When I 1eft Russia and the Russians in Deeember 1 974£®after three years<br > as Moscow bureau ch ief for The NeW York Times£®I thought that vast<br > country and its people would never really change£®As a people£¬they were<br > SO Russian£®SO different from people in the West£®<br > Having 1ived since 1 97 1 under the oppressive orthodoxy of Communist<br > party 1eader Leonid Brezhnev£®and having endured numerous personal<br > serapes with the chill and arrogance of Soviet offieialdom£®I had come to<br > see authoritarian rule as something firmly embedded in Russian society<br > and ingrained in the Russian psyche£®A solid wall separated the rulers and<br > the ruled£®In 1 95 6£¬Nikita Khrushchev had eased the raw despotism of<br > Stalin£¬but he had 1eft intact the granite citadel of power that was the<br > self£®perpetuating hierarchy of the Communist Party£®<br > Fiw long centuries of absolutismmfrom¡¯van the Terribk the Sovi，lve long centuries ot absolutismmtrom Ivan the 1 errible to the Soviet<br > seventies¡ªhad 1eft the Russian masses submissive£®In their personal lives£®<br > I found them ingenious in beating the numbing inefficiency of the state<br > r1Ò»¡¯1 ¡ñ 1 1 1 1 ¡ª 1 - <br > economy£® 1 heir black market Was sO vast that it operated as a coun£®<br > tereconomy£¬even to the extent of producing underground millionaires¡£<br > But in the sphere of political action£®grass£®roots initiative was moribund£®<br > In Russian history£¬tiny shoots of democracy had sprung up briefly from<br > time to time£¬but none had taken root£®Except for a handful of dissidents£¬<br >most of the intellectuals I encountered in the seventies were politically<br > passive£ºFear had taught them to save cynical iokes for private company£®<br >Ordinary people might grumble about shortages or injustices£¬but they<br >