It is bizarre to read the article which got Valery Garbuzov fired as Director of the prestigious Institute for the USA and Canada at Russia’s Academy of Sciences. After all, what he writes is quite self evident for us in the West. However, we must not forget Orwell: “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
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| Valery Garbuzov |
The following is a slightly modified google translate from Russian in Nazavisimaya Gazeta
For self-knowledge Russia needs knowledge, not myths
By Valery Garbuzov
About the author: Valery Nikolaevich Garbuzov - Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute for the USA and Canada Academician G.A. Arbatov RAS.
The passing era takes a lot with it: illusions and hopes die, myths are destroyed, a new reality appears, the living environment changes. What generations lived for is forgotten.
Often, the ruling elites of authoritarian and totalitarian political regimes deliberately formed utopian ideas and myths, purposefully spread among the masses. Such massive manipulation of the consciousness of society immediately gives rise to a utopian picture of the perception of the world among millions of people, making it possible to unite disparate political and social groups around a national leader in the name of a specific goal. However, it is also a powerful tool for long-term retention of personal power. And Russian history is by no means an exception.
It's no secret that the charge of foreign policy expansionism has never left Russia, pursuing it throughout its entire historical development. It was that which became one of the engines of the formation of the Russian state.
This trend was manifested during the years of the existence of the early feudal Old Russian state of Kievan Rus in the 9th–12th centuries, and during the specific period of feudal strife in the 12th–15th centuries, and during the time of the Moscow centralized state of the 15th–18th centuries, and after the formation of the Russian Empire in 1721, when Eurasian continental expansionism became the focus of Russia's often aggressive foreign policy activity, which turned it into the world's largest power by the beginning of the 20th century.
The myth of world communism
The Bolsheviks, who came to power in October 1917, enthusiastically took up the banner of Russian continental expansionism. True, they gave it a communist color and a global scale.
After the Russian revolution of 1917, the ruling elite of the young Soviet republic adopted the expansionist idea of a world proletarian revolution, in which the first Soviet Bolsheviks (Zinoviev and Kamenev, Lenin and Trotsky, Stalin and Bukharin) wholeheartedly believed. Few of them doubted that after October 1917, following Russia, a revolutionary fire would break out in the rest of the world, and all of Europe (and even America) would certainly be Soviet.
A special revolutionary radicalism then came from Trotsky, who claimed to be the main organizer of the October Revolution and the ideologist of the permanent revolution - a continuous revolutionary process on a global scale.
In order to organize a world revolution in 1919, its headquarters, the Comintern, was created in Moscow, which formed its own sections - national communist parties and turned into a foreign policy instrument of the rapidly growing Soviet empire. However, it soon became clear that this idea was just an empty myth, an unrealizable utopia. In 1943, under pressure from the allies in the Anti-Hitler coalition, the Comintern announced its own dissolution.
Soviet mythology
The state propaganda of the USSR in the 1960s and 1970s was built around several points that formed the Soviet foreign policy mythology.
One of them was the thesis of American imperialism taking over the entire globe and preventing the rest of the world from advancing towards a bright communist future. The fact that the foreign policy of the USSR during the Cold War years was its mirror image, today, few people doubt. The two superpowers held each other back, practically using the same tools to create their own spheres of global geopolitical influence.
At the same time, another thesis has become widespread in Soviet scientific and educational literature - about the historical doom of capitalism, which has entered its last stage - imperialism, and about the three centers of inter-imperialist contradictions (USA, Western Europe and Japan), the accumulation of which will lead to its inevitable death and victory of world communism.
The main forces of the anti-imperialist movement were declared to be three main liberation flows: the countries of the socialist camp, the world communist movement and the national liberation, anti-colonial movement, through whose efforts the powerful imperialist dam that impedes the progress of mankind should be destroyed.
The aggravation of the contradictions of imperialism, the collapse of its colonial system, the strengthening of political reaction, the deep crisis of bourgeois politics and ideology were declared symptoms of the “general crisis of capitalism” that gripped Western society. This utopian theory existed for decades, completely spreading in the USSR and socialist countries, never being questioned.
Similar utopian dogmas were enshrined in the Third Program of the CPSU, adopted by the XXII Congress of the CPSU in 1961, aimed at building communism within 20 years, and in its new edition, adopted by the XXVII Party Congress in 1986, which was based on the utopian doctrine of “developed socialism” .
Each time, the ideological hesitation of the irreplaceable Soviet party and state elite, plunging society into a world of illusions, led to the creation of a false picture of the world.
The evolution of capitalism
However, the reality (as is often the case) turned out to be completely different. The "general crisis of capitalism" never led to the victory of world communism. On the contrary, the Soviet Union disintegrated under the weight of internal deep contradictions, and along with its collapse, the system of socialism, which had reached a dead end, collapsed. The world communist movement found itself in a deep crisis, never reaching its goal.
The situation was different in the West. Overcoming crises, Western capitalism did not die, but evolved predominantly in socialist and neoliberal directions. Following the rule “if you want to survive, change,” it became more and more regulated by the state, more and more humane and attractive to its own citizens. The social responsibility of the state and business has become the norm of the Western world.
This ability of capitalism, under the influence of crises, to quickly adapt, getting rid of its own vices, to constantly develop and improve, turned out to be beyond the vision of the “visionary” Soviet thinkers.
"Old Songs About Main Things"
Today, in the wake of anti-Western sentiments in an atmosphere of pseudo-patriotic frenzy that has gripped the population of Russia, which regularly listens to “Old Songs About Main Things” and who with amazing ease, naively and thoughtlessly perceives the theses of total state propaganda, new myths are being created, and with them a modern utopian consciousness is being formed. These myths are being spread day and night by a new generation of well-paid professional political manipulators and panelists on numerous television talk shows.
In the context of the creeping restoration of Stalinism, through their efforts, new dogmas are being introduced - about the crisis of globalization and the entire “Anglo-Saxon” world (what would this mean in the 21st century?), about a new anti-colonial revolution (there are only 17 colonies left in the world!), about the loss of the American domination (and this is after the collapse of the USSR?), about the great world anti-American revolution, in general about the decline of the West (the second coming of the “general crisis of capitalism”?!).
Such statements require compelling reasons. Do they exist? Let's try to figure it out.
Informal empires of the modern world
The dominance of the United States is an objective, constantly acting factor that began the process of its formation from the beginning of the 20th century and exists (to the deep sadness of modern domestic pseudo-patriots) to this day. True, the scale of this factor, as well as the nature and forms of its manifestation, have evolved.
Over the almost 250-year period of its existence and development, thanks to the global expansion of the United States in the 20th century, it has become an "informal empire of the modern world", penetrating itself and simultaneously integrating almost all countries and continents. This is what has become the long-term strategic course of the United States - the "nation of all nations" and the superpower of modernity.
Today, the United States, producing 25% of the world's industrial GDP, continues to be the economic giant of the modern world. With the help of 12 military-political blocs and more than 1,000 military bases and facilities located in strategically important regions of the world, they ensure their global dominance: the American military presence is recorded in more than 80 countries.
The United States is a nuclear superpower that maintains global leadership in such areas as the global economy, finance, military, innovation, direct investment and culture. They still retain their attractiveness, as evidenced by the inexhaustible massive flows of immigrants from all continents. About 1 million people arrive in the United States each year.
Possessing more than 70% (8150 tons) of the world's total gold reserves, the United States is the undisputed leader in terms of gold reserves. This allows us to maintain the position of the US dollar as a world currency. And although only 3% of Russians today believe in its reliability (paradox: about 60% of Russian citizens keep their savings in dollars, the volume of which is a record 226.6 billion!), in the long term it continues to be the most popular and stable currency in the world - the world's main reserve currency.
American global dominance evokes different reactions, from rejection to support. In the world, almost 70% of the population recognizes the leadership of the United States and has a generally positive attitude towards this power. At the same time, anti-Americanism has always accompanied the movement of the United States on its way to the geopolitical pinnacle. A persistent rejection of this superpower remains today in countries such as Jordan, China, Palestine, Pakistan, Lebanon, North Korea, Russia, Belarus, Cuba, Austria, Slovenia, Venezuela, Iran.
The anti-American foreign policy of the USSR, aimed at counteracting the United States and the entire West, helped in its time to create an alternative socialist empire that lasted only a few decades and collapsed due to its own unviability. Its global collapse should have been a good lesson to all mankind.
Any attempts to cobble together a new anti-American coalition on a global scale (stubbornly undertaken today by the Russian authorities, seized by the desire to "return what was lost") are unlikely to lead to success. The interests of most states of the world are too integrated into the American ones, forming a strategic interdependence between them and thus deterring any aggressive anti-Americanism.
Having challenged the United States and begun its rise more than 40 years ago, China is following a similar path to the US, conquering more and more new markets and spheres of influence around the planet. Having turned into a world factory, this power is on the verge of transformation into the second “informal empire of the modern world”, the main (after the collapse of the USSR) global competitor of the United States. However, the factors that ensure China's imperial future are likely to be different.
According to macroeconomic forecasts, within the next 10 years China may surpass the United States in terms of the nominal size of its economy. This process will be accompanied by the fight between the yuan and the dollar and the possible displacement of the latter from the position of the world reserve currency. Will this happen? It is still difficult to answer this question. But if this happens, the world will undoubtedly face big changes.
Thus, today there are only two informal empires on the planet - the USA and China. Russia is a former empire, the heir to the Soviet superpower, experiencing an extremely painful syndrome of suddenly lost imperial greatness.
The fact that Russia today has a pronounced post-imperial syndrome is more a tragic pattern than a historical anomaly. Its peculiarity is that it did not appear immediately after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, but made itself felt much later, with Putin coming to power. More than 30 years later, the delayed syndrome, the possible occurrence of which was previously not given much importance, has acquired a threatening character.
Three geopolitical programs
In today's world, there are only three powers with their own global programs: the US, China and Russia.
First of all, the United States, which throughout its history has been shaping its own geopolitical program based on the ideas of American exceptionalism and messianism, the universalism of American values, American dominance and undeniable leadership. Pursuing a policy of global expansionism, spreading their own values and institutions beyond their borders, having turned into an informal empire of the modern world in the second half of the 20th century, they have long secured the status of the main superpower of the planet.
China has relatively recently embarked on the path of shaping its own global course. Its main stages were the reforms of Deng Xiaoping, the “One Belt – One Road” policy and the concept of “Creating a community with a common destiny for mankind.” All of them are one way or another aimed at achieving a leading position for the Celestial Empire on the path to world progress.
One thing is clear: the USA and China are two informal empires of the modern world. Moreover, both of these empires, born in different parts of the world, in different eras, are very similar in their methods of spreading their global influence. It is no coincidence that the main confrontational axis of the modern world lies precisely between them.
Russia has its own - special - orbit. As the main heir to the Soviet superpower created on the ruins of the Russian Empire, it became a hostage of its own imperial complex. This is precisely what explains its current foreign policy behavior and the problems that it brings to the world.
It is no secret that after the collapse of the colonial empires, all metropolises experienced an inevitable nostalgia for the lost greatness - the so-called post-imperial syndrome. It was formed almost immediately, when it was clear that the former colonial power was collapsing.
For example, Winston Churchill was not very happy about the victory in World War II, because something happened that he was clearly not prepared for. Having grown up and formed in the British Empire, he could not come to terms with the fact that this empire was falling apart before his eyes. The same can be said about his contemporary, General Charles de Gaulle. Brought up in French society with an imperial consciousness, he could not get used to the fact that France was irretrievably losing its colonies one after another. But, having overcome their imperial feelings, they still managed to adapt to a fundamentally new situation.
Russia, which today is going through an extremely painful post-imperial syndrome, is also trying to form its own global geopolitical program. But it is still too shaky, unstable and eclectic. Judge for yourself: the program (rather a set of guidelines) is based on a mixture of ideas of Eurasianism, the “Russian world”, aggressive anti-Americanism, confrontation with the unipolar world and the “decaying” West as a whole.
It also contains the ideas of “sovereign democracy”, “deep people”, longing for traditional values and the Orthodox faith. This entire mixture is held together by a conservative glue that connects its dissimilar components. In some ways, this mishmash is reminiscent of the anti-Western ideological inventions of almost 200 years ago - the “theory of official nationality” of the permanent president of the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences for 30 years and concurrently the Minister of Public Education, Count Sergei Uvarov. His triad “Orthodoxy. Autocracy. Nationality" was the ideological embodiment of Russian monarchism, which, along with Orthodoxy and the guaranteed support of the people by the autocratic government, supposedly act as reliable guarantors of the existence and greatness of Russia.
As for conservatism, which the current Russian authorities are so fond of, it is not so clear-cut. There is no single, timeless and universal conservatism in the world. This is a flowing phenomenon, the objects of conservation are different, and it is individual in different countries. And the conservatism that existed in Russia once at the beginning of the twentieth century and is sometimes taken as a model today is hardly suitable in the current circumstances.
Modern Russia, which turned out to be the main successor to the Soviet superpower and feels nostalgic for its past greatness and lost influence, today experiencing a delayed post-imperial syndrome, despite its small share in the world economy, still has a strong expansionist charge and an as yet unrevealed ambition for global geopolitical influence .
Having a rich experience of communist expansionism associated with the activities of the Comintern, quickly creating a sphere of its own regional and global influence after the victory in World War II, and immediately losing it with the collapse of the USSR, modern Russia is trying, so far unsuccessfully, to take belated revenge.
To this end, it initiated the creation of new integration associations (CSTO, EAEU, SCO, BRICS), thereby forming its own geopolitical fields and spaces. The same goals were pursued by Russia’s once successful energy strategy, which was perceived in the world not only as a tool for securing reliable markets for energy resources, but also as a key element in organizing its own spheres of global influence.
Trying to rally around itself on an anti-Western platform the former colonial and oppressed peoples of the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, involving them in the struggle against the countries of the “golden billion” that has been pushing its world domination and has been dominating the world for decades, Russia today claims to be the leader of “ the global majority."
However, it has not yet managed to compete with the United States and China and become an independent geopolitical anti-Western locomotive. And with the help of the newly created state mythology, it is unlikely to be able to do so.
The purpose of all this is quite obvious - plunging one’s own society into a world of illusions and accompanied by great-power and patriotic rhetoric, the undisguised and deliberate indefinite retention of power at any cost, the preservation of property and the political regime by the current ruling elite and the oligarchy integrated with it.
In the conditions of the information age, replacing realities with illusions, Russia seemed to be frozen in the past, still relying on the tsar-priest or another firm hand of the supreme power, while trying unsuccessfully to regain its former greatness, lost possessions and world influence.
In this regard, we note that many today are inclined, according to the expert on autocratic-bureaucratic reality M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, confuse two concepts: “Fatherland” and “Your Excellency.” The words spoken by the great writer during the era of tsarism are still relevant today. The current domestic minions of authoritarianism (like the satraps of ancient Eastern despotisms that have sunk into oblivion), apparently completely devoid of historical consciousness, without hesitation, with touching emotion, sincerely identify the head of state with the state itself, the temporary ruler of the country with a great national and historical constant.
It's a shame, gentlemen, and humiliating!
Every nation, like every person, has its own biography. They even have their own official place of residence. And the most valuable thing is its unique character, which gives each one a special individuality and exclusivity. Only by knowing it, it is possible to build a line of civilized and responsible international behavior, a clear lack of which exists in today's world.
But that's not all. Knowledge, and not myths, about another people and state allows you to understand not only them, but also yourself, forming a comprehensive and at the same time critical view of your own country, its history with all the difficult pages, its difficult and tragic past, even if it was mixed with illusions that captivate society. True, long ago and irretrievably lost.
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Notes:
Not clear why Slovenia is in the group of anti-American countries.
"Old Songs About Main Things" is a series of musical films nostalgic about the USSR
