Russia and the Netherlands: Changes and Challenges
Russia and the Netherlands: Changes and Challenges
Essay Question #2
• Compare and contrast the major internal changes and challenges faced by Russia and the Netherlands as detailed by Baker & Glasser and Buruma respectively. Russia and the Netherlands are both continuously complex and changing nations,
with rich histories remembered and great challenges overcome (and some still yet to
be overcome). In the very near past however, certain large scale changes and massive
challenges have come about for both countries, each linked to their pasts. Russia has had
to deal with war and terrorism brought on from its Chechen republic wanting to secede
and has come face to face with the immense difference between large city dwellers and
the poor, backwards inhabitants of the countryside. The country has started to slide back
to the authoritarianism of its not so distant past as its newest Prime Minister gained
large amounts of power quickly, but has also regained a sense of national pride mixed
with Soviet overtones. The Netherlands have had to deal with a growing population of
immigrants that have not conformed, or been welcomed into, society and have sparked up
unrest and great discomfort on both sides. They have also had to face the death of a great
leader and the continuous debate of whish freedoms, and whose, are most important. The
two countries continue to deal with these changes and challenges.
A great difficulty that both countries have had to deal with is domestic
terrorism and ethnic conflict, Russia, from the Chechen freedom fighters that want their
own separate nation, and the Netherlands, from the second and third generation
immigrants that rebel because they feel lost between a homeland they do not understand
and the country they live in but have not yet adapted to. Chechnya had tried to secede
from Russia before, although with rich oil fields Yeltsin refused to allow this to happen,
and
Essay Question #2
• Compare and contrast the major internal changes and challenges faced by Russia and the Netherlands as detailed by Baker & Glasser and Buruma respectively. Russia and the Netherlands are both continuously complex and changing nations,
with rich histories remembered and great challenges overcome (and some still yet to
be overcome). In the very near past however, certain large scale changes and massive
challenges have come about for both countries, each linked to their pasts. Russia has had
to deal with war and terrorism brought on from its Chechen republic wanting to secede
and has come face to face with the immense difference between large city dwellers and
the poor, backwards inhabitants of the countryside. The country has started to slide back
to the authoritarianism of its not so distant past as its newest Prime Minister gained
large amounts of power quickly, but has also regained a sense of national pride mixed
with Soviet overtones. The Netherlands have had to deal with a growing population of
immigrants that have not conformed, or been welcomed into, society and have sparked up
unrest and great discomfort on both sides. They have also had to face the death of a great
leader and the continuous debate of whish freedoms, and whose, are most important. The
two countries continue to deal with these changes and challenges.
A great difficulty that both countries have had to deal with is domestic
terrorism and ethnic conflict, Russia, from the Chechen freedom fighters that want their
own separate nation, and the Netherlands, from the second and third generation
immigrants that rebel because they feel lost between a homeland they do not understand
and the country they live in but have not yet adapted to. Chechnya had tried to secede
from Russia before, although with rich oil fields Yeltsin refused to allow this to happen,
and