10 February 2010
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Under a headline about Russia’s military weakness newsland.ru discusses Russia’s military preparedness – for war and therefore for peace. The geopolitical analysis claims that the present unipolar world is unstable and compares Russia’s geopolitical position to that of Germany in the 1920s where – ‘Германская империя признала поражение и сложила оружие в тот момент, когда ни один вражеский солдат еще не стоял на ее земле’ – i.e., the Germany Empire admitted defeat and relinqushed its weapons at the same time that no enemy soldiers were standing on its soil.’
After this somewhat debatable comparison which neglects Weimar Germany’s economic problems or the fact that Germany did really lose its own territory as a result of the Versaille agreement there follows a detailed analysis of Russia’s Arctic military orientation. There is some discussion of the NSR and global warming followed by the basic conclusion that there is virtually no military strength on either the western or the eastern sides of Arctic Russia – ‘За период с окончанием советской эры осуществлено следующее: западная кромка нашей Арктики стала «полуголой», восточная – «голой совершенно», а вот по ту сторону границ военный потенциал был не уменьшен, а напротив – усилен’. To back this up there is quite a long list of military units, where they are stationed, what they consist of etc. -all material which would interest those wanting to understand the Russian military’s Arctic disposition.
All this is of some significance but what is more interesting is the perception of threat: NATO and Norway from the West, the Aleutian Islands, Japan and the USA from the East.
Even more significantly the purpose of the piece is to discuss a possible resurrection the kind of unity between the armed forces, state and society which would be necessary for the type of mobilization required for total war – ‘Полномасштабная война возможна лишь в случае мобилизации не только армии, но всего государства и общества’.
For this author, it seems that social attitudes are a serious problem, the ‘Перестроечная пацифистская эйфория оказалась весьма долгоживущим и опасным злом’ - i.e., there is a post perestrioka pacifist euphoria which has proven to be a long-lived and dangerous evil’. The author calls for a revivification of the fusion of state and society, such as occured in Germany after the WWI. (Actually there is an attempt to blunt this statement by also including Germany after WW2, which is obviously confused and is there, in my view, to distract from the real enthusiasm for post WW1).
In short the military problems of Russia can only be solved through the widespread adoption of a ‘носителями русской национальной идеи’ – ‘a native Russian idea.’
This all sounds a bit crazy to me.
Fortunately, though professional looking, and with advertising (if only for dodgy watches), NEWSLAND.RU is only an information and discussion portal, in effect a blog! On the other hand …
