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Putin the Slavophile

The New Neo Posted on by

I was plowing through some of Putin’s speeches and it occurred to me suddenly that he might be described as a Slavophile. It’s a term I remember from a class I took in college called “Russian Intellectual History.” But I realized that trying to write a post expanding on that thought about Putin would require a lot of brushing up on the concept on my part.

And then tonight by chance I happened across this article that speaks of the subject with more knowledge than I could have mustered in a crash course:

It’s not that [Putin] doesn’t want prosperity for Russia. His early popularity was based on stabilizing the ruble. But the economy must rightfully take a distant second place to restoring Russia’s national pride and dignity after what he views as the “catastrophe” of the Soviet empire’s humiliating defeat in the Cold War. Our foreign policy experts too often forget that dictators like Putin don’t have to worry about public opinion and economic performance the same way that democratically elected leaders do. Rulers for life, they can put these to one side for prolonged periods of time in service of the greater goal of national honor.

Although Putin’s ambition is to restore Russian control over its former Warsaw Pact captive states, he in no way wishes to restore the Soviet regime itself. Russian history has long been riven by a cultural conflict between those who look to Europe, the West, and the Enlightenment as the path that Russia should follow and those who are loyal to Slavic nationalism, which is deeply religious and not interested in economic prosperity. In literature, this divide was typified by the different outlooks of Turgenev and Dostoyevsky, which Tolstoy crystallized as the difference between St. Petersburg and Moscow. During the era of anti-Soviet dissidence, this split was typified by Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn. Putin is in the Slavophile camp. A devotee of Berdyaev, a Slavophile critic of Marxism-Leninism, Putin believes that Soviet communism was an import of European rationalism that poisoned the authentic Russian soul, which has nourished the country’s national and artistic greatness.

Does the Russian soul really matter to Putin? As I wrote in Tyrants, modern tyrants and conquerors since Robespierre have been bolstered by an ideology. Slavophile thought is crucial to Putin’s worldview, including both Berdyaev and also the modern writer Aleksandr Dugin’s ideology of “Eurasianist National Bolshevism.” Dugin, an academic and popular pundit, tried to rescue what he saw as the authentically Russian agrarian populist impulse behind the original Bolshevik Revolution from its betrayal by Lenin’s “scientific” socialism imported from European thought, calling instead for a “revolution of archaic values” based on the blood and soil traditions of family, rural life, and religious faith. Putin commissioned Dugin to overhaul the Russian education system to remove all traces of Gorbachev-era glasnost and perestroika, which both believed were signs of creeping Enlightenment rationalism and materialism corrupting the Motherland.

I am fairly certain that the obvious decline of Western pride in its own accomplishments, of abandonment of many traditional values connected with family and faith and a host of other things, and its adherence to wokeness have only solidified Putin’s rejection of the West as a decadent and weak bunch. It’s a disdain and contempt that Islamists share, and China has its own version.

More:

Dugin gave Putin the ideology he needed to reject the tainted European strain of Soviet communism while rehabilitating it as a great patriotic people’s movement, including the rehabilitation of Stalin in his role as wartime champion against Hitler. This ideology also enabled Putin to make what is to him a coherent argument that, while the Soviet communist regime will never be restored, the Slavophilic populism that was its true lifeblood can be—a national tribalism extending to all Slavic peoples including Ukraine, Poland, and the Balkans, who must be gathered back into the Russian fold.

Comments

Putin the Slavophile — 47 Comments

  1. You have to be a particularly dense Slavophile to believe that the Poles will be willingly consumed by Russia.

    The Serbians believe that they have the same mission in the Balkans. Which is why pretty much everyone hates and distrusts the Serbians. Except Russia, of course.

  3. In school we were taught that WWI started because “elder brother” Russia felt obliged to protect “little brother” Serbia

  4. I read something today that makes me think it is something different. It is not Mad Vlad or Czar Vladimir. It’s not business, it’s personal. Very personal. I also read that Poland and Slovakia have decided not to give any planes to Ukraine after all. I wonder what changed their minds. Not actually feasible or something else.

  5. Chases Eagles:

    I don’t think they changed their minds. I read that the original story about giving the planes was a false report.

  9. https://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/

    Tuesday, March 01, 2022
    The Map Tells the Story

    “The Ukrainians are putting up a plucky fight with what they have, but it is not enough at this point to slow the flow of Russians in to the center of their country. Like a Hawaiian volcano slowly swallowing a house, it is all there to see in the open.

    As Russians do, they make up for lack in attention to detail with simple mass. There are no off ramps for Putin. As long as he is in power, he will do what he needs to do to achieve his end state.”

    Simple mass = mass destruction and indiscriminate fires, e.g., not smart bombs, not precision strikes. Grozny all over again. Ukrainians – the new Chechens.

  10. It’s a shame. Clearly, those IDEALS are quite blatantly not defective. They have single-handedly and without any appreciation raised the human standard of living to levels which the greatest kings and leaders of 200y ago could not even have begun to imagine, and spread those high standards among more people than they could have imagined, as well.

    Yes, the current group is decadent, and even depraved.

    The answer to some of these idiots is not to REJECT them, but to become a new home for their basic forms.

    The only thing this rejection can possibly do is drag all of humanity back down into the mire.

  11. Putin—enslaved to Slavophilia(?)—may end up destroying his country…but at least one might say he’ll do it with “dignity”.

    (Which is far more than “Biden” can ever say….)

    File under: I only regret that I have but all Russian (and Ukrainians?) citizens’ lives to lose for my country…

  13. a national tribalism extending to all Slavic peoples including Ukraine, Poland, and the Balkans, who must be gathered back into the Russian fold.

    For the record, the Balkan states are the issue of (1) the incremental disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in Europe over a period of about 90 years (1830-1920), (2) the abrupt dissolution of the Hapsburg monarchy in 1918 and (3) the messy, bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia during the period running from 1991 to 1999. Moldova was once part of the Russian Empire but the rest of the states entirely below the 52° parallel were not. Moldova is not a Slavic country. Neither is Finland and neither are the Baltic states. Poland has no affinity for Russia at all.

  14. Putin’s Slavophilia stands in sharp contrast to the West’s current mania for “diversity.” (“Diversity,” properly understood, meaning anti-white, of course.) As such, it cannot be comprehended by contemporary western intellectuals, who have been nurtured at the poisonous teat of post-modernism. I, on the other hand, can readily comprehend the reason why “diversity” is preached by the formerly dispossessed, inasmuch as it is a means to overthrow the current social structure and replace it with one in which they obtain possession of the levers of power. (An illustration of the truth that the former slave never desires equality with his master; he wants to become the master.) What I can’t quite comprehend is the reason why those who are in positions of power and influence in the current social structure also seem to be on board with “diversity,” unless it is their tool to maintain their position. By overtly supporting “diversity,” thereby fostering promotion of the un- and under-qualified “diverse” over the more qualified majority (i.e., white European-descended people), they stay on top of the dogpile they create. My cynicism is bolstered by the undeniable fact that not one of the cabal of “diversity” proponents wearing white skin ever volunteers to move aside in favor of a “diverse” replacement. By elevating the un- and under-qualified, they simply maintain their position of superiority. Meanwhile, they garner accolades for their “selfless” promotion of the formerly downtrodden. Quite a nice deal, as long as you can manage it.

  15. A rule of thumb seems to be that “revolutions engender war” (or perhaps “require”(?) war).

    (Though I suppose it could be a coincidence; moreover, there are exceptions, e.g., the “Glorious Revolution”, though perhaps one might argue that the war, in this case, preceded it…)

    Some of these wars are more catastrophic; some less so.

    Wonder what kind of war the Woke (so-called) revolution will engender, if at all…(unless we’re already in the midst of a kind of quasi-war, given the unrest in some cities, the bizarre ideological unrest on many campuses and professional institutions and the power grabs perpetrated by one political party in particular)…

  16. This expresses Putin and his goals very clearly, including the “national honor” aspect of this, from his point of view. Mother Russia must rule Slavs. The ideology is more important than actual Slavs and their lives.

    To a great extent the regime in mainland China is similar. In that case, they have expanded beyond Chinese areas into destroying and supplanting other peoples (consider Tibet and the Uighars), and they ruthlessly suppress anyone internally who is viewed as challenging the regime’s domination (Christians, Falun Gong).

  17. Whether or not Putin is a slavophile is debatable. He is clearly a Russophile. His comment that the disintegration of the Soviet Union was a catastrophe is always (maliciously) misquoted. The quote continues, that the catastrophe stranded half the Russian population in hostile states. He really is interested in the reunification of the Russian people. He would prefer immigration back to Russia.

    PS. Putin, like Xi, is not a dictator of the Stalin, Mao, Hitler class. He is the leader of an actual political party, and he must deal with both intraparty and interparty politics. The Russian government is authoritarian, but it is not a dictatorship. The US is closer to a dictatorship than Russia. Now, China is a different matter.

  18. The quote continues, that the catastrophe stranded half the Russian population in hostile states.

    I’m going to wager Putin is better at basic arithmetic than you are. There were 145 million Great Russians in the Soviet Union in 1989. About 120 million, or 83% of the total, were to be found in the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. Russians accounted for about 15% of the population of the other union republics, on average. Outside of the Ukraine and White Russia, they were usually colonists.

    And, no, the former union republics were not ‘hostile states’. There was a mass exodus of ethnic Russians from Central Asia. They didn’t have much affinity for the indigenous population and those parts of the former Soviet Union were generally much less affluent than Russia. You also had a wretched civil war in Tajikistan. In the Baltic states, you had a comparatively high quality of life and the Russian colonists generally stayed. They were treated courteously, granted citizenship if they were willing and able to pass a proficiency test in the local language, and granted residency permits if they were not.

    By the way, it’s the contention of Russian nationalists, among them Putin, that there is no such thing as Ukrainian or White Russian nationality (without regard to what the population in those places has to say about it). So, Putin has repaired to a different set of madcap excuses and claimed that the population of the Ukraine has been captured by neo-Nazis.

    The US is closer to a dictatorship than Russia.

    It usually takes to the but end of your posts for you to reach peak stupid.

  19. What I can’t quite comprehend is the reason why those who are in positions of power and influence in the current social structure also seem to be on board with “diversity,” unless it is their tool to maintain their position.

    The “Woke” left assume that the POCs they are supporting in the effort to replace merit with “diversity” are inferior and will need their supervision and direction once they overthrow western values.

    It usually takes to the but end of your posts for you to reach peak stupid.

    More abuse although I would say Canada is closer to a dictatorship than we are but Pelosi and her crew are working hard on it.

  20. Art Deco, I think what bob sykes meant is Russian speaking population, i.e. Russian is their first language. For example, in 2nd largest city of Ukraine Kharkiv, most people speak Russian as their 1st language Russian population is around 30-40% though. To put Bob’s point into perspective, imagine one day a few southwest states of US decide to be independent and create their own country with Spanish as their national language. All textbooks in schools & publishing are changed from English to Spanish. Do you think this move violates their English-speaking people’s right?

  21. The great majority of Western nation’s political leadership is currently closely aligned with Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum. That alignment implies that most of the West’s political leadership is on board with WEF’s plan, the Great Reset and Davos agenda, which is specifically, a global agenda.

    In order for the Great Reset to succeed, Russia and China must be in alignment with the Great Reset’s goals as well.

    I have no idea how the WEF intends to persuade China to accommodate their agenda but there’s little doubt that the WEF’s membership must have developed a strategy to do so.

    Currently, Putin’s Russia is the priority.

    As detailed above in neo’s post, Putin is not on board with the WEF’s secular socialist goals. Therefore he is an obstacle to those goals. Regime change is the obvious solution to Putin’s obstinacy. Already being called for in Congress and in the media. A Russian leadership more sympathetic to the WEF’s Davos agenda is required for that global agenda to advance.

    In 2008 and then again in 2021 the West indicated that it desired NATO membership for the Ukraine.

    Bringing the Ukraine into NATO is designed to put enough military pressure upon Russia’s elite that they get rid of Putin.

    The potential threat of nuclear cruise missiles 13 minutes away from Moscow and capable of reaching the Urals is both a powerful incentive and, an ‘offer’ that the Russian Oligarchs couldn’t refuse.

    Nor does it matter whether NATO would ever actually put in place inherently offensive, nuclear cruise missiles upon Russia’s border. It’s the ability to do so wherein the pressure would reside for the Russian Oligarchs and Putin’s party. Better to get rid of Putin and get with the program.

  22. Yes because it is perfectly normal to rearrange the borders of adjoining countries, without mutual consent, based on the language spoken? Sounds like the world will be needing an international language police and border readjustment bureau (UNILPBAB). And will regional dialects be a way to divide an apportion these language unified countries?

    Sounds coherent? Ask Bob Sykes is my advice.

  23. neo, Chases Eagles,

    I apologize. I don’t remember the source, but regarding Poland and planes I saw a news report that Poland did make the offer but another NATO country (87.2% sure it was England) notified them that such a move would, technically, mean that a NATO nation, Poland, had entered the fray, which would, technically, mean all NATO nations were now at war with Russia. So Poland retracted the offer.

  24. Art Deco, I think what bob sykes meant is Russian speaking population, i.e. Russian is their first language.

    Still doesn’t work. Russian is commonly spoken in the Ukraine and in White Russia, and is the first language of the last three presidents of the Ukraine. Is it really your contention that the Russophone population of the Ukraine or of White Russia is in hostile territory? Can I ask why, if this is the case, few people in the Ukraine see it that way? There is no political party of consequence in the Ukraine which advocates merger of the Ukraine and Russia, polled support for such a measure is < 5% of the sum, and the parties favoring a Russophile orientation for the Ukraine's foreign policy are good for about 16% of the vote. You think they might do better if the Russian-speaking population were all that dissatisfied with their situation?

    To put Bob’s point into perspective, imagine one day a few southwest states of US decide to be independent and create their own country with Spanish as their national language. All textbooks in schools & publishing are changed from English to Spanish. Do you think this move violates their English-speaking people’s right?

    You people are lousy at analogies. Every union republic departed the former Soviet Union in 1991. The first effort at erecting a sovereign Ukrainian republic occurred in 1917-20.

    And is really your contention that launching a massive cross-border invasion is an appropriate response to a subpopulation’s objection to the language of school textbooks?

  25. Rufus, I believe I saw the same report and agree that they were probably reined in by the usual suspects.

    The most important thing we did not see last night was Biden declaring that the US would stop funding Putin’s war by buying his oil.

  26. Geoffrey:

    Otay, NATO is just a tool of the WEF? Pass that on to Hungary, Poland, Turkey, just a few NATO member states known for their woke/WEF alignment (not). That NATO goal of deterring Soviet and now Russian aggression? Nope that was always just a WEF ploy.

    Otay, got it.

  27. om,

    As a long term political strategy. It is disastrously foolish for leadership to imagine that they can rearrange the borders of adjoining countries, without mutual consent, based on at most, 27% of the citizen’s having a shared language and ancestry.

    Putin’s historical bias is clearly responsible for his viewpoint. My above comment is my assessment of the motivation driving the West’s leadership. If that assessment is correct, Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine is primarily driven by national security concerns and the timing the result of Biden’s weakness.

  28. om,

    I didn’t realize that Hungary, Poland and Turkey were the dominant factions in NATO’s membership.

    Turkey is Islamic it is naturally antithetical to the WEF’s Davos agenda. The majority of Hungary and Poland citizens are not woke so they are not on board with the WEF. But do not pose a serious obstacle to the Davos agenda.

    If you do a bit of research into the WEF you might reconsider your apparent assumption that the West’s political leadership is not advancing the WEF’s Davos agenda.

    NATO is controlled by the majority of it’s member state’s political leadership, is it not?

  29. The most important thing we did not see last night was Biden declaring that the US would stop funding Putin’s war by buying his oil.

    Mike K:

    True and straightforward, assuming one considers stopping Putin’s war a priority.

    Biden didn’t go into detail, but he did reiterate his (and the left’s) greater commitment to climate change action and its nonsensical attendant benefits:
    __________________________________________

    We’ll create good jobs for millions of Americans, modernizing roads, airports, ports, and waterways all across America.

    And we’ll do it all to withstand the devastating effects of the climate crisis and promote environmental justice.
    …
    Second – cut energy costs for families an average of $500 a year by combatting climate change.

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/03/01/remarks-of-president-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-address-as-delivered/
    __________________________________________

    I’d like to see a commitment to nuclear power myself.

  30. Geoffrey:

    When the WEF and JF Kerry and the Davos crowd start having influence over Vlad and Xi get back to me. I’m not going to play in your WEF conspiracy sand box. Sounds too much like black hellicopters and FEMA camps. Yeah, I know willful blindness.

  31. om,

    I don’t expect you to accept my suppositions. Just to keep an open mind, if future information emerges indicating some validity to what you currently think to be a silly conspiracy theory. WEF and the West’s current political leadership are not going to openly admit to a deeply close association and shared agenda.

    If memory serves, Xi was a featured speaker at the 2021 gathering at Davos. Putin has rejected the WEF’s influence, which is why I posit that the decision has been made that he needs to go.

  32. If “the decision has been made that he [Putin] needs to go” then why did he invade Ukraine? Are you seriously suggesting there was a NATO/WEF/Davos plan to get Ukraine in NATO and then invade Russia from there to overthrow Putin?

  33. FOAF,

    No that’s not what I’m suggesting. The need to get rid of Putin is separate from why Putin invaded the Ukraine.

    My take on the western side of the conflict is that NATO is being directed by the relevant Western political leadership, most of whom are associated with WEF and the less powerful factions of NATO members are motivated out of fear of Putin to vote for continued expansion of NATO.

    That expansion has finally reached the Ukraine, which is a red line for the Russians. It’s a red line because of the Ukraine/Russia border being so close to Moscow. Strictly as a military security issue, the prospect of NATO less than an 8 hr drive from Moscow is for the Russians an intolerable risk.

    Some facts: the drive to incorporate the Ukraine into NATO has been ongoing since the 2008 Bucharest announcement, most recently reaffirmed in 2021.
    The Ukraine, purportedly a neutral buffer state has been heavily militarized, ever since a pro-western gov, was installed, demonstrated by how many bases were hit in the initial Russia invasion.
    Nuclear cruise missile flying below radar detection and placed close to Russia’s border would be 13 minutes flight time from Moscow.

    Reality: it doesn’t matter whether NATO would ever install nuclear cruise missiles near the Russian border once the Ukraine joined NATO. What matters is that the Russians can’t allow such a risk to ever occur.

    To answer your question; I very much doubt that NATO has ever had any plan to invade Russia, as that would almost certainly trigger a nuclear war.

    But there is no need to invade, if the Ukraine successfully joins NATO, the Russian Oligarch’s will be forced to either live with a potential threat that could be implemented at any point in the future or… get rid of Putin and install political leadership friendly to WEF’s Davos agenda.

    Which along with eventual economic control of Russia’s vast resources will allow WEF to make cultural inroads with the Russian public, such that in time the Davos agenda, a global agenda… is effectively implemented.

  34. Some facts: the drive to incorporate the Ukraine into NATO has been ongoing since the 2008 Bucharest announcement, most recently reaffirmed in 2021.

    If it was ongoing, it would have happened. The integration of Spain into NATO took five years.

  35. Houses made of sand, held together by assumptions that build upon one another.

    This comment will be followed by prove it isn’t so.

    And acceptance of Russia’s specified tolerance for the existence of other independent nations existense on Russia’s borders. Today it is the mere existence of nuclear weapons deployed or not, but you notice that Russia does not consider that her weapons threaten her neighbors. Russia wouldn’t do that, threaten Sweden or Finland, would she?

    Sandbox rules.

  36. Gentlemen,

    I just now returned to read your comments.

    Art,

    Spain joining NATO was never considered a direct threat by Russia. If a non-threat took five years, how much more gradually the incorporation of the nation joining NATO that Russia has consistently made known they see as the most threatening?

    om,

    Clearly, the Baltic States were not viewed by Russia as a strategic threat as they did Georgia. Given its proximity to Moscow its obvious why the Ukrain’s joining NATO is a red line for Russia.

    I know you won’t agree but at least the possibility must be considered that Russia threatened Sweden and Finland, as well as putting its nuclear arsenal on alert to send the strongest of messages to the West and especially to the Biden administration of just how serious they view the Ukraine joining NATO. And that they are convinced that left unimpeded, the Ukraine’s incorporation into NATO was immanent.

    That Putin and Russia Oligarchs are willing to risk nuclear war rather than see NATO on its border with the Ukraine should awaken even the most willfully blind to Russia’s seriousness.

    But of course, Putin Bad! Putin bbaaadd… explains everything.

  37. Geoffrey:

    The Baltic states were reported to be very concerned that they were next on Vlad’s list for joyous reunification with the Motherland. Read that a few days ago.

    But the Baltic provinces should rest easy because Moldova may actually be next according to the Belarus bozo who briefed the world on Vlad’s war plan.

    But it’s all about WEF/Dravos/NATO and the Great Reset?

    Okay, Vlad good! Vlad,very good! Vlad make world safe for Roosia, DA! Cue Soviet National Anthem, or The Volga Boatmen.

    IIRC the Volga boatmen were essentially slaves. Get used to it, Russia is a cruel mother, she just needs more lands.

  38. The distance from Vilnius, Lithuania to Moscow is 491 miles Geoffrey. That is far far to close, the NATO effect, for Vlad Putupon to tolerate. He does get to decide after all.

    Those Latvian’s are just a little less worried than the Lithuanian’s as they are only 525 miles from Moscow.

    But the Estonians are the safest from Vlad, since Tallinn is 541 miles. Right?

    But we have been wasting our time Geoffrey worrying about Vlad’s Moscow insecurities regarding Kyiv or the Baltics. Narva, Estonia is only 89 miles from Vlad’s hometown St. Petersburg. That is entirely unacceptable! Right?

  39. In 2008 and then again in 2021 the West indicated that it desired NATO membership for the Ukraine. Bringing the Ukraine into NATO is designed to put enough military pressure upon Russia’s elite that they get rid of Putin.

    1) You keep obsessing over NATO membership. Again, Ukraine is ineligible for membership in NATO and will be as long as they have a border dispute with Russia (or anyone else for that matter). To prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, Russia had to do absolutely nothing. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has nothing to do with NATO membership.

    2) Ukraine is not being “brought into NATO.” Ukraine is attempting to voluntarily join NATO because they have a large abusive neighbor that continuously invades and conquers foreign territory.

    3) NATO is not a threat to Russian security. The idea that it is is preposterous. NATO is only a threat to Russia’s territorial ambitions.

    Nuclear cruise missile flying below radar detection and placed close to Russia’s border would be 13 minutes flight time from Moscow.

    NATO doesn’t have any nuclear cruise missiles. Even if they did, the distance from Moscow to Ukraine is not appreciably shorter than the distance from Moscow to Latvia, which has been a NATO member for years.

    So, in your view, Putin is invading a country ineligible for NATO membership and threatening actual nuclear war with the West so that said country doesn’t join NATO and deploy nuclear weapons that NATO doesn’t have. Makes perfect sense. I’ll note that not even Vladimir Putin is making that claim.

  40. @ Kate > “Mother Russia must rule Slavs”

    https://www.etymonline.com/word/slave

    late 13c., “person who is the chattel or property of another,” from Old French esclave (13c.), from Medieval Latin Sclavus “slave” (source also of Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo), originally “Slav” (see Slav); so used in this secondary sense because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples.

    The oldest written history of the Slavs can be shortly summarised–myriads of slave hunts and the enthralment of entire peoples. The Slav was the most prized of human goods. With increased strength outside his marshy land of origin, hardened to the utmost against all privation, industrious, content with little, good-humoured, and cheerful, he filled the slave markets of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It must be remembered that for every Slavonic slave who reached his destination, at least ten succumbed to inhuman treatment during transport and to the heat of the climate. Indeed Ibrahim (tenth century), himself in all probability a slave dealer, says: “And the Slavs cannot travel to Lombardy on account of the heat which is fatal to them.” Hence their high price.
    The Arabian geographer of the ninth century tells us how the Magyars in the Pontus steppe dominated all the Slavs dwelling near them. The Magyars made raids upon the Slavs and took their prisoners along the coast to Kerkh where the Byzantines came to meet them and gave Greek brocades and such wares in exchange for the prisoners. [“The Cambridge Medieval History,” Vol. II, 1913]

    I included the Cambridge quote for the benefit of Nikole “they all look alike to me” Hannah-Jones.

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/landonmion/2022/02/28/nikole-hannahjones-claims-europe-is-not-a-continent-concern-over-ukraine-is-due-to-racial-dog-whistle-n2603937

  41. There are many Pro-Christian Slavophiles outside of Russia. Wanting a peaceful unity, despite language differences, but especially anti-Woke/liberal. Christian socialism, helping the poor, is real and often quite strong.

    Putin’s invasion makes it look terrible.

    I hope the Ukrainians remind folk more often about Stalin’s Holodomor, starvation of millions- which likely was more known in Weimar and aided Hitler.

    Stalin was worse than Hitler to his own people, but Hitler was worse about invading; and the murderous Stalin was an important ally. Stalin too little demonized, Hitler a bit too much.

  42. No, Hitler was not “too much” demonized but yes Stalin not enough. He was at least as bad which I do not say lightly since I am Jewish. Once the death toll is in the millions it is difficult to parse moral differences.

  43. FOAF:

    The difference between Hitler and Stalin, both of whom were mass murderers on a new scale, is that Stalin concentrated (with the exception of Ukraine, which was included) on murdering his own people, and Hitler concentrated on murdering elsewhere.

  44. neo, they are all just as dead. That is why I said “moral differences” as opposed to who got killed where and why.

  45. No, Hitler was not “too much” demonized but yes Stalin not enough.

    There isn’t much of a constituency for Hitler in Germany and Austria today. If what I read in the papers is correct (yeah, I know), north of 40% of the polled Russian public has a favorable impression of Joseph Stalin. Note, Roy Medvedev, Stephen Cohen’s chum, estimated the death toll attributable to government policy in the Stalin period at 20 million.

  46. There is only some 100% of evil demonization in thinking available. If 80% is Hitler, that’s only 20% left for all of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Saddam … not to mention the evils of slavery & misogyny.

    Check out movies, books, references. Evil Stalin was US ally- and we did dirty, necessary killing to win the war. Every anti-Hitler word today avoids clarity about today’s evil. And to claim every popular Republican is Hitler degrades criticism.

    There has been lots of evil other than Hitler, and there’s too much evil today not well discussed. Neto’s balance seems about right.

  47. No. If Hitler was monstrously evil and Stalin was also monstrously evil then that is twice as much monstrous evil. It would be nice if there were a finite amount of evil that had to be divided among them all but there isn’t.

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