The Folly of the New Cold War - By Vladislav Krasnov - Russia & America Goodwill Association

The Folly of the New Cold War - By Vladislav Krasnov

10/26/2014

When in 1974, after being deported from the USSR and finding refuge in the USA, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said that he and his books will return to a free Russia, US sovietologists met his declaration with disbelief and ridicule. How dare he challenge their wisdom that the best we could do in the foreseeable future was to contain the USSR in its sphere of influence? Communism was indeed the enemy the USA elites loved to hate.

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1 Comment

GORDON M. SITES

10/26/2016 01:51:02 am

October 25, 2016

Dear Dr. Krasnov,

I don't know if you would still remember me as a graduate student at the University of Washington in the late 1960s. You were also doing graduate work there as well. I was at that time majoring in History, with emphasis on premodern China. We had many lively discussions then about Russia. Although we did not always see eye to eye on all points, I enjoyed such debate as it challenged my preconceptions and (I hope) enlarged my limited understanding of your country.
I refer now to your article "The Folly of the New Cold War" which I have recently finished reading. Yes, I think you have hit a great many nails squarely on the head. It's so very, very hard to find writing these days that makes any attempt to look at Russian policies from other than a crudely Russophobic point of view, depicting the country as some sort of beast or sinister eminence afoot in the world. These last several months I've found myself writing frequently to the editors of the Guardian Weekly (which I subscribe to) scolding them for a steady raft of editorials and commentaries that seem to me very much in this vein. No attempt to present a multi-sided analysis of circumstances involving Russia. And all they seem to be interested in is politics! Not long ago I wrote them and asked why readers couldn't be given articles pertaining to Russian social life and culture as well, a variation in diet. The letter was printed, but they're still obviously more interested in promoting the everlasting Cold War and that's all they end up giving you. The Guardian has many good articles on many subjects, but its reporting on Russia is just dreadfully bad. I wonder if any scholar in Slavic Studies, by the way, has ever considered writing a book treating the psychology of Anglo-American Russophobia. I'm not a Russian area specialist, but I think such a book is desperately needed.

Well, I am still in the field of East Asian studies and my focus is still premodern China (more specifically, the Han period BCE 200-CE 220). I'm living in retirement now in a satellite town of Seattle and hope to do some useful work as an independent researcher/scholar. I hope to meet some faculty members at the University of Washington who might be able to give me some guidance here. My address is:

23405 16 Ave S (APT C-304)
Des Moines, WA 98198-8069

I hope the intervening years have treated you well.

Very Sincerely,

Gordon M. Sites