David S. Foglesong

This book confirmed what I always suspected - West got infected by the messianic complex (which is something that truly amazes me these days, considering that Europe was secular for a long, long time but I guess constant feedback on how great they are and patting oneself ad nauseam does pay dividends). This great-destiny-spirit was what moved people in 19th century to broaden the frontiers and run expeditions but unfortunately also to view everyone else living in these areas as people needing enlightenment, unfortunate primitives - what is today looked at as bad, bad o flagellate thyself bad, "burden of the white man" that slowly translated to religious fervor and zealotry of American missionary movement.

What started as mission of support against oppressive Tsarist regime, mutated to propaganda against that regime where everything was portrayed much more darker than was the case (and thus just warped the general picture of the situation), grew into initial joy and solidarity over Revolution, died out because of questions of religious freedoms (Russia having put the stop to intensive proselytizing) and then entered limbo during which smart US presidents, who knew better than to meddle into other nation's life were succeeded by presidents who rode the messianic unicorns and fought the crusade against the godless. And then when they finally achieved their goal against the Soviets, West collectively stood down and threw everything down the toilet because (in manner oh so familiar to US and wherever they go) they lost interest. And when Russia finally got through the "liberalization" of its resources (phenomena in Eastern Europe known as privatization) and decided that they need to forge their own destiny, old views from the West came back because Russia was not supposed to grow normally, apparently it was supposed to be treated like Third World country and maybe in next couple of hundreds of years reach some normality - only at that time when advanced West finds her "evolved" enough. What West resented the most was fall of their champions of the democracy - Yeltsin who ruled single-handedly as Tsar and crushed opposition everywhere he found it, and Yeltsin's privateers (privatization "geniuses") that propelled oh so many rich people championed by the West.

Book proves that Russia and Soviet Union in general were never understood by West except through either pink glasses of revolutionaries or ultra dark glasses of religious zealots fighting the "godless empire". For West this was always the land of "there be dragons".

Unfortunately same views and same racial theories about Russians that were popular in the late 19th, early 20th century, same level of hate that was so prevalent by the Western hawks in 20th century are back.

And all of that unfortunately just proves one thing - West while at some point in time wanted to bring betterment to Russia, in general was constantly seeking its own opposite picture, something to compare against and vilify. Because lets be honest Russia is the only country that has same roots as West and therefore can be compared to West. Everyone else, including China, Japan and rest of Asia and Africa, is completely alien and always will be to European tradition.

And while great competitions were always present - Egyptians vs Hittites, Rome vs Carthage, Athens vs Sparta, Rome vs Parthia, England vs Spain etc - what makes this competition unhealthy is West's messianic stand and constant demonization of Russia, unrelenting propaganda. This religious fervor acts as an amplifier and causes loss of direction in every aspect that just deepens the divide because (as every religious fervor) it is absolute and provides no compromise.

Unfortunately West will get the enemy they propagandized against in a form of self-fulfilling prophecy . And what a joy that must be for them, to finally have a scapegoat for everything bad - including the very actions of their own governments in last few years.

In time of progress we live in, isn't it sad that great countries cannot survive without great enemies. Sad indeed. But such is the nature of progressive politics.

Excellent book, highly recommended read, explains a lot when it comes to East-West relations.… (meer)