[Goose]

Crazy story in The NY Times magazine about one Russian officer’s desertion and escape…

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024...erter.html

BC

The NYT piece is IMO a "must read" especially because it illuminates the sense of fatalism and lack of "public morality" in Russian society. We in "the West" simply can't imagine it because it is almost totally outside of our experience. We can't "grok" it, no matter how hard we try.

The other thing that really strikes me is how little things have changed in 40 years. While the reasons for their "defections" were different (Russia was not at war) there are striking similarities in the descriptions of the Russian military and Russian society.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiG_Pilot:...nt_Belenko (happened in 1976)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Zuyev_(pilot) (happened 1989)
Neither book is in any way "great literature" but IMO it is just amazing how constant the issues regarding lack of personal responsibility and the desire to avoid any awareness or responsibility for "what is going on" are. Russian society personifies the idea that "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down". They take it so far that they hammer themselves down. OTOH they will sometimes take absolutely crazy risky steps once they decide they themselves are/may be the target of "bad things". Nothing has changed, despite instant communication via cell phones and the flood of information on the internet.

[Goose]

Crazy story in The NY Times magazine about one Russian officer’s desertion and escape…

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024...erter.html

BC

The NYT piece is IMO a "must read" especially because it illuminates the sense of fatalism and lack of "public morality" in Russian society. We in "the West" simply can't imagine it because it is almost totally outside of our experience. We can't "grok" it, no matter how hard we try.

The other thing that really strikes me is how little things have changed in 40 years. While the reasons for their "defections" were different (Russia was not at war) there are striking similarities in the descriptions of the Russian military and Russian society.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiG_Pilot:...nt_Belenko (happened in 1976)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Zuyev_(pilot) (happened 1989)
Neither book is in any way "great literature" but IMO it is just amazing how constant the issues regarding lack of personal responsibility and the desire to avoid any awareness or responsibility for "what is going on" are. Russian society personifies the idea that "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down". They take it so far that they hammer themselves down. OTOH they will sometimes take absolutely crazy risky steps once they decide they themselves are/may be the target of "bad things". Nothing has changed, despite instant communication via cell phones and the flood of information on the internet.