Scapegoats and Surprises

Moscow is the city in which I was born, and which I love with all my heart, but more for its people, history, and culture than its current state of affairs. Certain things that happen there these days tend to frighten me. Or should I say many?

In July and August the western part of Russia experienced 100-degree temperatures that caused massive fires. As a result, fumes and smoke filled the air and filled it completely—sitting inside one building in Moscow, it was impossible to see the next building over from the window. Square miles of forest disappeared daily as they were consumed by fires.

The government was completely unprepared to deal with the heat wave or fires to begin with and hardly did anything to improve the situation. So many people were dying of the heat and unbreathable air that funeral homes were not able to handle the huge quantities of corpses.

At the same time, the government did not permit doctors to diagnose the fumes as a cause of death. There is still a lack of openness and transparency in the system, just as in the old days.  A couple of weeks ago, there was an alarm in the media about the possibility of radioactive smoke in the air coming from the fires in regions around Chernobyl. It was also predicted that the main side effect of the fumes would be massive memory loss in two years, this as was mentioned on National Public Radio. Russian journalist Victor Shenderovich half-jokingly said that a massive memory loss will be very convenient for the government as the new elections approach and the same people are planning to stay in power.

And who did the official Russian press blame for these fires and all their consequences? Surprisingly, not the government, not the infrastructure of disaster management, and not even Mother Nature, but…drum roll, please…America!

According to a new urban legend, which is supported by mass media, American scientists have secretly and skillfully built a kind of astro-lab in the Russian sky, but they used such advanced technologies that no one in the country can now find it. Sort of like the Bush-era weapons of mass destruction. The quite mysterious lab in the sky where Americans are experimenting was supposedly the main cause of the rise in temperatures and therefore the fires and lethal smoke that followed, not to mention the tripled mortality rates and failure of the wheat and barley harvest that the drought brought on. It was all part of America’s massive secret plan.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hasn’t been using phrases like “first we will locate them, and then we will find them” about the labs’ designers, but at the same time, it is to the government’s advantage to convince people that America has nothing to do with it. Part of the reason why the theory formed in the first place is that it was hard for citizens to face the fact that their government does not take good care of them. Or rather, that Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev don’t even try to.

Medvedev is seen as helpless and is widely nicknamed “Kinder Surprise” both on the streets and also by the press. There was even an article published with the title “Is Medvedev a President or a Kinder Surprise?”

Unlike Medvedev himself, a Kinder Surprise is something I highly approve of. It is a delicious German chocolate candy egg, made especially for kids (“kinder” is the German word for child). After you eat it, there’s a little plastic toy inside that pops out for the kid to play with. According to Muscovites, Medvedev was a surprising choice, who just “popped out” suddenly as president of their country, and yet they believe he could have been anyone, that is, anyone who was shorter than Putin and completely obedient to his wishes. Putin is now using Medvedev as a toy puppet.

As a counteraction to an overall sense of loss of control, Russia has witnessed a swift rise in nationalism, and the Russian press resorts to targeting the United States as the scapegoat. Many Americans aren’t aware of it, and there is no way that they can be, because the view is held by the Russians living there rather than by the ones who have immigrated here.

Regardless of the extent of the crisis or natural disaster, I think it is important for a nation not to search for scapegoats or imagine conspiracy theories but rather to look within itself and take full responsibility for its own actions, even for the surprises in store.

Elizabeth D. Pyjov ’11, a Crimson arts editor and columnist, is a Romance languages and literatures concentrator in Adams House.