Russian political class has unleashed a real civil war in Ukraine.
I would like to say that Putin did this, because no matter what kind of macho he is, sooner or later he will go away, and fiddling will stop. Alas. It must be admitted that President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is just a quite adequate and rather discreet spokesman of the ruling class of Russia, imperial in its self-sentiment. On our site voices of imperials are louder than any others’, and there is no need to explain what it means.
All the post-Soviet Russian history is the history of the ongoing colonial wars. Abkhazia, Transnistria, Chechnya, Georgia...
Bronze-lactic-sprats war with Balts, senseless hatred of long-gone Poles, even more pointless billions to maintain wanton batka...
We must fairly admit that an appointee of democratic forces Boris Yeltsin didn’t risk (failed, didn’t want) the radical replacement of the political class by lustration, trial of the imperial criminals, full disclosure of archives and final integration into European institutions. Chechen war and the subsequent imperial revenge came out of this unacceptable compromise.
What is Russian imperialism? The once-formidable, and now just dangerous and malicious, it was always absolutely senseless and harmful to the mother country. Russia, as a country of the catching-up development, borrowed Western manners, weapons, technology and literary styles, but in addition also grabbed western colonial fever. Small and resource-poor countries of Europe derived benefit from its imperial escapades; Russia, boundless even without obvious imperial gambles, especially needed the arrangement of the existing, for which people, people and once again people were required, whom it buried without counting whether in the name of the radiant with splendor Third Rome, whether alluring and slipping communist paradise.
In fact, imperialism was an extremely ineffectual fashion, contrary to our climate and build. Something like starched wigs and men's shoes with pompons.
However, 300 years ago, it had at least the sense that it was some kind of signal "friend/foe".
But what is it now?
Here they are, the basic parameters of our imperialism: bid on brute force, zero-sum game, brutal stature of leaders (true leaders, not anadromous losers), contempt for dependent nations, still poorly masked, priority of military-industrial development, rejection of equal blocks with strong partners, stunning deceptive propaganda.
All this was plainly manifested in the Ukrainian crisis, all these Glazyevs and Markovs, requiring outrage, refusing to understand that the Ukrainian ruling class is pro-imperial only in its rosy dreams, and any temporary victory will be still temporary. Whatever anyone says, on the issue of integration with the EU the country reached a shaky consensus for the first time, which was ruthlessly destroyed by external intervention.
I must say that the commitment of Russian political class to imperial values is largely paradoxical. Neither in Romanov or Soviet Russia, not to mention Putin, colonialism was not cost-efficient; type of colonial merchant, administrator or missionary didn’t become a classical image of Russian aristocrat; boyars continued to lead the life of a sybarite in their estates, to duel and sore in Oblomov’s idleness. Our fashion didn’t absorb an image of active, lean seeker of colonial wealth, a gentleman in a pith helmet. They had enough wealth and it was even left for those — "similar to a hundreds fugitives, on a catching of a happiness and rangs..." — thrown by the will of a fate.
The ruling class people paid more than others with their lives for the mirage of state grandeur, in point of fact without getting anything in return. However, with bad memory of Stalinist era elites have mastered the technology of patriotic spells, combined with taking rap of their children from the real hardship.
Maintain of the empire was always an empty burden for Russia, and in the post-Soviet era it has turned into a real disaster. It was unprofitable colonialism that led to a massive dismantling of all European empires.
Everywhere, but not in Russia with its all-time screwed-up political class.
Frankly speaking, I don’t see any positive way out. De Gaulle's France was on the brink of civil war, departing from Algeria, but it was prostrate France, although preened feathers due to the resistance and the general.
Russia, shaded by the memory of the victory in the most terrible war in human history, can’t wake up.
Opportunities that we’re missing are incredible. Developed Russia, the country, turned inwards, for the first time in its history ceased to harass and rape, would be incredibly attractive to all mankind. With the charm of its great culture and scale of unprecedented opportunities for creation. The ruling class of the country will become a beneficiary of this process along with the entire population...
Instead, we shed blood in kind, beautiful and native to all of us Kiev...
And we continue to follow the latest fashion of the 18th century. Recently, the country banned the import and manufacture of lace pantaloons.
What if a subconscious hatred of elite to its absurd and anachronistic image was expressed in such a manner?
Original: http://7x7-journal.ru/post/37975
