PROPERTY AND FREEDOM

Unmanageable Democracy After Yukos
By Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Msocow Times 29/12/04
Dec 29, 2004, 09:04

The events surrounding Yukos had a direct relationship to state power. What will happen to state power after Yukos is an extremely important question.

It has long been said that every nation gets the government it deserves. I would like to add that every government is the reflection of its people's conception of the nature of power. Thus, we can argue that whether in Britain, Saudi Arabia or Zimbabwe, power everywhere belongs to the people. The traditional concepts of power are the foundation of any government's stability. That is why it is just as absurd to talk about the Western-style "democratization" of certain Arab monarchies as it is to talk about the restoration of medieval absolute monarchy in today's Denmark.

Russian political traditions are in many ways syncretic. Russia has always stood at the edge of various civilizations, yet it is predominantly European. For this reason, European political institutions, which assume a division of powers, are absolutely natural for Russia.

However, we cannot ignore the other side of the coin. The Russian people are used to relating to the government as a higher power granting them hope and faith. This power cannot be put to work, as it would then cease to be a higher power. As Russian history demonstrates, the loss of this unique, irrational worship of the state unavoidably and invariably leads our country to chaos, revolt and revolution.

We must be careful not to confuse "power" with "administration." Officials administer and are not sacred cows. Bureaucrats are mere mortals obliged to take responsibility for all the problems and protocols.

The destruction of Yukos shows that the bureaucrats who have now been set in motion are not ruled by the interests of the state as an eternal, and therefore all-powerful, phenomenon. They simply believe that the state machine exists to serve their own interests and that all its other functions should be temporarily -- or perhaps permanently -- cast aside as superfluous. They do not have the least bit of respect for the state, which they only see as a means of achieving their personal ends.

This is why the Yukos affair is not a conflict between business and state, but a politically and commercially motivated attack launched by one business, represented by officials, against another. The state has fallen hostage to the interests of particular individuals who happen to have authority as civil servants.

Following this logic, officials have resolved to destroy the division of powers in the government. The model they are armed with assumes that politicians should be put on a par with state officials and that all politics should be reduced to career moves in the narrow framework of a bureaucratic corporation.

Why are they doing this? To mobilize the nation and lead it to new historical achievements? No one closely tied to the Kremlin who believes what it says would agree with this goal. In private conversation behind closed doors, officials say just the opposite, that if the division of powers is eliminated, it will be easier for bureaucrats to gather up the country's money and divide it according to their own notions, without looking twice at the needs and interests of others. That, plain and simple, is why.

Another question is whether this new system will operate efficiently and whether it will allow its architects to accomplish their much-coveted goal. The answer is no. As a result of this attempt at "increased manageability," Russia may become completely unmanageable.

Why? Because there are age-old laws governing how complex systems function and rules governing state power.

Power always assumes that the rulers and the ruled have a common motivation. This motivation can vary, ranging from building communism to a general and banal desire for wealth. Yet it must exist and be genuinely shared by all.

The dull and vapid officials living according to the principle of "Mine! Mine! Mine!" have no concept of such motivations. In fact, they cannot grasp why they must exist at all. This is precisely why they are consistently destroying everything that might allow Russians to realize themselves: free elections, market competition and the right to speak freely and openly.

No true patriots will give their lives for a bunch of bureaucrats who are only interested in their incomes. No true poets will praise them in verse. No true academics will strive to make more discoveries in an environment where no one cares at all about genius.

Very soon, the natural counterpart of this all-consuming bureaucracy will appear, the enraged and shapeless mob. The mob will take to the streets saying, "You promised bread and a circus! Now where are they?!" And they will not be placated by officials ironically waving a stack of old office documents under their noses. Russia will then see unmanaged democracy with all its innumerable tragedies and woes. This is what we should be striving to avoid.

Of course, I would like to participate in making Russia free and prosperous. But I am willing to wait if the authorities decide to leave me in jail.

As a common post-Soviet prisoner, I pity the greedy people who acted so rudely and senselessly toward the tens of thousands of Yukos shareholders. Before them lie years spent in fear of the next generation of people eager to take away and divide up their riches and in fear of true justice, not the false justice of the Basmanny district court. Only a few extremely naive viewers of state-controlled Channel One still think that everything happened in the interest of the nation.

I feel even more pity for those in power who honestly believe that they have done something good for their country and their people. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The logic of history shows that farther on down this road they will be forced to admit that repressive politics, the redivision of property by force to serve the interests of particular cliques and the task of creating a modern economy cannot be combined. They will not succeed in limiting this machine to just me, Yukos or the oligarchs. There will be many other victims, including the very people who created this machine.

My persecutors know all too well that there is not a single piece of evidence of my guilt in their legal case against me, but that's no obstacle. They will find other accusations and charge, for example, that I burned down Moscow's Manezh or planned an economic coup. They have conveyed one very important point: They want me locked up as far away as possible for at least five years because they fear I will take revenge.

These simpletons are judging everyone else according to their own experience. Relax: I have no intention of becoming the next Count of Monte Cristo. Breathing fresh spring air, playing with my children who will go to regular Moscow schools and reading good books all seem far more important, right and pleasant than dividing up property or settling scores with my own past.

I thank God that in contrast to my persecutors I have understood that earning more money is not the only -- and certainly not the most important -- point of human endeavor.

For me, the time of big money is now in the past. Now, freed from the burdens of the past, I hope to work for the good of the coming generations that will soon inherit our country, the generations that will bring with them new values and new hopes.

(The Moscow Times, 12.29.2004)
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I guess this translation is a bit better. The beggining is missing :-/