Surkov’s ‘Valentine’ to the Women of the World: Their Rise Marks Decline of the West

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 14 – Vladislav Surkov, sometimes described as “the gray cardinal of the Kremlin” and the source of many of Vladimir Putin’s ideas, today has sent his version of a Valentine card to the world, decrying the rise of women to positions of power in many countries of the world and arguing that their rise reflects the decadence and decline of the West.

            In today’s issue of Russky Pioner, the Kremlin advisor says that women are not the cause of this trend but rather a symptom; and he insists that over time, countries that wish to be successful will overcome and reverse things so that once again men will be in charge (ruspioner.ru/honest/m/single/5725).

            That the representative of a Kremlin so committed to archaic values should say such things is perhaps not surprising; but what is worrisome is the extensive and largely positive reaction to his words in the Russian media. (e.g., interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=69274, rbc.ru/society/14/02/2018/5a83fc819a79477148e9f1b9?from=main and ura.news/news/1052323654).

                Surkov says that the current campaign against men for sexual harassment is likely to expand to the point that women will feel free to harass men for all that has happened up to now.  They forget that the world was created by men and that history shows that whenever women rise to the top, that is “a symptom of decline.”

            The Kremlin advisor offers a highly selective and tendentious history from classical times to now to make his point, and says that “in the West today, matriarchal democracy is replacing its liberal counterpart,” with feminism arising “out of radical sects into the broad masses” and becoming a useful mobilizing tool to achieve political power.

            Again, he asserts, “the intensification of female influence is not a cause but a symptom, a manifestation of decadence. It wasn’t Aleksandr Fedorovna who destroyed the Russian Empire or Raisa Maksimova the Soviet Union, but about each of them people inevitably recall when they talk about the last days of the Empire and the Union.”

            But Surkov continues: “Political systems call on women when they are taking a breather after stormy growth and have reached in their development a late and terminal stage.” That is what is happening in Europe and America now; fortunately, he says, it isn’t yet happening in Russia.

            Where it is occurring, some men are hurrying to submit; others are waiting for this wave to past; and still others are drinking themselves into oblivion.  But the proper response, the Kremlin advisor says, is to recognize that a collapse always precedes a rebirth and to make plays for the creation of “a new reality” when the current problems pass.

                “No one wants to take power without an understanding of what isn’t going right,” he continues; “No one except women.” They will rush in as systems are decaying and as men are falling from their former heights.  But both they and men need to recognize that the current stage won’t last. “Tomorrow again will be man-made,” perhaps not entirely well but not boring either.