![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() He succeeded in grafting superficial western forms in fields like art, architecture, engineering and military technology - especially the latter - onto the oriental despotism he inherited and expanded. Making Russia work was the obsession that drove Peter the Great’s brutal attempt to “westernize” his vast but backward empire at the dawn of the 18th century. Must be!”īut is there? Grigory is far from the first person to express the hope, but it remains a forlorn one at best. What Viennese wits used to say about the dying Austro-Hungarian Empire also applies to the corruption-stoked, smoke-and-mirrors world of Vladimir Putin’s Russia: “The situation is hopeless but not serious.” By the time you reach of Peter Pomerantsev’s brilliant collection of sketches from the life in 21st century Russia you may find yourself echoing the lament of one of its more sympathetic characters (“Grigory,” an unusually bright, relatively cultivated member of the new class of Russian entrepreneur-tycoons): “There must be some way of working out how to make Russia work. ![]()
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