The plot of Vasily Aksyonov’s best novel, The Island of Crimea, is based on a fantastic assumption what would have happened, if… That island doesn’t join the Soviet Russia in 1920 and takes the path of capitalistic development. However, in 1980s, the population of Crimea realizes that it should, nonetheless, join the “mainland” and that joining is carried out in a disorganized and untalented manner characteristic of the Soviet Union. There immediately emerge fuss, disrupted order, lines etc. So, an American woman, the wife of the main character of the novel, standing orderly in a line outside a gas station wants to fill up her car, but the locals cut in line aggressively explaining to the woman the one who is strong fills his/her car up the first. Moreover, those locals had lived in a civilized country for a few decades, they had abided by the laws. But the system, which their genetic memory is accustomed to, has come back and people are in their element again. Our element, as well as the element of other peoples of the former empire, is the Russian mess, where one can live only by the laws of the taiga – steal from each other and from the state, lie, deceive, cut in line, cross at a red light, be proud of your own unlawful nimbleness, envy others’ nimbleness exceeding yours and add to all that, continuously complain about the universal mess. Certainly, the government, which doesn’t “care for the people,” is to blame. I agree. However, usually that “caring” is understood by the majority of our citizens as an increase in wages, pensions, as creating jobs, at best, as “charity” (in which, by the way, the government is engaged once in 5 years), at worst. However, in my opinion, all that should not be the business of the government or the state. The only obligation of the government is to enforce law and order on the people who are accustomed to the mess. Let me make a simple example resembling the one described by Aksyonov. Recently I stood in a line in an organization, where the line is regulated by tickets given by a special device. It is a civilized way, there is no denying. However, the person on whose ticket a bigger number was written than on mine went first. When I drew attention on that fact, the one that cut in line looked at me as if I was an alien. But if there are still “Soviet” lines, what is the point in having “civilized” ways? What should the government, in this case, a security officer dressed in a nice uniform, do? He should have made that person leave the premises.
The government of Georgia, becoming independent from that traditional disorder to some extent, has been successfully making its population abide by certain law and order. However, it has been there for only a few years. Can you imagine what will happen, if a different, old-styled government is in power? The Georgian traffic officers will be in their mothers’ belly.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
