TRAC
Interview Transcript

Victor Erofeyev

Let me try to elucidate. Again I’m not going to give you the entire fixture of the major book, also what I’m going to share with you is going to be very subjective. Because otherwise, if I do not stick to just my book, I would have to explain and explain and explain myself over and over again. It would take a whole week. Please bear with me.

Russia is a very sad country. But, then again, I’ve never seen a country which would be more joyful than Russia is. I would say that Russia is the most joyful country in the world. A joyful nation should be a wealthy nation, a free nation. Who came up with all these theories? Where do all these theories come from? What values are they based on? The Russian people have been known as an entity for a thousand years and yet it’s a nation that has never had the true history. Some people will say well Americans have a very short history. If so, in our case, we have just a virtual history.

Take this major event in the supposed Russian history. The fight the Russians had with the Tartars. 300 years of the Tartar rule. Now we’ll look back and all it turns out we had was a regular civil war. The Russian knights and princes would adopt Mongolian names. They are believed to have a better relationship with the Mongols. Part of the Russian history is a major battle between the Tartars and the Mongols. Now, it turns out it was just your border shuffle between different knighthoods.

Russia has never enjoyed a Renaissance. The part of European history did not reach us. Ivan the Terrible and his whole time period can be viewed as a Russian Renaissance. Historians would tell Ivan the Terrible slaughtered thousands of people, raped God knows how many women. But then again, this is the Russian type of Renaissance. They would tell you that Russia had its greatest reformer, i.e. Peter the Great. But if you take a close look at Peter the Great, you will see that he is nowhere near any of his counterpart, to the Western European reformers. In other words, no matter what salient event we think in the Russian history, we never find solid ground, anywhere you touch.

Take 1917. I had a conversation with a friend. We were trying to figure out whether Lenin was somebody who had a right to do what he did or whether it was a mere coincidence. Americans were having the after lunch nap and me & my friend were trying to figure out what Lenin was all about: a coincidence or a historic matter. Look at it differently, over a thousand years ago, Kiev and Russian people have been moving from Kiev towards northwest towards Moscow. It would make you think that we have some historical roots there. Now certainly there were some wonderful underpinnings for the Russian civilization.

But we happen to be in 1998. We can take a closer look at the Ukraine, the Ukranian civilizations, the Belorussian civilizations. They all have at least some folklore, something that has been exterminated in ethnic Russia. And yet there’s still some concept, some notions that we are trying to figure out what this whole Russian population is all about.

Now, finally, we are getting to the subject matter of this presentation, i.e. Russia as a fairy tale. Now who or what is the major character in any Russian fairy tale? Obviously, he is Ivan the fool. In the fairy tale there are usually three sons to a family. The eldest son is basically your business-oriented intellectual. The middle son is a very smart entrepreneur. And the third one is a fool. Now who wins ultimately - the fool. Because he doesn’t do anything. It’s only when you try to do something in Russia that you prove that you are indeed a fool. The ideas is: do nothing. Then ultimately you prove that you are very smart. Take another notion there — how do you become successful in life? The only one way to succeed i.e. by a miracle. If so you need to have some implements. For this miracle to work, you have to have a magic carpet, or you have to have — another option — which is a Russian glorious table laden. Things just pop up on the table. The table is laden. Somehow, you need to do something to invite these things into your life. Or you can steal them or you can be cunning or you can use any other means, as long as others don’t work. And, as long as you do not try to improve the legislation. So, it turns out that if we are to go for the nitty-gritty of the Russian culture, we’ll find our answers there. You have to be a parasite in this life. Fairy tale, again. You can take a close look at this parasitic lifestyle. You’ll find yourself in quite a paradox because this parasitic lifestyle will bring you ever closer to your basic Christian values. You will experience the Christian values, you will be following Christian ways. And the coincidence will be mind-boggling. We happen to be a Christian nation. Even if you take it linguistically, the word for peasant in Russian is the same as the Christian. And you can quote other examples. It turns out that this lack of serious attitude toward your very own wife, which is embedded in the Russian culture, is the shortest way between yourself and God.

The Russian believes in pragmatism. To him or her a reality is something that ultimately has to be beneficial to him or her. In the final analysis, even God has to be of some value. And, when you talk with religious people in the States, you pretty much sense this sentiment.

Although you cannot discount this Russian person for whom reality is a form of fairy tale, realize that you will never keep anything by toil, realizes that the whole notion of property is a fiction, who realizes that a happy life principle is that nothing serious has ever happened to you. And then he immediately becomes a part and parcel of what we would call Holy Russia. What is this Holy Russia? It is a domain within reach. He no longer is Ivan the fool; he becomes Ivan, the God’s Messiah.

What happens is a transformation. This is the parallel in any other nation. Besides, this is the Russian way to happiness. Somebody is seeking his or her God through toiling. Somebody is looking for God’s utility, and here you don’t have to do anything. And then, because of doing nothing that God will manifest his blessings. Who is happier — an American or a Russian? A Russian because this life is miniscule, it is full of problems, and over there you have your eternity. Russian rational is this. The American gauges success in terms of human achievement. But this Western mind cannot figure out the Russian mind because in the Russian mind there is no room for success.

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