Kolya Greyjoy

It is reported that the Belarusian Crown Prince will now study in Moscow. I have long suspected that this would be the case. Is there an analogue of the word ward in Russian? Something between a ward and a hostage. Well, yes, it's Theon Greyjoy. A practice known to almost all societies that could be drawn to the concept of "feudal" at the stage of centralization of power. Even in Japan during the Edo period, the offspring of the elite were trained at court. And the daimyos themselves (regional princes) spent half a year annually in the capital, so that, therefore, they would not plot anything in their provincial outback.

In the famous book Violence and Social Orders, the authors (North, Weingast, Wallis) introduced the term "natural state", which in turn is divided into "fragile" and "mature". What is a "natural state"? Every autocracy is a natural state, but not every natural state is an autocracy. The main sign here is rather the lack of equality before the law, the rule of law for all. Therefore, the medieval republic of Genoa or Florence goes here - there were different laws for different groups. So a "fragile" natural state is one that is ruled by certain people. The Baron, Count, and King is a flesh-and-blood personality with a specific set of connections to other such personalities. The count died, his contacts were reset to zero - a redistribution of power is possible. Because the system is "fragile" - it is constantly shaking. But as the development progressed, institutions began to come to the fore. There were "two bodies of the king" - physical and social. It is not so important what kind of person landed her ass on the throne if she performs institutional functions that have been streamlined for centuries. What makes society more stable, understandable and predictable.

Why am I? Obviously, the practice of noble hostages is more of a "fragile" stage. The blood's health can blackmail specific people, but not social institutions. Of course, over time, this practice may become more developed - when the focus shifts from blackmail to reformatting the regional elites to fit the cultural norms of the capital. But we guess that in the case of Crown Prince Kolya, this is still a little about that.

Interestingly, in the system of North and Co., the USSR was considered a developed natural state (moreover, even unique in its unified control over the armed forces). Consequently, the entire post-Soviet history of Russia can be viewed as a degradation from a developed natural state to a fragile one. They accepted a country with no institutions, but left it with power in the form of a bunch of personal relationships and the practices of hostage children.

P.S. They recalled that in Russian the borrowed "amanat" was once used for this.

Mihail Pojarsky 2020-09-17