THE HIGHLIGHTS

As I set my foot on the American soil, I was delighted to read Professor Gary Saul Morson’s outstanding review of Solzhenitsyn’s “March 1917”, the third and last part of Solzhenitsyn’s majestic “The Red Wheel” trilogy about Russia’s downfall, finally published in the US.[i] “In Russia, history is too important to leave to the historians,” writes Morson.  “As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn explained in his 1970 Nobel Prize lecture, literature transmits “condensed and irrefutable human experience” in a form that “defies distortion and falsehood. Thus literature . . . preserves and protects a nation’s soul.”  

In truth, the Horrorcost of the Bolshevik totalitarian rule for the Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Muslims, Christians and all Non-Bolsheviks by far exceeds anything what the accolades of the Jewish Holocaust during WWII could master. Above all, it was not the Germans exterminating Jews and other “racial inferiors” during a fierce war, but Jews and Russians killing Jews and Russians—and all other—deviant from the Party Line. The bosses of the GULAG, often Jewish, were killing the “Trotskists,” “Zionists” and other former comrades because the “party line” kept on changing. This made Vasily Grossman ( 1905 –1964), a Soviet (Jewish) writer, wander in his proscribed novel  Life and Fate (1960): Was Marxist “class struggle” morally superior to the Nazi race war? Grossman’s novel waited twenty years before being published in 1980 abroad.[iii]
 
Most recently, Dmitry Bykov, the famed Russian poet and literary critic, speculated that “Hitler would have won over more in the USSR if he'd dropped the Antisemitism.” Remarkably, after a huge “patriotic” uproar, the lawyers decided that Bykov’s remarks do not constitute “disrespect for society” or “profanity against Russia’s military glory.” It was a huge victory for the freedom of speech in Putin’s Russia. Bykov was also off the hook for “rehabilitating Nazism,” disappointing those who were convinced that Bykov had crossed the line. (Meduza,  5 March 2019).[iv] An admirer of Solzhenitsyn, Bykov wrote a brilliant article about the failure of modern Russian nationalists to understand either Solzhenitsyn or Dostoevsky.[v]

On March 29 I had a breakfast with Jon Utley in Washington Harbor. The publisher of The American Conservative, Jon has been a peace-maker and my personal friend since the 1990s. In 2005, I helped him find out what happened to his Russian father Arkady Berdichevsky, a Soviet trade mission official, who was arrested alleged for “Trotskitst” sympathies in Moscow in 1936 when Jon was 2 year old. He got a “light” 3-year sentence. But then all correspondence with Freda Utley, Jon’s mother, stopped. As it turned out, Arkady was sent to a GULAG camp in Vorkuta, re-tried there for organizing a hunger strike and sentenced to die. We found a general location of mass executions site where he was executed along with hundreds of others in March of 1938. You may want to read my article about Jon[vi] or see Documentary: Return to the Gulag: Jon Utley’s Search for His Father.[vii]         

Learning of my forthcoming trip to California, Jon Utley asked me to give his warmest to Ron Unz, who preceded him as the publisher of The American Conservative and now publishes The Unz Review, one of the best alternative web-zine in the country.

On March 29, I visited the Library of Congress to hand a number of books to Grant Harris, a former graduate student of mine at the Monterey (now Middlebury) Institute of International Studies and now the head of the LOC’s European Division. Several books were from a Russian professor and Solzhenitsyn scholar from Krasnoyarsk University whom I had met during Solzhenitsyn’s Centennial Conference at Northern Vermont University in September 2018.

[i] https://www.amazon.com/March-1917-Center-Culture-Solzhenitsyn/dp/0268102651 
[ii] (“Solzhenitsyn’s cathedrals” by Gary Saul Morson | The New Criterion. Vol. 37, No. 8 / April 2019).
[iii] About Grossman’s novel read https://www.thenation.com/article/maximalist-vasily-grossman/
[iv] https://meduza.io/en/news/2019/03/05/russian-poet-is-off-the-hook-for-saying-hitler-would-have-won-over-more-in-the-ussr-if-he-d-dropped-the-antisemitism)
[v] http://www.solzhenitsyn.ru/o_tvorchestve/articles/general/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=1965
[vi] http://www.raga.org/news/john-basil-utley-at-80-he-is-one-of-us-memoirs-of-two-trips-to-russia
[vii] http://www.hacer.org/hacers-exclusive-video-channel-in-youtube/

As president of RAGA, I feel my duty to help cultural exchange between Russia and the US, the little that remains of it due to the ongoing russophobia of leading US media. In that I am guided by this utterance of James Billington (1929-2018), the former Library of Congress director: “If Americans cannot penetrate into the interior spiritual dialogue of other peoples, they will never be able to understand, let alone anticipate or affect, the discontinuous major changes which are the driving forces in history and which will probably continue to spring unexpected traps in the years ahead. To put it another way, if we   cannot learn to listen to others as they whisper their prayers, we may well confront them later on when they howl their war cries.”
    
The above is from the article “Russia’s Mission” by Professor NICOLAI N. PETRO, my former colleague at the Monterey (now Middlebury) Institute of International Studies. He has been one of the most perceptive and honest observer of Russia-US relations. He sees “Russia’s Mission” in President Putin’s efforts to engage his NATO opponents in “civilizational realism” in the hope to “forge a new and more ‘congenial’ world order”. (NOV 14, 2018).[i]
 
Arriving at San Francisco on March 30, I called Ron Unz. Upon receiving Utley’s greetings from Washington, he kindly invited me and my daughter Vera for a lunch at Jing-Jing Chinese restaurant in Palo Alto. Based on a number of his articles, including the one stressing the support of Jewish American bankers for the Bolshevik revolution, I had already welcomed him as one of RAGA authors.[ii] (). 

Now in front of me sat an introspective, polite, almost shy man eager to listen and understand rather than talk and blame anyone. We agreed the surest way for the United States to survive as a viable democracy and a beacon of hope for the downtrodden is not to force “democracy” on others but start by respecting their sovereignty. Domestically, let people of different persuasions engage in a friendly dialog. Be they Conservative or Liberal, Right or Left, Capitalist or Socialist—as long as they eschew violent, vile and offensive means of propagating their ideas—all are welcome.

[i] Petro’s article https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/online-articles/russias-mission
[ii] http://www.raga.org/news/welcome-ron-unz-and-american-pravda

Ron and I agreed that we should promote polyphony and the art of mutually beneficial dialog, as Socrates practiced it. And be mindful that sometimes democracies TOO get out of hand, turn demagogic and brutal, just as the Athenian populace condemned Socrates to death. Ron and I agreed that generally conservatives have upheld best the banner of liberty. The nearby Hoover Institution was just about the only anti-Communist US think-tank where Solzhenitsyn found a plenty of materials on the brutality of Communism in Russia. I am glad to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Hoover Institution for publishing my book “Soviet Defectors: The KGB Wanted List”.[i]
 
It just crossed my mind that one of Jon Utley’s close associates, the Austrian philosopher Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (1909 – 1999) suspected, as the ancient Greeks did, that DEMOCRACIES have the tendency to degenerate into a mob rule and tyranny. His self-description as a "conservative arch-liberal" may sound self-contradictory, but actually is not. The best ways to preserve the foundations of civil order in the world is not forcing “democracy” on the “benighted” nations but rather, while respecting their sovereignty, show them the advantages of liberal attitude toward censorship and human rights. A polyglot who mastered several languages, Kuehnelt-Leddihn exerted considerable influence on the conservatives in the USA. See Lee Congdon’s article “Kuehnelt-Leddihn and American Conservatism”.[ii]

The conservatives, like Utley, Kuehnelt-Leddihn or Unz should not be confused with their opposites, the aggressive and dogmatically pro-Zionist Neo-Cons. According to Wikipedia, the ascendance of the Neo-Cons in US foreign policy has to do with The Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a think tank founded in 1997 in Washington by  William Kristol and Robert Kagan under the motto: "American leadership is good both for America and for the world."[iii]
 
However, in a bold 2006 article “The Israeli Lobby” (later a book, The Israeli Lobby and US Foreign Policy) Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt traced the origin of anthe Neo-Cons to an earlier event. In 1996 a group led by Richard Perle submitted to Benjamin Netanyahu, the then Prime Minister of Israel, a report titled A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm. The insisted on a new approach to solving Israel's security problems in the Middle East via a propaganda campaign to emphasize Israel’s affinity with "Western values." The report pushed an aggressive policy, including the removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and dismantling of Syria by proxy warfare. Thus, at least since 1996, the US global strategy has been in alliance with and—some would say—subordinated to Israel’s security needs as perceived by the right wing Zionists.

My next appointment was an April 5, 2019 radio interview with Dr. Kevin Barrett about Solzhenitsyn, Gandhi, and Peace in the World https://kevinbarrett.heresycentral.is/tag/vladislav-krasnov/ Kevin is an American dissident and former university professor who lost his job for sticking to the “irreverent” view that 9/11 was an inside job for mobilizing public opinion in favor of US military offensive in the Middle East, North Africa, and vis-à-vis Russia. My interview followed that with Richie Allen, a popular Irish radio show host opposing censorship in UK. [iv]  

The key note for my own 2nd hour interview- Listen HERE - with Kevin was Solzhenitsyn’s prophetic utterance:

[i] https://www.hoover.org/research/soviet-defectors-kgb-wanted-list
[ii] https://www.crisismagazine.com/author/lee-congdon
[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century
[iv] https://sarahwestall.com/richie-allen-speaks-censorship-insignificant/.

In placing this quotation in front, Kevin was just on cue. His mission is the pursuit of truth. That’s how he presented me:  Vladislav Krasnov, a.k.a. George Krasnow, discusses his recent articles “Solzhenitsyn’s relevance today” and “Gandhi and Solzhenitsyn, the Two Giants Who Blessed the XXth Century.” The latter article serves as a spring board for advocating a new Paradigm for Global Relations, including an alliance of Civilizations to save the Planet from Nuclear destruction.”  Listen HERE   (remember I am in the 2nd half of the scale)

​There is no need to text the radio voice. But a brief overview might save your time. Kevin and I started with my book Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth written when I was still professor of The Monterey Institute. Appearing just before the end of the USSR in 1991, the book was not only predictive of--but also aimed at preparing both American and Russian public opinion for-- the emergence of a New Russia. In fact, I presented a copy to Boris Yeltsin right after he had squashed the August 19, 1991 Communist coup attempt and replaced the Red Flag of Communism with Russia’s national tricolor. 

Starting with Solzhenitsyn’s vision of post-Soviet future, I presented a number of Soviet and some Russian émigré authors who took advantage of a relative freedom of expression under Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost’ to argue that the country should abandon the straitjacket of Marxism-Leninism and go “beyond” Communism. Solzhenitsyn was of primary importance. I discussed a number of his essays that pointed toward Russia’s post-Communist future, such as “Letter to the Soviet Leaders” (1973), REPENTANCE AND SELF-LIMITATION IN THE LIFE OF NATIONS (1973), Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals. The last one was widely published in the USSR in August 1990.

Solzhenitsyn was also important as I employed his polyphonic method in selecting authors of different persuasions. In the subtitle I used “National”, not “nationalist”, rebirth. This is because “nationalist” smacks of possible xenophobic and chauvinistic tendency which Solzhenitsyn and the majority of my authors deplored. If they were “nationalist”, it was only in a positive sense of adhering to the best of national traditions. The majority of my authors favored a national, now I would say identitarian alternative to Communism--that is restoring Russia’s traditional pre-1917 national identity, her historical roots, religious beliefs and customs--to replace the official Marxism-Leninist ideology which by 1991 seemed to have fallen into a coma. Having returned to Russia in 1994, Solzhenitsyn refused to support Boris Yeltsin and the “shock therapy” reforms that brought the country on the brink of anarchy and civil war. Only with the 1998 ascent of Yevgeny Primakov as Prime-Minister and then Vladimir Putin as President did Solzhenitsyn feel reassured that Russia has regained its national sovereignty.

During these post-Soviet years I found myself in agreement with Solzhenitsyn’s dissatisfaction with Yeltsin’s government. Having moved from California to Washington DC, I founded the Russia & America Good Will Association (RAGA.org) to help overcome an enormous cultural gap between the USA and post-Soviet Russia still plagued by the vestiges of Soviet mentality. My chief advantage was the familiarity with both, plus my ability to travel back and forth, as well as across the States, often as a contract interpreter for the USDS.

As RAGA president, I tried to help A New Russia get on her feet.
* In March 1998, published in The Washington Post a paid ad with the greeting to Russia’s Prime-Minister Yevgeni Primakov when he turned his plane back when the US had started bombing Yugoslavia;
* In March 1999, wrote an Open Letter to Bill Clinton protesting US interference in Russian reforms; it was signed by over a hundred American experts http://www.raga.org/news/raga-open-letter-to-clinton;
* In 2001, warned “Don’t Count Russia Out,” in a polemical article welcoming Vladimir Putin’s assertion of Russia’s sovereignty; http://www.raga.org/dont_count.html
* In 2008, I wrote a comprehensive article Did Shock Therapy Help Russia?, describing the collusion between of the Gaidar-Chubais group in Russia and the Harvard clique of Andrei Shleifer and Jonathan Hay, who got the contract on doing reforms in Russia without competitive bidding. As the two got involved in illegal investments, Harvard University was forced to pay the largest penalty in its history. In my research I was greatly helped by Janine Wedel’s book Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe, 1989-1998.[i]
* Then came “Obama’s Perestroika Challenge: US & Russia”, by W.George Krasnow, 7 January 2009, insisting on “Abandoning the fantasy of U.S. unipolar world domination and recognizing Russia's legitimate national security concerns” among other recommendations;[ii]
* When President Obama failed to reset US-Russia relations and continued George Bush’s policy of confrontation, I engage him in a letter exchange suggesting that, instead of vain demagogic efforts to spread “democracy” throughout the world, the USA should, first of all, honor the right of each nation for “sovereignty”.[iii]

In 2014 my book was published in translation, Новая Россия. От коммунизма к национальному возрождению. [iv] In its Preface Professor Aleksei Lyubimov, the editor of a Duma magazine[v] and member of the Diplomatic Academy, recommended the book as “balanced and dispassionate”. He also praised it for offering a number of different, even opposing viewpoints, “for calling for societal consolidation, and a civilized dialog and polyphonic interaction between the Westernizers and Slavophiles, the advocates of free market and socialists, Orthodox Christians, Muslims and Jews. In his opinion, the whole world needs to cooperate with independent, free, prosperous and peace-loving Russia”.

My book was the last of a series of four publications undertaken by the Center of Contemporary Russian Studies which Dr. Nicolai Petro and I founded around 1988 at the Monterey Institute. We deliberately used “Russian” to challenge numerous Soviet Studies think-tanks across the States. As soon as Mikhail Gorbachev proclaimed glasnost’, that is a degree of freedom long suppressed in the USSR, we felt that the Communist Utopia will not last long. We felt that US academic establishment needed to prepare for a New Russia for which the recovery of its historical, cultural, and spiritual identity was essential. That’s why the book was dedicated to the Millennium of Russia’s baptism in the year 1988. I did not expect that the millions of Soviet atheists would overnight confess Jesus Christ. Nor did I expect that the New Russia would abandon secular freedom of conscience. But I expected that all its citizens, whether Christian, Muslim or Jewish, would feel free to confess their convictions.

The main thrust of the book was antithetical to that of Professor Richard Pipes (1923-2018) who once headed Russian Center at Harvard. The difference was that while we in Monterey looked upon Russia’s re-emergence with a hope, Pipes felt that the USSR must be feared precisely because it retained too much “Russianness” from its past. In a sense, my book was the extension of my 1979 debate with Pipes in The Russian Review in the USA and Encounter magazine in UK. See “Richard Pipes’s Foreign Policy Strategy: Anti-Soviet or Anti-Russian?”[vi]

In his writings Pipes entirely dismissed the influence of Marxist-Leninist ideology on the behavior of Soviet leaders. Moreover, he failed to see how powerful pro-Communist and pro-Marxist forces outside the USSR, including “Cultural Marxism” and “Catholic Marxism,” were facilitated Soviet strategy throughout the world.  

In fact, one of the reasons for the West’s current hostility toward Russia today is the failure to recognize during the Old Cold War that Communism was not just a Russian, Chinese or Cambodian event, but a common, West-centered, affliction of humankind with the virus of violence. It was advertised as the most effective, quick, scientifically “required” cure of all injustices of the world. I call it “West-centered” because Lenin and his Bolsheviks always prided themselves that their Marxist ideology was based on the ideas of French Revolution, German philosophy, and British labor movement. But the “Russian proletariat” was called upon to spread these Western ideas for the sake of world revolution. As to the terror of French Revolution, its degeneration into Napoleon’s wars of conquest, Lenin dismissed as non-consequential. Thus the October Revolution of 1917 was driven by the desire of the Bolsheviks to re-play the French Revolution and be more “Western” than the West.

The prominence of Jews in the Bolshevik leadership, a taboo topic for many years, has been lately elucidated by a number of authors, especially by MARK WEBER.[vii] Ron Unz himself shed light on the assistance to the Bolsheviks from Jewish donors from overseas.[viii]

What remains overlooked is that the Bolsheviks, whether Jewish, Russian or Latvian, were largely deracinated individuals who were hardly representative of their ethnic or religious group. Karl Marx himself, though from rabbinical families on both sides, was baptized and acted as an ardent Christian in his youth. But then, denouncing “everyday Jews” as misers and blood-suckers, he turned into fanatical atheist and God-fighter. His denunciation of all religions as the opiate of the people is well-known. Anti-religious fanaticism of the Russian Bolsheviks was just as stark. Lenin was as much an anti-Christ as Trotsky anti-Moses if not anti-Yahweh.
One might say that the totalitarian tendencies of early Bolsheviks were inspired less by Lenin’s mixed Jewish and “Mongolian” or Stalin’s “Asiatic” Georgian background, but rather by the complex of inferiority they felt vis-à-vis the West. The brutality of their early Soviet regimes largely stems from the desire to surpass the West in the most “progressive” Western idea of a violent world revolution as a short-cut to a socialist paradise on Earth. The Bolsheviks succeeded in surpassing the anti-clerical and anti-Christian ardor madness of the French Revolution. Professor Talmon was right in tracing “The Origines of Totalitarian Democracy” to the French Revolution. According to the book-selling site, Jacob Leib Talmon[ix] (1916 –1980) was Professor of Modern History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He studied the genealogy of totalitarianism, arguing that political Messianism stemmed from the French Revolution, and stressed the similarities between Jacobinism and Stalinism. He coined the terms Totalitarian Democracy and Political Messianism.

“The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy” was first published in 1952, re-published in 1986. I read it some thirty years ago while working on “Russia Beyond Communism”. But the book did not become dated. If anything, it is even more relevant now. As the book-sellers say, This study is an attempt to show that concurrently with the liberal type of democracy there emerged from the same premises in the eighteenth century a trend towards what we propose to call the totalitarian type of democracy. These two currents have existed side by side ever since the eighteenth century. The tension between them has constituted an important chapter in modern history, and has now become the most vital issue of our time.

In my dialog with Kevin Barrett I argued that the issue is especially inflamed now when the USA and its allies declare themselves so much in love with democracy that they eagerly impose it on any country, allegedly, for its own benefit.

Unfortunately, in our propensity to denounce all “the reactionary,” “arch-conservative” and “rightists” defenders of status quo while bathing in the self-satisfying glory of all-atoning “progressivism” we forget that the defining watershed of modern age was the Bolshevik coup-d’état in October 1917 which lead to the longest totalitarian rule in history. If the Oliver Cromwell revolution and civil war turmoil in England lasted two decades (1642- 1662), the French Revolution just ten (1788-1999) and then degenerated into Napoleon’s dictatorship and wars of conquest, the October1917 Revolution in Russia drugged on for nearly 73 years (1917-1991).

Alas, it distinguished itself not just by unusual longevity but also by its counter-productive result as it ended with re-introduction of capitalism it vowed to destroy. It was counter-productive in achieving the goals it set: the liberation of working people, first in Russia and then the rest of the world, from exploitation and abuse by capitalists, money bags and the latter day imperialists. It did expropriate the capitalists and other money bags in Russia in 1917-1919. But when the Communist party rule evaporated at the end of 1991, socialist economy was quickly replaced, often by former Party functionaries, by crony-capitalism just like in the US, except the taxation in Russia is not progressive and anti-monopoly laws against the oligarchs are largely ineffective.

The Bolsheviks were right in never calling their revolution “Russian” because they conceived it as the beginning of world revolution and knew that its essence was rather anti-Russian.

Toward the end of the hour Kevin and I discussed my translation into Russian of John Andre Morrow’s book:

Six Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of His Time: The Primary Documents[x]

Dr. John Andrew Morrow (Imam Ilyas ‘Abd al-‘Alim Islam) is a Métis Canadian Muslim scholar who embraced Islam over thirty years ago at the age of sixteen. He has studied the Islamic sciences for over three decades at the hands of both traditional Muslim scholars as well as Western academics. He completed post-doctoral studies in Arabic in Fez and Rabat and considers Morocco to be his second home. He worked as a university professor for two decades, retiring from teaching after reaching the rank of Full Professor. He has authored a vast body of work, including over one hundred academic articles and thirty scholarly books.[xi]
Intrigued by early Muslim-Christian cooperation, John discovered it was based on a number of the Prophet Mohammad’s early agreements with Christian communities. One such Covenant, with the Christians of St. Catherine’s Monastery on Sinai, had been known in Tsarist Russia. But in the atheist USSR, historical record of Muslim-Christian cooperation became a non-issue. Agreeing with John that anti-Christian attitudes of Islamist extremists, such as the ISIL (Daesh), do not reflect the mainstream Muslim tradition, I translated John’s booklet to Russian and had it posted on a Russian site.[xii] Later my friend from Azerbaijan had it translated into Azeri.

Diverse authors and publications: 
*--On Thursday March 28, Dan Lieberman, a good friend of mine for many years, a journalist, playwright, and, sometimes, a tennis partner, treated me with lunch downtown Washington. Dan is a tireless publisher of Alternative Insight.  And “Alternative” it really is! Dan never fails to challenge US policy toward Russia, as well as its subservience to Israel’s interests in the Middle East. This time he was especially upset with The New York Times publishing an Oct. 19, 2018 article by Adam Goldman, "Justice Dept. Accuses Russians of Interfering in Midterm Elections," which Dan finds erroneous. His attitude to the Mainstream media is articulated in his article The Media is the Mischief
 
*--My Californian son-in-law Sammy presented to me Thomas Cowan’s book, Human Heart, Cosmic Heart: A Doctor’s Quest to Understand, Treat, and Prevent Cardiovascular Disease. [xiii]I read the book on the Aeroflot flight back to Moscow.  I find Dr. Cowan’s argument compelling, especially since it is buttressed not just with careful medical research, but also with the anthroposophist philosophy of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) with its holistic approach to all sources of knowledge: heart, blain, and soul.  

*--John, my lawyer, whom I have known since mid-1990s when he registered RAGA.org, has always delighted me with his broad interest in Russian arts, ballet, music, and architecture. During a coffee break with him I was pleasantly surprised that it was he who emailed to me Gary Saul Morson’s profound review article about Solzhenitsyn that made me so happy on the first day in America. It seems, the academic establishment here begins to recognized that by writing The Red Wheel, (including March 1917), Solzhenitsyn created a credible non-Communist version of Russian history distinct from both Russophobic and pro-Marxist mainstreams. 

*--Another associate from Solzhenitsyn’s Vermont Conference suggested I read a book on russophobia by a Swiss journalist. I am happy to recommend it to all RAGA readers: Creating Russophobia: From the Great Religious Schism to Anti-Putin Hysteria by Guy Mettan.[xiv] “Why do the USA, UK and Europe so hate Russia?” wonders the book seller rephrasing Mr. Mettan. “How it is that Western antipathy, once thought due to anti-Communism, could be so easily revived over a crisis in distant Ukraine, against a Russia no longer communist? Why does the West accuse Russia of empire-building, when 15 states once part of the defunct Warsaw Pact are now part of NATO, and NATO troops now flank Russian borders ...”

        It is one thing when a Russian like me or Putin complains about russophobia, but to hear it from outstanding journalist in Switzerland, the oldest republic in Europe, known for its neutrality and tri-lingual peaceful co-existence is a lesson to all who aspire to a membership in a civilized world, and that includes Ukraine!
 
*--An exceptional book from Eastern Europe is GRAND DECEPTION: The Killing of William Browder” by Alex Krainer. Alas, it is NOT carried by the foremost book-seller in the world, Amazon.com. As Krainer explains, “My book, published only last month (August 2017), was starting to get some traction and in its first four weeks gained very positive reviews from readers (seven 5-star reviews and one 4-star review). That’s when Browder’s legal counsel Jonathan M. Winer stepped in. He contacted CreateSpace and demanded that my book be delisted alleging that it contained defamatory content. CreateSpace promptly obliged, suppressing the book and instructing me that I needed to, “work with the disputing party until a resolution is reached.” [xv]

       Now Krainer’s book Grand Deception: The Browder Hoax may be purchased here.[xvi] The book seller explains: “Suppressed and banned by the CIA's supplier, Amazon, “The Grand Deception: The Browder Hoax” is a highly intelligent, frank and entertaining take-down of one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the US public and the world – The Magnitsky Act. Krainer’s study of Bill Browder’s book and actions is a riveting, unflinching expose of one of this decade’s big hoaxes.”

   If Mettan is a neutral Swiss, Krainer hails from Monte Carlo, Monaco. Moreover, born in Rijeka, Croatia, he is supposed to be hostile to Russia. But he is not because he is belongs to The Truth Alliance and proudly proclaims: “We aim to inspire public debate and open minds for a dialogue. We reject false “truths” telling that we need to be afraid and “protected” and that the “other” needs to be demonized and, ultimately, killed or otherwise destroyed. We reject lies and propaganda for those who deny us our own dignity and our own humanity.”

     It is easy to see in this a challenge to the New World Order, more specifically, to “The New American Century” proclaimed by the Neo-Cons in 1996. I hope this challenge will be sustained by, first and foremost, the peoples of Eastern Europe who, like the peoples of Russia, have carried the main brunt of Communist totalitarianism. Most appropriately, Krainer quotes Václav Havel, the dissident Czech writer who went to the office of president virtually straight from his prison cell.  “Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe toward which this world is headed — be it ecological, social, demographic, or a general breakdown of civilization — will be unavoidable.” Not for nothing, Havel was called a “Czech Solzhenitsyn”. “The catastrophe” Havel feared is now even more imminent than in his time and it can hardly be avoided without Alex Krainer’s The Truth Alliance as long as  the US and its European allies vilify Russia.
 
There was a disappointment on my trip too. Next day after my arrival at Washington on March 25, Benjamin Netanyahu was to speak at the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) meeting at the Walter E Washington Convention Center. The JVP (Jewish Voice for Peace), of which I am a non-Jewish member, called for a rally to protest against Netanyahu’s belligerent and uncompromising attitude toward Palestinians. 

At least, since Mearsheimer’s and Walt’s 2007 book The Israeli Lobby and the US Foreign Policy, I have been acutely aware of the problem. That’s why some years ago I joined the JVP as a genuine pro-peace human rights organization favoring a compromise between the Jews and Palestinians in Israel and elsewhere. I have admired JVP’s Non-Violent tactics, including participation in BDS actions against Israel across the USA. This time I responded to JVP’s call to protest against Netanyahu’s appearance in Washington as I hoped to meet JVP Washington area members. However, I saw none: either I was a bit late or they called off the protest as Netanyahu failed to appear sending instead a youTube pep talk. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank called Netanyahu's pep talk “a knife in the heart of the U.S.-Israel relations”.[xvii]
 
Well, my disappointment was soon compensated by JVP appeal to Madonna to cancel her appearance at Eurovision contest to be held next month in Israel. As the JVP newsletter says, “...Israel shouldn’t even be hosting Eurovision in the first place. The core values of the contest – inclusion, diversity and unity – are the polar opposite of Israel’s unequal laws, apartheid roads and numerous human rights violations.”
Choose Freedom: Boycott Eurovision, Madonna!

[i]  http://janinewedel.info/collisionreview_ForgnServ.html
[ii] https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/obama-s-perestroika-challenge-us-russia/
[iii] http://www.raga.org/news/to-mr-barack-obama-potus
[iv] https://www.labirint.ru/books/438669/)
[v]  Lyubimov http://www.pvlast.ru/glavred/
[vi] Krasnow vs Pipes Debate  https://www.jstor.org/stable/128605?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. Also The Russian Review vol.38, no.2, 1979; also the Encounter (April 1980).
[vii] See Weber’s article “The Jewish Role in the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia's Early Soviet Regime. Assessing the Grim Legacy of Soviet Communism.” http://www.unz.com/pub/jhr__the-jewish-role-in-the-bolshevik-revolution-and-russias-early-soviet-regime/ 
[viii] See his “The Bolshevik Revolution and Its Aftermath,” 8/27/2018.
[ix] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3400147-the-origins-of-totalitarian-democracy
[x] Morrow’s book https://www.amazon.com/Covenants-Prophet-Muhammad-Christians-Time-ebook/dp/B00VTWYERS
[xi] https://www.islamicity.org/by/john-andrew-morrow/
[xii] https://books.google.ru/books?isbn=1527509672
[xiii] Thomas Cowan https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30006169-human-heart-cosmic-heart
[xiv] Guy Mettan https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34237648-creating-russophobia
[xv] https://thirdalliance.ch/krainers-take-amazon-ban/
[xvi] Alex Krainer https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JabbaQ Price: $14.99 USD. Words: 79,970. Language: English. Published: September 2018. 
[xvii] Dana Milbank https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-republicans-chutzpah-at-aipac/2019/03/26/21c12356-4fff-11e9-a3f7-78b7525a8d5f_story.html

The JVP is not alone in defending Palestinian rights in Israel, and – the right of free speech guaranteed to Americans by the First Amendment.

“Why So Much Fuss About A Conference In North Carolina?”
APRIL 24, 2019  By LARA FRIEDMAN

The attacks on the UNC-Duke conference—alongside continuing efforts to pass laws defining criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism—demonstrate that, although the president clearly has something else in mind when he talks about protecting free speech on campus, the truth is that campus free speech, when it comes to Israel, is very much under attack today—by those who want to shut down all criticism of Israel.[i]

About Julian Assange’s predicament
The best comment on Julian Assange’s dangerous predicament was by Caitlin Johnstone, “The Prosecution of Julian Assange Is Infinitely Bigger Than Assange” Caitlin Johnstone Tue, Apr 23, 2019

'They’re trying to win this fight against Assange in brutal fashion to ensure that they win all future fights as well'

Caitlin adds… “The other day I published a massive mega-article attacking the major smears about Assange I’ve encountered. There are 27 of them in total so far, and I’ll be adding more soon. This mountain of smears exists because instead of paying attention to the world-shaping dangers I just outlined which threaten to make it impossible to oppose the leaders of the US-centralized empire who are marching us towards either extinction or dystopia, people are babbling about Assange’s personality, or whether or not he cleaned up after his cat while at the embassy.” [ii]

Personally, I cannot add much about the Assange case to what I have already said about Ed Snowden.  To Defect or to Integrate? The USA vs Edward Snowden.[iii] Unless the US learns to integrate peaceful dissent and welcome dissidents to open public dialogue, it will disintegrate and go the way of the USSR.

The Notre Dame Cathedral and Russia
Then there was the Notre Dame Chathedral fire. It may need some time before we could put it in a proper perspective. The best comment I have seen so far was by Charles Mills who writes for the same conservative, but not dogmatic site Fitsgeral Griffin Foundation, where I also write.  “The blood of martyrs is still there to water Paris, but it will not do so as long as official and Paris-run France persists in glorifying Bastille Day, the Tricolor, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" and the Marseilles as national symbols, not as symbols of the Terror”, writes my FGF colleague. Read Notre Dame de Paris by Charles G.  Mills.[iv]

Although I am not as “Catholic” as Charles is, and am not as familiar with French history, I see his point as I do know that the French Revolution inspired the October Revolution in Russia where the Bolsheviks tried hard to surpass the French Revolutionary in their anti-clerical and anti-Christian fervor.

In 1931, led by Lazar Kaganovich (1893-1991), one of Stalin’s Jewish henchmen, the Bolsheviks blew up the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the largest church building in Moscow. In a tragic irony of history, this Cathedral had been erected as a sacred memorial to the defeat of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812.  Napoleon’s aggressions against the established order of Europe were born out of the God-fighting spirit of the French Revolution whose ideals of Equality, Brotherhood, and Liberty Napoleon also betrayed.

Remarkably, one of the first major construction projects in Moscow after the fall of the atheist USSR was rebuilding the destroyed and desecrated Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This was not an easy task because the previous building was not just destroyed, but its foundation was dug out to make a huge public swimming pool under open sky. One way or another, currently the Cathedral serves as the spiritual center for all of Russia where the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church presides over the liturgy during major events of Russian religious history.

It appears then that, after having suffered the greatest persecution of Christians since Nero, Russia rebounded and restored its spiritual health while retaining a secular state with freedom of conscience for denominations. The question is whether France and other countries of Europe can successfully guard and preserve the spiritual heritage of Western civilization without taking into account Russia’s newly gained spiritual experience?

[i] Lara Friedman https://lobelog.com/why-so-much-fuss-about-a-conference-in-north-carolina/#more-48412
[ii] Caitlin Johnstone https://russia-insider.com/en/prosecution-julian-assange-infinitely-bigger-assange/ri26841
[iii] Krasnow http://www.raga.org/news/to-defect-or-to-integrate-the-usa-vs-edward-snowden
[iv] Charles Mills http://fgfbooks.com/Mills-Charles/2019/Mills190419.html
​

Presidential election in Ukraine
Can Zelensky Make Ukraine Great Again? April 22, 2019

Is the ouster of Petro Poroshenko a turning point in Ukraine's crisis or just another disappointment? By Nikolas K. Gvosdev.[i]

  Outgoing Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko is to be commended for presiding over an election that was generally free and fair and, more importantly, in accepting the outcome. Privately, however, he may be breathing a sigh of relief that he will not have to take responsibility for some of the major decisions Ukraine is facing—decisions which will prove to be difficult and unpopular.

 His successor, comedian Volodomyr Zelensky, fits squarely in the mold of anti-establishment populist candidates who have been winning elections all throughout Europe—and his attractiveness as a presidential candidate for having played one on television carries echoes of how Donald Trump’s public persona in The Apprentice likewise helped to boost his presidential prospects.

...Zelensky is going to find he won’t have much of a honeymoon—either within Ukraine or with Ukraine’s main foreign partners and its key rival. How much leeway he will get remains to be seen—and it is way too premature to determine whether his election marks a turning point in Ukraine's crisis or another disappointment.

Nikolas Gvosdev is professor of national security studies at the U.S. Naval War College and the former Editor of the bi-monthly foreign policy journal, The National Interest. Wikipedia

US decision on Golan Heights violates UN Security Council resolutions – Putin. Published 8-04-2019

 The US’ decision to recognize Tel Aviv's sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights region violates UN Security Council resolutions – a position that Moscow has already made clear, Russia's president said.

The US’ decision to recognize Tel Aviv's sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights region violates UN Security Council resolutions – a position that Moscow has already made clear, Russia's president said.[ii]

The Orchestration of Russiaphobia Is The Prelude To War.
April 22, 2019 | By Paul Craig Roberts

…The Russian government’s naive and gullible response to Washington played into Washington’s hands. By responding to Washington’s orchestrated Russiaphobia as if it were some kind of mistake based on bad information, the Russian government allowed Washington to keep the process of demonization alive and thereby contributed to the ongoing demonization of Russia. If, instead, the Russian government had denounced the demonization of Russia as Washington’s act of preparing Americans for war with Russia and had taken a belligerent rather than a complaining stance, the realization that Washington’s policy had serious cost would have spread throughout the US and Europe and voices would have arisen against Washington’s dangerous and reckless policy. Today in place of the uniformity of voice against Russia, there would be dissent opposing Washington’s irresponsible provocations.[iii]

RUSSIA’s KULTURA TV channel
The most significant event in Russia right now is on a state supported KULTURA TV channel. It is a multiple one-hour series program called Propovedniki (Evangelists).[iv]

It is about the suppression of dissent in the USSR and Soviet bloc countries within the officially allowed but unofficially controlled and abused Christian Orthodox Church. So far I have seen four documentary programs: about Archpriest Alexander Men, Professor Sergey Averintsev, Archpriest Paul Adelheim, and Metropolitan (of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro) Amphilohie (Radovich).

The three Russians were not political dissidents, but they held the light of spirituality alive in a country where Marxist-Leninist materialism was the ruling ideology. Archpriest Men helped hundreds of Soviet intellectuals return to Christianity by preaching and writing books distributed by samizdat in overseas editions. He also helped Alexander Solzhenitsyn hide a GULAG manuscript. However, in 1990 he was assassinated, and his assassin was never found. Archpriest Pavel Adelheim himself spent three years in the GULAG camp where one of his legs had to be amputated due to abuse by the guards. He was assassinated in 2013 by a lunatic who came to him for a “cure”. Sergei Averintsev was university professor and a world authority on Byzantine, but secretly he served as a reader in a parish that attracted many Soviet intellectuals.

Metropolitan Amphilohije started his spiritual assent in Communist (and officially atheist) Yugoslavia. He studied in several seminaries abroad. Once when he was in Greece he met Solzhenitsyn whom he awarded a special personal cross for his devotion to truth. Metropolitan Amphilohije still devotes his mission to the unity of Slavic and non-Western peoples against the encroachments of the materialistic West. See his extensive interview THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IS STANDING IN THE WAY OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER. [v]

There are more documentaries about modern evangelists to be shown on Russian TV channels for there were many martyrs in the USSR who held the hope for Russia’s rebirth alive. However, Russian TV channel is secular and does not engage in religious proselytizing. It has been running a number of programs devoted to the remembrance of the events of Russian history that were distorted or silenced during the Soviet period. A number of programs are devoted to cultural achievements and events—in arts, music, movies, and theater--in all countries in the world, from Japan and China to ancient Egypt and modern Europe. In view of Western sanctions against Russia, the current emphasis on strengthening cultural ties with Asian countries, especially India, is understandable. TV Channel Kultura, for instance, has run for several months an Indian production of the ancient Indian epic “Sita and Rama”.

Russia’s Outreach to India—and the World
Not all efforts to strengthen cultural ties with foreign counries, especially non-allied countries of the East, are sponsored by the government. Dr. Leo Semashko of St. Petersburg, a peace activist, has created Global Harmony Association (GHA) 15 years ago entirely on his own. Now he is an Honorary President because he entrusted the leadership to its current President Dr. Subhash Chandra of India. But Leo remains active, always trying to build a global outreach. On the GHA’s masthead there are the winners of Nobel Peace Prize Dr. John Avery of Denmark and Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland, GHA Vice-Presidents Susana Roberts of Argentine, Surendra Pathak of India, Delasnieve Daspet of Brazil ; and Ayo Amale, GHA Africa President.[vi]

A couple of years ago Leo, upon reading some of RAGA Antidote newsletters, Leo invited me to join the Global Association which  I gladly did. No doubt, similarity of our backgrounds helped. I graduated from Moscow State University in history; he went to graduate school in philosophy of the same university. Both of us got fed up with Marxism-Leninism and became dissidents. Both of us have felt a great attraction to Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of Non-Violence. When the GHA president declared the year of 2019 “Gandhi World Year”, Leo invited me to submit something to honor Gandhi’s 150th anniversary. Which I did, by writing Mahatma Gandhi and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Two Giants Who Blessed the 20th Century.[vii] Learning of my participation in the Vermont conference on Solzhenitsyn’s Centenary in Spetember 2018, the GHA site posted also my article “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Relevance Today”.[viii]

Yesterday, April 26, 2019 I went to the English Language Club of Moscow to hear the lecture by  Dr. Leena Sareen of India about Economic Development of India. She teaches Theory of Intercultural Communication at the Department of Psychology of Moscow Region State University  and has 10 years of experience in multinational companies as a coordinator between Russia and India. It was interesting to learn that out of India’s 1,364 million people  666 million use the internet, and 126 million of them use English. Now I am even more proud that some of my articles found their way on the site of my email pal and friend Sandhya Jain.[ix]

HAPPY EASTER GREETING--from Bethlehem, Palestine
In conclusion I am glad to transmit a HAPPY EASTER GREETING from Bethlehem, Palestine. It is authored by Dr. who describes himself as follows
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
Professor, Founder, and (volunteer) Director
Palestine Museum of Natural History
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability
Bethlehem University
Occupied Palestine
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinenature.org

I have been receiving Mazin’s elucidating newsletter for quite some time and pasted them on my FB page. A Christian Palestinian of mixed origin, he celebrates Easter twice, according to both Gregorian (as in the USA) and Julian (as in Russia) calendar. In 2014 I was fortunate to visited Israel/Palestine on a Russian Orthodox pilgrimage tour, and seeing Bethlehem was one of the highlights.

There is no need to relate Dr. Qumsiyeh’s whole letter. You could read it by clicking the links. But the few lines describing the Easter Hope of the Palestinian people are in order:

We aspire to a certain future when refugees are allowed to return and all people of all religions live in equality and justice. Jerusalem/Bethlehem will then become a true light unto the world. We are grateful that there has been tremendous growth of actions by civil society around the world to push for human rights and justice in this “Holy Land”.  This has included some really significant actions for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions (BDS) from Israel in the same way we did with Apartheid South Africa. Palestine will rise from the ashes like a Phoenix. We believe indeed in a resurrection!

Reading these lines, remember how in 1974, after being thrown out of the USSR, Solzhenitsyn predicted that he and his books will return to a free Russia. My American colleagues did not take him seriously and some thought he was mad. Was it because they did not believe in a Resurrection?               END

[i]  Nicholas Gvosdev https://nationalinterest.org/feature/can-zelensky-make-ukraine-great-again-53677
[ii] http://us-russia.org/6130-us-decision-on-golan-heights-violates-un-security-council-resolutions-putin.html
[iii] https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/04/22/the-orchestration-of-russiaphobia-is-the-prelude-to-war/
[iv] Evangelists https://tvkultura.ru/brand/show/brand_id/62714/
[v] https://pravoslavie.ru/81604.html
[vi] Global Harmony Association https://www.peacefromharmony.org/
[vii] Gandhi and Solzhenitsyn https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=884
[viii] Krasnov, “Solzhenitsyn’s Relevance Today” https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=864
[ix] http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4040

​Sincerely,
W George Krasnow (http://wiki-org.ru/wiki/Краснов,_Владислав_Георгиевич)
President, RAGA
www.raga.org
Facebook

Peace and Justice to the World. 
миру мир и благоволение в сердцах

 From RAGA site:
"We are an association of Americans who believe it is in the U.S. national interests to foster friendship with Russia on the basis of mutual Good Will and non-interference in each other's affairs. RAGA is a gathering of people who share common interests in Russia's history, culture, religion, economy, politics and the way of life. We feel that Russian people have made outstanding contributions to humankind and are capable of greater achievements. We envision Russia as a strong, independent, proud and free nation and as a partner in achieving peace in the world."

​All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​

It is long overdue to express New Year 2019 Good Wishes to everyone reading these pages, especially since news continue to be alarming.

In his annual February 20, 2019 address to the Federal Assembly, President Putin outlined goals to revive Russia's ailing economic and social situation. Only 15 minutes out of the 90 minutes address were devoted to international politics. The highlights are both grave and challenging:

—“If the U.S. really is going to deploy missiles on the European continent, it will exacerbate the international situation and create a genuine danger for Russia, as there will be missiles with a 10-12 minute flight time to Moscow." —“Russia will be forced to create and deploy weapons that can both be used on the territories from which the direct threat to us originates, as well as the territories where the centers of decision-making are located." —“We are ready for disarmament talks, but we are no longer going to knock on a closed door." 

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/02/20/the-highlights-of-putins-federal-assembly-address

In view of the worsening global situation, I have been focusing, on the RAGA's behalf, on some public peace-seeking initiatives. Below is my letter, slightly abbreviated, to Leo Semashko's Global Harmony Association (GHA) in which I stress the need for a new paradigm of global politics.

Dear Leo and GHA colleagues,
many thanks to Leo and his internet experts for posting my recent article Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Relevance Today in which I discussed International implications of a recent “Reading Solzhenitsyn” Conference in Lyndon, Vermont, September 7-8, 2018 http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=864

In conjunction with of Gandhi's 150th anniversary, I produced a sequel, an essay Mahatma Gandhi and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Two Giants Who Blessed the 20th Century  Will Vladimir Putin, OtherWorld Leaders Listen?

VLADISLAV KRASNOV • JANUARY 25, 2019 • 8,100 WORDS •
http://www.unz.com/article/mahatma-gandhi-and-aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-the-two-giants-who-blessed-the-20th-century/

The explicit purpose of the essay was to honor such wise and peace-promoting people as Gandhi, Solzhenitsyn, Leo Tolstoy, Martin Luther King Jr. (it was timed near the MLK Day in the USA), Nelson Mandela and several more. 

We all know of Samuel Huntington book"The Clash of Civilizations?"where, after the collapse of Communism in the USSR and Eastern Europe, he predicted that "the fundamental source of conflict will not be primarily ideological or economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural".  

There is no reason to rejoice at the prospect of cultural--rather than economic or ideological-- hostilities and possibly wars, especially now when such wars present a real risk of annihilating humankind. I believe that public initiatives, such as the GHA, Rene Wadlow's The Association of World Citizens (AWC)),  Andre  Sheldon's GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org, Sander Hicks' newyorkmegaphone.com, and several others offer a different, more promising and more harmonious paradigm for international relations based on the need for all civilizations, now matter how different, to co-exist for the benefit of all. So, implicitly my essay on Gandhi and Solzhenitsyn aims at buttressing this new paradigm of international relations embodied in the above organizations and individuals.  

Consistent with this purpose, RAGA joins Andre Sheldon's initiative in encouraging people to sight the petition below. Namaste! Here is the Link where you could sign the petition:   SAVE GANDHI'S HERITAGE ​​

Peace and Love
Andre Sheldon

Director, Global Strategy of Nonviolence, For the Children 
Facilitator, CALL to WOMEN, a World-Wide Unity Campaign
Cell number: +1-617-413-9064, Home number: +1-617- 964-5267
Email:  Andre@GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org          
Website: www.GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org 
Facebook: Global Movement of Nonviolence

RAGA agrees with Gandhi about indulgences that increasingly plague the WORLD:
​
1.Wealth without work 2.Pleasure without conscience 3.Knowledge without character 4. Business without ethics 5. Science without humanity 6. Religion without sacrifice 7. Politics without principles

I am happy to acknowledge that I borrowed the above Gandhi maxims from Jan Oberg, a tireless peace champion from Lund, Sweden, where I once started my post-Soviet carrier at Lunds Universitet. Please open their blog https://transnational.live/category/tff-global-posts-2019/

RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 14 FEBRUARY 2019
ON FEBRUARY 14, 2019 BY PATRICK ARMSTRONG IN RF SITREP RUSSIA COLLUSION. US Senate says none. Clinton’s excuse for her shattered campaign has generated much damage: censorship, stronger war party, hysterical TV, attacks on anyone who bucks the war party, destruction of the last bits of “journalistic standards”, bogus charges, mangled innocents like Maria Butin....

CURRENCY WARS. The Central Bank of Russia update: total USD holdings down to 22% from 46%, Euros and Renmenbi holdings up; gold 2,112 tonnes. Total external debt $453.7 billion, lowest in nearly 10 years. Moody’s upgrades debt rating. Washington’s economic war is failing.
https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2019/02/14/russian-federation-sitrep-14-february-2019/

THE PUTIN I KNEW FEBRUARY 5, 2019 PAUL Robinson 34 COMMENTS In my last post I drew attention to a strange schizophrenia in the way many commentators view Russia. On one hand, there’s what I will call model one, in which they blame the country’s problems and its supposed aggression on the authoritarian nature of Russia’s political system. On the other hand, there’s model two, in which they consider these problems to be the product of some supposedly innate characteristic of the Russian people – the ‘Russian soul’, as it were.

........Instead we get a combination of model one and model two, both of which oversimplify. Mixing them together – by personalizing Russia’s problems while simultaneously blaming them on innate national characteristics – serves only to confuse and to reinforce simplistic prejudices... https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2019/02/05/the-putin-i-knew/

On the Russian Orthodox Day of Baptism on January 19, 2019, VlADIMIR PUTIN issued a very cool, even cold, challenge to Western leaders by taking icy religious plunge. Yes, there are photos, reported The Washingrton Post.

The president appears healthy.
By Alex Horton. January 19, 2018

Russian leader Vladimir Putin dipped into frigid waters early Friday at a lake to mark the Orthodox observance of the Epiphany, which commemorates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/19/shirtless-putin-takes-icy-religious-plunge-and-yes-there-are-photos/

Professor Nicolai Petro, a former colleague of mine at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, sums up the Ukrainian bitter predicament of the past four years. https://eng.globalaffairs.ru/number/The-Tragedy-of-Ukraine-19910

<<As the war in Ukraine enters its fifth year,  the country remains mired in debt, corruption, and strife. The country seems to be caught up, again, in a vicious cycle that has been repeating itself for decades, if not centuries. Classical Greek tragedy gives us a deeper look at the reasons behind Ukraine’s persistent failure to achieve social stability, and suggests remedies. The tragic cycle can be broken through a compromise in which individual, social and divine aspirations for justice are reconciled. As long as Ukrainian leaders seek to achieve justice without compromise, the nation’s self-destructive cycle is likely to persist.>>

https://eng.globalaffairs.ru/number/The-Tragedy-of-Ukraine-19910

The Tragedy of Ukraine: Hard Lessons to Learn From Classics,” Russia in Global Affairs, vol. 16, № 4 (October/December 2018), pp. 52-71.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XewnyUJgyA4

Is war between China and the US inevitable? | Graham Allison
TED. Taking lessons from a historical pattern called "Thucydides's Trap," political scientist Graham Allison shows why a rising China and a dominant United States could be headed towards a violent collision no one wants -- and how we can summon the common sense and courage to avoid it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XewnyUJgyA4

In my previous report about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Centenary in the USA and in Moscow. I mentioned that Margo Caulfield, Director of Cavendish Historical Society, wrote a book, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Writer Who Changed History/ Paperback – February 20, 2016. It is rated 5.0 out of 5 stars and has 2 customer reviews: 
https://www.amazon.com/Aleksandr-Solzhenitsyn-Writer-Changed-History/dp/1530160855/
​
Remarkably, the book was written for students in grades 4th-7th, but will have considerable appeal for older audiences and can be used in any number of classes including history; psychology; literature; social studies; or biography. While there are many notable aspects of Solzhenitsyn’s life, we want readers to understand how his life unfolded and to help them use this information to better understand their own lives and the choices they make now and in the future. 

As I am about to visit a couple of high-schools in my native town of Perm, the gateway to Siberia, I know their students will be glad to hear that their US counterparts appreciate the Russian writer "who changed history". Solzhenitsyn, by the way, made a point of visiting Perm for several days when he triumphantly returned to Russia in 1994 by taking a r/r train from Vladivostok to Moscow. He had a number of friends in Perm with whom he wanted to restore the connection broken by his forced exile to the West.

I urge you to also read: 
https://www.thewriterwhochangedhistory.com/guide/

It is very educational. Besides, all proceeds from the sale of The Writer Who Changed History: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn will be used for the Cavendish Historical Society’s Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn project.

Let me repeat again that, as the RAGA's founder, I thank Margo Caulfield for reflecting the best attitudes toward Russia that I have found among Americans of all walks of life. Her letter to the Russian people (that I cited in my previous report) reaffirmed my faith in America which once gave me a refuge and hospitality but now appears to be less civil at home and more war-like abroad than it was when my native Russia was in the grip of totalitarian Communism. I am re-affirmed that RAGA is needed in both countries. I also feel that Solzhenitsyn, more than anybody else, unites Russia and the USA in their common task--and sacred duty--to secure a peaceful, free, fair, and harmonious global commonwealth in which every nation is a proud member. Solzhenitsyn's truthfulness and courage in search of peace between our nations is the cornerstone of the new paradigm for global politics, if we want the Planet to survive.  

As before, let me conclude with Professor William C. Brumfield's  yet another picturesque report on the uniqueness of Russian civilization and its travails under Soviet rule:

Dormition Cathedral in Yaroslavl:  Destroyed in 1937, rebuilt 70 years later:     https://www.rbth.com/travel/329728-yaroslavl-dormition-cathedral
​
Early 20th-century photographs from the Prokudin-Gorsky Collection (Library of Congress) and photographs from William C. Brumfield Collection (National Gallery of Art, Dept. of Image Collections) ​

Sincerely,
W George Krasnow (http://wiki-org.ru/wiki/Краснов,_Владислав_Георгиевич)
President, RAGA
www.raga.org
Facebook

Peace and Justice to the World. 
миру мир и благоволение в сердцах

 From RAGA site:
"We are an association of Americans who believe it is in the U.S. national interests to foster friendship with Russia on the basis of mutual Good Will and non-interference in each other's affairs. RAGA is a gathering of people who share common interests in Russia's history, culture, religion, economy, politics and the way of life. We feel that Russian people have made outstanding contributions to humankind and are capable of greater achievements. We envision Russia as a strong, independent, proud and free nation and as a partner in achieving peace in the world."

​All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​

On October 2, 2018, the world honored Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th Birthday Anniversary.[1] Few weeks later, on December 11, there was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s first Centenary.[2] At about the time of Mahatma Gandhi’s martyrdom[3] by a bullet of an overzealous Hindu nationalist in January 1948, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn[4]  had just begun his Via Dolorosa going through all the circles of Soviet Hell. He started with the First Circle at a sharashka-style research lab for prisoners,[5] and then went down to hard labor at lower circles. After he had graduated from the GULAG to internal exile in Kazakhstan, he also survived a bout with cancer. Only after his exile was cut short in 1956 by Nikita Khrushchev’s rehabilitation program[6] for the unjustly sentenced, was he able to dedicate himself to healing Russia, from its own political cancer, by truthfully describing the affliction of totalitarian society.
​
[1] In 2007, Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, the 2nd of October, was declared by the United Nations as the International Day of Non-Violence, now celebrated all over the globe. His was a life of austerity, tolerance, courage and struggle. https://www.gandhi.gov.in/gandhi-celebration.html

[2] SOLZHENITSYN CENTENNIAL. DECEMBER 11, 2018 MARKS THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF NOBEL PRIZE LAUREATE ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN’S BIRTHDAY https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/celebrating-100-years/

[3] Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948 in the Birla House (now Gandhi Smriti). His assassin was Nathuram Godse, an Indian nationalist who in 1940  formed an armed organization. Godse and his accomplice were hanged on 15 November 1949. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Mahatma_Gandhi

[4] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist and philosopher of history. He was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and communism and helped to raise global awareness of its Gulag forced labor camp system. He was allowed to publish only one work in the Soviet Union, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962), in the periodical Novy Mir. After this he was obliged to publish in the West, most notably The First Circle, Cancer Ward (1968), August 1914 (1971), and The Gulag Archipelago (1973). He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature." Expelled from the USSR in 1974, he returned to Russia in 1994 after the state's dissolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn Edited by VK

[5] The Sharashka Phenomenon. Posted on March 10, 2011 by Asif Siddiqi
 http://russianhistoryblog.org/2011/03/the-sharashka-phenomenon/

[6] In 1956 Nikita Khrushchev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR, denounced Stalinism in his speech On the Cult of Personality. Then the government began to “rehabilitate” political prisoners, allowing them to return home and reclaim their lives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehabilitation_(Soviet)

He won. In 1991 the USSR collapsed, and in 1994 he was able to return—now from an external exile in the USA—to his beloved Russia where he then began to describe what has gone wrong since 1991. He died on August 3, 2008. Dmitry Medvedev, then president, and his predecessor and successor, Vladimir Putin, were among the mourners who joined the Nobel laureate's family and friends for a funeral service held at Moscow's historic Donskoi monastery.[1] Thus one might say that Gandhi and Solzhenitsyn dominated the 20th century as two mighty spiritual powers for truth, justice, harmony, and Non-Violence in domestic and foreign affairs.

The name of Gandhi in Russia before the Bolshevik RevolutionThe name of Mohandas Gandhi[2] has been known in Russia since the time he had an exchange of letters[3] with Leo Tolstoy,[4] the world-famous novelist and the founder of “Non-Resistance to Evil by evil means” movement. Reading their correspondence one gets the definite impression that the two kindred souls found each other in 1909. However, the promising interchange was soon cut short by Tolstoy’s death in 1910. The Bolshevik Revolution and the bloody Civil war followed (1917-1921).

The Soviet Union lost no time in cancelling the very idea of Non-Violence, be it in a Tolstoyan or Gandhian form. To add injury to the insult, many of Tolstoy’s followers found themselves behind bars and in the far away regions of the GULAG. While Soviet school programs included the study of Tolstoy the writer, the wisdom of his later years was dismissed as “counter-revolutionary” and his writings untoward were not published. Thus, in my school years, I was able to read some, but only via the risky samizdat distribution.

Khazrat Inayat KhanAnother great line of Indian-Russian spiritual synergy that was cut off by the Bolshevik Revolution was embodied in Khazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927).[5] A Muslim-Sufi philosopher and musician, he came to Russia 1913 and stayed for several months. Inayat Khan gave several concerts in both Moscow and the Imperial capital Sankt-Petersburg. He also befriended such important cultural figures as the composer Alexander Scriabin,[6] the Symbolist poet Vyacheslav Ivanov,[7] the composer Vladimir Pohl,[8] and Leo Tolstoy’s son Sergei.[9] As a result, Russian culture was enriched not just with Indian music, but also with the  first translations of Inayat Khan’s Sufi writings into Russian.[10]

Apparently, Gandhi and Inayat Khan were acquainted; at least, they knew and respected each other. Below is a short exchange between the two wise  men.[11]

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:
Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.

-- Mahatma Gandhi

Our success or failure depends upon the harmony or disharmony of our individual will with the divine will.

— Hazrat Inayat Khan

What is just as important is that Inayat’s daughter Noor Inayat Khan,[12] the future heroine of World War Two, was born in Moscow.

Both Noor and Inayat’s son Hidayat Inayat Khan[13] were Gandhi’s followers.  The latter, the founder of Sufi movement in Canada and a composer, composed the Gandhi Symphony which has been performed world-wide.[14]

[1] On Solzhenitsyn’s funeral see https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/aug/06/russia
 
[2] Mohandas Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, he led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable") applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa– is now used worldwide. In India, he is also called the Father of the Nation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi
 
[3] Their correspondence during 1909-1910 is available both in English and Russian translation: Сергеенко А. П. ПЕРЕПИСКА Л.Н.ТОЛСТОГО С М.К.ГАНДИ http://antimilitary.narod.ru/antology/gandi/ghandi_tolstoj.htm
 
[4] Count Lev Tolstoy (1828 – 1910), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. In the 1870s Tolstoy experienced a moral crisis, followed by a spiritual awakening, as outlined in his non-fiction work A Confession (1882). His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist. Tolstoy's ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894), had a profound impact on such pivotal 20th-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy
 
[5] Inayat Khan Rehmat Khan (Urdu: عنایت خان‎; 1882 – 1927) was the teacher of Universal Sufism. He initially came to the West as a Northern Indian classical musician, but he soon turned to the transmission of Sufi thought and practice. In 1923 the Sufi Order of London was enlarged, under Swiss law, into the "International Sufi Movement". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inayat_Khan
 
[6] Alexander Scriabin (6 January 1872 – 27 April 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. Influenced by the works of Frederic Chopin, he composed works that are in a highly tonal idiom. Independently of Arnold Schoenberg, he created an atonal and dissonant musical system agreeing with his brand of mysticism. He also associated colors with the harmonic tones of his atonal scale. He is regarded as the Russian Symbolist composer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Scriabin
 
[7] Vyacheslav Ivanov (28 February 1866 – 16 July 1949) was a Russian poet and playwright associated with the Russian Symbolist movement. He was also a philosopher, translator, and literary critic. He died in exile in Rome, Italy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyacheslav_Ivanov_(poet)
 
[8] Владимир Иванович Поль (1875- 1962, Париж) — русский композитор, пианист, педагог, музыкально-общественный деятель, художник.https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Поль,_Владимир_Иванович
 

[9] Count Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy (10 July 1863, Yasnaya Polyana – 23 December 1947, Moscow) was a composer and ethnomusicologist who was among the first Europeans to make an in-depth study of the music of India. He was also an associate of the Sufi mystic, Inayat Khan, and participated in helping the Doukhobors move to Canada. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Tolstoy
 
[10] Хазрат Инайят Хан (англ. Inayat Khan; 1882 —1927) — индийский музыкант и философ, суфий, проповедовавший суфизм в западных странах и России, известен своими многочисленными книгами о суфизме, переведёнными на многие языки. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Хан,_Инайят
 
[11] Salaam and Greetings of Peace: https://darvish.wordpress.com/tag/hazrat-inayat-khan/.  I am not sure whether it was an actual letter exchange or a juxtaposition of similar philosophical attitudes. VK
 
[12] Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan (1914 –1944), aka Nora Inayat-Khan, was a British heroine of World War II renowned for her service in the Special Operations Executive. Under the name of Nora Baker she was a published author. Captured by the Germans, she died in the Dachau concentration camp, and posthumously awarded the George Cross for her service, the highest civilian decoration in the UK. She became the first female wireless operator to be sent from Britain into occupied France to aid the French Resistance during World War II, and was Britain's first Muslim war heroine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noor_Inayat_Khan 
More in Russian https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Нур_Инайят_Хан
 
[13] Hidayat Inayat Khan (1917 –2016) was a British-French classical composer, conductor and Representative-General of the International Sufi Movement. Hidayat was born in London to Sufi Master Inayat Khan and Pirani Ameena Begum; brother of Noor Inayat Khan. His musical education began in Paris in 1932 at the Ecole Normale de Musique, in the violin class of Bernard Sinsheimer; the composition class of Nadia Boulanger. He attended chamber music courses by the Lener Quartet in Budapest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidayat_Inayat_Khan
 
[14] At the centenary for Mahatma Gandhi, on November 21st, 1969, Gandhi Symphony (opus 25) was performed in a special concert organized by UNESCO in Holland. It was broadcast in 1971 by The Voice of America and the UN Radio and later recorded in a worldwide broadcast.. http://www.sufimovementincanada.ca/ABOUT/Inayat-Khan-Family-Sufis/hidayat/

​As for Russia, after 1921, all contacts with Inayat Khan were broken, and his name vanished until the collapse of the USSR. However, since 1991 Inayat Kyan’s books on Sufism have re-emerged to become a favorite reading of cosmopolitan Russians. Some of his music is also now available in Russia.[1]
 
Gandhi in the USSR
​
The name of Gandhi reappeared in Russia when the USSR and India under Jawaharlal Nehru[2] were forging mutual ties via the Non-Allied countries movement[3] to counter both Communist China and “Imperialist” America. Those ties were further strengthened under Nehru’s daughter and India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.[4] She was not related to Mahatma Gandhi, but his heritage was fundamental to India, both domestically and in foreign affairs. To be sure, Soviet respect was officially paid to the founder of India’s independence from the British rule. Still, in spite of the official proclamations of Indian-Russian brotherhood—the slogan of “Hindi –Russi bhai bhai” was ubiquitous in the USSR-- Soviet propaganda made it clear that Gandhi’s non-violent tactics were not just inferior but contrary to the Marxist-Leninist theory of violent world revolution of which the USSR was the first champion.

[1] Inayat Khan: Sakuntala before Shiva (Musical illustrations) Video #1 of 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6JPmGd9uUU
 
[2] Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 – 1964) was a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence. He emerged as a leader of the Indian independence movement under the tutelage of Gandhi. He was India’s Prime Minister from 1947 until his death in 1964. He is the architect of the modern Indian nation-state: a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru
 
[3] The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a group of states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. As of 2012, the movement has 120 members. It was established in 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. An initiative of Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru led to the first Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries.  Its  purpose has been to ensure the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries to resist imperialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aligned_Movement
 
[4] Indira Gandhi (née Nehru; 1917 – 1984), was an Indian stateswoman and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was the first and only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. She served as Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian Prime Minister after her father. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi
​

Helena Blavatsky, Nicolas Roerich, and Rabindranath Tagore
​
Of course, the range of Russian-Indian cultural interface was considerably wider than that of Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Inayat Khan. Helena Blavatsky (1831 –1891),[1] thanks to her inroads into India, emerged a very significant conduit of cultural interchange with India and on a global scale.

Her creation of the Theosophical Society[2] affected not just India and Russia, but also the United States, United Kingdom and other Western countries. According to Wikipedia, “in November 1889 she was visited by the Indian lawyer Mohandas Gandhi”. Having become an associate member of Blavatsky's Lodge in March 1891, Mahatma Gandhi emphasized “the close connection between Theosophy and Hinduism throughout his life”. However, her dabbling with theosophy, ancient religions, and esoteric science virtually excluded her from the attention of Soviet-born generations of Russia.
 
Nicholas Roerich (1874 –1947),[3] the famed Russian painter and cosmopolitan philosopher, was more fortunate in the USSR, in spite of his early opposition to the Communist revolution. Later, he was partially “rehabilitated” due to his staying close to the Indira Gandhi family which promoted better Soviet-Indian relations. A lover of peace, Roerich was thrice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He worked for the creation of the Pax Cultura, a sort of "Red Cross" for art and culture.  On April 15, 1935 the United States and twenty other nations of the Pan-American Union signed the Roerich Pact at the White House. It was an early international instrument protecting cultural property for the benefit of mankind. There is the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York,[4] as well as in a number of Russian towns.

[1] Helena Blavatsky (1831 – 1891) was a Russian occultist, philosopher, and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international following as the leading theoretician of Theosophy, the esoteric religion that the society promoted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Blavatsky
 
[2] The Theosophical Society in America encourages open-minded inquiry into world religions, philosophy, science, and the arts in order to understand the wisdom of the ages, respect the unity of all life, and help people explore spiritual self-transformation. For more information visit us at theosophical.org
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheosophicalSociety
 
[3] Nicholas Roerich (1874 –1947) was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, philosopher, and public figure, who in his youth was drawn to a movement in Russian society toward the spiritual. He was interested in hypnosis and other spiritual practices and his paintings are said to have hypnotic expression. A world traveler, he lived in India for long periods, as well as in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Roerich
 
[4] Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York http://www.roerich.org/museum-about.php

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941)[1], a poet, musician and artist, has also become not just an Indian cultural hero, but a pillar of universal culture. His opposition to racism, chauvinism and narrow nationalism made him friends with many world figures, including Albert Einstein[2] (1879 – 1955), who was also a great admirer of Gandhi’s Non-Violence. (Einstein called Gandhi "a role model for the generations to come.")  In the USSR Tagore was regarded as a friend, and his works were published, however, selectively. Einstein, on the other hand, was proscribed because Communists viewed Marx’s “science” so absolute that it could not stand any “relativism.” However, for the purpose of this essay, I have to leave these three personalities aside precisely because their great achievements require more space than what I can now offer.

[1] Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941) was a Bengali poet, musician and artist. He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal.

[2] Albert Einstein (1879 –1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics alongside quantum mechanics. His work is known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He is best known to the general public for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation". Не received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

​Back to Russia’s National Identity

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it became necessary to find a new ideational, ethical and spiritual framework for Russia’s domestic as well as foreign policy. A general feeling was that the New Russia, in order to buttress its claim to sovereignty, had to fall back on its pre-Communist national past for inspiration, if not for the framework.[1] It was not an easy task, for the early Lenin government and its successors left no stone unturned in their efforts to erase Russia’s national identity, especially its Eastern Orthodox Christian heritage, as well as its ancient customs, art, and literature, both in Russian language and the languages of national minorities who identified themselves with Russian civilization.
​
After the collapse of the USSR, the triumphant USA was not interested in the New Russia’s sovereignty, much less in the revival of Russian civilizational identity. As convincingly argued by professor Janine Wedel among other authors, during the 1990s the USA spared no efforts to establish in Russia an economic system fully compatible with and subordinated to the neoliberal brand of economics that garnered then currency in the West.[2] Along with the shock therapy economic reforms the American cultural influence flooded Russia with mass advertisement, consumerism, “political correctness” in gender politics, drugs, cheap and sexy Hollywood products, etc.

Solzhenitsyn warned of trouble from the West

But the one man who had in advance warned the Russians against surrendering to Western cultural imperialism was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the foremost champion against Soviet totalitarianism, whom Soviet leaders kicked out of Russia. Of all countries, he chose the United States as a place of refuge from which he was best able to restore Russia’s true history from the sources unavailable in the USSR. Solzhenitsyn appreciated American liberties, but was also aware of the shallowness of its mass culture and the lack of commitment to spiritual values. Above all, he knew that one cannot simply export a form of government, no matter how “good,” from one country to another as a kind of commodity. That’s why, before he returned to Russia in 1994, he had warned fellow Russians “not to lift the Iron Curtain in a hurry, for as soon as you do, you will get flooded by a flow of sewage”.
​
[1] For background and more detailed discussion of Solzhenitsyn’s work please read my book: Vladislav Krasnov, “Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth,” (1991) https://www.abebooks.com/9780813383613/Russia-Beyond-Communism-Chronicle-National-0813383617/plp
and a recent  article “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Relevance Today” International “Reading Solzhenitsyn” Conference in Lyndon, Vermont, September 7-8, 2018 . VLADISLAV KRASNOV • DECEMBER 17, 2018
http://www.unz.com/article/aleksandr-solzhenitsyns-relevance-today/
 
[2] Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe, 1989-1998. Janine R. Wedel. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. http://janinewedel.info/collisionreview_ForgnServ.html

Repentance and Self-limitation in the Life of Nations

Solzhenitsyn was more prescient than that. In 1973 he wrote REPENTANCE AND SELF-LIMITATION IN THE LIFE OF NATIONS, an essay in the collection of several Soviet dissident authors. Titled “From Under the Rubble” the collection was circulated in clandestine samizdat as it was aimed to explore how Russia could exit from what they felt was the dead-end of Communism.  It was published by Russian émigré press in the West in 1974 and then translated into English.[1]

“The gift of repentance, which perhaps more than anything else distinguishes man from the animal world is particularly difficult for modern man to recover. We have, every last one of us, grown ashamed of this feeling; and its effect on social life anywhere on earth is less and less easy to discern. The habit of repentance is lost to our whole callous and chaotic age,” started the essay. Solzhenitsyn clearly aimed at Soviet citizens who knew about the need to confess political mistakes to Party officials, but not about the need to clear one’s conscience for trespassing on a fellow next door.

Expanding his message beyond the USSR, Solzhenitsyn predicted, like Gandhi, that “true repentance and self-limitation will shortly reappear in the personal and the social sphere, that a hollow place in modern man is ready to receive them,” because it is a psychological need for healthy human relationships. Addressing his clandestine readers he argued that “…the time has come to consider this as a path for whole nations to follow.”

Alarmed by the escalation of the Cold War he warned:  “Add to this the white-hot tension between nations and races and we can say without suspicion of over-statement that without repentance it is in any case doubtful if we can survive”.

Clearly, Solzhenitsyn’s concern was not only with the survival of his homeland but mankind as a whole.

“It is by now only too obvious how dearly mankind has paid for the fact that we have all throughout the ages preferred to censure, denounce and hate others, instead of censuring, denouncing and hating ourselves. But obvious though it may be, we are even now, with the twentieth century on its way out, reluctant to recognize that the universal dividing line between good and evil runs not between countries, not between nations … it cuts across nations and parties … It divides the heart of every man, and there too it is not a ditch dug once and for all, but fluctuates with the passage of time and according to a man’s behavior.”

Reading the above lines, one is bound to think that they could have been uttered by Mahatma Gandhi, the father of Non-Violent philosophy. Though he did not mention Gandhi in this instance, Solzhenitsyn’s essay reveals an uncanny affinity with Gandhi’s philosophy of Non-Violence.  After all, do not great minds run in the same channels?

As much as Solzhenitsyn was concerned with Russia, he knew that the virus of Marxist-Leninist violence[2] had already affected a third of mankind and targeted the rest. He was intently looking for the antidotes and, ultimately, for the cure for this dangerous universal affliction.

Also remarkable is the fact that Solzhenitsyn was the initiator of this collection. It had been hand-copied and circulated in “samizdat” before it was published in the West. As early as the 1970s Solzhenitsyn was planning a peaceful evolutionary exit from the dead-end of Communism across the rubble left of pre-1917 Russia.

Letter to the Soviet Leaders

Not only did Solzhenitsyn initiate the dissident authors’ collection in 1973, but he also wrote his famous “Letter to the Soviet Leaders”.[3] To make it difficult for “the leaders” to plead ignorance and thus avoid personal responsibility, he mailed copies to each of a dozen Party Politburo members. Thus, he followed one of the principles of Gandhi’s non-violence philosophy: to appeal to the conscience and good reason of your opponent in order to make a friend out of a perceived enemy.

Indeed, he did not offend the Soviet leaders by asking them to resign. He did not insist on an open national election. He did not insist on disbanding the ruling Communist party. He just asked them to be more pragmatic and less dogmatic rulers. Just stay in power, he told them, but allow patriotic Russians of non-Communist persuasion, especially Orthodox Christians, into the governing bodies. Stop insisting on the purity of your ideology. Or, even better, since Mao Zedong[4] was then accusing Soviet leaders of revisionism, Solzhenitsyn advised giving away the whole ideological business to Communist China. As to the border republics, allow them to hold referenda to decide if they want to stay part of our country.  Clearly, all of Solzhenitsyn’s suggestions were conciliatory in a Gandhian sense as they aimed at a gradual and peaceful evolution of Soviet system away from its totalitarian dogmatism and inflexibility.

Alas, the Soviet leaders proved to be back-sitting bureaucrats. Even worse: soon they voted with Leonid Brezhnev[5] and his Politburo to deprive Russia’s brave and wise son of his native land. A real chance for a gradual and peaceful evolution of the USSR into a Russian nation-state was missed.

Solzhenitsyn invokes Gandhi in his Commandment: Live Not by Lies

Solzhenitsyn knew that his immediate task was to free his fellow Soviet citizens from Fear: the fear to be deprived of social privileges, to lose job, even to be imprisoned. For, as soon as one expressed doubt about the Marxist-Leninist ideology, the official faith of all Soviet people and the guiding star for the “liberation” of mankind, one became a pariah. On February 12, 1974, Solzhenitsyn penned a short Manifesto titled “Live Not by Lies”[6] in the hope to have it circulated among Moscow's intellectuals.

It is dated the same day when secret police broke into his apartment and arrested him. The next day he was exiled to West Germany. The essay is a call to moral courage. It serves as light to all who value truth. “Live Not by Lies” is the only text, as far as I know, where Solzhenitsyn invokes the name of Gandhi.

Painfully aware that the means to resist the totalitarian state for Soviet citizens were extremely limited, he could not ask them to participate in non-violent Gandhi-style protests and acts of disobedience. He knew that all attempts to organize or participate in such protest would immediately end in arrests. He could not even ask journalists, professors or teachers to truthfully describe what they saw in the country. No such acts were tolerated. So, “Let the (official) lie cover and possess the whole country. But the least one can do is not to repeat it. Let the lie rule, but not via my mouth. And this would be a real break-through out of our habitual inaction. Such a decision is the easiest one can take, and yet the most effective in destroying lie. For when people step away from a lie, the lie loses its nourishment. For, like any virus, the lie uses people as its carriers”.

Solzhenitsyn states the dilemma of Soviet citizens: “When violence intrudes into peaceful life, its face glows with self-confidence, as if it were carrying a banner and shouting: “I am violence. Run away, make way for me—I will crush you.” But violence quickly grows old. It has lost confidence in itself, and in order to maintain a respectable face it summons falsehood as its ally—since violence lays its ponderous paw not every day and not on every shoulder. It demands from us only obedience to lies and daily participation in lies—all loyalty lies in lies”.

Western sovietologists, as the profession was then called, failed to understand everyday Soviet reality because they judged the USSR by the standards of an authoritarian Tsarist Russia and could not imagine that Marxist-Leninist ideology, imported as it was from the “progressive” West, could degenerate into a much more brutal and efficient totalitarian police state.

It was to explain the difference that Solzhenitsyn had to invoke Gandhi’s name: “No, we are not called yet to city squares to proclaim the truth or just say aloud what we think. We are not mature enough to do so because it is scary. Therefore, let us just resist the compulsion to say something that our mind refuses to accept. This is OUR WAY, the easiest and most accessible in view of our ingrained cowardice. In any case, it is much easier than—do I dare to say--Gandhi’s acts of civil disobedience. All we can do under the circumstances is not to consciously support the lie”.[7]

Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals

Failing to respond to a growing pressure of dissident groups in the USSR, ignoring what Solzhenitsyn and other dissidents had published in the samizdat and abroad, Soviet leaders continued to waste time until finally Mikhail Gorbachev[8] initiated perestroika and glasnost in an effort to start the country moving again. Alas, Gorbachev still held onto Communist ideology. But Solzhenitsyn proved steadfast. When the USSR was about to collapse, in 1990 he wrote the essay, “Rebuilding Russia : Reflections and Tentative proposals.”[9]

Let me repeat what I wrote about Solzhenitsyn’s essay shortly after[10] it had appeared: “Solzhenitsyn’s central idea is that the particular form of government and economy is secondary to a nation’s spiritual foundations. ‘If the spiritual resources of a nation have dried up’, he says, ‘then not even the best form of government, nor any sort of industrial development, can save it from death.’ One of the chief sources of the present malady is precisely the fact that the Communists reversed the order of priority by putting the ‘cart’ of economic and political power before the ‘horse’ of spirituality of human relations. As a result, not only the country’s political institutions, economy, and ecology but also ‘the souls’ of the people were destroyed in the name of the Marxist Utopia”.[11]

As he did in the early 1970s, Solzhenitsyn again eschewed Western emphases on democracy in his suggested alternatives to the Soviet regime. He rather favored a benevolent authoritarian government morally bound by Russia’s remaining traditional Christian values. This does not mean that he was “against democracy.” No. He rather defended the right of Russia--or any country for this matter-- to sovereignty, that is, the ability to work out a social and political system that suits best its geography, geopolitical situation, historical and cultural traditions, and, yes, democratic aspirations of its people that are best implemented when the country is free from foreign meddling.

[1] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, From Under The Rubble.
https://archive.org/details/SolzhenitsynAleksandrIsaevichFromUnderTheRubble/page/n3https://archive.org/details/SolzhenitsynAleksandrIsaevichFromUnderTheRubble/page/n3
 
[2] Manifesto of the Communist Party. By Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. February 1848
“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can
be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes
tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They
have a world to win”. p. 34. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf
 
[3] Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, LETTER TO THE SOVIET LEADERS, 1973
http://www.bard.edu/library/arendt/pdfs/Solzhenitsyn-LettersSovietLeaders.pdf.
See its discussion in Krasnov, “Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth,” and “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Relevance Today” https://www.unz.com/article/aleksandr-solzhenitsyns-relevance-today/
 
[4] Mao Zedong  was a Chinese communist revolutionary and the founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he ruled from 1949 until his death in 1976. Wikipedia

[5] Leonid  Brezhnev was a Soviet politician of Ukrainian ethnicity, who led the USSR from 1964 until his death in 1982 as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Wikipedia

[6] Live Not By Lies. By Alexander Solzhenitsyn. http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/SolhenitsynLies.php
 
[7] Translated by Vladislav Krasnov from the Russian original posted on the site http://www.solzhenitsyn.ru/proizvedeniya/publizistika/stati_i_rechi/v_sovetskom_soyuze/jzit_ne_po_ljzi.pdf

[8] Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931) was the last leader of the USSR, having been General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1985 until 1991. He was the country's head of state from 1988 until 1991, and President of the USSR from 1990 to 1991. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev (edited by VK)

[9] “Rebuilding Russia : reflections and tentative proposals https://archive.org/details/rebuildingrussia00solz

[10]  Vladislav Krasnov, “Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth,” p. 53, and my recent article “Solzhenitsin’s Relevance Today” https://www.unz.com/article/aleksandr-solzhenitsyns-relevance-today/

​
​Vladimir Putin and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Ever since I founded in 1992 the Russia & America Good Will Association (RAGA.org), I have argued it is in both countries’ national interests to have friendly, at least, normal relation. More than once I urged US presidents, most recently in exchange of letters with President Barak Obama, to respect Russia’s sovereignty as the foundation for good relations.[1]  In a 2016 interview with Veterans Today I called attention to President Putin’s favorable attitude toward Solzhenitsyn, in particular, to his vision of Russia’s path of development.[2]

[1] OFFICIAL REPLY FROM PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: To An Open Letter - From Vladislav Krasnov Ph.D.
http://www.raga.org/news/an-open-letter-to-barack-obama
TO:  Mr. Barack Obama, POTUS. http://www.raga.org/news/to-mr-barack-obama-potus
 
[2] Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Truth Can and Will Destroy the New World Order and Satanism. By Jonas E. Alexis/ Interview with Vladislav Krasnov -July 14, 2016
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/07/14/alexander-solzhenitsyn-truth-can-and-will-destroy-the-new-world-order-and-satanism/ Also on http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4040

Putin defined patriotism by quoting Solzhenitsyn, that it is not any sort of state ideology but a feeling of attachment to Mother Russia. Putin invoked Solzhenitsyn again when he recently spoke in favor of “nationalism in a good sense,” that is, not any sort of xenophobia toward other nations, but the need to affirm one’s national identity, nurture the roots of one’s national traditions, including religious beliefs of non-Russians, while affirming the secular foundations of its Constitution.

Also, to celebrate Solzhenitsyn’s Centenary on December 11, 1918, the Putin government supported scholarly conferences in a number of Russian towns. Russkiy Mir Foundation worked jointly with Northern Vermont University to sponsor Solzhenitsyn’s Centenary in Lyndon, Vermont, in September 2018.[1]  On December 11, 2018 Putin was present during the unveiling of a statue of Solzhenitsyn in Moscow.

But let me quote Joseph Pearce, the author of a brilliant 2001 book “Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile,”[2] about his observations on the fate of Solzhenitsyn in Putin’s Russia-- and the USA: “In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the greatest classic of anti-communist literature is now compulsory reading in all high schools. If the same could be said of the high schools of the United States, we would not have the endemic historical and political ignorance that has led to the widespread sympathy for communism among young Americans. In light of this, and in light of Mr. Putin’s evident admiration for Solzhenitsyn, let’s not try to pretend that Russia is a communist nation. We don’t need to like Vladimir Putin. We don’t need to admire him. But we do need to acknowledge that Russia has moved on from the evils of socialism, even as we are in danger of embracing those very same evils”.[3]

As I have lived long in both countries, I can confirm that Pearce’s observations largely coincide with my own. I certainly witnessed “the widespread sympathy for communism among young Americans” when I taught Russian and Soviet studies in the States from 1966 to 1991. Now those sympathies seem to have grown in the USA and other Western countries, albeit in different forms, such as the Neo-Marxism, the Frankfurt School, and so-called “Cultural Marxism”.[4]

The only disagreement I have with Pearce is about “the evils of socialism” that he seems to equate with Communism. I think the ideals and practices of socialism need not be evil per se. However, in the reality of the USSR, they became “evil” because socialism was imposed by violence. Solzhenitsyn did express his criticism of socialism for being imposed by force in the USSR, most eloquently in his polemic with Andrei Sakharov. [5]  But this does not mean that he rejected it in principle. In fact, both Russia and the USA have elements of socialism in healthcare (mostly in Russia), progressive taxation (more so in the USA) and US social security system. Moreover, the ESOP (Employee stock ownership plan)[6] enterprises seem to be a form of socialism that is more widely spread in the USA and UK than in Russia.

Putin recently said he did not think that socialism could be restored in Russia. But at the same time he defended some socialist practices in Russia today.[7] I think those practices are more needed to restrain oligarchic crony capitalism that perpetuates social injustice as it hampers economic vitality in both the USA and Russia.
​
However, I am much in sympathy with both Pearce and The Imaginative Conservative when they proclaim “the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politics—we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility.” This agrees with Solzhenitsyn’s philosophy of polyphony and respectful dialogue that he proclaimed both as an artist and as a social healer.[8]

[1] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Relevance Today. International “Reading Solzhenitsyn” Conference in Lyndon, Vermont, September 7-8, 2018. By VLADISLAV KRASNOV
https://www.unz.com/article/aleksandr-solzhenitsyns-relevance-today/
 
[2] Joseph Pearce, Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile https://www.amazon.com/Solzhenitsyn-Soul-Exile-Joseph-Pearce/dp/1586174967

[3] Joseph Pearce, "Vladimir Putin and Alexander Solzhenitsyn". The Imaginative Conservative. Aug 20, 2018
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/08/vladimir-putin-alexander-solzhenitsyn-joseph-pearce.html

[4] Cultural Marxism Is the Main Source of Modern Confusion. Having largely disappeared from the workers' movement, Marxism flourishes today in the academic world and in the mass media. October 18, 2018
https://fee.org/articles/cultural-marxism-is-the-main-source-of-modern-confusion-and-its-spreading/

[5] Александр Солженицын. На возврате дыхания и сознания. (По поводу трактата А. Д. Сахарова "Размышления о прогрессе, мирном сосуществовании и интеллектуальной свободе") http://www.lib.ru/PROZA/SOLZHENICYN/s_revial.txt
 
[6] The ESOP, Employee stock ownership plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_stock_ownership_plan
 
[7] МОСКВА, 20 декабря, 2018. /ТАСС/. Президент России Владимир Путин считает невозможной реставрацию социализма в стране. https://tass.ru/politika/5935598
 
[8] Vladislav Krasnov, “Solzhenitsyn and Dostoevsky: A Study in the Polyphonic Novel” (1980, Athens: Georgia)
https://www.amazon.com/Solzhenitsyn-Dostoevsky-Study-Polyphonic-Novel/dp/0820304727
and Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth (a 1991 book) and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Relevance Today. https://www.unz.com/article/aleksandr-solzhenitsyns-relevance-today/

​Putin on Gandhi, Mandela, and Solzhenitsyn​

Once, during an international press-conference at the G8 Summit in 2007, when asked whether he was a true democrat, Vladimir Putin, answered in the affirmative. But then, pointing out the wave of violence across the USA and Europe, he made Western infatuation with democracy sound hollow. Then he made the impromptu remark that “There is no one to talk to since Mahatma Gandhi died”.[1] A few years later on December 8, 2016, he admitted that his oft quoted remark was made in a jovial mode. Yet, there is no doubt that Putin admires Gandhi as a prophet of Non-Violence just as he admires Solzhenitsyn as a man who challenged the mighty Soviet state with truth and courage—and won!

Western mainstream media failed to report on Putin’s courtesy visit to the South African Embassy in Moscow when Nelson Mandela,[2] once an ardent Marxist-Leninist guerilla fighter, passed away on December of 2013.  But The Economic Times of India did. That’s what it said on December 10, 2013 under the heading: Mandela's magnitude compares to Gandhi, Solzhenitsyn: Putin. [3]

<<Russian President Vladimir Putin today paid rich tribute to Nelson Mandela, comparing the colossus of 20th century politics to Mahatma Gandhi and Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Mandela "is undoubtedly one of the outstanding world figures in the 20th and 21st centuries, and his magnitude compares to that of Mahatma Gandhi and Alexander Solzhenitsyn…" Putin hailed Mandela as a "great humanist of the 21st century" and said his policy should become an example to follow…(He) compared Mandela to both Gandhi and Solzhenitsyn. "Courageous and wise, Nelson Mandela always fought consistently for his convictions but remained a great humanist and peacemaker. This approach is needed in today's world: the search for compromises is the best basis for consensus and cooperation," the Russian President wrote in the condolence book at the South African embassy here >>. 

Reading these lines, especially, when Putin compared Mandela with both Gandhi and Solzhenitsyn, one has to hope that the three sages have served as guiding stars for Putin’s domestic and foreign policy. To be sure, wishing to follow somebody’s example, sincere as it might be, does not necessarily lead to adequate implementation of the goal. However, in the very least, Putin’s statement “the search for compromises is the best basis for consensus and cooperation” can serve as a bench-mark by which he and other world leaders will be judged. It is all the more remarkable because in the USSR where Putin was educated the very word “kompromis” was disdained as a bourgeois trick.

Recently, Rudolf Siebert, professor of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University,[4] my friend and associate, wrote an article in honor of Gandhi for the Global Harmony Association.[5] He convincingly argued that Martin Luther King, Jr.,[6] the American champion of human rights and peaceful resistance, who died a martyr’s death, was also inspired by Gandhi’s teaching of Non-Violence.

Siebert knows that Jesus preached the Christian commandment:  “You have learned how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you; offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him. Give to anyone who asks, and if anyone wants to borrow, do not turn away”.  (Exodus 21: 24-25; Matthew 5: 38-42; 7: 12).

Siebert concedes, however, that Christian countries have largely ignored this commandment through centuries of history. Then Siebert resolutely credits Gandhi for reviving this Christian commandment in modern world: “The Christian Martin Luther King came to the Christian commandment of non-violent resistance through the Hindu Mahatma Gandhi, and both practiced it, and both died for it a violent martyr's death of freedom, like the one who preached the Sermon on the Mount in the first place”.

Among all world leaders, Siebert singles out for praise Vladimir Putin for following the precept of Non-Violence in Russia’s foreign policy: thus Russia “did not retaliate, when in recent years its plane was shot down over Turkey, and its ambassador there was assassinated, and last Christmas its diplomats were sent back home from Washington D. C. to Moscow. That non-retaliation is moral progress in world history!”

It is hardly surprising then that the Gandhi theme has been central for the latest exchange of visits between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi [7] and President Putin. In December 2015, during Modi’s visit to the Kremlin,[8] Putin presented him a page of Mahatma’s handwritten note. Putin’s second gift to Modi was an 18th century Bengali sword, alluding, perhaps, that the two countries, committed as they are to peaceful co-existence, do not forget about the need of military cooperation in defense. Three years later, when Putin arrived to New Delhi, Modi honored him by the presentation of Gandhi’s favorite bhajan ‘Vaishnava Jana To’ [9] performed by a Russian artist Sati Kazanova on a mobile phone – a gesture that reflected the close friendship between the two leaders.[10]

[1] President Putin’s Interview with G8 Newspaper Journalists. 06/09/07 "ICH" - 06/06/07  Mathaba News Network http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17855.htm
 
[2] Nelson Mandela (1918 –2013) was a South African anti-apartheid political leader, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a democratic election. He dismantled the legacy of apartheid by fostering racial reconciliation. An African nationalist and socialist, he presided over the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997. Alongside Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. he was one of the 20th century's exemplary anti-racist and anti-colonial leaders, promoting toleration, liberal democracy and social justice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela
 
[3] Mandela's magnitude compares to Gandhi, Solzhenitsyn: Putin. //economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/27182771.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
 
[4] Rudolf Siebert, Western Michigan University https://wmich.edu/religion/directory/siebert See also https://www.rudolfjsiebert.org/  http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=51
 
[5] Global Harmony Association front page http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=home
 
[6] Martin Luther King Jr (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister who became the leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 until his assassination in 1968. Born in Atlanta, he advanced civil rights through Non-Violence and civil disobedience, tactics his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi helped inspire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.
 
[7] Narendra Modi is the current Prime Minister of India since 2014. He was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014.  Modi is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Modi
 
[8] Putin presented the items to Modi while they discussed issues of mutual interest for both countries.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/mahatma-gandhi-s-notes-and-an-indian-sword-putin-s-gift-to-modi/story-zOZWp6cAvL0xTfHrTyWC3N.html
 
[9] Vaishnava Jana To is a Hindu bhajan, written in the 15th century by the poet Narsinh Mehta. The poem speaks about the life, ideals and mentality of a follower of Vishnu.This song became popular during the life time of M.K.Gandhi and was rendered as bhajan in his Sabarmati Ashram. It was popular among freedom fighters throughout India. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishnava_Jana_To
 
[10] PM Narendra Modi shows Russia President Vladimir Putin rendition of Gandhi’s favorite bhajan
written by PTI October 6, 2018 https://www.freepressjournal.in/headlines/pm-narendra-modi-shows-russia-president-vladimir-putin-rendition-of-gandhis-favourite-bhajan/1369629
 

​After talking about a whole roster of outstanding wise men who dedicated themselves to the ideals of peace, justice, and harmony in domestic and foreign affairs—Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Solzhenitsyn, it would only be fair to conclude with a New 2019 Year Greeting I got from an American woman who has been just as dedicated to the same ideals. Sharon Tennison, the founder and work-horse of the Center for Citizen Initiatives of San Francisco (CCISF.org), has been an energetic promoter of peace since the old Cold War.[1]

Best Wishes to You for a Wonderful Creative Year in 2019 upon which we are now embarking!
    I wonder if you are deeply grateful as I am that our planet has survived this past tumultuous year? Given the numbers of surrogate war-making threats and incursions in numerous areas of the world, i.e. Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, the Baltic states and others … we are lucky that none have ignited an all-consuming conflagration. Perhaps parity of nuclear weapons and instant delivery systems maintained the tenuous peace between the two nuclear giants of the world––our nation and Russia.  For whatever the reasons, I’m deeply grateful that we have a bit more time ahead to develop beyond the warring mentalities among us.

Sharon’s letter was not personal and did not need to be. I just happen to be on her list as she is on my RAGA.org list. Sharon knows Russia, as she has been taking American group to Russia every year. It still helps to send such letters to hundreds of kindred souls to alert them that we live in a world that is more dangerous now than it ever was during the Cold War of the 20th century. Our Planet, abused, injured, neglected and defamed as it has been, is still Our Beautiful Mother Earth. Its Beauty is in the eyes of the beholders who are now urged to hurry to her rescue. First of all, we should call for an extra-ordinary UN General Assembly session with one item on its agenda, Arms Control and Nuclear Disarmament, starting with the reductions of nuclear stockpiles and delivery systems. I am sure that all of the great men I mentioned above would support the agenda. But they need help! So I say “Planetarians of the World, Unite!”--before it is too late.

Author: Dr. Vladislav Krasnov (aka W George Krasnow), former professor and head of the Russian Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, currently runs the Russia & America Good Will Association (www.raga.org ). He is the author of Solzhenitsyn and Dostoevsky: A Study in the Polyphonic Novel and Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth

Email: President@raga.org

January 21, 2019, Moscow             
 © W.G. Krasnow, 2019 

[1] CCI Vision and Mission: Our world has never faced a more challenging era than today. Massive nuclear arsenals are once again pointed between the United States and Russia. Misunderstandings, fallacious accusations, false flags and demonizing propaganda dominate our print media and television screens.  At CCI, we experienced one other such dangerous period in 1980. We flew in between the two enemy nations and dared to try to understand the challenges on both sides…. our citizen-to-citizen programs began to soften the environment between the two Superpowers of that era. Other American groups also got involved. War was averted and good relations began to grow in the 1990s.  https://ccisf.org/
 
[2]New 2019 Year Greeting from Sharon Tennison  https://ccisf.org/happy-new-years-2019/#more-3676

​
All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​

“Russian literature vs. Marxist maculature”
Now we come to the alternative title of my presentation: “Russian literature vs. Marxist maculature”. I first used this juxtaposition in my next book “Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth” published in the USA just before the fall of the USSR. This juxtaposition had a double entendre. First, it alluded to Marshall McLuhan’s notion that the medium is the message. Marx’s teaching was touted as a “science” of economics which dictated the need for a violent world revolution to conform to allegedly objective law of social development. Thus, the appeal was seemingly to reason.

Russian literature, on the other hand, like any other literature,  only more so, appealed to the heart and soul of the reader, that is to the whole, holistic, human being. It appealed to his ethical and esthetic sense, indeed to Truth, Goodness and Beauty. To be sure, it also appealed to his rational mind and imagination, the latter being an important source of scientific discoveries, as Albert Einstein testifies. Such holistic view of life has animated Russian literature. That view of life may appear less “rational,” “clever,” and more “idealist” than Marxism, but it is still much wiser because it is true to life.

Second, the “maculature” (makulatura in Russian) alludes to an overload of Soviet propaganda materials, especially the works of Marxist-Leninist “classics” (Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin), which Soviet readers simply could no longer absorb. So they turned them into a second-use, blotted paper – makulatura in Russian - to be dumped in garbage cans. However, in the waning years of the USSR, there were organized campaigns to collect the unused works of the “classics.”  They were sorted out by weight in kilograms and exchanged for a volume or two of “old-fashioned” Russian or foreign classics.

The point here is not to denigrate Marx’s economic theory or the “law of added value”. The main issue is an excessive, almost demonic obsession of Marx that he had discovered a fail-proof key to the happiness of mankind, if only the proletariat would obey the iron-clad “scientific” laws of history that dictate violent world revolution.

Dostoevsky, Bakhtin and Solzhenitsyn were familiar with both sides of the issue. Dostoevsky faced an execution squad for his sympathy for the “poor and downtrodden” and for his alleged participation in revolutionary circles. Bakhtin was active in Marxist study groups. Solzhenitsyn, during his university years regarded himself a Marxist and Communist. But all three, like thousands of their readers, came to the conclusion that the world revolution, after shedding rivers of blood, sweat and tears, failed to get rid of exploitation and injustice – and then covered up its failure by mandatory falsehoods.

Yevgeny Zamyatin, the first dystopia
One of the first Russian writers to notice that the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution went astray was Yevgeny Zamiatin (1884-1937), whom Solzhenitsyn mentioned in his Nobel Lecture as an example of Russian visionaries. Zamyatin was a prominent author before 1917 and was also active in, and imprisoned for, Bolshevik revolutionary activities. This did not prevent him from writing in1920 the novel “WE,” a vision of a sterile and inhumane totalitarian society where all individual life was suppressed. Published in Germany in 1921, “WE” became the first dystopian novel in history of Europe. Soon it was followed by such Western classics as Aldous Huxley, Brave New World;  Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon, and George Orwell’s Animal farm and Nineteen Eighty Four. Zamyatin’s novel was banned in the USSR and he barely succeeded in leaving the country.

Were Zamyarin’s novel timely published in Soviet Russia, would it not have saved millions lives in Russia allowing it evolve as a normal country where heterodoxy is tolerated? Would not the whole the 20th century have been less bloody?

Zamyatin’s favorite notion in the novel “WE” was entropy as a measure of energy that is needlessly dispersed in any given endeavor. It appears that mankind learned nothing from the bitter fate of the “rationalist” French Revolution which degenerated into revolutionary self-terror and Napoleonic wars of conquest. Alas, Lenin enjoyed his Bolsheviks to follow the French extremists, just do it “more decisively”.  The entropy of the Bolshevik dystopia in Russia was countless times higher.

Let me say a few words about my essays that Solzhenitsyn liked. One was on Marx’s poetry debut. Two others are about the role of national character in a country’s history.

Karl Marx as a romantic poet
After I chose a voluntary exile from the USSR in 1962, I tried to read as much as I could the authors who were suppressed. But what I discovered was that censored were not just the works of anti-Communists, but even “classics” of Marxism-Leninism, including Marx himself. Certainly, his Jewish origin was barely mentioned and deemed irrelevant. His article “On the Jewish question” was not known at all. Then I discovered that at youth he was an ardent Christian, more so than his newly converted parents. Later, he came to see himself as a romantic poet. That’s what Oulanem, the young Karl’s romantic hero and alter ego, proudly proclaims in his poem of the same name:

The world which bulks between me and the Abyss
I will smash to pieces with my enduring curses!
I will throw my arms around its harsh reality.
Embracing me, the world will dumbly pass away
And then sink down to utter nothingness.
Perished, with no existence - that would be really living.

As you now see, in terms of my presentation, it was Marx, not Solzhenitsyn, who imagined himself as a god, not just in youth, but also when he wrote “Manifesto of the Communist Party”.

Karl Marx as Dr. Frankenstein
I quoted these lines in my 1977 essay “Karl Marx as Frankenstein: Toward a Genealogy of Communism”.  It was based on Mary Shelly’s 1818 horror story “Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus”. My intentions was not to put the young Marx down but rather to investigate how a prima facie Romantic poet transforms himself to a modern Promethean economist and ruthless political leader ready to endow the oppressed proletarians with the “gift” of world revolution fire.

The most intriguing aspect of Shelly’s work was that she let the well-meaning German scientist, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, create an artificial human being. Successfully! To be sure, Shelly’s artistic vision was spurred by the rapid advancement of science in Europe.  However, as soon after the talented Victor celebrated his scientific victory, his creature started to misbehave turning doctor’s scientific Victory into a crushing defeat. His creature became The Monster so lavishly serialized in numerous Hollywood productions.

To be fair to Miss Shelly, she portrayed Frankenstein as a responsible man who tried to restrain his Creature. That failing, he tried to remove the Monster from densely populated centers of Europe. But where to? He found no better place than “the wilderness of Russia and Tataria” as it was known in Europe since Napoleon’s attempt to conquer it.

Russia as a Dumping ground for Western “science”
Something similar happened to Marx’s “creature”. He designed his world revolution for the most advanced countries, but no country in Europe wanted to serve as a lab. Finally, in 1917, a small group of international Bolsheviks of various ethnic backgrounds forced Russia to volunteer, in spite of the fact that the proletariat there was a small minority. Whether by a conspiracy or bad luck, Russia became the first lab for the Marxist experiment in building what was paraded as the first ever equitable and happy society since the Noah’s Ark. Thus Russia took upon itself the “Promethean”, God-fighting, theomachic, or Luciferan, if you will, task of re-making the world in defiance of any hitherto established religions, be it Christian, Judaic, Moslem or whatever.

I wrote this essay in 1976-1977, when the United States were swamped with thousands of Jewish immigrants fleeing from the USSR after a special deal between Brezhnev and Kissinger was made to allow Soviet Jews to emigrate “for family re-unification.”  I saw this as a further irony of the Marxist dystopia transplanted in Russia. Because of his own Jewish background, was it not likely that Marx himself, had he lived in the country of his dream, would seek an exit visa? To Israel?  Or the United States? In any case, Mary Shelly’s 1818 horror fiction turned into reality exactly one-hundred years later.

Max Weber undermines Karl Marx
Two other essays that Solzhenitsyn liked dealt with the role of national character in history. Of course, since I was trained as ethnologist and anthropologist in the USSR, I knew that any attention to national character was pretty much under a taboo lest it undermines the international solidarity of working people. But as soon as I defected, I hurried to read the forbidden books, including Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism . I readily agreed with much what he had to say. Indeed, national character fostered as it has been by a belief system (religion, customs, habits, geography, history etc.) of a nation had considerable bearing on its economic standing in the world. It certainly had more influence on the disparity of income levels of different groups of population than the Marxist notion of exploitation of all working people.

Even though Weber’s thesis seemed to favor Protestant nations, he did not imply any racial or religious favoritism. He was good enough to point out, for instance, that Russian Christian Old Believers on the eve of Revolution had considerably better working habits than the rest of the population. Ironically, this was due to the thrift and communal spirit they had fostered thru centuries of official persecution. As it happens, the majority of most successful Russian entrepreneurs – and arts benefactors - before 1917 were from the families of Old Believers. Had the Russians read Weber’s works on a scale of one to a thousand Marxist makulatura volumes, would they not have been better prepared to the challenges of neoliberal economics imposed on them since 1991?

Whose fault: The Russian Mind or Western Cultural Marxism?
Soon I challenged Ronald Hingley (1920 – 2010),  a prominent British historian and specialist on Russia, for suggesting in his book, The Russian Mind that Communist Totalitarianism was due to the disorderly national character of ethnic Russians whom he had observed both in the USSR and among Russian immigrants in UK.

Rather than objecting to his observations, I argued that the expansion of Totalitarian rule in Europe and elsewhere was mostly due to the defeatist state of mind of Western intellectual and media establishment who were either tacitly or openly pro-Marxist. They protected their Idol by blaming the brutishness of Communist takeovers on innate boorishness of ethnic Russian apparatchiks rather than the inherent inhumanity of Marxist ideology they followed. Did Marx not enjoined his followers to reject all existing morality, especially Christian, as rooted in “bourgeois” mentality?

Richard Pipes’s Russophobia
One of Marx’s protectors was Harvard professor of Russian history Richard Pipes (1923 – 2018). He had the reputation of anti-Communist hard-liner, but argued that Soviet leaders cannot be trusted not due to their different ideological precepts but because they were usually descendants of Russian peasants who were cheats because their ancestors were serves who could survive only by cheating. It was an ethnic slur, I thought, and challenged him in my article “Richard Pipes's Foreign Strategy: Anti-Soviet or Anti-Russian?”  

In case the link fails to download, here is its summary in my 1991 book “Russia Beyond Communism”. “A respectable historian, (Pipes) has exerted considerable influence on U. S. foreign since he was National Security adviser in the Reagan White House.  He has also been one of the chief purveyors on an essentially russophobic conception of Russian history... he blames, for instance, the brutality of Soviet regime chiefly on Russian national character as embodied in Russian peasants. Pipes is an avowed Solzhenitsyn opponent. Not only did he allege that the writer was “anti-Semitic” but ruled out any positive role for Solzhenitsyn in Russian future” (p. 281).

Earlier, on November 13, 1985, in a paper I read at the World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies in Washington, DC, I publicly defended Solzhenitsyn from the charges of “anti-Semitism” coming from Pipes and his ilk. This was duly reported by The New York Times. As the reporter Richard Grenier noted, I was not alone. “Prof. Adam Ulam of Harvard, another Soviet specialist, said Professor Pipes's characterization of Mr. Solzhenitsyn was ''very unfair.'' Grenier went on: “Conquest, author of ''The Great Terror,'' called the charge of anti-Semitism ''ludicrous.''

Grenier also pointed out that Solzhenitsyn got support also from a number of prominent people, including Jews, from the USSR and abroad: Mstislav Rostropovich, Mikhail Agursky (Soviet dissident, then professor at Hebrew Universty) and Elie Wiesel. Finally, Grenier said, “Willing to go further in his defense than Mr. Solzhenitsyn himself was his wife, Natalia, who is herself half-Jewish. The charge of anti-Semitism is ''nonsensical'' and ''absolutely absurd,'' Mrs. Solzhenitsyn wrote in a letter. Her husband was surrounded by Jewish friends in Russia, she said, both in and out of the Gulag”.
​
In 1989 I was able to arrange for an interview with Solzhenitsyn by David Aikman for Time magazine. David was my friend and colleague in the Department of Slavic and Far Eastern Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. The interview was introduced by the publisher: "One Word of Truth: A Portrait of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn… a courageous man devoted to the battle for truth in the context of the distinctive disorders of modern, post-Christian culture”. ​

​All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​

Retired Navy SEAL commander Jocko Willink and psychology professor Jordan Peterson discuss the works of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag and the nature of evil. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. 

​All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​

​All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​

​All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​

Vladimir Putin's full Year-End Press conference.
December 20,2018

​All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​

​To the People of Russia:

For 18 of the 20 years he was exiled from Russia, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his family lived with us in Cavendish, Vermont. The Solzhenitsyns were then, as they are now, good neighbors, respected and valued members of our community.

While we are sad when residents choose to leave, we were glad that Solzhenitsyn was able to return to his “motherland,” as he predicted he would at our 1977 Cavendish Town Meeting. No matter how much our countryside may have reminded him of Russia, and allowed him the time to write, it would never compensate for the country he cared so deeply about.

Solzhenitsyn’s values were a good match for our Yankee way of life-hard work and the ability to speak freely and openly, yet also respectful of others and their privacy. While he learned from us how grass-roots democracy works, we in turn were reminded of the importance of providing sanctuary to those in need and the value of having courage and strong beliefs.

Upon his departure, Solzhenitsyn left the town not only autographed copies of his books, but more importantly, a homestead which allows his children to remain an integral and important part of our community. The lessons he instilled in his sons are shared with us as we work together to resolve the thorny issues of 21st-century life.
Every town needs a secret, such as the one we kept: “No directions to the Solzhenitsyn’s home,” as it united us for a common good. We still do not give out directions, but we do welcome visitors from around the world.

On this the 100th birthday of Solzhenitsyn, the people of Cavendish extend our best wishes to the people of his homeland.

On behalf of the people of Cavendish,

Margo Caulfield, Director, Cavendish Historical Society

Brendan McNamara, Cavendish Town Manager

This Letter was read during the Solzhenitsyn's Centennial Conference at the Russian State Library in Moscow on December 10, 2018 by Natalia Solzhenitsyn, the writer's widow. She got a resounding applause of Russia's best scholars and lovers of literature.

On a personal level, and as the RAGA's founder, I want to thank Margo for reflecting the best attitudes toward Russia that I have always noticed among Americans of all walks of life. This letter has reaffirmed my faith in America which once gave me a refuge and hospitality but now appears to be less civil at home and more war-like abroad than it was when my native Russia was in the grip of totalitarian Communism. I am re-affirmed that RAGA is needed in both countries. I also feel that Solzhenitsyn, more than anybody else, unites Russia and the USA in their urgent task-- and duty-- to secure a peaceful, free, fair, and harmonious global commonwealth in which every nation is a proud member. 

Please read his 1973 essay
REPENTANCE AND SELF-LIMITATION IN THE LIFE OF NATIONS
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1973) *

Selected excerpts: "It is in our human nature to … apply ordinary, individual, human values and standards to larger social phenomena and associations of people, up to and including the nation and the state as a whole...We seem to have forgotten that we have been entrusted with the great task of transforming the world. … We need new creative efforts, we need a new language. We must speak of what is beyond modernity, of what is eternally living and absolute in this world of the relative,of what is simultaneously both eternally old and eternally young. It must mean not only a breakthrough into eternity but the presence of eternity in our own time. … It must lead not to a reformation but to a transformation of Christian consciousness and life, and through it to a transformation of the world.”

http://my.ilstu.edu/~jguegu/ALEKSANDRSOLZHENITSYN.pdf
​
Because of the holidays, I don't want to overburden you with sorry political news. Just a few of them, alerting the world to the growing risk of accidental war.

SHADOW GOVERNMENT
It’s Not Too Late to Save the INF Treaty
No one should dismiss lightly an agreement that has helped keep the United States and its allies safe for a generation.
BY JON WOLFSTHAL | DECEMBER 7, 2018 

The United States is on the verge of withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which bans the United States and Russia from having nuclear or conventional ground-based missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (300 to 3,400 miles)....

Jon Wolfsthal is director of the Nuclear Crisis Group. He was President Barack Obama’s special assistant and senior director at the National Security Council for arms control and nonproliferation. @JBWolfsthal

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/07/its-not-too-late-to-save-the-inf-treaty/

GREG WILPERT: Joining me now to analyze this flareup in tensions between Russia and the Ukraine is Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. He’s a retired U.S. Colonel and former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Currently he’s a distinguished professor at the College of William and Mary. Thanks for joining us again, Larry.

GREG WILPERT: But now turning, actually, to the West, the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and pro-European government in the Ukraine has been all about an international conflict already, with constant intervention from NATO, as well as from Russia. Now, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg issued a declaration, actually, where he declared, quote, full support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. However, the Ukraine is not yet part of NATO, and thus there’s no obligation to defend the Ukraine. But Stoltenberg’s statement makes it sound like NATO would do just that, defend the Ukraine should a conflict escalate. Now, what do you think? Is that a wise position for the West to take, considering the potential forescalation and outright war?

LARRY WILKERSON: Well, I don’t think it’s been a wise position for the West...
https://therealnews.com/stories/moscow-nato-playing-a-dangerous-tit-for-tat-game-in-the-ukraine  

Robert Legvold on Russia: Insights and Recommendations
November 20, 2018
Whatever muddled hopes Russian President Vladimir Putin and his entourage may have had for better times with Trump in the White House and whatever obscure intentions President Trump may have had of improving relations, the two sides remain mired in the new Cold War into which they had plunged in the last years of the Obama administration. (ISS Forum, 09.06.17)
https://www.russiamatters.org/analysis/robert-legvold-russia-insights-and-recommendations

Last, but not the least is an article by a fellow participant in The Solzhenitsyn Conference in Vermont, Jean Ranc
The Sun Does Not Revolve Around the US
August 28, 2018 • 41 Comments

While visiting Galileo’s house in Florence, Jean Ranc reflected on how America thinks the world revolves around it, as it was once falsely thought the sun revolves around the earth.

Special to Consortium News
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/08/28/the-sun-does-not-revolve-around-the-us/

Before I switch to Russian, let me wish you all A Very Merry Christmas and Joyous Holidays! (Now the Russians celebrate them too but 13 days later)  

Since the Russian speakers among you may want to listen to the 2nd part of my interview about Solzhenitsyn for RADIO RADONEZH, an independent Christian radio station broadcasting globally 24 hours a day, below are links to both 45-minutes parts.

​А.И. Солженицын в Америке. Писатель, который изменил мир. Беседа В.Г. Краснова, главы Общества русско-американской дружбы "Добрая воля" 11.12.2018 22:08 ВЛАДИСЛАВ ГЕОРГИЕВИЧ КРАСНОВ

11 декабря 2018 года исполняется 100 лет со дня рождения русского писателя, драматурга, публициста, поэта, общественного и политического деятеля, лауреата Нобелевской премии по литературе (1970 г.) Александра Исаевича Солженицына. Сколько бы не спорили сегодня о месте Александра Солженицына в русской литературе, пришла пора понять: нет ему равных – не по таланту художественному, которыми IX век, да и начало XX мировую культуру стороной не обошёл, - равных нет ему крепостью противостояния. Не зря же писателем и повторено: слово правды весь мир перетянет. Солженицын – писатель с мировым именем. Это выдающийся социальный мыслитель, одна из ключевых фигур в истории XX века. В.Г. Краснов был лично знаком с писателем, посвятил ему одну из своих книг, тем убедительнее его свидетельство о пребывании Солженицына в Америке в развенчании мифа о " предательстве" Солженицына.

If you missed the 1st part of my interview, its is accessible in the archives below
​
К 100-летию со дня рождения А.И. Солженицына. Беседа А. Арендаренко с писателем и общественным деятелем В.Г. Красновым 30.10.2018 22:13

​I confess I do admire Solzhenitsyn, especially as far as US-Russia relations are concerned, RAGA stands with him. But occasionally I disagree with him, as you can see in my recent article 
​
Emperor Michael II in the Solzhenitsyn House - Author: Vladislav Krasnov 
http://www.raga.org/news/emperor-michael-ii-in-the-solzhenitsyn-house-author-vladislav-krasnov

Владислав Краснов.  Император Михаил II в Доме Солженицына -  
http://www.raga.org/novosti/imperator-mikhail-ii-v-dome-solzhenitsyna 

Finally, for Holidays entertainment a romantic Russian song  

KATYUSHA (КАТЮШA) - Dmitri Hvorostovsky (2016)
Sung by the incomparable Dmitri Hvorostovsky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN8AQ0gl52o
​
SUBTITLES (Lyrics): Русский, Српски, Arabic, Čeština, Slovenščina, Ελληνική, Français, English, Nederlands, Italiano, Català, Magyar, Deutsch, Persian, Polski, Português, Español, Svenska, Norsk, Türk, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), Vietnamese (Tiếng việt).

Backing choir: MVD Ensemble.
Песни военных лет - 09. 05. 2016. - The songs of the war years - 09. 05. 2016.

Sincerely,
W George Krasnow (http://wiki-org.ru/wiki/Краснов,_Владислав_Георгиевич)
President, RAGA
www.raga.org
Peace and Justice to the World.
миру мир и благоволение в сердцах
 
 From RAGA site:
"We are an association of Americans who believe it is in the U.S. national interests to foster friendship with Russia on the basis of mutual Good Will and non-interference in each other's affairs. RAGA is a gathering of people who share common interests in Russia's history, culture, religion, economy, politics and the way of life. We feel that Russian people have made outstanding contributions to humankind and are capable of greater achievements. We envision Russia as a strong, independent, proud and free nation and as a partner in achieving peace in the world."

​All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​

On behalf of RAGA for Peace I am sad to announce the news below.

I met Lyudmila Alexeyeva briefly in New York around 1985. We had a great rapport: both graduated from Moscow State University, both had to flee from the USSR. I was a defector, but she warmly took me under the wing of human rights. She new that a huge majority of Soviet defectors had no secrets to betray, they just wanted to keep their integrity intact. Eternal Briss, my dear friend Lyudmila! Vladislav Krasnov

***********
​
Russian human rights champion Lyudmila Alexeyeva dies
By Robert Hackwill • 09/12/2018
A leading Russian rights activist and former Soviet dissident has died at the age of 91.
Lyudmila Alexeyeva passed away in a Moscow hospital after a long illness.

https://www.euronews.com/2018/12/09/russian-human-rights-champion-lyudmila-alexeyeva-dies

Born Lyudmila Mikhaylovna Alexeyeva
20 July 1927
Yevpatoria, Crimea, Soviet Union
Died 8 December 2018 (aged 91)
Moscow, Russia
Nationality Russian
Citizenship Soviet Union (1927–1977)
United States (1982–2018)
Russia (1991–2018)

Lyudmila Mikhaylovna Alexeyeva (Russian: Людми́ла Миха́йловна Алексе́ева,20 July 1927 – 8 December 2018)[1] was a Russian historian and human rights activist who was a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group,and one of the last Soviet dissidents active in modern Russia.

In April 1968, Alexeyeva was expelled from the Communist Party and fired from her job at the publishing house.[4] Nonetheless, she continued her activities in defense of human rights. From 1968 to 1972 she worked clandestinely as a typist for the first underground bulletin The Chronicle of Current Events devoted to human rights violations in the USSR.

In February 1977, Alexeyeva fled from the USSR to the United States following a crackdown against members of The Chronicle by Soviet authorities.[6] In the US Alexeyeva continued to advocate for human rights improvements in Russia and worked on a freelance basis for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America.[6] She became a US citizen in 1982.[7] She wrote regularly on the Soviet dissident movement for both English and Russian language publications in the US and elsewhere, and in 1985 she published the first comprehensive monograph on the history of the movement, Soviet Dissent (Wesleyan University Press).

https://www.euronews.com/2018/12/09/russian-human-rights-champion-lyudmila-alexeyeva-dies

Людмила Алексеева будет похоронена в Вашингтоне
Дата похорон станет известна позднее

МОСКВА, 11 декабря 2018, 17:16 — REGNUM  Российская правозащитница Людмила Алексеева будет похоронена в США — там же, где и другие члены её семьи. Об этом 11 декабря сообщил агентству «Москва» её сын, профессор Университета Индианы в Блумингтоне Михаил Алексеев.

«Здесь, в Москве, состоялось прощание, а похороны пройдут на кладбище церкви Сент-Джон в Вашингтоне. Там похоронены её мама, муж и старший сын», — сообщил Алексеев.

Подробности: https://regnum.ru/news/2535635.html
​
Любое использование материалов допускается только при наличии гиперссылки на ИА REGNUM.

​Sincerely,

W George Krasnow (http://wiki-org.ru/wiki/Краснов,_Владислав_Георгиевич)
President, RAGA
www.raga.org

Peace and Justice to the World.
миру мир и благоволение в сердцах


 From RAGA site:
"We are an association of Americans who believe it is in the U.S. national interests to foster friendship with Russia on the basis of mutual Good Will and non-interference in each other's affairs. RAGA is a gathering of people who share common interests in Russia's history, culture, religion, economy, politics and the way of life. We feel that Russian people have made outstanding contributions to humankind and are capable of greater achievements. We envision Russia as a strong, independent, proud and free nation and as a partner in achieving peace in the world."

All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​