Between Two Fires
26 June 2021 -
Askøy
In Between Two Fires, Joshua Yaffa introduces the concept of the wily man, who has a certain moral flexibility which allows him to be be successful in the face of authority. In individual chapters Yaffa provides us with people from Putin's Russia that have done great things, but not without making some moral compromises.
The television producer who started off on the fringe as the Soviet Union was disintegrating and is now propagandizing for Putin.
The Chechen human rights worker who started off dodging bullets to record abuses by the Russian army during the wars in her homeland who became a puppet of Putin's strongman in Chechnia.
The Crimean zookeeper who believed Russian rule would be better and now regrets supporting annexation.
The gulag museum treading a fine line between preserving history and appeasing the current government.
The doctor working in Donbass who used her influence to save children but also allowed herself to become propaganda for the war.
The world class director who was happy to use government funds to stage productions until the regime decided they didn't need him.
One starts to get the impression that there isn't an honest person left in Russia. And maybe there isn't, as autocratic regimes force people into choices between conflicting principles. But it's not just Russia - power corrupts everywhere. And Yaffa's book sublty invites us all to look at the decisions we've made in our own lives to be successful.
