Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 12 – Thirty years
after the Berlin Wall came down, the Kremlin still believes that it was the
machinations of Western intelligence agencies and not popular anger that was
behind the collapse of the Soviet bloc and then of the Soviet Union, according
to Rosbalt commentator Sergey Shelin.
Thus it is no surprise that Moscow
did not celebrate this anniversary because from the Kremlin’s perspective the destruction
of the Soviet bloc was but the prelude to the dismemberment of the USSR, which
was as is well known “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th
century,” he continues (rosbalt.ru/blogs/2019/11/12/1812824.html).
“Official opinion on this, as on
much else, has been deliberately vague,” Shelin says. “But if one judges from
government propaganda, the change of course by the east European countries must
be considered the product of deceitful actions by the Western enemy” and in no
way an expression of the desires of the peoples there.
Those who want to talk about “’velvet
revolutions’” need to grow up in this view. Everything is directed by someone
behind the scenes, in this case by the Western intelligence services. In a “softer”
version of this conspiracy theory, many in Moscow believe that Western leaders
simply conspired with Gorbachev to give away everything the USSR had.
“In the consciousness of our leaders,”
Shelin argues, “history is ‘a great game,’ which several main leaders play.”
There is no room for anything like “the will of the popular masses.” That is something
which simply doesn’t exist. The people
are always manipulated by someone, either a friend or as in this case a foe.
The Kremlin as a result cannot
understand that the peoples of Eastern Europe and of the Soviet Union simply
did not want to live under the communist system any more and that they wanted
not only to escape it but to make its return impossible. No one had to
manipulate them in to feeling that way.
That is why they wanted to join NATO
because they believed it would ensure that they stayed independent. No one
needed to work behind the scenes for them to reach that conclusion given what
the East Europeans and the peoples of the Soviet Union it should be added had
learned on their own skin.
But in this case as often happens in
history, there is a fascinating paradox, another one that Moscow because of its
preconceptions has not been able to learn from. Finland and partially Austria
at the end of World War II were “in the Soviet military space” but avoided the imposition
of communism.
Neither has joined NATO although
Moscow couldn’t block them if they wanted to become part of the Western
alliance, Shelin says. Indeed, it has far less leverage there than it did in
Bulgaria or Romania which are already members. The choice of these two like the
different choice of the other countries reflected the will of their respective
populations.
The Kremlin leaders have not been
able to learn this lesson and instead have attempted to deal with Ukraine as
with some “’peoples democracy,’” an approach that has led to a permanent crisis
in which we now have to live and to play with anti-liberal movements and
regimes in Eastern Europe as if the people there can hardly wait to become
vassals again.
The appearance of illiberal regimes
like Urban’s in Hungary is not the result of Western conspiracies. It is the
decision of the peoples themselves. And
what that shows as well is that the East Europeans 30 years ago “really acquired
independence,” including the independence to make unfortunate choices.
And these regimes are not prepared
to sacrifice anything in alliance with the West against Russia or with Russia
against the West, again regardless of what the denizens of the Kremlin
think. “They are our neighbors but not our
brothers; and 30 years on, it is time to stop crying about that.”
No comments:
Post a Comment