. They already had a chance, and the chance was a good one. Why did they do nothing then? Why are they so candidly sure that Gaidar along with Chubais are guilty of everything? As if we did not live through the times of Ryzhkov or Pavlov?

The Old Guard has forgotten nothing and learned nothing. The ministers who were used to immediate obedience to their orders now are governing a country where nobody cares who orders what. The same academicians who wrote textbooks on the political economy of socialism are now explaining how to overcome the consequences of supposedly capitalistic reforms. Is this the Old Guard on which Napoleon relied in battle until it all came to an end at Waterloo?

 

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