The Russia Putin Inherited Was Hell on Earth
'TraumaZone' is a necessary and hypnotic journey for those wanting to understand Putin and Russia.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and its aftermath was social murder. Oligarchs rose, and the People of Russia suffered greatly.
What Putin inherited makes mockery of our notions of democracy and opinions about strongmen. Putin was needed for Russia to survive Mikhail Gorbachev’s well intended yet disastrous policy of perestroika and consequent extreme capitalism.
TRAUMA ZONE
Adam Curtis is one of my favourite documentarians. His ‘Century of Self’ and ‘Hypernormalisation’ should be shown in every school’s Anti-Dystopia Class. His latest series is ‘Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone’. It’s a 7-hour montage of video clips showing babushkas, bad 80s hairdos, and a resilience that the comfy and self-righteous UK and USA cannot fathom.
The narration is mostly through those painful images and not words. That initially challenged my attention but, at some point, I became hypnotised. My trance deepend with the third episode when Communism fell, and Yeltsin outmanuevered Gorbachev for the Presidency. Yeltsin would go on to see something profound in Putin that no one else had.
During the attempted August Coup in 1991, it was poignant watching citizens challenging the tank crews.
Contrastingly, 980km away, a villager is asked what she thinks of perestroika.
"I have no idea. All I know is to milk the cows and cycle home. Or walk home. But here's nothing to eat. I get up at 3am and go to milk the cows. And I go to the shop and there's nothing there. My man is at the farm all day, and he's a smoker. But they only handed out 2 packs last month. And I have to cadge smokes for him, here and there, asking around even though I am a woman. Asking everyone. And I just fell into a puddle and dirtied my clothes."
Far from the puddle and cows, two cosmonauts stare at earth from Mir space station. One would become stranded.
The first oligarchs, the ones magnifying the chaos, begin moving their ill-gotten gains offshore…
I don’t have to say more when you can watch it for yourself on BBC iPlayer. I’ve included YouTube links to 6 of the 7 episodes (if they ever fail to work, please inform me).
Thanks for these videos.
"Your dedication to the adventure of proving yourself cleverer than me is paying off!"
I wouldn't like to imply your statement (from a comment on a post I made 15/01/24) indicates a uncomfortable degree of self-interest or even obsession BUT, please rest assured, Mr Hampton, I have no interest in proving myself cleverer than you (or anyone else). Really, I just want to tell my story, to get it online as accessible and interesting as I can. It would be wrong for me to say I don't care what anyone thinks of it, obviously, because that's not true BUT the story, and it's accuracy are more important to me than others' opinion of it. But that's all about me.
About you, quite honestly, I don't believe I could hope to 'prove myself more clever than you' because I believe you are more clever than me. I wouldn't say I'm in awe of the way you collate and report because the word 'awe' is so... Bollocks! BUT I have the deepest admiration for the way you work and wish I could do something similar, rather than going on and on about myself.
For example, you are the only person I know who has made one of the most important observations about the way our world is run in the 21st century: "Yeltsin would go on to see something profound in Putin that no one else had." The importance of this statement can't be overestimated. Without it, there is no understanding of how or why we are where we are. As I've already said, you are the only person, as far as I'm aware, who has recognised that. To do so without having had the first hand experience of Russia and developed a deep love for its language, people and culture as I believe I (quite profoundly) have, that makes you far more clever than me.