tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post3030015844148161517..comments2023-09-22T06:24:01.470-04:00Comments on Libertarian Jew: Is Russia's Bark Worse Than Its Bite?: A Concise Look at Russia's International CloutUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-68908439675410801702014-03-27T15:28:02.302-04:002014-03-27T15:28:02.302-04:00I have always had an ambivalent attitude towards R...I have always had an ambivalent attitude towards Russia and the Russians. They seem to me to be a country and people half civilized and half barbarous: their Christianity is Orthodox, which allied them more to the Greek Empire of the East than the Roman Catholic West: major social developments like the abolishment of serfdom or even the Black Death occurred generations later in Russia. They are a huge country, which has all that land stretching towards Siberia and Central Asia, and were a world power. To me, they are IN Europe, but they are not fully OF Europe in the way that the West is, and they never have been. Fine libraries and a fine empire produced a fine material culture, but with appalling treatment of peasants and religious/ethnic minorities- only to have that culture be shot to tatters by generations of materially destitute atheist Communism. <br /><br />On the other hand, I can't forget that Russian troops broke the power of both Napoleon and the Nazis, so I am grateful to the Russians for that. <br /><br />But to me, this seems to be Russia's last gasp of imperial ambition: In fact, I have heard it said that "Russia with Ukraine is an empire; Russia without it is a country." Many educated Ukrainians and those in the cities speak only Russian and have received their entire education in that language: Ukrainian is spoken by rural people and is considered, by the Russified elites anyway, to be merely an inferior form of Russian. (It's not, but welcome to colonialism!) So, many Ukrainians, even those not of Russian extraction, feel a close attachment to Russia, and many do not. For instance, Jews in Ukraine tended to learn Russian and despise Ukrainian. But this is no different from the decision of Jews to learn the power language of elites everywhere, in preference to the local language: In Hapsburg Prague, Jews learned German, not Czech: in British India they learned English: in Romania they learned Hungarian, etc. <br /><br />I am worried that Russia, despite its economic powerhouse status, is overextending itself and indulging in jingoistic militarism at a time of widespread cultural, political and demographic decline for its nation and people: the last saber rattle before the death rattle, if you will. And I am especially worried about the anarchic consequences of a Russian implosion at this time. Far better to have stayed at home and allowed Ukrainians to make their own decision. Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15131069821069587814noreply@blogger.com