Event Highlights--Russia: Haunted by Its Communist Past

December 5, 2011
Speakers in order: David Satter, Andrei Illarionov, Miriam Lanskoy, and Robert Amsterdam

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union, a pivotal question is whether Russia has drawn lessons from the communist past. Hudson Senior Fellow, David Satter, in his new book, It Was a Long Time Ago and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the Communist Past (Yale), attempts to answer this question. He presents a striking new interpretation of Russia's historical tragedy, locating its source in Russia's disregard for the value of the individual compared to the goals of the state.

"David Satter points to the utter failure of contemporary Russia to confront its own bloody legacy of terror," says author Francis Fukuyama.

Hudson Senior Fellow David Satter, former Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times and special correspondent on Soviet affairs for the Wall Street Journal, presented his book on this noteworthy anniversary. Responding was a panel of Russia experts, including Robert Amsterdam, Founding Partner of Amsterdam & Peroff and lawyer for jailed Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky; Andrei Illarionov, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at CATO; and Miriam Lanskoy, Director for Russia and Eurasia at the National Endowment for Democracy. Hudson President and CEO Kenneth Weinstein introduced.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• russia
• russiam
• medvedev
• putin
• communist