ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some aspects of the rediscovery of Russian culture and its significance. It is important to draw a distinction, between glasnost and the rediscovery of Russian culture. Nationalism is, in one sense, likely to be as least as much bad news as good news; and nationalism and the re-discovery of Russian culture will go hand in hand. The possibilities of a stable and improving and more open East-West relationship will grow with the rediscovery of Russian culture. The conservatives are liberals - they are the older, unregenerate Stalinists, they don't want change, they want socialism, but they identify with Mother Russia and the campaign of rehabilitating old heroes and so on is an effort to get the reformers on the side of Russian history, Russian nationalism. Russians understand the importance of poetry, which is presumably why they shoot their poets, or used to, until quite.
