288 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP
Although a certain split between the public self and the private
self is inevitable, in Russia — at least until glasnost — the confl ict of the
presentation of self made a major contribution to the experience of a
‘ false self. ’ The warmth and permissiveness that children experienced
at home simply did not fi t with the conformity - for - conformity ’ s - sake
that they experienced at school. Furthermore, the lack of sincerity and
consistency in the public sphere during the communist regime — ideal-
ism having increasingly deteriorated into cynical opportunism — would
not have escaped their notice (since children always hear more than
their parents tell them).
In the best of all worlds, children internalize an inner compass that
is aligned to true north by their parents, establishing a direction that is
later reinforced by other important authority fi gures giving similar
signals. Such development makes for a sense of consistent direction
and inner stability. The Russians have not had the luxury of consistent
direction. How could parents — or teachers, for that matter — teach
clear standards of right and wrong when they were unclear about those
standards themselves?
The existence of the KGB did not teach people about the distinction
between right and wrong but about the need for sensitive attunement
to external, often contradictory, signals of approval and disapproval.
Rather than listening to their conscience in deciding the morality of an
issue, people listened for the early - morning knock that would send them
to a gulag for some fabricated transgression.
With glasnost , this incongruous situation changed. The older
generation still has to work through the after - effects of their moral
upbringing, but they are adapting to greater freedom of thought and
action. The country, however, has not dealt with the atrocities of its
past. There has been a remarkable lack of soul - searching about the
terrible things that happened under Lenin and Stalin — the endless
number of slave labor camps, and the mass killings. School books have
not suffi ciently dealt with this subject, creating a society that hasn ’ t
mourned its past.
The younger generation has come to their freedom without the
baggage of the previous generation. The words ‘ freedom, ’ ‘ liberation, ’
‘ independent problem - solving ’ , and ‘ creativity enhancement ’ can now
be heard in the context of child - rearing. However, there is still consid-
erable tension, especially in schools, between old and new approaches
to dealing with children (Ispa, 1994 ). The question Russia faces, in the
classroom and elsewhere, is how to balance this increased freedom with
obedience and structure. How these changes in attitude will affect the