The Russian Tradition
by Tibor Szamuely
He was a Hungarian naturalised British historian in the late 70s when I was at university. His view of history was quite fashionable at that time and it has stayed with me. Specifically, his view of Russian history. It’s a rather conservative, right-wing view that says Russia can never be a Western-style democracy or market economy in the way that we know it because of her imbibed tradition of non-freedom and non-democracy.
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“He was a Hungarian naturalised British historian in the late 70s when I was at university. His view of history was quite fashionable at that time and has stayed with me. Specifically, his view of Russian history. It’s a rather conservative, right-wing view that says Russia can never be a Western-style democracy or market economy in the way that we know it because of her imbibed tradition of non-freedom and non-democracy. It’s close to the view of Richard Pipes and other US historians, but I can’t say that I completely agree with it.” Read more...
The best books on Why Russia isn’t a Democracy
Martin Sixsmith, Foreign Correspondent
