Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 22 – Yesterday, on the
92nd anniversary of the death of the founder of the Soviet state,
Vladimir Putin sharply criticized Vladimir Lenin for laying the groundwork for
the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union, the latest expression of his belief
that the disintegration of the USSR was “the greatest geopolitical tragedy of
the 20th century.”
But the current Kremlin leader is neither an
intellectual with a deep interest in history nor a sentimentalist deeply
attached to much except his own survival, and consequently, it is worth exploring
why he attacked Lenin because typically Putin’s historical discourses are not
about the past but rather about where he sees Russia now and what he intends to
do in the future.
Viewed from that perspective, Putin’s
words suggest three conclusions: First, like many Russian nationalists and
imperialists but in contrast to liberals in Russia and the West, Putin prefers
to criticize Lenin in order to avoid condemning Stalin -- even on issues like this
one where Stalin rather than Lenin played the dominant role (ivpavlova.blogspot.com/2016/01/blog-post_21.html
and forum-msk.org/material/news/11361894.html).
Second, Putin’s attacks on Lenin’s plan
for giving some non-Russians autonomy are in fact about Putin’s fears that the
existence of the non-Russian republics in the Russian Federation today may play
a similar role in that country’s future and his desire to eliminate them. Thus,
his speech yesterday likely indicates that he intends to restart his regional
amalgamation effort (Cf. windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2015/10/tatarstans-first-president-says-powers.html).
And third, Putin’s understanding of the
fateful role that autonomy of ethnic groups in Russia shows that there is
method to his madness in what he is doing in Ukraine even if some in the West
refuse to recognize it: Pushing for “autonomization” there, the Kremlin leader clearly
hopes to undermine and ultimately destroy the Ukrainian state (stoletie.ru/geopolitika/vozmozhny_li_sojedinennyje_shtaty_ukrainy_408.htm.)
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