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Putin and Lessons from Second World War
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Ilya Shambat
Sep 5, 2022, 7:21:33 AM9/5/22
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As somebody who used to support Vladimir Putin, I am infuriated at what he has been doing in Ukraine. The Ukrainian people have done nothing to deserve what is happening to them. However that is not where the matter ends.
In 1985, the Soviet leadership elected a noble-minded leader named Mikhail Gorbachev. He tried to make the place more democratic and more humane. In 1991 the Communist hardliners put him under house arrest. The people poured into the Red Square; the hardliners sent in tanks; however the military refused the orders to shoot at the people. The Soviet military made a noble and righteous decision. And the reward for their nobility has been their country plundered and its people treated like dirt.
Has the world failed to learn anything from the Second World War? The lesson is that you don’t humiliate a proud country. What Putin has been doing in Ukraine has been just as wrong as what Hitler had done. But he has support of people who are in no way evil; who have seen their country dragged through the dirt and who are correctly angry at what has happened to their country.
Russia has both the traditional Slavic authoritarian influence and the Western democratic influence. The two sets do not get along, and they have been fighting each other since 17th century. At the end of the Soviet Union, many Russians looked toward the West, and many believe that the West has betrayed them. This makes credible the worst voices in Russia and endangers the better people in the country, and, as we are now seeing, in a number of other places as well.
So we have some people claiming that the Russians are evil. They don’t know what they are talking about. There is nothing evil about Anna Akhmatova, Leo Tolstoy or Yuri Gagarin. They are failing to understand what is happening, and it takes someone who knows what he’s talking about to inform them correctly. Russians have seen their country dragged through the dirt, and that gives credibility to the worst people in the country. And, as we are seeing now, it is very, very bad for Russia’s neighbors.
For a long time under Putin Russia was doing well, and by standards of Russian politics he was mild. What he has been doing in Ukraine has been completely unjustifiable, and I hope that it costs him being in power. The alternatives to him range from Gary Kasparov, a chess champion who has been leading pro-democracy movement in Russia, to Alexander Lukashenka, a Belorussian despot who wants Belarus to join Russia so that he can subject both countries to totalitarian rule.
Which one of these becomes credible is very much the function of the West’s policies toward Russia. There is still time to correct the errors that have been made. Empower the better voices in Russia by treating Russia and Russian people well. And see the place become receptive to Western ideas and grow in peace and prosperity.
In 1985, the Soviet leadership elected a noble-minded leader named Mikhail Gorbachev. He tried to make the place more democratic and more humane. In 1991 the Communist hardliners put him under house arrest. The people poured into the Red Square; the hardliners sent in tanks; however the military refused the orders to shoot at the people. The Soviet military made a noble and righteous decision. And the reward for their nobility has been their country plundered and its people treated like dirt.
Has the world failed to learn anything from the Second World War? The lesson is that you don’t humiliate a proud country. What Putin has been doing in Ukraine has been just as wrong as what Hitler had done. But he has support of people who are in no way evil; who have seen their country dragged through the dirt and who are correctly angry at what has happened to their country.
Russia has both the traditional Slavic authoritarian influence and the Western democratic influence. The two sets do not get along, and they have been fighting each other since 17th century. At the end of the Soviet Union, many Russians looked toward the West, and many believe that the West has betrayed them. This makes credible the worst voices in Russia and endangers the better people in the country, and, as we are now seeing, in a number of other places as well.
So we have some people claiming that the Russians are evil. They don’t know what they are talking about. There is nothing evil about Anna Akhmatova, Leo Tolstoy or Yuri Gagarin. They are failing to understand what is happening, and it takes someone who knows what he’s talking about to inform them correctly. Russians have seen their country dragged through the dirt, and that gives credibility to the worst people in the country. And, as we are seeing now, it is very, very bad for Russia’s neighbors.
For a long time under Putin Russia was doing well, and by standards of Russian politics he was mild. What he has been doing in Ukraine has been completely unjustifiable, and I hope that it costs him being in power. The alternatives to him range from Gary Kasparov, a chess champion who has been leading pro-democracy movement in Russia, to Alexander Lukashenka, a Belorussian despot who wants Belarus to join Russia so that he can subject both countries to totalitarian rule.
Which one of these becomes credible is very much the function of the West’s policies toward Russia. There is still time to correct the errors that have been made. Empower the better voices in Russia by treating Russia and Russian people well. And see the place become receptive to Western ideas and grow in peace and prosperity.
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