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In the part of Europe where I grew up, there was a bitter joke about the Soviet armed forces in the 80s of the past century, which were ubiquitous in all Warsaw Pact countries. It went like this: How often does the Red Army get a leave from their camps in Europe? The answer: Every 12 years. 1956 to Budapest (suppression of the Hungarian uprising), 1968 to Prague (intervention of the Prague Spring), and 1980 to Gdansk (suppression of Solidarnosc and the Polish uprising). The joke about the joke was that everyone knew: it wasn’t a joke.

My generation (born in 1968) was perhaps the last to experience one or more of this demonstration of Soviet power – so far, the censored state media has allowed. (The Yugoslav war in 1991 did not fit into this line, nor were the interventionist the same or did they come at the right time.) Reading the Toal piece “Why Does Russia Invade Its Neighbors?”[1] this joke came into my mind.  But while the Soviet Union as a quasi-colonizer of the Eastern Block´s countries ruled with an iron fist to keep the status quo, Russia, is trying to recover it´s “lost world”. Quoting Toal:

Many groups experienced the collapse of the Soviet Union as liberation, but for others, it was a disaster of violence, displacement, and economic ruin.

Speaking of the occupied nations like the above-mentioned ones it was a liberation for sure. The problematic part was that the West (like these days again) was not able to understand the needs of a disintegrating great power and the consequences, and also ignored the advances made by Putin in his earlier years. The West has also failed in offering a functioning social model and a sustainable partnership. A vacuum of ideals and forces has arisen. Nature doesn’t like the vacuum, politics even less. Quoting Putin Trenin describes it in his piece about “Russia´s Breakout from the Post-Cold War System”:

Post-Christian Europeans embraced equality of good and evil, and they distinguished themselves by moral relativism, a very vague sense of identity, and excessive political correctness. European countries have begun renouncing their roots, including Christian values, which underlie Western civilization.[2]

Governing conservative parties in the Central and Eastern parts of Europe follow the same pattern, not without success while keeping up religious values and condemning political correctness as the reason for laming governance and an increasingly apolitical and disinterested population in the west.[3] Creating a modern Russian nation and identity after 70 years of the totalitarian ruling is not something that can be completed overnight and needs an ideological filling.

At this point, I wanted to quote Stephen F. Cohen. We should remember him, one of the best experts on Russia. Far better than me in his book “Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia” (2000) he describes exactly the role and the blame of the United States on the destabilization of post-communist Russia. Prof. Cohen died with 81 this Friday in New York[4]. RIP.

[1] Toal, Gerard. “Why Does Russia Invade Its Neighbors?” Near Abroad: Putin, the West, and the Contest Over Ukraine and the Caucasus. Oxford UP, 2017, pp. 17-54.

[2] Trenin, Dmitri. Russia’s Breakout from the Post-Cold War System: The Drivers of Putin’s Course. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace – Moscow Center, 2014, pp. 1-22. ProQuest.

[3] During a meeting with Hungary´s PM Orbán President Putin put it in simple words: “We are not talking about agreements, you just need to help save, restore shrines and parishes” (Pеч не идет о соглашеиях нужно просто пoмоч сохраниться, востановить святыни и приходы) Russkaja Gazeta, 10.30.2019

[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/books/stephen-cohen-dead.html