October 24, 2008

Reinventing Russia

For better or for worse Russian history plays out over an extraordinarily long scale. And, with all due respect, it's probably fair to say that Russian society has not yet made it into modern times, existing, as it were, in a kind of parallel world. One with great flashes of innocence and genius. More's the pity, then, that America so poorly understands Russia and, particularly, seems overly disposed to thinking that it is the enemy. To try to put things into a better perspective and fill in some of the blanks I turned to E. Wayne Merry, one of the most perceptive U.S. experts around. It was very kind of Wayne to take the time. Total runtime an hour and twenty seven minutes. Enjoy!