Falcon Down

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Russia began to evolve as a modern nation state in the early Eighteenth Century just as the United States became one later in that century. So, the two future super powers and frequent adversaries came on the world scene at roughly the same time. That, however is where the similarity ends. The United States was bitten with the bug of governing by the consent of the people and individual human rights. The concept of freedom and representative government conducted by elected officials answerable to the people was ingrained in the populace of early American citizens. Individual freedom and the ability to express their concern for governmental acts that challenged that freedom was so endemic to the American psyche that it defined and still defines the fabric of American society.

Russia was a completely different atmosphere. It is a much older country than the United States. The landings at Jamestown and Plymouth, Massachusetts in the Seventeenth Century were the first white men to populate what became the United States. In Russia, however, there were settlements and thriving civilizations in the third and fourth centuries AD. The Greeks, Turks, Mongols and other cultures settled in Russia. Partially, due to these foreign invasions the long history of Russia is accented by one thing… violence. The Huns, the Mongols and other groups that collectively could be called barbarians, ravaged Russia for hundreds of years. To restore some semblance of order a monarchy was established with the ascension of Ivan the Terrible in 1547. His name is of course suggestive of his behavior as Tsar and though he was perhaps the most sadistic of all of them the Tsars in general were dictators like any hereditary monarchy.

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