REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

LESSONS FROM THE ‘ WILD

EAST ’ : RUSSIAN CHARACTER

AND LEADERSHIP

Russia on its path has oftentimes discussed and overdiscussed what had

happened earlier, instead of moving forward. The result is always the same:

It is very diffi cult to move forward when you ’ re looking backward.

— Mikhail Khodorkovsky

The Russian character

Romancing the Past

In the 1930s, fi lm - makers Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trautberg
directed a trilogy about the life of the Russian writer Maxim Gorky.
Through the medium of fi lm, the viewer is given an unusual picture of
the Russian mindset as the directors portray some of the forces that make
the Russians who they are. The fi rst part of this classic depicts the Bol-
shevik legend of Gorky ’ s youth.
The fairy - tale quality of the fi lm facilitates audience identifi cation
with what Russians are likely to view as essential characteristics of their
native country and their own childhood. However, we should probably
assume (given the era when the fi lm was made) that the images represent
a compromise between artistic insight and political correctness.
The fi lm begins with a view of the empty plains and the Volga (to
the accompaniment of balalaika music); the cameras then shifts to a mir ,
one of the myriad communal villages that are scattered across Russia,
giving an intimate portrait of the behavior of the inhabitants. The fi lm

CHAPTER 15