VOL. IV (XXI) 2009 - Departamentul de Filosofie si Stiinte ale ...

116 PUBLIC RELATIONS DISASTER AS A PARTICULAR SYMBOL OF POWER
message. And we must underline that this perspective does not necessary
refer only to the core of the political message but also to some parts of PR
frame regardless of its obvious failure in terms of western approach. We
simply think that is necessary, from a very distinct point of view, to draw a
clear line between the strictly PR failure and, on the other hand, the political
and military symbolism of Russian attitude during the Kursk drama. Let us
summarize our point of view.
In order to do this let us remember the main frame of facts. Kursk sank
on August 12, 2000 but Russia officially asked for foreign help only on the
16 th of August 2000. President Putin returned on Moscow from Socchi on
August 18 and only on the 22 nd of August he met the families of the Kursk`s
crew 4 . Of course, for the western mentality, this attitude during a crisis of
such proportions could not be interpreted in any other way but a total PR
disaster. We can accept, at least to a point, the refusal of foreign help but we
can not accept the fact that the highest Russian authorities were waited so
long until the meeting with the families of those brave submariners. In this
point, we think, lies the key which can help us understand the Russian
attitude when this kind of drama occurs. It seems that there is indeed
something deep in the Russian collective soul, something which is
responsible for the easiness of acceptance the individual sufferance, the
sacrifice and the silent approval of the cruelty and brutality from the
authorities during crisis situations. And it would be a complete mistake to
believe that this type of attitude from the authorities was something specific
only to the communist period or in the years after the collapse of the Soviet
Union. In short, the clumsiness of PR perspective, to say the least, and the
rigidity of military structures are both things which could be explicable in a
country like post-communist Russia but anyone can feel that something
much deeper lies beyond this two things. The cult of individual sacrifice, the
acceptance of personal sufferance, the tradition of obeying to any kind of
authorities without questioning too much is something which can be easy
tracked down along Russia’s history and it could never ignored by any
attempt to understand the nowadays Russian way of approach in problems
regarding mass communication when tragedies occur 5 . The acceptance of
sufferance at the level of individual was very visible in the way in which
Kremlin treated the crew of the Kursk. It is almost something that you can
feel without any conceptual frame that for Kremlin the faith of those 118
sailors was no priority and the only concern was to preserve the status of the
Navy in front of internal public opinion. This is something which is not a bad
thing in itself but surely is not good in terms of image. Beyond this disastrous
approach we can detect the old spirit and the ancient Russian tradition of self
4 Simmons, Gregory – “Russian crisis management communications and media
management under Putin” in Arbetsrapporter Working Papers No. 85, January
2005, ISSN 1103 – 3541.
5 Rancour-Laferriere, Daniel – “Slave soul of Russia. Moral Masochism and the Cult
of Suffering”, New York and London, New York University Press, 1995, p. 244.