A heavy communist legacy

The Caucasus crisis has its roots in Georgia's excessive nationalism, writes Russian philosopher Michail Ryklin in the German weekly Die Zeit, noting that nationalist trends are also a problem in other post-Soviet countries. "The dreams of the nationalists were dashed when Georgia was left destitute following the break-up of the Soviet Union. ... The possession or lack of property should not [however] lead one to draw far-reaching moral conclusions. ... And who are these 'Russians' and 'Georgians' anyway? Most of them are post-Soviet people who think they have returned to their national niches after the end of the Great Terror - as if the Terror had not left them with deep wounds that would take decades to heal, as if their nation would not feel the phantom pains of the Soviet era. ...  The refusal to confront their own past is bringing wars and conflict to the post-Soviet region. Regardless of the form the rhetoric takes nationalism is flourishing, and democratic rhetoric is no exception here. ... A return to Europe can only be achieved by confronting the recent totalitarian past and those mechanisms that reduced the Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Kyrgyz and Georgians to the same servitude. Only when this work has been done can our concepts of Europe become more complex, nuanced and - what is more important - realistic."

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