The Return of Brezhnev's Stability

A friend recently sent me a RuTube link to two Soviet-era television documentaries by journalist Valentin Zorin, titled "America in the 1970s." Perhaps because many Soviet Jews were already living in the United States -- and writing home about American life -- those programs were unusually sophisticated. They included street footage from New York and San Francisco and acknowledged the United States' economic prowess, breathtaking skyscrapers and natural wonders. Still, their real point, driven home by Zorin, who had made his mark with books such as "America's Uncrowned Kings" was to convince viewers that behind the glittering facade, life for ordinary Americans was no bowl of cherries.

But rather than harp on the old canards about the exploited and downtrodden U.S. working class and a clique of greedy capitalists who had all the money and power, Zorin talked more about the uncertainty of life in the United States. Time and again he returned to the theme that a U.S. worker could lose his job or home at any moment.

The unspoken contrast with the predictability of Soviet life was obvious. If your cousin sends you a photo of his new car six months after arriving to New York, don't be tempted to follow him. Here, your life is stable and your right to work is guaranteed by the Soviet Constitution.

Curiously, stability has been claimed by the current regime as its main achievement. While Soviet propaganda contrasted communist stability with the unpredictable perils of the United States, now the contrast is drawn with the lawless '90s. Just like Zorin's documentaries, the implicit message from today's Kremlin is: In the 1990s, you may have had freedom, but now you've got law and order.