Make the Soviet Union Great Again
When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, most Russian officials in St. Petersburg's mayor's office were quick to replace the portraits of the Communist revolutionary heroes Vladimir Lenin and Sergei Kirov with the portrait of Boris Yeltsin, the new Russian president.
Not everyone, still.
The mayor'south personal assistant, young Vladimir Putin, chose for his wall a portrait of Peter the Great: one of Russia'south well-nigh of import czars, who made Russian federation into a major European power.
This incident now seems like a portent. It bears on an aspect of Putin that thirty years afterwards has fabricated him the alarming center of global attention.
I am a social-political psychologist who studies extremism. Even though I haven't met Putin personally, from all that is known most him I believe that he illustrates the intriguing motivation we call the "quest for significance."
The human desire for significance and dignity is universal. No 1 wants to exist humiliated. Only very few are willing to risk all for the sake of celebrity.
Putin appears to be i of those select few. When appointed prime minister in 1999, for case, Putin described his new job equally a "historical mission," the task of saving Russia from "bandits" – the Chechen Islamists who had attacked the Russian Democracy of Dagestan. "I realized I could practise this merely at the cost of my political career. It was a minimal price to pay," he said in an interview, alluding to his audacity as a newly minted leader to accept on a risky mission.
Putin has often presented himself as savior of the Russian homeland from a scheming Westward bent on destroying "our traditional values." In a Feb. 24, 2022, speech, he claimed he had no choice just to invade Ukraine, as "a matter of life and death, a matter of our historical futurity as a nation."
Putin'south quest for significance extends to the economical domain as well. Though the Russian leader's assets have been opaque for years, estimates of his secret wealth accept put it at more than than US$100 billion.
Phone call of destiny?
Significance is a sense of one'southward social worth, 1's dignity and the feeling that i matters. A person earns it past being committed to a value cherished in one's society. It could be wealth, information technology could exist power, it could be backbone. The more of import the value, and the more sacred information technology is in ane's community, the greater the significance bestowed for affirming it.
In virtually cultures, Russia and the The states included, 1 of the near sacred values is patriotism. Serving one's country through both hardship and triumph, with utmost devotion and cocky-denial, gives a person a peachy sense of social worth, a place in history and the aureola of a hero.
Patriotism is particularly put to the test when one'due south country is in dire straits, threatened or humiliated by detractors. For those who crave significance, this offers a aureate opportunity for greatness, a unique occasion to show their true colors – with glory awaiting.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin soared on the scene of Russian politics at merely such a propitious moment.
The humiliated loser of the Cold War, Russia in 1991 saw its vast empire that encompassed much of Eastern Europe quickly coming unglued. For many Russians it was a crisis of shattering proportions, a cultural trauma that lasted for decades.
The loss of empire and world status offered an opportunity for Putin to reverse that catastrophe, and thus to attain greatness. He has seemed adamant non to let it slip away.
In 2005, Putin, by that time reelected equally Russia's president, proclaimed that the collapse of the Soviet Marriage was "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." He saw it as a profound loss of significance, a abrupt autumn from greatness.
The West, also, and the United states in particular, just kept rubbing it in, in Putin's view. Refueling his aeroplane at Moscow'southward airport in 2006, U.Due south. President George Westward. Bush refused to visit Putin at the Kremlin, forcing him to trek to the terminal for a coming together. And in 2014, so-President Barack Obama dismissed Russian federation as a mere "regional power."
These slights poured oil on the flame of Putin's discontent and reinforced his resolve to make Russia bully again.
Strongman strategy
In Putin's belief system, there was one style of doing so: through a show of forcefulness.
Equally a child immersed in his parents' tales of strife and grit during Globe State of war II, a black-belt martial artist and a KGB colonel during the Cold State of war, Putin came to respect concrete aggression as a formidable tool to get things done.
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His globe escapades thus far contain little to prove him wrong. The war he waged against separatists in Chechnya from 1999 to 2009 ended in victory. In Syrian arab republic, Russian back up has succeeded in keeping the dictator Bashir al Assad in power despite the W's aim to see him toppled.
Putin'southward 2022 invasion of Crimea went largely unpunished and hiked his popularity in Russia past nearly 25 pct points. So far, at least, Russian public stance has backed him in the current Ukraine crisis as well.
Anything is permissible
But the universal quest for significance tin can turn toxic if it is carried to the farthermost.
The psychological written report of extremism offers two profound lessons. Commencement, when the quest for significance is the called-for upshot, other needs are crowded out. One is then ready to cede all those needs to that one dominant quest. Second, anything and then is permissible, no holds barred.
Putin's conclusion to invade Ukraine and "let slip the dogs of war," as Shakespeare puts it in "Julius Caesar," vividly illustrates both implications.
He did so despite the near certainty of astringent sanctions that might seriously damage the Russian economy. He did and then despite the overwhelming international opprobrium that met his aggression. He did so despite the grave risks that a potential debacle in Ukraine poses for his political career.
Even so this has been Putin's selection, in answer to the siren call of glory.
Source: https://theconversation.com/putin-is-on-a-quest-for-historical-significance-by-invading-ukraine-and-gambling-on-his-own-and-russias-glory-177887
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