a bit of nitpicking —
but the Soviet Union never really had predominantly Russian leadership, which would be disproportionate to the Russian part of the Soviet population.
Lenin was from a Russian noble but ethnically diverse family.
Stalin was a Georgian and spoke Russian with an incredibly thick accent to the end of his life.
Khrushchev and Brezhnev were Ukrainians, and so on.
But I get your point, and now it makes more sense to me.
I see in Putin more of that monarchist strain — chauvinism from the times of Imperial Russia, which indeed was so much focused on that "RRR-Russian" identity, much more "blood and soil" ideology. And add to that Late Soviet
state "efficiency".
But I get your point, and now it makes more sense to me.
I see in Putin more of that monarchist strain — chauvinism from the times of Imperial Russia, which indeed was so much focused on that "RRR-Russian" identity, much more "blood and soil" ideology. And add to that Late Soviet state "efficiency".