As the World Turns

IN a Moscow radio and TV phone-in program on December 24, Vladimir Putin took a number of questions on Russian foreign policy. Asked by a concerned citizen of Latvia about the position of Russian-speakers in the Baltic states, he replied vigorously that these ethnic Russians should be given representation in all official bodies, including security agencies, in proportion to their numbers. To buttress his case, the Russian leader pointed out that NATO itself had recently insisted that Macedonia implement this same principle in behalf of its Albanian ethnic minority. What was sauce for the Albanian goose was sauce for the Baltic gander.

A number of ironies jostle for attention in this little episode. To begin with, the notion of ethnic proportionalism, though it has become popular in the West under the euphemistic name of “diversity,” actually evolved from the Soviet version of democracy. Precisely because they realized that nobody was fooled by their 98.6 percent election victories, the Bolsheviks constructed a pseudo-democratic façade whereby their policies would be given a ringing democratic endorsement by “representative” committees of women, young people, workers, and ethnic minorities. Indeed, the only occasions when ethnic minorities were allowed to appear in Soviet public life at all were when they were thanking the Politburo or performing in folkloric shows for tourists. Hence Anthony Daniels’s epigram: “Under Communism, all minorities dance.”

About the Author

John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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IN a Moscow radio and TV phone-in program on December 24, Vladimir Putin took a number of questions on Russian foreign policy. Asked by a concerned citizen of Latvia about the position of Russian-speakers in the Baltic states, he replied vigorously that these ethnic Russians should be given representation in all official bodies, including security agencies, in proportion to their numbers. To buttress his case, the Russian leader pointed out that NATO itself had recently insisted that Macedonia implement this same principle in behalf of its Albanian ethnic minority. What was sauce for the Albanian goose was sauce for the Baltic gander.

A number of ironies jostle for attention in this little episode. To begin with, the notion of ethnic proportionalism, though it has become popular in the West under the euphemistic name of “diversity,” actually evolved from the Soviet version of democracy. Precisely because they realized that nobody was fooled by their 98.6 percent election victories, the Bolsheviks constructed a pseudo-democratic façade whereby their policies would be given a ringing democratic endorsement by “representative” committees of women, young people, workers, and ethnic minorities. Indeed, the only occasions when ethnic minorities were allowed to appear in Soviet public life at all were when they were thanking the Politburo or performing in folkloric shows for tourists. Hence Anthony Daniels’s epigram: “Under Communism, all minorities dance.”