A Changing Russia and Greg Bear & Moving Mars

The world was shocked when on September 1, an entire school full of teachers, parents, and students were taken hostage at a school in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia. After three days of a bloody siege, special forces managed to gain control of the building, yet not without heavy casualties. The death toll was over 300, about half of whom were children, and those injured numbered approximately 700. It was a massive act of terror from those loyal to the Chechen separatist Shamil Basayev, and the worst terrorist act that modern Russia had ever seen. They demanded the release of rebels that were imprisoned nearby. In the aftermath of such devastation, President Vladimir Putin has ordered a major overhaul of the government, including many controversial changes.

In Greg Bear's Moving Mars, humanity settled Mars, and Earth kept a strict reign on the new world, controlling the majority of their activities. Martians were appalled when Earth began to destroy their world, turning settlements, including their newly built capital, into dust. Essentially a mass genocide, Earth intended to eventually destroy the community of Mars. Using terrorist tactics and illegal weapons, terrestrial groups attacked Mars out of fear of the new technology that was being developed. Facing an inevitable and impending doom, the President of the new Mars Republic, Casseia Majumdar made a crucial decision that would change their lives forever.

Despite being fiction, Bear's novel shared many of the same political themes between Russia and the Republic of Mars. With the creation of the Russian Constitution in 1993, democracy has existed in Russia for scarcely a decade. Casseia handled an extremely young government on Mars, not yet past the stage of interim officials. Dealing with fairly new governments, both executives faced challenges from a deeply divided peoples. With a society full of ethnic, social, class, and religious divisions, Russia was not the best breeding grounds for a democratic government. Similarly, Mars had been based around the concept of Binding Multiples, BMs, in the past. These BMs divided the people into specific economic groups that essentially controlled every aspect of their lives. Historically, each was not inclined towards democracy, and it became evident in the actions of President Putin and Casseia.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, a simplified statement of many emergency strategies of governments. Following the horrifying hostage situation, Putin seized upon the opportunity to change the government. He had never shown much enthusiasm for democracy, as he manipulated many seemingly democratic processes and took control of independent media. Yet, not until Russia was thrown into a state of panic by the hostage situation did he completely reverse a right guaranteed in the constitution- that is, he took from citizens their right to vote for governors and district representatives in Parliament. Bear created a similar situation for Cassiea, as she refused a vote before sending the entire planet of Mars hurtling through space, literally moving it into another galaxy. They both felt that democracy was not indeed the best method, and that a sort of totalitarianism would befit their situations more efficiently.

Yet, just as it is interesting to point out the similarities between the political shift in Russia and Moving Mars, it is equally as essential to highlight the differences, the majority of which lies in their motives. President Putin appeared to have taken advantage in a sense of the disparity of his nation following the terrorist act. He had shown very little enthusiasm for the new democracy of Russia, and had made attempts to undermine its stronghold prior to the hostage incident. In contrast, Casseia was committed to the creation of the Martian Republic, as she was a key player in the creation of the their nation, the first world republic ever. She hoped for the success of their world, and did not fight to undermine its authority. Thus, it was with these different backgrounds that both leaders came into the challenge. The logic behind Russia's abandonment of democracy was not clear to follow, there seemed to be very little connecting regional voting with the terrorist war against Chechnya. It is this precise lack of an impending need to change that points towards President Putin's private agenda. Unlike him, Caseia's abandonment of the vote was a purely altruistic move. She despaired at the loss of her entire world, and thus was forced into making her decision. Despite the similarity of their situations, it would be their intentions that ultimately differentiated the two.

Bear taught us in his novel that there is indeed a time and place for totalitarianism in the government. When Mars was facing the threat of total annihilation by Earth, their President, with a purely altruistic intention, made the decision to move their planet without a vote. It was, however, necessary, as they were living on a time limit. Russia continues to fall backwards in a world that is rapidly becoming democratic. After long years of struggle, a sort of tentative unity was established in its government, and President Putin's drastic change in regional voting destroys a large part of the democratic structure. The terrorist attacks had little to do with the voting, and he is merely asserting his rule over Russia, a move that will inevitably snowball with time. Russia is not at the correct place in time to head back towards another Stalinistic era, and if President Putin is not controlled, another dictator shall be born.