New Gorbachevs Will Emerge in Russia in the 2030s, Inozemtsev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 1 – In his classic 1939 study, The End of Economic Man, sociologist Peter Drucker made the prophetic statement that “fascism is the stage reached after communism has proven to be an illusion,” Vladislav Inozemtsev says in an appreciation of Gorbachev’s past and future roles in Russian history.

            “Gorbachev did all he humanly could to demonstrate the illusory nature of communist ideals,” the Russian economist and commentator says; “and in full accordance with Drucker’s observation, he called into existence a fascist monster in a country which had one been a major contributor to the victory over Nazism” (theins.ru/opinions/inozemtsev/254615).

            “Of course,” Inozemtsev continues, Gorbachev “had no intention of doing so; an dyet this became one of the main long-term consequences of the perestroika transformation” the first and last Soviet president who has just died promoted and oversaw, only to be ousted from power and discredited in the minds of many.

            The Russian analyst says that “in this regard,” he puts Gorbachev alongside the greatest idealists of the last century – Woodrow Wilson, Aristide Briand, and Hjalmar Branting, all of whom sincerely dreamed of a world governed by democratic international organizations, a worldwide kingdom of reason and of course a unified Europe.”

            But “the Treaty of Versailles did not only lead to the establishment of the League of nations but also to World War II, which the ideals had in many respects opened the way for by the incomplete nature of their experiment of crafting a peace.”

            “Today,” Inozemtsev says, “we’re nearing the end of yet another peaceful era which Gorbachev uttered in along with his great contemporaries – Reagan, Thatcher, Kohl and Mitterrand – all of whom he ultimately outlined.” And the world is sliding into war again as it did in the 1930s.

            Like Germany after her defeat in World War I, “Russa has not been offered an appropriate position in the new world order and thus became the most destructive power in global politics.” According to Inozemtsev, “the 1990 Charter of Paris has proven to be just as faulty as the Paris Peace Conference Treaty of 1919.”

            As a result, “Russia is beginning another cycle in its cursed history, bent on convincing the world of its uniqueness, whereas in reality its only unique feature is an unprecedented lack of regard for the values of law, freedom, and human life. Even if Mikhail Gorbachev did not understand this rationally, he felt it deep in his soul – which, unlike most Russian rulers, he had.”

            According to Inozemtsev, “the only analogy I see for Gorbachev's memorial service in Moscow in 2022 is Gustav Stresemann’s funeral in Berlin in 1929. Ahead of us lies a time of Russia’s yet another historic defeat, the elimination of the Kremlin's fascism, and a new perestroika.”

And one can only hope, he concludes, that the world will respond to that as it did to Germany after 1945 but not in the way it did in 1919, including a Russia committed to such changes rather than excluding it and opening yet another return to authoritarianism, repression and aggression.