Russia's main problem is that in the principle "the winner takes it all"

Dmitry Milin, analyst

Russia's trouble is that we still cannot combine the freedom of a trading city (the beginning of Russia, coming from the republic of Veliky Novgorod) necessary for economic development with the despotism of the power bureaucracy (the beginning of Russia, coming from the despotism of Moscow), which is necessary to protect the country from pressure from side of other countries.

Russia does not live by the principle of finding a compromise between trading and power entities, but by the principle of “winner takes all”, where, naturally, over time, the power entity crushes the trading one. What we are seeing now “in all its glory” at the end of Putinism.

The rapid cultural and economic development in Russia takes place in fits and starts after the next collapse of the power system of power along with the country, when, after a short chaos due to the lack of despotism of power power (the devastation after the revolution of 1917, the early 1990s - again, “the winner takes all ”, only the winner at this time is the “trading essence”), a short period of the necessary compromise begins, when the power of power is still weak, and the trading freemen have not yet been crushed and crushed.

This is the NEP period, and even the first two five-year plans in the USSR (before the start of repressions) plus a small artificially created renaissance in the form of the “Khrushchev thaw” (we remember when satellites and Gagarin flew into space), and the end of the 1990s - the beginning of 2000 -x with 5-7% GDP growth.

Now we have again come to a situation where the “power essence” of the state, according to the “winner takes it all” principle, completely crushed and crushed the “commercial essence”, which precedes the collapse of the state and which is evident from the economic stagnation and managerial degradation.

So, now it remains only to “pick up swords, slowly go down the stairs to the hallway and wait for the door to fall...” That is, wait for a new collapse of the statehood of “power despotism” for the sake of another development spurt after the short devastation of the new 1990s.

Although I would like, finally, to find a balance between the power and commercial essence of the state, so that they do not quarrel with each other until complete destruction on the principle of “the winner takes everything”, but work together for the good of the state. To do this, we must learn to put the bureaucracy and the "siloviki" (enforcers - editor's note) under the strict control of society.