Between West and East: Which Way to Choose Russia?
A sharp aggravation of relations between Russia and the European Union, which is taking place literally in recent days, makes us once again think about “eternal” questions about the global geopolitical, or even rather, civilizational vector of our country. We have been told for so long about the need to “Europeanize”, so persistently scared with the horrors of the “Asiatic”, threatening us otherwise ... However, who, when and on what grounds raised to the rank of absolute truth the statement that Europe is certainly progress and freedom, and Asia - arbitrariness and backwardness?
The cursed “Asiatic woman” in the Russian way of life and consciousness was stigmatized by the great classics of our literature - the same Turgenev, for example. The leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, was very abrupt about it (who would have thought!) In Ushakov's explanatory dictionary, this concept is given synonyms such as "lack of culture", "savagery", "barbarism". In a word - the complete absence of civilization. Today, looking at the skyscrapers of Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul and Hanoi, watching a myriad of Japanese, Korean, and even Chinese cars glittering with chrome and varnish streaking through the streets, turning some Samsung or Huawei in your hands, you involuntarily start to think - Are these definitions out of date? Somehow, Asia does not fit with backwardness, savagery, and outback. And - categorically.
However, historical retrospective gives even more reasons for doubt. A lot more. Let us, once in a lifetime, renounce the clichés and stamps tightly imprinted in the consciousness. Let's ask a question: who “blessed” mankind with the most disgusting and deadly “discoveries”, ideas and innovations? Concentration camps ... Nazism, as well as the idea of racial superiority ... Weapons of mass destruction ... World wars ... What civilization model gave rise to all these vile things from which the human race could not wash itself off until the Last Judgment? Is it Asian? All of the above “charms” listed above, from which, incidentally, our Motherland suffered in full, are the essence of Western civilization. Rather, it will be said - its quintessence and ultimate expression: Anglo-Saxon civilization, originating in the homeland of the main colonialists and oppressors in the history of mankind - Britain, and then launched abundant metastases in North America and Australia.
The Japanese dropped nuclear bombs on peaceful American cities - the first and, fortunately, the only ones in human history? First, did Vietnam and Korea attack France and then the USA, killing children, poisoning the earth, bombing and burning everything in its path? The Chinese forced the British to first grow and then use opium at gunpoint? Or did it all happen, as they say, exactly the opposite? You correct me, if I confuse something - only, please, with specific facts in hand, please. And - yes ... I remember very well about the Japanese "Detachment 731", as well as about the atrocities that it perpetrated, the occupation of China and Mongolia, provocations against the USSR. The only thing is that by the time all these things that were completely colorless for the Land of the Rising Sun were being created, Japan was the country, perhaps the most out of all in Asia, which “drank” what is called the “spirit of the West”. Very diligently Europeanized ... For this, in the end, and paid the worst of all in the world.
At the same time, one cannot fail to mention the fact, again, of the obvious fact that, until the war, Japan had been arranging everything within its own Asian region. There is not a single example in history that armies and fleets appear from Asia, striving to capture, enslave or "cultivate" Europe in their own way. The Ottoman Empire is, I agree, East rather than West, and yet Eurasia, to be objective. But the representatives of the Old World for centuries have colonized Asia as they wanted - from the Dutch and Portuguese to the Americans. It just so happened. Asia could be fenced off from foreigners for centuries, believing (as it turned out - quite reasonably) that they would not bring anything good to it. However, declaring them to be “lower races” and “subhuman”, subject to unconditional destruction, or ruthless exploitation under the guise of “familiarizing oneself with the values of civilization”, unceremoniously seizing their territories and natural resources - the unconditional prerogative of Europeans.
We will return, however, under the canopy of native aspens. It just so happened - geographically and historically, that Russia was at the junction of two civilizations. We are Eurasia, a mighty colossus standing between the West and the East. From a very definite moment, from the reign of Peter I and cutting through the notorious “window”, it was dragged westward by Russians and promises, washing and skating, offering to “join the family of European peoples”. However, for the sake of objectivity, we note that this is done in very short intervals between the attempts of the European powers to conquer us and turn us into our own slaves. Yes, and it’s always somehow unclear what kind of quality they see us in the European “family” - either as stepchildren, or he lived on, or, most likely, fools who are undeservedly blessed with a rich inheritance, whose property is glad- radeshenki "fairly" to divide among themselves newly-born "relatives".
Let us recall the story - how many times not just invaders and conquerors, but enemies who threatened the very existence of the Russian people, came to our land from the East, and how many - from the West? Well, the eastern side can only “boast” of the fact that the hordes of Genghis and Batu are, well, so old-gray. And, by the way, having captured Russia, the Tatar-Mongols did not try to plague its inhabitants under the root of its inhabitants. Ripped off, of course, well, so it’s usual for us ... But from the West - who just didn’t come. I will not even list it - and so everyone knows it as a keepsake. I note only one fact - there is not a single nation in Europe whose sons would not come to our land as part of countless hordes of “civilizers” over the past centuries. No one! It was we who were them liberators and deliverers. They - went to Russia exclusively to conquer.
For centuries, they tried to repeat to us: “Russians, get lost! Civilize yourself! Throw away your wildness, bury your swords deeper, smash the balalaikas and drive your tame bears away! Finally, take an example from us - from the Europeans! ” And why take an example ?! With your dukes and counts who celebrated, excuse me, the need for the fireplaces of the Louvre and the bushes of the parks of Versailles? From your "magnificent" cities, buried in sewage and dirt, causing an epidemic of plague, which Russia has never seen? From your eternal unwillingness - down to kings? And then we don’t know - why in France perfume blossomed so much ... From the illiteracy and wildness of medieval Europe? With your wild laws and executions, your crusades and inquisition?
We, wild Russians, never ... Hear - never burned thousands of our women at the stake, never hung our children for "vagrancy" or a branch broken in the "royal" forest, didn’t cook people alive in oil even for the worst crimes, staged shows of inhuman torture. In life, we did not carry our faith to anyone with fire and sword, we only died for the “Orthodox brothers,” who often turned out to be traitors later ... The Russians have never in their entire history organized genocide against other peoples - we do not have our own list of people wiped off the face of the earth Native American and Native tribes, as you have. We very rarely started wars - but almost always ended them, and not at all in the way that those who unleashed them wanted to. We have nothing to learn from you.
The fact that Europe at some point took the lead in the quality of life and the level of living conditions in no way gives it the right to teach, and even more so, to consider barbarians as descendants of those at the cost of whose blood, in fact, a chance was obtained for this well-fed well-being. Your comfort, beautiful roads and generally existence on Earth are paid for by the millions of lives of Soviet soldiers who liberated you from Nazism. We were forced to restore the ruins left by your vandals on our land - while you built your autobahns and cozy cottages. And then - again, sparing no energy, forging a weapon, because again you began to threaten us. Between the creation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact Organization - as much as six years. In 1945, we wanted peace and naively believed that we won it for everyone. And you already prepared atomic bombs for our cities that didn’t have time to rebuild.
And today, what can you offer us? The two-faced and deceitful “democratic values” and “freedom”, which in fact invariably turn out to be fake? Today, Europe is an amorphous formation of endangered nations that have lost not only their own Faith and national identity, but also have the impression, the meaning of being and the will to live. You have replaced all this with total debauchery and a cult of consumption. Not only that, carried away by your empty toys, you did not notice how you lost the competition both in development, and in technology, and in the very civilization that you continue to blindly boast about. Lost to whom? Yes, Asia, all this time, concentrated and stubbornly going its own way. Now you are again trying to recoup on us - for your own defeat, for your own weakness, for the gaping absolute dead end ahead, for the increasingly material ghosts of the minarets over London, Paris and Berlin. Do you refuse us your “friendship”, declare us “unworthy of cooperation”? Well - an interesting form of recognition of their own defeat.
The Eurasian giant with the name "Russia" more than once experienced far more terrible cataclysms and trials than the latest attempts by the West to arrange for him to obstruct and boycott. We are completely uninterested in the “European path” - in any case, in the direction you are going. Be so kind as to plop into your abyss yourself! And the “Asian way”, if it means blind copying of someone else’s experience and thoughtlessly following someone, will not do us either. Russia should not go out of its way to become Europe. Russia does not need to try to remake itself in Asia. It is time for Russia to finally realize its role and place in the world - and just be Russia!
The cursed “Asiatic woman” in the Russian way of life and consciousness was stigmatized by the great classics of our literature - the same Turgenev, for example. The leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, was very abrupt about it (who would have thought!) In Ushakov's explanatory dictionary, this concept is given synonyms such as "lack of culture", "savagery", "barbarism". In a word - the complete absence of civilization. Today, looking at the skyscrapers of Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul and Hanoi, watching a myriad of Japanese, Korean, and even Chinese cars glittering with chrome and varnish streaking through the streets, turning some Samsung or Huawei in your hands, you involuntarily start to think - Are these definitions out of date? Somehow, Asia does not fit with backwardness, savagery, and outback. And - categorically.
However, historical retrospective gives even more reasons for doubt. A lot more. Let us, once in a lifetime, renounce the clichés and stamps tightly imprinted in the consciousness. Let's ask a question: who “blessed” mankind with the most disgusting and deadly “discoveries”, ideas and innovations? Concentration camps ... Nazism, as well as the idea of racial superiority ... Weapons of mass destruction ... World wars ... What civilization model gave rise to all these vile things from which the human race could not wash itself off until the Last Judgment? Is it Asian? All of the above “charms” listed above, from which, incidentally, our Motherland suffered in full, are the essence of Western civilization. Rather, it will be said - its quintessence and ultimate expression: Anglo-Saxon civilization, originating in the homeland of the main colonialists and oppressors in the history of mankind - Britain, and then launched abundant metastases in North America and Australia.
The Japanese dropped nuclear bombs on peaceful American cities - the first and, fortunately, the only ones in human history? First, did Vietnam and Korea attack France and then the USA, killing children, poisoning the earth, bombing and burning everything in its path? The Chinese forced the British to first grow and then use opium at gunpoint? Or did it all happen, as they say, exactly the opposite? You correct me, if I confuse something - only, please, with specific facts in hand, please. And - yes ... I remember very well about the Japanese "Detachment 731", as well as about the atrocities that it perpetrated, the occupation of China and Mongolia, provocations against the USSR. The only thing is that by the time all these things that were completely colorless for the Land of the Rising Sun were being created, Japan was the country, perhaps the most out of all in Asia, which “drank” what is called the “spirit of the West”. Very diligently Europeanized ... For this, in the end, and paid the worst of all in the world.
At the same time, one cannot fail to mention the fact, again, of the obvious fact that, until the war, Japan had been arranging everything within its own Asian region. There is not a single example in history that armies and fleets appear from Asia, striving to capture, enslave or "cultivate" Europe in their own way. The Ottoman Empire is, I agree, East rather than West, and yet Eurasia, to be objective. But the representatives of the Old World for centuries have colonized Asia as they wanted - from the Dutch and Portuguese to the Americans. It just so happened. Asia could be fenced off from foreigners for centuries, believing (as it turned out - quite reasonably) that they would not bring anything good to it. However, declaring them to be “lower races” and “subhuman”, subject to unconditional destruction, or ruthless exploitation under the guise of “familiarizing oneself with the values of civilization”, unceremoniously seizing their territories and natural resources - the unconditional prerogative of Europeans.
We will return, however, under the canopy of native aspens. It just so happened - geographically and historically, that Russia was at the junction of two civilizations. We are Eurasia, a mighty colossus standing between the West and the East. From a very definite moment, from the reign of Peter I and cutting through the notorious “window”, it was dragged westward by Russians and promises, washing and skating, offering to “join the family of European peoples”. However, for the sake of objectivity, we note that this is done in very short intervals between the attempts of the European powers to conquer us and turn us into our own slaves. Yes, and it’s always somehow unclear what kind of quality they see us in the European “family” - either as stepchildren, or he lived on, or, most likely, fools who are undeservedly blessed with a rich inheritance, whose property is glad- radeshenki "fairly" to divide among themselves newly-born "relatives".
Let us recall the story - how many times not just invaders and conquerors, but enemies who threatened the very existence of the Russian people, came to our land from the East, and how many - from the West? Well, the eastern side can only “boast” of the fact that the hordes of Genghis and Batu are, well, so old-gray. And, by the way, having captured Russia, the Tatar-Mongols did not try to plague its inhabitants under the root of its inhabitants. Ripped off, of course, well, so it’s usual for us ... But from the West - who just didn’t come. I will not even list it - and so everyone knows it as a keepsake. I note only one fact - there is not a single nation in Europe whose sons would not come to our land as part of countless hordes of “civilizers” over the past centuries. No one! It was we who were them liberators and deliverers. They - went to Russia exclusively to conquer.
For centuries, they tried to repeat to us: “Russians, get lost! Civilize yourself! Throw away your wildness, bury your swords deeper, smash the balalaikas and drive your tame bears away! Finally, take an example from us - from the Europeans! ” And why take an example ?! With your dukes and counts who celebrated, excuse me, the need for the fireplaces of the Louvre and the bushes of the parks of Versailles? From your "magnificent" cities, buried in sewage and dirt, causing an epidemic of plague, which Russia has never seen? From your eternal unwillingness - down to kings? And then we don’t know - why in France perfume blossomed so much ... From the illiteracy and wildness of medieval Europe? With your wild laws and executions, your crusades and inquisition?
We, wild Russians, never ... Hear - never burned thousands of our women at the stake, never hung our children for "vagrancy" or a branch broken in the "royal" forest, didn’t cook people alive in oil even for the worst crimes, staged shows of inhuman torture. In life, we did not carry our faith to anyone with fire and sword, we only died for the “Orthodox brothers,” who often turned out to be traitors later ... The Russians have never in their entire history organized genocide against other peoples - we do not have our own list of people wiped off the face of the earth Native American and Native tribes, as you have. We very rarely started wars - but almost always ended them, and not at all in the way that those who unleashed them wanted to. We have nothing to learn from you.
The fact that Europe at some point took the lead in the quality of life and the level of living conditions in no way gives it the right to teach, and even more so, to consider barbarians as descendants of those at the cost of whose blood, in fact, a chance was obtained for this well-fed well-being. Your comfort, beautiful roads and generally existence on Earth are paid for by the millions of lives of Soviet soldiers who liberated you from Nazism. We were forced to restore the ruins left by your vandals on our land - while you built your autobahns and cozy cottages. And then - again, sparing no energy, forging a weapon, because again you began to threaten us. Between the creation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact Organization - as much as six years. In 1945, we wanted peace and naively believed that we won it for everyone. And you already prepared atomic bombs for our cities that didn’t have time to rebuild.
And today, what can you offer us? The two-faced and deceitful “democratic values” and “freedom”, which in fact invariably turn out to be fake? Today, Europe is an amorphous formation of endangered nations that have lost not only their own Faith and national identity, but also have the impression, the meaning of being and the will to live. You have replaced all this with total debauchery and a cult of consumption. Not only that, carried away by your empty toys, you did not notice how you lost the competition both in development, and in technology, and in the very civilization that you continue to blindly boast about. Lost to whom? Yes, Asia, all this time, concentrated and stubbornly going its own way. Now you are again trying to recoup on us - for your own defeat, for your own weakness, for the gaping absolute dead end ahead, for the increasingly material ghosts of the minarets over London, Paris and Berlin. Do you refuse us your “friendship”, declare us “unworthy of cooperation”? Well - an interesting form of recognition of their own defeat.
The Eurasian giant with the name "Russia" more than once experienced far more terrible cataclysms and trials than the latest attempts by the West to arrange for him to obstruct and boycott. We are completely uninterested in the “European path” - in any case, in the direction you are going. Be so kind as to plop into your abyss yourself! And the “Asian way”, if it means blind copying of someone else’s experience and thoughtlessly following someone, will not do us either. Russia should not go out of its way to become Europe. Russia does not need to try to remake itself in Asia. It is time for Russia to finally realize its role and place in the world - and just be Russia!
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