Telegram #10 - The End of the Soviet Union
30 years on...
Greetings from Moscow,
I would first like to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. I hope all of you are well spending this wonderful day with family and friends.
30 years ago, on this day, Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, resigned from his post. At 7:45 PM, the Russian tricolor was raised. The next day, the upper house of the Supreme Soviet voted the Soviet Union out of existence. It was an end of an era.
The idea of the Soviet Union continues to bring feelings of nostalgia and reverence from people across Russia. Some of the old miss their youthful memories while some of the young yearn to return to a past they never knew. But the general perception is that the Soviet Union was a time when Russia was strong. At the beginning of this week, Russian lawmakers from the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party proposed in the State Duma to recognize the fall of the Soviet Union as the “greatest 20th Century catastrophe”.
An excellent article from The New York Times illustrates government-led efforts to inspire patriotism and “militarism” in Russian society.
On Russian state television, the narrative of a Ukraine controlled by neo-Nazis and used as a staging ground for Western aggression has been a common trope since the pro-Western revolution in Kyiv in 2014. After the revolution, Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, fomented a war in Ukraine’s east and sharpened its messaging about Russia as a “besieged fortress.” - from “How the Kremlin Is Militarizing Russian Society” (NYT)
It is difficult to deny that Russian society is gradually backsliding to a more blatant Cold War-esque atmosphere. Russian media and official channels have amplified claims that the country will be prepared to defend its interests against NATO. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs went far as to present (publicly) its demands to the alliance for security guarantees.
Vladimir Frolov, writing for the Moscow Times, suggested that NATO could wiggle itself out of its predicament if it were to state that the alliance would not expand further eastward during the upcoming 2022 Madrid Summit, thus annulling its 2008 Bucharest Declaration which promised Ukraine and Georgia that they “will become members of NATO”.
Whether NATO accepts, rejects, or compromises, any outcome will be reported as a victory for Russia. A professor of mine highlighted that this was a return to the Soviet-era when any result of a diplomatic crisis was always be reported as a victory. The state can never fail.
If NATO accepts or compromises, excellent. Отлично.
If NATO rejects, then Russia will respond accordingly (This will be viewed as a victory, for Russia will show the world its strength!). Отлично.
I end with a Soviet joke my professor told us that is relevant to what I have shared above:
Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon are watching (as ghosts) the parade in Red Square in the 1940s.
“If I had Soviet tanks, I would have been invincible!” says Alexander.
“If I had Soviet airplanes, I would have conquered the whole world!” says Caesar.
“If I had Pravda [the main Soviet newspaper], the world would have never known about Waterloo!” says Napoleon.
It says a lot that even 30 years on after the fall of the Soviet Union, Soviet jokes still remain relevant to Russian society today. I suppose there is a tragic truth to the Japanese proverb “Fall seven times, stand up eight.”
That’s all for now~
I will be taking a bit of a break the next two weeks, so I’ll see you after that!
Thank you all of you for supporting my work and simply just being here.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
С новым годом!
NL