Russian Democracy: A Missed Opportunity
In discussing the reaction abroad to Barack Obama’s election, the ambassador described how Russian newspapers had "generally played down” the Obama victory. As she explained, the Obama victory "got in the way of the establishment line: that the corrupt American democracy is composed of two warring family machines (Bush and Clinton) that have the system wired and controlled...” According to the ambassador, the Russians see us as a "pretend” democracy, a "hypocritical” one, which "helps the Russians rationalize and excuse their infirm hold on democratic ways and manners.”
Ms. Noonan’s Journal piece brought to mind a March 1991 encounter with official Russia’s first faltering steps toward democracy... an encounter which placed me, at least temporarily, at the nexus of Russia’s democratic aspirations.
Early in the post-Glasnost, post-Perestroika era in Russia, when friendly visits by groups of Americans were still viewed with some suspicion, I was asked by the president of the National Republican County Officials Association to arrange an official visit for a group of forty of fifty county officials. Their purpose was entirely altruistic; they wanted to be of assistance to the emerging Russian democracy in any way they could. I made the request through proper channels and on February 19, 1991, the Moscow City Council (Mossovet) issued a formal invitation.
A month later, while on a business trip to Moscow, I was unexpectedly summoned to Moscow City Hall; the Mossovet wanted more details regarding the purpose of the trip by the Republican county officials. Upon arriving at City Hall, my interpreter and I were ushered into an ornate hall, an immense room, where we found a committee of people’s deputies seated on one side of a long conference table. The Russians were led by Mr. Sergei Trube, the Deputy Mayor of Moscow, and Mr. Anatoli Shulgin, head of the Association of Russian Cities.
Mr. Trube extended an official welcome, to which I responded with words of appreciation for the hospitality we’d been shown. I then explained that the purpose of the visit by the American county officials was to learn what problems were being encountered by local and provincial officials as they made the difficult transition from a planned economy to a market economy, and from state socialism to a representative democracy. I assured the Russians that the county officials wished only to be of assistance, to the extent that they would be permitted to do so.
The Russians smiled and nodded their assent. Trube then explained that he and his fellow deputies, like all local and provincial officials throughout Russia, understood that democratic institutions could not be dictated from the top... by the Kremlin. They understood that Russian democracy had to grow and flourish from the bottom up, as it had in America.
He then proceeded to outline a program of US-Russian cooperation, suggesting that our two countries adopt an ongoing program wherein forty or fifty local officials from the U.S. would travel to Russia each year. And after a one or two day orientation session in Moscow with their Russian counterparts, the Americans would spread out across the country, in groups of two or three, to live and work with their Russian counterparts for several days... learning the kinds of problems the Russians encountered on a daily basis and how they attempted to deal with them.
As the Russians visualized the process, all of the participants would then reassemble in Moscow, during which time they would share what they had learned. Then, six months later, the Russians would bring a delegation of similar size and composition to the US and the process would be repeated. The entire process would be repeated on an annual basis.
Then Trube dropped a bombshell. He said, "You must understand. The entire responsibility for bringing democracy to the Russian people rests on our shoulders... the shoulders of local and provincial officials. We get no help, no advice, from the Kremlin. They know nothing. The only way that Russia can ever become a successful democracy is through a program such as I have described. You must help us. Can you do this?”
No one had to explain to me that a committee of people’s deputies, representatives of local and provincial government throughout the Russian Federation, had just placed the entire future of Russian democracy on the table before me. I was stunned with the enormity of the moment.
When I had collected my thoughts, I responded, "Mr. Trube, everything you say is true, and the program you’ve outlined is most desirable. But you must understand... I appear before you without portfolio. I am not authorized to speak for my government.”
However, understanding the significance of what was being proposed, I could not allow the opportunity to pass. I said, "But I can speak for myself, and yes, I assure you that I can do what you suggest. I will begin to make arrangements upon my return to the states, but there are many people whose cooperation we must have. I would suggest that you be prepared to come soon with a small delegation so that we can obtain the agreement of all the necessary people.”
The Russians agreed to an August 16 arrival date and upon my return to the states I arranged meetings at the White House, the State Department, the Republican and Democratic National Committees, the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Association of County Officials, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
In preparation for the visit by the Trube delegation, I was joined at my home in eastern Oklahoma by Herman Pirchner, President of the American Foreign Policy Council, and by our Russian partner, geophysicist Vladimir Svirski. (Because of his long support for free market reforms, Svirski had previously been assigned to map mineral resources in western Siberia. However, by 1991, Svirski headed the Center for Science, Technology, and Social Initiative (CNDC), Russia’s largest business conglomerate, comprised of some 5,000 individual companies with 1.5 million employees.)
However, immediately upon their arrival in San Francisco, where they planned to rest for a day before traveling on to Washington, the Trube delegation was ordered back to Moscow and instructed not to speak to any Americans. We had no idea why our plans had been so suddenly and inexplicably obstructed, but late that evening TV news bulletins gave us the reason: hard line Communists in Russia had staged a coup d’état.
President Mikhail Gorbachev was under house arrest at his dacha on the Black Sea, and across Russia the KGB was rounding up and arresting the twenty most wanted men in Russia... the top leaders of the pro-democracy, pro-free market movement. My house guest, Vladimir Svirski, was on that list. Fortunately, the coup was short-lived and within three days Mikhail Gorbachev and his family were set free.
The Russians knew, instinctively, what they had to do. Unfortunately, our well-conceived effort to plant the seeds of democracy and the free market in Russian soil was brought to a sudden and tragic end. The plan for an on-going people-to-people exchange of state and local government officials was never revived and Russian democracy missed what was perhaps its best chance for success.
History is most often made by large cataclysmic events, but the tides of history are also turned by small, seemingly insignificant, twists of fate... tales that the history books will never record. |
