Russians: The People behind the Power

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For Mama

Outside the Kremlin, August 19, 1991. (Igor Tabakov)

When I returned to Moscow the following year—here at the Kievskaya train station—during the first heady days of post-communism, the government was staving off economic collapse. (Adam Goodheart)

1 The Hidden Russia

One of the characteristic operative features of [Muscovite political culture] is, whether one is dealing with the sixteenth century or with the twentieth, the rule “Iz izby soru ne vynesi” (literally, “Do not carry rubbish out of the hut”) remains in operation: i.e., one does not reveal to non-participants authentic information concerning politics, political groupings, or points of discord.

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