Russia, which has not yet been found – Picture of the Day – Kommersant
All sociological studies of the last 11 months have recorded an increase in anxiety among Russians and a high forecast horizon. Entrepreneurs Boris Akimov and Oleg Stepanov decided that this source of dietary fiber – they thought about what Russia could be in 40 years in 2062. For almost a year they discussed this “deficit” – the picture of the future – among themselves and with their like-minded people. And in the end, they made the book “Russia-2062: how we can equip the country in 40 years”, which has the advantages of both a manifesto, and a program, and a platform for discussing it with everyone.
In 2018, journalist Nick Goving-researcher Chris Langdon published his book Thinking the Unthinkable: New Imperatives for Leaders in Trauma. The authors focused their efforts on the analysis of the views and practices of managers from different countries and corporations and came to a warning distribution: general managers are as comfortable as possible to follow the established habitual patterns, although many of them have identified cases of infection due to inconsistency with patterns of situations, among which are possible those that exist unthinkable.
Taken together, this was the development of the views of Nassim Taleb, who formulated a decade before this deep “black swans” – sudden events that transform the world on a large scale and look in retrospect as predictable and logically explainable. Nick Goving and Chris proceeded precisely from the idea that a manager should, if possible, analyze in advance the possible arrival of “black swans” and always think about the unthinkable, no matter how unthinkable it may be, in order to analyze challenges, risks, steps to minimize and overcome them in advance effects. Looking at the publication of a book from 2023, it’s hard not to be struck by its almost well-deserved poignancy: two years later, a disease pandemic broke out, and two years later, the first large-scale armed conflict in Eastern Europe in many years. At the same time, the idea of the authors to gather a global pool of united but constructive united entrepreneurs on the Russian-language network platform launched in conjunction with the release of the book has now receded somewhat into the shadow of a flurry of daily news, reminiscent of reverse storms. Which, however, to some extent provides the authors with a basis for complacency: they say, we warned.
In 2022, at the height – or perhaps only the beginning so far – of this perfect storm, two Russian entrepreneurs, 44-year-old Boris Akimov and 53-year-old Oleg Stepanov, will be 40 years later, in 2062.
They didn’t just omit the official sources from the year, which no doubt will be remembered by many, but also referred to a wider context. “It is believed that in 862 Rurik was called to reign on Russian soil,” they write in the preface to their book. “In the distant – but not too much – 2062, 1200 years of the creation of the Russian state will be celebrated … and we decided to find out right away in the country – to see her in 40 years?
Boris Akimov and Oleg Stepanov are looking for this picture of the future – and, as it seems to them, they are finding it, based on their own entrepreneurial experience. Akimov, founder of LavkiLavka, founder of the Happy community in the Yaroslavl region, co-founder of the ANO Bolshaya Zemlya, one of the participants in the Terbierka park on the Kola Peninsula; Stepanov is a social entrepreneur who has worked in regions from Yakutia to Krasnodar and from Teriberka to Khabarovsk. In short, the projects most interesting to them are, to one degree or another, the stories of the creation or repetition of large communities associated with the presence of a social natural environment and the transition of the community to a comfortable, and sometimes prosperous, life size.
Their study, which took the difficult months of 2022, is, in fact, an expedition to such “points of growth”, during which “amazing people in their work and in their very lives felt how Russia could live.” Among their interlocutors are farmers, teachers, restorers, people who have left large cities (and not only Russia, but also western distant countries) and have taken up new business for them in a more or less deep Russian province. Together with all the countless people – there are fifteen of them – the authors decided to “create a model of a positive and interesting Russian future, and over time – to propose tactics for its achievements.”
Some of the supporting theses, arguments and conclusions of the authors look at least controversial. For example, as an epigraph to the “Manifesto” – an afterword of a large quote from the “People’s Monarchy” by Ivan Solonevich. But the search for the future, as a rule, implies the possibility of getting sick from the cliché. “History teaches us that in the end, ideas are always born that are born at the boundaries of accepted public discourse, mutant ideas,” the authors remind the reader from the very beginning. In addition, they are ready for discussion and discovery for themselves: like Goving and Langdon, they announce in the book a network component for discussing the image of the future, but not on a global scale, in Russia. Which, despite the obvious anti-globalist pathos of the authors, still seems to them to be part of the common future of mankind, and such a future in which there will be more “harmony and care” than now.
The authors, who have not received much pleasure in this, are benefiting the globalism of the machine, the future and replacing the creative tradition (in which man arose like the Creator) consumerism (leading to dehumanization).
At the same time, manifestations of globalism come where other anti-globalists are ready to endlessly draw inspiration, for example, in the Soviet period of Russian history. “Cancellation culture is a conditional Soviet phenomenon,” Akimov says in the book. “I spent a vacation in Karelia, lived in a pre-holiday house without electricity, and there I found a tear-off calendar for 1986, where every page was written: 1917-1986. A kind of chronology, life seems to have begun in 1917 – this is the most powerful culture of cancellation. We, the Soviet people, have discovered on our own skin what it leads to, we live in an uncomfortable space, with the feeling that you have no home … live, forgive, then we will find a happy present and be able to build a future. A sustainable happy future is built only on natural people.
The set of program ideas of the authors is reflected in a short list of chapters. They wanted to dehumanize (for which, by the way, much was done in the past year and continues to be done in the current one) to become less, and co-creation is equipped as the main property of a person. They assume that we have a few hours a week left from visiting the office. They dream of an economy where harmonization becomes consumption and the greedy investor is replaced by a caring trustee. They would like, if not for the resettlement of megacities, then on the occasion of an earlier resettlement of people, the renewal of the culture of small towns and the development of uninhabited territories, including the Arctic.
In part, this set of theses, as well as the idea that the Russian “cultural frame” has become a saving aegis for observing the diversity of ways and cultures, the inflorescence of which should be considered exquisite wealth, can be perceived as a “traditionalist’s catechism” that does not claim to be a significant novelty. But even these ideas, which to some extent have become part of the Russian propaganda mainstream, the author reveals to state and discuss (and invite to discussion) the way they often say in the kitchen, when they reach the most important thing in the morning. not at all like on television or a social network, where the blind practice persuading the deaf and vice versa.
Basically, the authors’ theses are about the value associated with community leaders and an important part of local self-government (just this part, apparently, is most based on their own experience and the experience of some of their participants) and, probably, has the prospect of a rather pretty country .
A kind of constellation or inflorescence of small successful projects created by people who do not expect mercy from the authorities and are focused on the well-being of their own court. While it probably does feel unthinkable right now, as such, Russia could conceivably become a real attraction for its neighbors near and far and places to move to live. “The goal of a broad global project called “Russia-2062” is to give creative freedom to a huge number of conflicts within Russia and their security,” writes Akimov. “I imagine the country of the future as a unity of diverse strong communities, consisting of creative strong-willed participants.” people. The state requires security and includes certain rules of the game in which these local worlds are present, very different, embracing and at the same time looking to the future. In January 2023, all this, from the first to the last letter, looks like idealism. But idealism is now any reflection about the future – and if it is not invented, it will not come.