Fascinating chapter in the book...

"The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia" (Orlando Figes)
...concerning the mood in Russia in the 1930s as the awareness began to grow of something awful happening "now", and yet being masked in peoples' consciences by the prospect of the future, the "yet to come". The promise of future glory would appear to be used by those who encourage suicide bombers or exclusive sects - more or less anything can be justified in terms of the future benefit for the many. The Soviet regime under Stalin was undertaking change on an unprecedented scale - communal living to remove bourgeois family protectionism for example, and the promise of the golden future just around the corner satisfies, for a time at least, the cravings of the poor for change. The capacity for living with terrible conditions for delayed gratification is amazing.
I was going to try to make some comment drawing a parallel with our own struggles; living in the "now" and yet trying to be part of the "not yet", and the need to be sure that we are doing this in the right way and for the right reasons, but just at the moment I feel that anything I could add would feel inappropriate when based on the real sufferings and stories of people. I therefore leave this post simply in tribute to the human spirit and capacity for living through and coping with terrible conditions.





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