Now that Russia has given up its ridiculous ambition to become an advanced capitalist nation in the space of a historical nano-second, Russians can revert to their favourite pursuits: relieving their anguish with sardonic humour and suspecting that their plight is the result of a grand conspiracy.
Not that these pastimes – perfected throughout years of deprivation and communist party politicking – ever really died out. But the strength of the liberal argument did worry a small minority for a short time in the early 1990s that the market might really deliver up what it promised and the jokes would have to be changed.
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