The hero of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" is, it turns out, a cultured, albeit spiritually afflicted, man who returns to Russia from travels in Europe to rediscover his homeland. Similarly, Martin Sixsmith revisits "Russia - The Wild East" in a new series for BBC Radio 4, whose first omnibus edition I caught yesterday.
It is interesting that Sixsmith was for a time close to the heart of New Labour, and then fell out with "The Party". In his re-iteration of the centrality of the state in Russia, I cannot help but feel that Sixsmith, also a cultured and, perhaps, somewhat tortured soul himself, may be projecting something of New Labour into his Russian history.
Indeed, to paraphrase Prince Myshkin, the soul of New Labour was also a dark place, and I'm wondering whether the plot of Dostoevsky's book may serve as a parallel to the recent history of England, particularly as we share Saint George - whose day it is today - with the Russians.
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