I have been wrestling with the issue of Russophobia in the United States for some time now. As someone who cut his academic teeth studying Russian history in college, and who, at an early stage in my development as an adult had the opportunity to live and work in Russia during the Soviet era, I have a deep, yet admittedly incomplete, appreciation for Russian culture, language and history. This appreciation has empowered me to make informed judgments about Russia, its political leadership, and its people, especially when assessing the interactions between Russia and the United States today.
The propaganda is so overwhelmingly intense that I fear the brainwashed majority have been incapacitated to question authority, and the heartless decision-makers believe their own lies.
Mark Twain said that it's easier to brainwash the population than to convince them that they have been brainwashed. It pains me to see the entire European population is as brainwashed as the US population. Unless a remedy can be found, civilization as we know it may be doomed.
Absolutely brilliant assessment .... never really took you, Scott, for a cultural expert too along with your political and international relations acumen. Congratulations on a great piece, which should be (sp)read widely, but sadly will only be appreciated by the few smart people still out there.
Scott... A wonderful piece. Thanks for posting this... Actually had the honor to hear Van Cliburn play in the 60's... An unbelievable talent. The power of the Mighty Wurlitzer in its control of all discourse in this Failed State is quite amazing. The sooner it is broken into tiny fragments and tossed to the wind, the better... It is distressing to pass 70 and discover that your own gummint is the biggest terrorist org on the planet. No other way to pitch this fact... Makes me depressed I put on Army green in the day...
As a college freshman the Lit class I wanted to sign up for was full, so I ended up enrolling in the only class that was still open -- "Russian Literature." It's not an exaggeration to say that that accident changed my life. The Russians I was introduced to that semester -- and all through the decades since -- came from all classes and locales. But almost uniformly they were boisterous, warm-hearted, intensely sentimental and passionate, and frequently highly educated and thoughtful. Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoi, Puskhin -- they wrote about their fellow countrymen (and often about Europeans as well) but their portraits of humanity were often, it seems to me, universal. How else to explain their enduring popularity, in books and on the stage, throughout the world, including the U.S and Canada -- until the recent insanity whipped up by the most unscrupulous politicians on the face of the earth.
From what I observe and read now, it doesn't seem to me the Russian people are fundamentally different from the 19th Century Russians. Those who have taken the time to read or listen to Vladimir Putin's public speeches, or Oliver Stone's lengthy interviews with him, cannot help but note what a literate, educated mind he has, how often his views are underpinned with reference to philosophy and history. As an American, it's embarrassing to compare the quality of the man's thinking with that of any our our presidents of the last 40 years, including Obama, who unfortunately turned out to be an eloquent poseur. The very fact that so much of the West has now been so easily propagandized to hate an entire and storied poeples is itself an indictment of just how widespread Western ignorance is.
Russian culture is so ancient, vast and deep-rooted that it will perfectly resist the vile attack of ignorance. As the Russian ambassador rightly says: "... the time will come for the US cultural elite to sober up and be embarrassed of its doings."
Whew ! The nearly incredible ‘re-naming’ of Degas’ ‘Russian Dancer’ is just one more heaping tablespoon of stupidity added to an olympic-sized pool of stagnating national ignorance !
Together w/ Biden & Blinken’s vast & tragically clueless naiveté about the reality of war… ( in Joe’s case , war being something about a Hollywood prop department’s cavalry scarf wrapped around John Wayne’s neck in a fuzzily recalled B&W movie … ) we are depending now on articulate, smart people like Ritter & ambassador Antonov to toss us lifelines in time.
I also lived and worked in the USSR as a young adult. That experience was pivotal and shaped my life. Russophobia has always been present in the US. But never so hyperbolic as it is now. It seems to be everywhere. One time, I had a conversation with a man who worked for the CIA. He said he had never met a Russian he liked. I asked him if he ever met any Russian children. They are human beings just like us. But they have been dehumanized in the west the same way Jews were dehumanized in Germany during WW2.
Thank you for another deeply humane and so timely article. Our country is proud of you while we are all ashamed of current madness spread from the top by our ruling, deeply corrupt, criminal “elite”
In my older years now, the scales have been falling off my eyes like a tsunami....and in looking at my country, the leader group, and the citizens, (museum decision makers), I'm in a state of wonder. How could I not have registered how absolutely shallow and foolish so many are in my country? Embarrassingly so! Have we always been this way?
My answer to this brand of patent insanity has been to finally read The Brothers Karamazov (I read Crime and Punishment as a teenager many decades ago), Solzhenitsyn's memoirs of his family's time in Vermont, and recently to start a Lenten study of Vladimir Soloviev's Russia and the Universal Church. This last mentioned volume is very challenging but anytime I find my dedication to it flagging, I conjure up a mental picture of the odious warmonger Vickie Nuland and thus reenergize myself.
While you still remain my fav weapons inspector, of course, always, your cork-screw scribblings, with a little spit and polish, may turn out to be your best foot forward. Your pen is mightier than your sword. (note. tbh your rather animated in-person military analysis has had a tendency, in the past, to scare the [crap out of] the more timid, weak-minded among your audience - in some circles, resulting in a certain unreasonable hysteria I call 'Ritterphobia'.)
>"“Russian culture,” Ambassador Antonov concludes, “does not belong only to Russia. It is the world’s treasure. We know the Americans as appreciative connoisseurs of true art. Not so long ago tours of the troupes of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres as well as our renowned musicians drew packed houses and were always greeted with a storm of applause. The local audience is apparently longing for Russian performers and art exhibitions.”"
Oh, that's good. That's very good. I'll take all of Russian art and literature and trade them my well-worn copy of Huckleberry Finn and an old Martin guitar. What goes around, comes around.
*Do me a favor, I don't ask for much ffs. On your travels to Russia, stop by the Moscow School of Music and say Hi for me. ok. Freaking little geniuses. Where Julliard or Manhattan School of Music require mastery of one (1) instrument, Moscow School requires mastery of three (3).
It's interesting to see some of the small ways some TV writers and producers in UK are trying to fight back. In the internationally popular TV drama series "Downton Abbey", we have an episode in which the Dowager Duchess recalls her time in St. Petersberg when she accompanied her husband - then part of the English Royal Family entourage - and her lovely romantic memories of a beautiful, gracious place. She has an old, illicit romance with a Russian Count, resurrected slightly in a later episode. The much loved English police murder drama series "Endeavour" in it's latest episode, had a classical orchestral conductor and composer named "Lermontov". In small ways, there are tiny fight backs, but at the moment, only in England, and all too few I'm afraid.
The propaganda is so overwhelmingly intense that I fear the brainwashed majority have been incapacitated to question authority, and the heartless decision-makers believe their own lies.
Mark Twain said that it's easier to brainwash the population than to convince them that they have been brainwashed. It pains me to see the entire European population is as brainwashed as the US population. Unless a remedy can be found, civilization as we know it may be doomed.
How's that for some pessimism!
Absolutely brilliant assessment .... never really took you, Scott, for a cultural expert too along with your political and international relations acumen. Congratulations on a great piece, which should be (sp)read widely, but sadly will only be appreciated by the few smart people still out there.
Scott... A wonderful piece. Thanks for posting this... Actually had the honor to hear Van Cliburn play in the 60's... An unbelievable talent. The power of the Mighty Wurlitzer in its control of all discourse in this Failed State is quite amazing. The sooner it is broken into tiny fragments and tossed to the wind, the better... It is distressing to pass 70 and discover that your own gummint is the biggest terrorist org on the planet. No other way to pitch this fact... Makes me depressed I put on Army green in the day...
Thanks for your voice and bravery!
As a college freshman the Lit class I wanted to sign up for was full, so I ended up enrolling in the only class that was still open -- "Russian Literature." It's not an exaggeration to say that that accident changed my life. The Russians I was introduced to that semester -- and all through the decades since -- came from all classes and locales. But almost uniformly they were boisterous, warm-hearted, intensely sentimental and passionate, and frequently highly educated and thoughtful. Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoi, Puskhin -- they wrote about their fellow countrymen (and often about Europeans as well) but their portraits of humanity were often, it seems to me, universal. How else to explain their enduring popularity, in books and on the stage, throughout the world, including the U.S and Canada -- until the recent insanity whipped up by the most unscrupulous politicians on the face of the earth.
From what I observe and read now, it doesn't seem to me the Russian people are fundamentally different from the 19th Century Russians. Those who have taken the time to read or listen to Vladimir Putin's public speeches, or Oliver Stone's lengthy interviews with him, cannot help but note what a literate, educated mind he has, how often his views are underpinned with reference to philosophy and history. As an American, it's embarrassing to compare the quality of the man's thinking with that of any our our presidents of the last 40 years, including Obama, who unfortunately turned out to be an eloquent poseur. The very fact that so much of the West has now been so easily propagandized to hate an entire and storied poeples is itself an indictment of just how widespread Western ignorance is.
Russian culture is so ancient, vast and deep-rooted that it will perfectly resist the vile attack of ignorance. As the Russian ambassador rightly says: "... the time will come for the US cultural elite to sober up and be embarrassed of its doings."
Whew ! The nearly incredible ‘re-naming’ of Degas’ ‘Russian Dancer’ is just one more heaping tablespoon of stupidity added to an olympic-sized pool of stagnating national ignorance !
Together w/ Biden & Blinken’s vast & tragically clueless naiveté about the reality of war… ( in Joe’s case , war being something about a Hollywood prop department’s cavalry scarf wrapped around John Wayne’s neck in a fuzzily recalled B&W movie … ) we are depending now on articulate, smart people like Ritter & ambassador Antonov to toss us lifelines in time.
-JJ ( electrician @ Detroit near Canada…)
I also lived and worked in the USSR as a young adult. That experience was pivotal and shaped my life. Russophobia has always been present in the US. But never so hyperbolic as it is now. It seems to be everywhere. One time, I had a conversation with a man who worked for the CIA. He said he had never met a Russian he liked. I asked him if he ever met any Russian children. They are human beings just like us. But they have been dehumanized in the west the same way Jews were dehumanized in Germany during WW2.
What's new about it: It has been done to Serbs and Arabs before. Approved racism to paraphrase Chomsky.
Russia has been a capitalist country for 3+ decades -- nothing “red” there to be “scarred”.
But the US bipartisan War party (McCain, Hillary, Biden, McConnell, Schiff ghouls) planned Russia destruction for 20+ years.
The immense Russia-gate hoax was an overture
Dear Scott, BRAVO !!
Thank you for another deeply humane and so timely article. Our country is proud of you while we are all ashamed of current madness spread from the top by our ruling, deeply corrupt, criminal “elite”
Once upon a time, not so long ago, any development that the establishment of the day did not like could automatically be blamed on Jews.
Crops failed? Jews did it. King's son and heir is a homosexual? Because Jews. Army lost a battle? Jews.
Today, the establishment is far more enlightened. They do not blame Jews, having evolved beyond such silly things. Instead, they blame Russia.
In my older years now, the scales have been falling off my eyes like a tsunami....and in looking at my country, the leader group, and the citizens, (museum decision makers), I'm in a state of wonder. How could I not have registered how absolutely shallow and foolish so many are in my country? Embarrassingly so! Have we always been this way?
My answer to this brand of patent insanity has been to finally read The Brothers Karamazov (I read Crime and Punishment as a teenager many decades ago), Solzhenitsyn's memoirs of his family's time in Vermont, and recently to start a Lenten study of Vladimir Soloviev's Russia and the Universal Church. This last mentioned volume is very challenging but anytime I find my dedication to it flagging, I conjure up a mental picture of the odious warmonger Vickie Nuland and thus reenergize myself.
Dear Goat,
While you still remain my fav weapons inspector, of course, always, your cork-screw scribblings, with a little spit and polish, may turn out to be your best foot forward. Your pen is mightier than your sword. (note. tbh your rather animated in-person military analysis has had a tendency, in the past, to scare the [crap out of] the more timid, weak-minded among your audience - in some circles, resulting in a certain unreasonable hysteria I call 'Ritterphobia'.)
>"“Russian culture,” Ambassador Antonov concludes, “does not belong only to Russia. It is the world’s treasure. We know the Americans as appreciative connoisseurs of true art. Not so long ago tours of the troupes of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres as well as our renowned musicians drew packed houses and were always greeted with a storm of applause. The local audience is apparently longing for Russian performers and art exhibitions.”"
Oh, that's good. That's very good. I'll take all of Russian art and literature and trade them my well-worn copy of Huckleberry Finn and an old Martin guitar. What goes around, comes around.
*Do me a favor, I don't ask for much ffs. On your travels to Russia, stop by the Moscow School of Music and say Hi for me. ok. Freaking little geniuses. Where Julliard or Manhattan School of Music require mastery of one (1) instrument, Moscow School requires mastery of three (3).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxh8iaqxjA4
It's interesting to see some of the small ways some TV writers and producers in UK are trying to fight back. In the internationally popular TV drama series "Downton Abbey", we have an episode in which the Dowager Duchess recalls her time in St. Petersberg when she accompanied her husband - then part of the English Royal Family entourage - and her lovely romantic memories of a beautiful, gracious place. She has an old, illicit romance with a Russian Count, resurrected slightly in a later episode. The much loved English police murder drama series "Endeavour" in it's latest episode, had a classical orchestral conductor and composer named "Lermontov". In small ways, there are tiny fight backs, but at the moment, only in England, and all too few I'm afraid.
Great thoughtful piece.