"In the Russian experience, although the Russian state is oppressive, it is their state, it is part of their fabric, and so the relation between Russian citizens and their state is complicated"
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Kapuscinski is handing you a key that unlocks a lot of Western misreadings of Russia: oppression doesn’t automatically produce estrangement. His sentence is built around a stubborn conjunction - “although” - that refuses the tidy moral math many outsiders prefer, where a brutal state equals a population yearning to defect from it. He insists on a more uncomfortable truth: the state can be both the boot and the familiar floor.
The phrase “their state” does heavy work. It implies ownership without endorsement, belonging without affection. Kapuscinski is gesturing at a political culture shaped by centuries of centralized authority, invasion anxiety, and the idea of the state as the only durable vessel large enough to hold an immense, diverse territory together. Even when it harms, it also organizes life, distributes status, provides a language of patriotism, and offers the psychological comfort of permanence. That’s what “part of their fabric” signals: not propaganda slogans, but everyday habit, memory, and identity.
The subtext is a warning to reformers and commentators: don’t treat Russian citizens as simply “hostages” waiting to be rescued by the next shock, election, or sanctions package. The relationship is “complicated” because dependence and pride can coexist with grievance; fear can coexist with loyalty; cynicism can coexist with a genuine belief in state necessity. Kapuscinski, a reporter who watched Soviet power up close, is arguing that to understand Russian politics you have to study attachment, not just resistance.
The phrase “their state” does heavy work. It implies ownership without endorsement, belonging without affection. Kapuscinski is gesturing at a political culture shaped by centuries of centralized authority, invasion anxiety, and the idea of the state as the only durable vessel large enough to hold an immense, diverse territory together. Even when it harms, it also organizes life, distributes status, provides a language of patriotism, and offers the psychological comfort of permanence. That’s what “part of their fabric” signals: not propaganda slogans, but everyday habit, memory, and identity.
The subtext is a warning to reformers and commentators: don’t treat Russian citizens as simply “hostages” waiting to be rescued by the next shock, election, or sanctions package. The relationship is “complicated” because dependence and pride can coexist with grievance; fear can coexist with loyalty; cynicism can coexist with a genuine belief in state necessity. Kapuscinski, a reporter who watched Soviet power up close, is arguing that to understand Russian politics you have to study attachment, not just resistance.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
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