Russia's Idea

©Antti Talvitie, 2025
Mauno Koivisto: Wikimedia Commons / Kuvasiskot
Mannerheim: Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Russian soldiers: Wikipedia / Public domain

During the Christmas holiday, I read President Koivisto's book Russia's Idea (Venäjän Idea, 2001). Koivisto's hypothesis about Russia's idea (p. 52): "Russia's expansion was driven by the desire to gain valuable land, the desire to spread faith, and the desire to unite Slavs under Russian leadership. That was Russia's idea." In the chapter The New Old Russia, Koivisto defends his hypothesis. I will present my hypothesis about Russia's Idea, but first, I will comment on Koivisto's arguments in the chapter The End of Monarchy.

Koivisto refers to Paasikivi's view that Finland was saved neither by the activists nor the accommodationists but by the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War. He adds: "There was no strong will for independence in Finland, no rebellion. There were apparently not many in Finland pursuing independence before the autumn of 1917. The interpretation that Finland had a widespread resistance movement aiming for independence is fiction" (p. 226). On the same page: "When young men left Finland for Germany, K.J. Ståhlberg criticized this activity. Even in 1917, many legal scholars, led by J.R. Danielson-Kalmari, believed that Finland's independence would not last. In Finland's enlightened circles, there was skepticism about the sustainability of independence. The same was true in Sweden".

Koivisto does not have personal experience of early 20th-century resistance movements, though he does know of the Lapua Movement. His opinions likely reflect the ethos of his environment. Elsewhere, Schauman fired the shots for the overt start of a successful rebellion for independence. During the critical first years of independence, Finland's regents included Svinhufvud, who ended the Lapua Movement, and Mannerheim, the victorious general of the War of Independence.
Koivisto demonstrated proven bravery in defending Finland's independence in WW2. I was born during WW2. My parents and grandparents did not belong to the "enlightened circles," but they, and the ethos growing up in South Ostrobothnia, were firmly oriented toward independence. It was certainly not "fiction." The “disappearance of young men” to Germany for military training was secretly but deliberately supported. These young men were essential in the War of Independence. In Karelia, the same will for independence existed. Koivisto concludes (p. 303): "Russia has generally been a good neighbor to us." This statement does not resonate as a personal experience for many.

Koivisto's book, which demonstrates his knowledge of Russia's long history, covers its major events almost up to Putin. Putin’s time was preceded by stagnation, a variation of the Time of Troubles from the late 1500s. But Koivisto does not reach the core of Russia's Idea. I'll cut the corners, and my hypothesis of Russia's Idea consists in three words: Sadism, Autocracy, and Money. The three factors Koivisto mentions are historical coincidences and support my hypothesis (but do not exclude other hypotheses).

Trauma is a critical part of Russian history, openly inflicted by the devout Ivan the Terrible, perhaps as a legacy of the Mongols' 500-year rule and the yoke of the Golden Horde. Ivan IV reportedly attended church in the morning and killed people in the afternoon. He also expanded the territory, though not into Ukraine’s Russia.
Despite many accomplishments, Peter the Great perpetuated trauma after the Time of Troubles, including in Finland during the ‘The Great Nordic War’ (the Great Wrath - Iso Viha) along the Ostrobothnia coast. Later, elsewhere, Catherine the Great continued unsuccessfully Peter the Great’s modernization. Grigory Potemkin, Catherine's lover, constructed facades along her route to Crimea to conceal the devastation that had lasted a century. (A few years ago, Potemkin's remains and statue were moved to the Russian side of the Dnipro River near Kherson!). Stalin and Putin continued the terror under the guise of Russification (the ‘Great Patriotic War’) and even religion. An essential aspect of Russia's Idea is Sadism.

Autocracy is another aspect of Russia's Idea and was hardly ever in remission, even before Ivan the Terrible. Autocracy is not independent of sadism but a choice. Leaders do not have to be sadistic. Due to its traumas, Russia cannot adopt Western democratic or republican freedoms. It feels safer to live under an autocrat's rule.

The third aspect of Russia's Idea, Money, is a materialist interpretation of history (Leninism, flavored with Marxism). This has its roots in the Mongols' "Golden Horde" rule and tax burden. Today, power is maintained using Russia's vast natural resources as blackmail and threatening global annihilation with religion, nuclear, and chemical weapons. Koivisto's puzzlement over the absence of the GDP concept in the Russian political economy is a byproduct.

After reading this, a friendly critic remarked, "You Lapua people certainly have plenty of confidence!" Perhaps. Finland is independent. Still.