Russia-stuck in the same nasty place

Reading great historian Edward Radzinsky I find it fascinating that the descriptions of the state of Russia by some of the greatest thinkers of all time, given in the early 19th century are accurate to date. Young Alexander Pushkin spoke of people's inability 'to be awoken by a call of dignity' and that 'herds need not bare the gifts freedom'. Pushkin also refused to criticize the famous 'dandy' of the time - Petr Chaadaev, who in his open letter offered his view of Russia: the country forever stuck between the East and the West, unable to adopt anything good from either side; that Russia grows but never blooms and that something in its blood forbids even the slightest idea of progress; that its present is forever stale.