Gordeyeva and Russian emigrants: Brave Sir Robins?

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova, Acting Editor-in-Chief – July 8, 2013) Journalist Katerina Gordeyeva’s recent Colta.ru essay, “The impossibility of an island,” has caused quite a stir among Russian intellectuals.

In the essay, Gordeyeva spoke about letting go of the illusion that Russia’s progressive middle class can live on its own special island, separate from reality. She urged said progressive middle class to let go of hope, and consider leaving Russia in light of the ongoing crackdown on the protest movement and so on.

It’s hard to find a measured, unemotional response to Gordeyeva right now: people are either singing praises or slamming her at the moment.

Perhaps the most disingenuous argument against Gordeyeva is that she is a Brave Sir Robin type, as featured in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

“When danger reared its ugly head he bravely turned his tail and fled,” the song in the movie goes.

I personally think that Gordeyeva was being truly courageous, especially in admitting the fact that so-called “island living” is a real phenomenon. Members of the ruling party have gleefully bashed the urban protest movement for not being representative of the majority of the Russian society – but I see no contradiction here. The fact the middle class is not representative actually proves the protesters’ point, even if many of them fail to see that.

Furthermore, the most hurtful and damning action that a middle class progressive can undertake in Russia today is to leave the country. When gifted, well-traveled and idealistic citizens decide to up-anchor – any government will ultimately lose out.

Coincidentally (or not), there is now a hilarious video out there of grandmothers in the Krasnodar region who are urging the Russian State Duma to throw out “anti-Soviet” (Freudian slip or not, the grandmothers have never left the Soviet Union and are comfortable there) opposition leaders. These grandmothers may not read Colta.ru, but they would surely shine Gordeyeva on if given half the chance.

It’s not necessarily that the grandmothers are evil barbarians; it’s just that their reality is, in fact, different. They remember when things were worse. They know that any new political crisis will hit them the hardest. What they fail to grasp (aside from what century we are all living in) is that a real exodus will cause a crisis either way – and harm the government they profess to be loyal to.