I recently sat down with an academic – I won’t identify the University – who posited the following. He’s got a Doctorate in Eurasian Studies and has written extensively about Slavic Affairs; he also wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. Judge for yourself his assessment of American Foreign Policy. This is my take-away from our conversation. My words. His observations. It’s food for thought.
The United States of America will never understand Russia.
Why? Because Americans don’t understand Russians.
One thing I don’t see a great deal of in our public discourse about Russia is objectivity. Let’s just say that the reasons are nuanced, to be diplomatic.
Granted, Americans are as different from Russians as oil is to water. The Russian historical and cultural experience is so alien to the American mindset that to suggest otherwise involves a serious warping of reality. One reason for American disdain of all things Russian, however, is unfortunate.
American Media and Presidents rely solely on academics and State Department Diplomats who are of Jewish descent, many of whom have learned at their “Bubbie’s Knee” (Yiddish vernacular for Grandmother) Jewish persecution yarns about Russia’s “Pale of Settlement”. These are unflattering, apocryphal tales that portray Russians as a brutal, antisemitic people who invented Pogroms and killed Jews indiscriminately in the “Old Country”. To the misguided soul and hatemonger, Russians are beasts to be subjugated, and their influence around the world must be pared down to nothingness.
Just how many “Pogroms” actually took place in Russia is a topic of intense debate. The causes of these disturbances – just like race riots in the United States or anarchist rampages in 19th Century Europe – are complicated and ofttimes disingenuously reported. The term Pogrom is at best a dog-whistle, a shop-worn and mostly meaningless slur like Antisemite or Blood Libel. American conservative media directs these tired memes at anyone who has the temerity to question their pre-canned Zionist, Israel-first narratives. They are now little more than smears of ridicule screamed by shills who struggle to justify an unjustifiable Israeli genocide in Gaza. Criticize Israel – and you’re an Antisemite. No ifs, ands or buts. Forget about the First Amendment. End of conversation.
Never will an American President consult or rely on an Ambassador, Diplomat or “Special Envoy” that is not a member of God’s alleged Chosen Tribe. Never does an American President seek advice from a person of the Russian Orthodox faith. Never does a President acknowledge that Russia is now a Christain – Orthodox – nation that adheres to the same moral code America does. The majority of Russians worship Jesus and know their New Testament better than Americans do. Church attendance in Russia consistently outpaces it in the USA.
American Presidents get their advice from a staff that hate Russians viscerally – who incorporate the “antisemitism” and “Pogrom” trope into every analysis and advisory memorandum they craft for his briefings.
The USA Department of State is top-heavy with Israel-firsters and Christian Zionists. They have pledged their troth to servile obeisance of Israel. Their hatred of Russia is pathological. AIPAC -purchased Congressmen and Senators have crushing influence throughout Washington, DC. Our current President surrounds himself with Zionists (of all stripes) and is clearly tethered to Tel Aviv and Miriam Adelson with golden battleship chains. That’s simply the sad truth of the matter – and we have to have an honest conversation about it. Read John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s book: The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.
What makes Russia such a hard nut to crack to even those not afflicted with the Tribe’s prejudice?
The Russian psyche is scarred on a genetic level from a one-thousand-year history of war and conflict.
America has been around as a country since 1776. Russia’s older than that – a lot older. Russia as a nascent and fully developed polity is over 1000 years old.
From the days of Kievan Rus (862AD) through today Russia has fought a ton of wars. And when they weren’t fighting wars – they were embroiled in armed conflicts. Norse, Magyars, Turkmens, Circassians, Drevelians, Varangians, Bulgars, Poles, Khazars, Pechenegs, Mongols, Ottomans, Tatars, Byzantines, Swedes, French, Austrians, Lithuanians, Germans – and this isn’t even a complete list. Oh – and by the way – Russia’s western “buffer” was Ukraine, the Old Slavonic translation of which means Frontier. The communists allowed it some nominal self-rule after WWI, but Ukraine was never an independent country until the fall of the Soviet Union. It has always been seen as an expanse of defensible “frontier” real estate protected and administered by Russia.
World War I (WWI): Russian enters WWI in 1914 and ceases their active involvement in 1918. Russia suffers between 2 and 3 million military deaths during WWI – after starting the war with a population of between 175 and 178 million people. Russia then suffers through a Communist Revolution – their “Civil War”. Total deaths in the Russian “Bolshevik” Revolution are estimated to be 61 million, a horrific number of casualties.
World War II (WWII): Russia starts WWII with about 175 million people. It mobilizes 34 million soldiers. By the end of WWII Russia suffers 27 million deaths. During the Battle of Stalingrad alone Russia loses between 750,000 and 800,000 fighting men. The final “butchers bill” of Russian losses for the Stalingrad campaign is 1.5 million people – soldiers and civilians combined.
The present-day population of ethnic Russians is between 104 and 105 million people. Clearly, even 80 years after the Battle of Stalingrad, Russia is struggling to make up for all their World War II dead. WWII dealt Russia a population blow from which it has never recovered – 25% of all Soviet males aged 20-40 were killed what Russia calls “The Great Patriotic War”. Those were males in the height of their reproductive years. This also created a “Gender Gap” and an economic ripple-effect that drags on the country to this day. These horrific demographic and economic consequences have given rise to a modern-day Russia that is culturally traumatized. And that trauma goes deep.
Contrast the American experience.
The USA fought in WWI for 19 months and suffered around 117,000 military deaths. Russian fought for 4 years and lost a staggering 2-3 million soldiers.
The USA was in WWII for 3.75 years. Russian was in WWII for 3.9 years. The USA lost 1 million fighting men in WWII. That’s a tragic number – but nowhere near the 27 million deaths Russia suffered.
The USA has only been involved in 11 officially declared “Wars” in its brief history as a nation. Even counting the “Police Actions” of Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Operation Desert Storm, etc. the USA hasn’t fought anywhere near the number of conflicts that Russia has. The American Indian Campaigns, of course, must be counted in the total – but history is clear: Russia has been fighting wars for centuries. The USA has not.
Never-ending wars, conflict and threats of wars have an effect on people over centuries. Like abused children, an ethnicity becomes accustomed to injury and privation. They become twisted by the cruelty of war – and it terraforms their zeitgeist at a cellular level. A country that suffers such tremendous casualty losses over its history is mentally damaged by the transformative weight of those numbers. Russia today is the product of a violent, brutal evolution. It has a siege mentality. It is a wonder how their culture can still be so full of beauty and creativity, arts and scientific achievements. They are obviously made of stern stuff.
Russia’s neighbors were always more threatening and dangerous than the ones America dealt with. Russia grew hard and toughened-up early – honing its skills and annealing its mettle in the furnace of battle and adversity. Russians have overcome tremendous odds. They’re proud. And they’re not a people to be trifled with. Saying this doesn’t make me anti-American; it makes me a realist.
If you swallow a steady diet of Fox News propaganda that “America has the biggest, boldest and most lethal military force in the history of the world” – you might want to dig a little deeper. Read Andrei Martyanov’s trilogy: America’s Final War, Losing Military Supremacy, and Disintegration. Listen to podcasts of people like Larry Johnson, Scott Ritter, Colonel James McGregor, Judge Andrew Napolitano. The damage Russia can do to the United States in a military confrontation is incalculable. It is truly a no-win calculus. And the USA hasn’t fought anyone that can be considered a “Peer Adversary” in 80 years! Operation Desert Storm wasn’t much of a test.
Why are we in this predicament? Why can’t we get off this war Crazy Train? Is it because our Military Industrial Complex needs enemies to justify its existence? Do the Pentagon War Pigs have us by the throat?
Let’s look at geography.
Russia from the git-go has been surrounded by enemies – or, at least, countries who have vacillated between friendship, hostility, outright white-hot rage and rapprochement. Russians know their history chapter and verse – and never forget a battle. Every decision they make is made against the backdrop of their experience. They do nothing impulsively.
Americans, in contrast, seem to jump at every slight, sending in battle groups headed by huge, obsolete aircraft carriers at every whim. Why? Because America has never had to experience War on its’ continent. They don’t know what war – real war – is. A real war like the Eastern Front in World War II Stalingrad. They think war is some kind of game-theory exercise. Something that is always done at a distance. Never in our front yard.
Look at North America. There’s the United States. Up top is Canada. Down below is Mexico. For all our aggravations and trade disputes with Canada and Mexico – they aren’t militarily threatening. They never have been. The USA has a big ocean to the left – the Pacific – and a big ocean to the right – the Atlantic. The United States is, basically, an island. It has never had to deal with constant and numerous military threats on its doorstep like Russia has.
The USA has tapped an entire continent chock full of raw materials, minerals, oil, industry, workers, farms, food, livestock – you name it – from the beginning. It has never been attacked on its home turf – the North American continent. Hawaii is an island a long distance away. The attack on Pearl Harbor wasn’t an attack on our mainland. And when it needed to ramp up its war production, the USA got to work. It didn’t have to move entire industries beyond the Caucasus mountains like Russia just to manufacture the war materiel it needed to survive.
I’m not saying that the USA isn’t strong. I’m not saying that the United States isn’t great. I’m saying that the United States has had an amazing and incredible run of luck. Compared to Russia, the United States has been dealt a beautiful hand of cards.
But when does our American luck run out? Things change. Warfare changes. Adversaries change. Our internal population is changing. Can the USA hold on to its sweet spot and winning streak forever?
The Russian People.
Russians are Slavs. They are an industrious, intellectual and gifted people. They’re educated, practical and direct. Russians fight to protect their Rodina – their homeland. The idea of Mother Russia is no joke. They literally believe that their place of birth gave them life.
There is a literary and cultural concept known as the Slavic Soul. This is a sociological and anthropological device employed by writers, poets and intellectuals to describe a “spirit” of the Slavic peoples. Slavs are known for having emotional depth, spirituality, resilience and a connection to nature. Community is very important to Russians. While the Slavic Soul is a romanticized notion that’s hard to quantify, measure or scientifically nail down as a factual reality – it nevertheless gives us a context by which to understand Russians.
Emotional Intensity is an element of the Slavic Soul. Intense joy and melancholy. Read anything by Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Notes from the Underground. Read Nikolai Gogol – Taras Bulba, Dead Souls, The Overcoat. Read Alexander Pushkin – Winter Morning, The Stationmaster, Poltava. Read anything by Leo Tolstoy – Anna Karenina, War and Peace, The Devil. Finally, read my favorite: Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons.
The rich tapestry of Russian emotion is captured in these books for the ages.
A Connection to Nature is also an element of the Slavic Soul. Forests, rivers, steppes, fields, flowers, the snowfall – all factor into what makes a Slav a Slav. This is why the early Slavs revered Norse Gods: Odin, Freyja and Thor. The ebb and flow of their world was determined by the Seasons and phases of the Moon. Nature ruled their lives.
A Communal Spirit – the desire for a collective Harmony among themselves is an element of the Slavic Soul. Russians call this feeling for each other, Sobornost.
Mysticism is also an element of the Slavic Soul. Russians are a Spiritual people. Their unique Orthodox Christianity blends within it certain Pagan echoes of the “Old Gods” and “Old Ways”.
Resilience and Suffering is a big part of the Slavic Soul. Russians have endured immense hardships – wars, invasions, oppressions, adversities. But they never lose their hope for and belief in Humanity.
A belief in Duality is the final element of the Slavic Soul. Russians are mindful of the ever-present tension between light and darkness, joy and sorrow – the bittersweet paradoxes of nature that permeate every moment of every day and drive the forces of their very existence.
In conclusion: If Americans can’t – or won’t – understand the Russian “Slavic Soul” they will never understand Russians. Unless American leaders free themselves from “Experts” who hate Russians and cannot fathom what the Slavic Soul is all about, they will never be able to grasp the mentality they are dealing with. They’ll never understand why they can’t make the “connection” they need to seal the deal.
A lot rides on this. Read Annie Jacobsen’s book: Nuclear War – A Scenario. Americans must make a more serious and sober effort to rein in the shrill negativity that pervades our present dialogue with Russia. Maybe we can start relying on people who know what the Hell they’re doing for a change – bona fide Russian experts. Diplomats not poisoned by bias or racially pejorative childhood bedtime stories. This present crop of Washington-insider Bozos certainly isn’t doing us any favors.
American foreign policy is in a hole. And we have to stop digging.
(*Note from the Author: If this Post goes missing from the Internet, I didn’t pull it. Also, I have no intention of doing myself harm or revealing the identity of this Professor.)
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