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Rady Richarda Pipesa dotyczące Rosji dla decydentów
ORCID: Jonathan Daly: 0009-0000-3124-6503
Afiliacja: University of Illinois Chicago
Strony: 35-57
Wydanie: Lublin 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36874/RIESW.2025.4.2
Sposób cytowania: „Yearbook of the Institute of East-Central Europe” 23 (2025), issue 4, pp. 35–57, DOI: https://doi.org/10.36874/RIESW.2025.4.2
Słowa kluczowe: authoritarianism, Cold War, conservatism, disinformation, empire, expansionism, grand strategy, militarism, Russia, Sovietology, xenophobia
Keywords: authoritarianism, Cold War, Conservatism, empire, expansionism, grand strategy, militarism, Russia, Sovietology, xenophobia
Abstrakt: Richard Pipes, a prolific and influential historian of Russia, had a significantly greater impact as a Sovietologist. The purpose of this article is to distil Pipes’s recommendations to Western policymakers on how to deal with the Russians. It is based on a study of Pipes’s writings on the topic. He advocated combining social scientific and humanistic approaches, drawing on both “hard” data like polling and census results and “soft” data like literature and history, striving to understand the mindset of one’s opponents, and avoiding “mirror imaging”. Pipes viewed Russian political culture as fundamentally authoritarian with xenophobic tendencies; its political system was characterised by elite domination, unaccountability of officials, weak rule of law, and a propensity to militarism and expansionism. During the Soviet era, the ruling elite promoted international tension and instilled a fear of foreign threats. Countering Soviet expansionism required a comprehensive grand strategy that involved leveraging institutional memory, employing propaganda to substitute for a free press, applying economic pressure, and insisting on reciprocity. It was also important to reckon with Russian feelings and urge Russians to follow a Western path. Pipes argued that pressuring the USSR would prompt the Politburo to implement reforms. Reagan’s hard line contributed to the selection of Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet leader, apparently vindicating this approach.
Słowa kluczowe: authoritarianism, Cold War, conservatism, disinformation, empire, expansionism, grand strategy, militarism, Russia, Sovietology, xenophobia
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