Posted on 12/11/2018 7:38:04 AM PST by Borges
“Or, maybe, I appreciate the best of Solzhenitsyn better than Putin does.....”
Yes, that’s probably it. lol
yup, you got that right.... except for the lol.
“But Putin was not just some minor “card carrying” clerk in the KGB”
Actually, yeah, that’s exactly what he was.
“After training in 1975, he worked in the Second Chief Directorate (counter-intelligence), before he was transferred to the First Chief Directorate, where he monitored foreigners and consular officials in Leningrad. From 1985 to 1990, he served in Dresden, East Germany,using a cover identity as a translator. Masha Gessen, a Russian-American who has authored a biography about Putin claims, “Putin and his colleagues were reduced mainly to collecting press clippings, thus contributing to the mountains of useless information produced by the KGB.
His assignments were St Petersburg and Dresden, all post 1975. Not exactly on the bleeding edge.
He said you could talk to the East Germans, but the Soviets were very stand-offish.
Wow, you have Wikipedia, too!
I suppose someone could debate indefinitely whether a major in the KGB considered reliable to oversee anti-dissident operations is a “minor” clerk or not. I did not say he was the head of the KGB. I happen to think the fact that he was a rising star in the pre-1991 KGB says plenty about him.
No, probably not, and that's why Putin had a chance at taking power. As mentioned, in the total deep-space vacuum that was Soviet society and politics, no other political training existed.
The closest analogy I can give is - Donald Trump and America's deep state. Donald Trump has proven how very difficult it is in America to achieve top political power if you are NOT a member of the uniparty or deep-state. Now multiply that deep-state power by 10X, and you begin to approximate the former power of the KGB in their society.
Its ironic, isn't it, that the biggest threat to Trump was lead by America's own intelligence and secret-police - in the form of Brennan, Comey and Clapper?
Solzhenitsyn criticized Putin and Russia exactly how I criticize the American deep state - they seek to centralize power in the center. Like a basic conservative/libertarian here - Solzhenitsyn understood a moral, stable and peaceful society had dispersed power, in local governments, closer to the people.
Anyone infatuated with collectivism needs to read Solzhenitsyn.
On the other hand, he did advocate for a very heavy government hand. Just not socialistic.
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