Review: Mikhail Shishkin «Peace or War»

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But it will be more difficult, because Shishkin believes that the “Mongolian yoke”, from which it is written in Russian history books that the country was freed in the 15th century, still hangs over the Russians. It hangs over them like a mental hood – a kind of forced hood – which they have not escaped. We are talking about the classic historical exercises in the West, Renaissance. Enlightenment, and decolonization, which never came to Russia, and which therefore make the country different, and a mystery to the Europeans and their descendants in America.

Confess to a lie

It is a large planned essay on Russian history and Russian life that Shishkin takes us through. He describes a difficult life, a life with what he calls a rift in the personality, where for countless generations one has had to say one thing, think another, and do a third. In this psychology of lies, he presents an eye-opening truth. Namely that while both Hitler’s Gestapo and Stalin’s NKVD were both executioners, the Gestapo tortured its victims to get the truth out of them, while the NKVD tortured its victims to make them confess to a lie.

Then we come to Winston Churchill’s famous description of his difficult ally Russia during World War II, to which Shishkin also refers: “Russia is an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, surrounded by a myth.”

Lack of knowledge

Churchill is, as usual, the most well-articulated, besides Mikhail Shishkin, who has an image-creating formulation ability that is rare. But in the book, Shishkin argues against Churchill’s famous formulation, which in many ways has meant that Western intellectuals have been able to give up on understanding Russia and the Russians, because it is still impossible to penetrate this “alien” existence. Shishkin, for his part, believes that Churchill is wrong because – he writes – there is no such thing as an enigmatic and mysterious people on the whole globe. There is only a lack of knowledge.

There is something paradoxical about this claim. Because Shishkin’s relationship with his compatriots and the Russian is described as both enigmatic and mysterious. While his claim is that it is not so.

Let’s try to explain: Shishkin consistently calls today’s President Vladimir Putin “the Khan” or “the Great Khan”. It is because he believes that it is the Mongol occupation in the 13th century that gave Russia its principles of governance. Shishkin believes that the Tatar yoke, which official Russian historiography says is a distant story, is largely present, because the mechanisms for exercising power are in principle the same.

Is cursed and good

Slaver

The Mongols conquered Russia in the 13th century, making the Russian nobility their vassals and tax collectors. The Mongols left the church and civil life alone, as long as they got the taxes they demanded. Thus both the Russian elite and the Russian people became slaves. It was the elite, who were the slaves of the Mongols, who also enslaved the common Russian, and when the Mongols were finally thrown out, it was the Tsar who took over the role of the new Great Khan. And since the psychology of the Russian governing mechanisms has not changed that much, it is Putin who is today’s Great Khan, enslaving the people. The Tatar yoke was, and is, Russian, Shishkin believes. One has enslaved oneself.

The author’s history writing is undoubtedly interesting. Much of it is also familiar material, but the examples and images that Shishkin brings to the square are captivating and tempting. Especially at a time when we have the brutal war in Ukraine as a current backdrop.

The voice that provokes

But no one should be surprised that the author is an enemy of the people in Putin’s Russia. For ten years he has lived in exile in Switzerland. From there he is a voice from another Russia. A voice that provokes and teaches. He has written an important book, which is suitable for creating enlightened debate, without necessarily putting two lines under all the answers he gives.

– Will destroy Ukraine

In the Norwegian edition, there is a bit to poke at. The December uprising in Russia was in 1825, and not in 1895, as it says in the book. The well-established word for Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s reforms is “thaw weather”, while the translator refers to it as “mild weather”. Here both translator, script editor and editor have slept over the letters. The same applies when the river and the car brand Volga are written with w, Wolga. Such sloppiness hurts a reader’s heart.