The alienation of post-Cold War Russia has proceeded in waves. Each successive Western overreach for not just maintaining but expanding its global hegemony has produced a new wav of Russian alienation. What will probably be the last wave, one that might help spark a wave of ultra-nationalism afterward has begun. This new wave is alienating the West’s last base of support for Russian democratization and international cooperation: Russia’s liberals.…What Westerners don't understand about the USSR and Stalin is that Stalin was the figure that arose to meet Western aggression — as it turned out chiefly from Germany — although the rest of the West was behind the overthrow of the Bolshevik government, too. The cost was high, but Stalin's leadership prevailed. Russians are rightly proud of this achievement and justly so.
Western criticism of Stalin's excesses seem hypocritical given that the US Founding Fathers from the South were all most all slave holders and even bred slaves for sale, and slavery was legal in the US Constitution. The US also fought a much more bloody civil war than the Russian Revolution. But George Washington is revered, as is Thomas Jefferson as national heroes and patriots. Slave holder and slave breeder Jefferson, who fathered children into slavery had the temerity to write the Declaration of Independence, considered a key document of Western liberalism.
Formerly feudal Russia industrialized and created the necessary armaments to defend itself from the Nazi onslaught. Immediately after the end of WWII, the USSR faced the onslaught of the Western Allies, who integrated formerly Nazi forces into its war machine. For many Russians, Stalin was a national hero even though he was Georgian rather than Russian.
Russians realize that they face a similar threat now and have reacted accordingly. In addition, what sympathy the people had for the West was lost when the US bombed Serbia and NATO began advancing on Russia's borders. Respect for Western capitalism, democracy and values also began evaporating with the "liberalization" of Russia that almost destroyed the country and brought the oligarchs ("Russian Mafia") to power.
The first rule of geostrategy was enunciated by Clausewitz: "Don't march on Moscow." Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery enunciated the second rule: “Don't go fighting with your land army on the mainland of Asia."
The notion that either nationalistic Russia or China, or both, are going to cave to the West or be subject to color revolution is just daft.
"Don't march on Moscow," and, “Don't go fighting with your land army on the mainland of Asia."
Russian and Eurasian Politics
The West’s Alienation of Russia: The Next Wave
Gordon M. Hahn, analyst and Advisory Board member at Geostrategic Forecasting Corporation, member of the Executive Advisory Board at the American Institute of Geostrategy, a contributing expert for Russia Direct, a senior researcher at the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies, Akribis Group, and; and an analyst and consultant for Russia – Other Points of View
