Has Dmitry Medvedev learned all the wrong lessons from 20 years of Russian capitalism? According to Gazeta columnist Yulia Latynina, the Russian president’s recent visit to California will be for naught if he follows in the footsteps of his communist forbears and creates a state-guided version Silicon Valley near Moscow.
For Gazeta, Yulia Latynina writes in part:
Like any major official venture, China’s Treasure Fleets were completely ruinous to state coffers. Every fleet contained dozens of ships – also known as “Treasure Fleets,” the building of which demanded entire groves of teak. The rudder of one such ship was almost the length of all of Columbus’ caravels [see picture below]. Constructed with watertight bulkheads invented by the Chinese 1,000 years before Europeans, the teak vessels were covered with three layers of planks, the gaps between which were filled with a very expensive oil finish made of Tung Oil, lime and bird glue. Aboard each ship were 180 (!) doctors, not to mention stone cutters, artisans and even concubines brought along for the pleasure of senior officials.
The integrity of these ships was fantastic: they could have struck an iceberg without capsizing; and on board there was no scurvy, because the wise doctors fed sailors soy sprouts and fresh fruit. Meanwhile, the generosity of these explorers was beyond description.
But of course, this was quite correct from the standpoint of the Chinese state. Why build eggshells that will capsize during a storm? Let us build a “Treasure Fleet” that can withstand a typhoon. Why plunder newly-discovered lands? Why suffer from scurvy?
The problem was that all of these state concerns led to the construction of fleets that were of such quality, they were too expensive to sustain in that era. Paradoxically, the decision of Emperor Zhu Di to build gigantic fleets and his son’s decision to burn their blueprints were not different policies – they were versions of the same policy. It was a policy in which government, not a small and private Columbus, decided what everyone needed.
Now in Skolkovo, the story of the Treasure Fleet is repeating itself again. The Kremlin has launched its own Silicon Valley and put a Russian version of Zheng He at its head – Viktor Vekselberg. But excuse me, who is in charge of Silicon Valley?
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