My reason for posting this particular entry today, right on the borderline between April 25th and April 26th, is the sixty-seventh anniversary of the little-remembered event dubbed at the time “East meets West,” which refers to the iconic photo of the American Second Lieutenant William Robertson and the Soviet Lieutenant Alexander Silvashko, radiantly beaming at each other, hugging, and shaking hands on this very day in 1945. In a personal way, this graphic April 26th event has been of no less significance to me than the official April 25th date, that has become historically known as “the Meeting on the Elbe.”
There can be no better friend than a wartime buddy (which, I am afraid, does not transfer to the larger scale of being a wartime ally against the common enemy after the war is over). But, paradoxically, one does not have to be your ally to become your greatest friend. That distinction can very easily go to your greatest enemy and rival. Nietzsche, the great psychologist and connoisseur of the oddities of human nature, is certainly correct in putting it this way:
“How much reverence has a noble man for his enemies! And such reverence is a bridge to love. For he desires his enemy for himself, as his mark of distinction; he can endure no other enemy than one in whom there is nothing to despise and very much to honor!”
It wasn’t for nothing that Russia has always loved Nietzsche. Their thinking has always been remarkably in tune, whether in agreement or disagreement. Thus, even when the geopolitical relationship between America and Russia had swiftly changed from strategic friendship to strategic hostility, it had never managed to ruin the basic psychological determinant of the superpower relationship: mutual respect, and, consequently, deep affection for each other. Odi et amo, as the immortal Catullus had phrased it for all eternity, long before our friend Nietzsche would explain this to us in somewhat different, but politically much more explicit terms. Yes, even at the height of the Great Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and all, America and Russia would remain great friends, by virtue of this incredible, yet perfectly factual “noble enemy” phenomenon, to which I myself can solemnly testify!…
…Well, today the old Cold War is long over, and we must be all ecstatic, if we choose to believe all those psychology professors who teach us that any kind of war is very bad and any kind of peace is very excellent. Yet, nothing could be farther from the truth. Just look around! Who of us wouldn’t take the Cold War over today’s “War on Terror” twenty times over? Back then, in 1962, boarding a short domestic flight , or even a long international flight, did not feel like entering a war zone, where the innocents are treated no better than the enemies, twenty years after America won the Cold War…
Generally speaking, even a mention of Russia as America’s strategic adversary à la “the late” Cold War has become a precious rarity in the American media. Talking about “the other superpower,” the name of China is invariably popping up, although militarily (the hardest currency of superpowerdom) it is Russia, and not China, who alone has been America’s equal, at least, in their mutual capability to destroy each other, taking the world down with them in the process. I suspect that the reason for this glaringly deliberate “negligence” is America’s latent fear of Russia as her once and future nemesis, “whose name must not be mentioned.”
So, here comes the key irony. As Russia’s main adversary, America had nothing to fear. It has been only as Russia’s main scorner, disparager, and mentoring “superior” that she has everything to fear. It used to be for the reason of being Russia’s ‘noble enemy’ that Russia loved her. It is for the reason of America stopping to treat Russia as a ‘noble enemy’ that Russia does not love her anymore, which, if America is still smart, must be the greatest source of her worry…
In the long run, a new rapprochement is inevitable, as America is a bona fide great power, worthy of respect and admiration. But, after so much damage has been done to this historic relationship in the last twenty-plus years, the rehabilitation may be quite painful and take a long time…
(An attentive reader of my blog knows that this America-Russia ground theme has been running through my geopolitical writings as undoubtedly the single most important one of all. I firmly stand by this assessment.)
There can be no better friend than a wartime buddy (which, I am afraid, does not transfer to the larger scale of being a wartime ally against the common enemy after the war is over). But, paradoxically, one does not have to be your ally to become your greatest friend. That distinction can very easily go to your greatest enemy and rival. Nietzsche, the great psychologist and connoisseur of the oddities of human nature, is certainly correct in putting it this way:
“How much reverence has a noble man for his enemies! And such reverence is a bridge to love. For he desires his enemy for himself, as his mark of distinction; he can endure no other enemy than one in whom there is nothing to despise and very much to honor!”
It wasn’t for nothing that Russia has always loved Nietzsche. Their thinking has always been remarkably in tune, whether in agreement or disagreement. Thus, even when the geopolitical relationship between America and Russia had swiftly changed from strategic friendship to strategic hostility, it had never managed to ruin the basic psychological determinant of the superpower relationship: mutual respect, and, consequently, deep affection for each other. Odi et amo, as the immortal Catullus had phrased it for all eternity, long before our friend Nietzsche would explain this to us in somewhat different, but politically much more explicit terms. Yes, even at the height of the Great Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and all, America and Russia would remain great friends, by virtue of this incredible, yet perfectly factual “noble enemy” phenomenon, to which I myself can solemnly testify!…
…Well, today the old Cold War is long over, and we must be all ecstatic, if we choose to believe all those psychology professors who teach us that any kind of war is very bad and any kind of peace is very excellent. Yet, nothing could be farther from the truth. Just look around! Who of us wouldn’t take the Cold War over today’s “War on Terror” twenty times over? Back then, in 1962, boarding a short domestic flight , or even a long international flight, did not feel like entering a war zone, where the innocents are treated no better than the enemies, twenty years after America won the Cold War…
Generally speaking, even a mention of Russia as America’s strategic adversary à la “the late” Cold War has become a precious rarity in the American media. Talking about “the other superpower,” the name of China is invariably popping up, although militarily (the hardest currency of superpowerdom) it is Russia, and not China, who alone has been America’s equal, at least, in their mutual capability to destroy each other, taking the world down with them in the process. I suspect that the reason for this glaringly deliberate “negligence” is America’s latent fear of Russia as her once and future nemesis, “whose name must not be mentioned.”
So, here comes the key irony. As Russia’s main adversary, America had nothing to fear. It has been only as Russia’s main scorner, disparager, and mentoring “superior” that she has everything to fear. It used to be for the reason of being Russia’s ‘noble enemy’ that Russia loved her. It is for the reason of America stopping to treat Russia as a ‘noble enemy’ that Russia does not love her anymore, which, if America is still smart, must be the greatest source of her worry…
In the long run, a new rapprochement is inevitable, as America is a bona fide great power, worthy of respect and admiration. But, after so much damage has been done to this historic relationship in the last twenty-plus years, the rehabilitation may be quite painful and take a long time…
(An attentive reader of my blog knows that this America-Russia ground theme has been running through my geopolitical writings as undoubtedly the single most important one of all. I firmly stand by this assessment.)
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