In the years after the Soviet Union's death, the western republics went their separate roads, albeit the ones determined to a significant degree by Russian politics in the region. But the legacy of twentieth-century nation-building was more important yet. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania never considered joining the Commonwealth of Independent States, but the treatment of large Russian minorities, especially in Estonia and Latvia, became the major issue between Russia and them. In fact, during the early i990s, Estonia and Latvia considered all post-i940 immigrants and their children non-citizens requiring naturalisation. The disenfranchisement of minority residents who could not pass a difficult language exam earned Estonia and Latvia reprimands from the European Union and human rights organisations. Although the three states moved quickly to reorient their economies towards the West and introduce market reforms, their continuing connection with Russia was demonstrated as late as i998, when their economies suffered downturns as a result of the Russian financial collapse. Still, the three Baltic states were extremely successful in what they billed as their 'return to Europe'. In the spring of 2004, all three joined the European Union and NATO.
In contrast, Ukraine still struggles to assert its separateness from Russia, especially in the economic and cultural spheres. Under President Leonid Kravchuk, the state sponsored the Ukrainisation of public life and education, normalised relations with Russia and quelled minority unrest. Yet, the lack of economic reforms caused Kravchuk's downfall. President Leonid Kuchma (1994-2004) came to power on the platform of rebuilding economic ties with Russia and restoring the Russian language to its previously prominent role, but for most of his rule, he tried to maintain a balance between Russia and the West. Still, under Kuchma, Russian financial interests came to control much of Ukraine's industry and mass culture. Late in 2004 Kuchma's attempt to transfer power to a hand-picked successor failed as hundreds of thousands of orange-clad oppositionists occupied Kiev's main square, protesting against the rigged elections. The peaceful 'Orange Revolution' brought to power pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko (2005- ), who promised to fight corruption and take Ukraine 'back to Europe'.
Finally, Belarus and Moldova experienced a troubled post-Soviet transition. In Belarus, continuous economic decline during the early 1990s eroded already weak support for separate statehood. In 1994, a pro-Russian populist, Aliaksandr Lukashenka, won the presidential elections, putting the country on the path of assimilation, preservation of Soviet-style economy and economic dependence on Russia. Lukashenka's rule eventually deteriorated into an oppressive dictatorship. Formally, Belarus was to enter into union with Russia (1997), a union that was proclaimed but never consummated because of the Russian authorities' reluctance. In Moldova, the early years of independence were marred by political fragmentation over the question of national identity, as well as by ethnic violence, while the second part of the decade saw the reassertion of Russian political and economic influence. The conflict in Transnistria escalated in 1992, and, although Yeltsin's mediation helped to negotiate a ceasefire, the self-proclaimed Dniester Republic remains de facto independent. The faltering economy and huge state salary and pension arrears buoyed the popularity of unreformed Communists, who in 2001 won the parliamentary elections with 50.1 per cent of the votes. The parliament elected as president Vladimir Voronin, who proclaimed a course of closer co-operation with Russia.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the former Soviet west no longer exists as a region distinguished by its one-time connection to non- Russian European states or by the brief period of pre-Soviet independence. If the countries of the western belt with their widely disparate economic, political and cultural profiles still have anything in common, it is their Soviet legacy: a considerable Russian minority, economic ties with Russia and Russia's security interest in the area. Only in the cultural sphere, although not without political implications, do local identities continue to be defined in their relation to the Soviet project.
Science, technology and modernity
DAVID HOLLQWAY
Introduction
Science and technology occupy a central place in the history of all modern states, but their role is particularly significant in twentieth-century Russia. The Soviet Union had at one time a greater number of scientists and engineers than any other country in the world. It made a massive effort to overtake the West in the development of technology. And most important, science and technology were integral to the Soviet claim to offer a vision of modernity that was superior to that of Western capitalism. Not only would science and technology flourish in the Soviet Union, according to this claim; the Soviet system was itself consciously constructed on the basis of a scientific theory and would be guided by that theory in its future development. The Soviet Union presented itself as the true heir to the Enlightenment project of applying reason to human affairs.
Before the revolution (1901-17)
Science (nauka) in Russia was linked with modernisation from the very beginning.[319] Peter the Great imported natural science from Europe in the early eighteenth century as part of his effort to transform Russia into a Great Power. He established the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1724, before there were universities in Russia. For a century and a half, most of the Academy's members were from outside Russia, and many Russians regarded science as alien to Russian culture.[320] In the second half of the nineteenth century a more or less cohesive scientific community began to emerge, bound together by learned societies and scientific congresses. A number of Russian scientists, among them N. I. Lobachevskii and D. I. Mendeleev, won international reputations during the nineteenth century, and in the early years of the twentieth century two Russian scientists -1. P. Pavlov and 1.1. Mechnikov - were among the first winners of the Nobel Prize for Physiology. Russia had over 4,000 scientists engaged in research at the beginning of the century, and although it lagged behind Britain, Germany and France, it did have areas of real strength - in mathematics and chemistry, for example.[321]
The Academy of Sciences, like academies in other countries, was primarily an honorific society at the beginning of the twentieth century. Most scientific research was done in universities and specialised institutes of higher education. Russia had close scientific ties with Europe, and Russian scientists felt themselves to be part of an international community. They were increasingly conscious of themselves as an important - or at least potentially important - force in Russian society and, like other members of the intelligentsia, they wanted to play a useful role in Russia's development.[322]
In January 1905 a group of 342 St Petersburg university teachers and researchers signed a document criticising the system of higher education for treating university teachers as bureaucrats. They argued that science could flourish only when it was free and protected from external interference. These sentiments were widely shared in the scientific community. In the spring of 1905 a group of leading scientists and scholars founded the Academic Union in order to press for reform of higher education. The Union, which soon included about 70 per cent of all university teachers as members, called on the government to carry through democratic reforms in order to prevent anarchy in the country. Members of the Union helped to found the liberal Constitutional Democratic Party (the Kadets) later in the year. Although there was a significant group of conservative scientists and scholars in Russia, and a small number who supported the revolutionary parties, most scientists were liberal and reformist in their political outlook. With the exception of 1905-7, however, they did not play an active role in politics as a corporate group.[323]
319
'Nauka' covers both natural and social sciences. 'Nauka' and 'nauchnyi' have a broader meaning than we currently give to 'science' and 'scientific'. This chapter looks primarily at the natural sciences. Where the meaning given to 'science' is broader, I hope it will be clear from the context.
320
Alexander Vucinich,
321
Alexander Vucinich,
322
E.I.KolchinskiiandA.VKol'tsov, 'RossiiskaianaukairevoliutsionnyekrizisyvnachaleXX veka',inE. I. Kolchinskii(ed.),
323
Kolchinskii and Kol'tsov, 'Rossiiskaia nauka', pp. 295-300; Samuel D. Kassow,