Life in Russia might be fairly grim, what with some of the world’s highest numbers of fatal accidents, homicides, alcohol-related deaths and a pervasive corruption that threatens even national security. But at least Russians don’t have to worry too much about becoming the victim of a shootout perpetrated by a heavily armed stranger with a grudge against society.
While carnage of the kind that took place in the U.S. state of Colorado last week occurs with frightening frequency in the home of the brave, there have been practically no similar incidents in the history of modern Russia.
There are, in short, no Russian equivalents of Charles Whitman, James Huberty, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold –all names that have gone down in the annuals of American infamy for their apparently random slaughter of fellow human beings.
True, a drunken police officer opened fire in a Moscow supermarket in 2009, killing two. But, while it’s obviously of little consolation to his victims, his kill-rate probably wouldn’t even have made national news in the United States.
And, of course, victimized soldiers in the Russian Army – notorious for the vicious and cruelly inventive hazing of younger soldiers by their elder comrades - have been known to snap and take deadly revenge on their persecutors, picking up an AK-47 to get even.
But it’s not really appropriate to draw a comparison between these physically and psychologically brutalized pitiful conscripts and the well-fed killers in the birthplace of the hamburger and TV dinner. It’s one thing to reach for your weapon when you’ve been tortured and humiliated for weeks, quite another to pull the trigger because – well, you feel like it. Or, whatever.
So, why aren’t Russians prone to more random mass slaughter?
The obvious answer here is the lack of a national gun-culture. It’s a lot harder to get your hands on weapons in Russia than it is in the United States. There are no stores selling automatic weapons, shotguns and high-powered rifles complete with sniper-sights in downtown Moscow. Or anywhere else in the country, come to that.
But that’s patently not the entire story. After all, one year ago, a rabid nationalist by the name of Anders Behring Breivik went on the rampage in Norway, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world. And even Britain, where – famously - the cops don’t carry firearms (unless they need to shoot someone, obviously), has seen a number of its own mass shootings over the years.
Of course, it would be wrong to suggest that Russia doesn’t boast its own share of mental cases. But Russian killers seem to prefer the long, drawn-out approach to mass murder, rather than the much more dramatic option of opening fire in a crowded location and going out all guns blazing.
And that’s a revealing moment. Are Russian killers just cleverer in their own twisted way? Are they simply prolonging the pleasure of the kill? Taking their time with the torture in exchange for the instant headlines?
Or is there something else behind this lack of a desire for spontaneous mass notoriety? Something to do with Russia’s comparatively underdeveloped media culture?
In the United States, the West, the media is all-pervasive, the screen via which the world is fed back to its inhabitants, brightly. At the back of every would-be mass murderer’s mind – and often at the very front, flashing demonically in his eyes – is the knowledge that slaughter equals infamy. And infamy is just three letters away from fame, the instant variety of which seems to be the American dream.
Did the Colorado killer choose to open fire in a cinema just because he knew it would be full of people? Or was it born of a desire – conscious or subconscious - to detract attention from the modern America superheroes about to strut their stuff? To become the latest name on everyone’s lips, the face on every screen?
The media in the West is the digital tapestry everyone wants to be a part of – even if it’s just a background figure. And getting your gun out in public is a sure-fire way to ensure you become much more than that.
But Russia has no common, shared media consciousness. (Hardly surprising, of course, for a country which was Soviet a mere two decades ago.) No one here has been fed a steady cathode ray drip of high-grade fantasy since birth. No one here expects sudden elevation to the rank of digital god.
Like many things in Russia, the act of killing is much simpler. Russian mass murderers kill with no thought of the headlines and the Breaking News on CNN. The lust for blood is purer, perhaps, undiluted by the passion for fame.
(Disclaimer. All of the above could be totally wrong. It happens. And I’ve never even been to the United States. I have, however, seen it on TV a lot.)
The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
*
From lurid tales of oligarch excess to scare stories about Moscow’s stranglehold on Europe’s energy supplies, the land that gave us Roman Abramovich and Vladimir Putin is very rarely out of the news. But there is much more to modern Russia than billionaire tycoons and political conspiracy. Marc Bennetts’ weekly column, Deeper Than Oil, goes beyond the headlines to explore the hidden sides of the world’s largest, and often strangest, country.
Marc Bennetts is a journalist who has written about Russian spies, Chechen football and Soviet psychics for a number of UK newspapers, including The Guardian and The Times. He is also the author of Football Dynamo: Modern Russia and the People’s Game (Virgin Books).
Deeper Than Oil: Life Gets 'More Better’ for Sveta from Ivanovo
Deeper Than Oil: How Many Lenin Statues?!
Deeper Than Oil: Dead Leaders & Airplane Applause
Deeper Than Oil: Russian Rock Lessons
Deeper Than Oil: Trains, Kittens and Wake-Ups
Deeper Than Oil: The Pages of Wealth
Deeper Than Oil: A Brief Guide to Russian and Soviet Serial Killers
Deeper Than Oil: Russia’s Euro Joy
Deeper Than Oil: Under The Gaze of a Kazakh Poet
