GIP EVENT: New World, Old Russia

On Monday February 25th, the Poly community was fortunate enough to host Robert English, a adjunct professor at USC who specializes in Russia, the former USSR, and Eastern Europe, discussing topics as broad as general issues of regional relations to specific questions of ethnicity, identity, and nationalism. 

Going into the event, I was a bit fearful that I would fall behind in the conversation simply because my knowledge of Russia's role in international relations was not at the same level as Ian Kim's, my fellow GIP Scholar who was in charge of the event, and also at the same level as Robert English. However, both Ian and Dr. English were not only proficient at providing context for some of the most complex topics about Russia, but they also both were able to facilitate productive and comprehensive conversations with the audience during the Question and Answer session that followed the event.

During the event however, Ian and Dr. English revealed new perspectives on topics ranging from the agenda of Vladimir Putin to the resentment of American intervention in Russia. Generally when we think of Putin we envision a tyrannical authoritarian leader who is both anti-western and anti-American because of some inherent evil tendency. However, Dr. English made it clear that Putin's resentment of the United States came from his experience as a KGB agent in his youth. His praise from his Russian citizens came not from his authoritarian rule but rather his rise to power during a time of a great economic depression worse than our own. This depression, estimated to have destroyed half of Russia's economy over a span of ten years, acted as a catalyst for mass starvation, death, disease, and many other catastrophes. This sentiment has carried on from the generation greatly affected by the economic depression and still exists in both the common opinion and in the media.

Once Dr. English contextualized Russia, I saw the human aspect in Russia as a country. I understood that just how we have strong sentiments about our own socioeconomic turmoils, foreign countries also express those same emotions. Even so, Russia is a country that has experienced greater suffering than the US itself. But through this great suffering, there is a silver lining of those who yearn for connection to the US. Within the Russian people, there is a yearning for great respect towards Russia as a super power in the world and a yearning for "person-to-person diplomacy" as Dr. English phrased this sentiment. Russia wants to 

re-humanize Russia from its time in the Cold War so that one day it could be understood as a legitimate contributor to world affairs despite its troubled past.