BE A FRIEND TO RUSSIA!

(With this entry, I am resuming the series on the state of international relations in the twenty-first century. It touches upon the general state of Russo-German relations. In connection to this, see also my entry Putin’s German And Germany, posted on this blog on September 19^th, 2011. Not incidentally, my title’s idiom paraphrases Don Vito’s (Godfather) last will and testament to his faithful: “Be a friend to Michael.” The role of the old Don Corleone in this entry belongs to--- you guessed it!--- Prince Otto von Bismarck.)

No one in his own mind would contest the fact that Germany is one of the world’s truly great powers. And although it may be argued that in the twentieth century Germany, crushingly, lost two world wars in a row (so, how can a two-time loser like that be counted among the great powers?), the amazing fact about those losses is that, in spite of them, Germany landed on her feet in no time at all, every time she fell. Having lost the first World War in deep humiliation and in desperately dire straits, she had sprung back up in less than twenty years as the world’s dominant power during the Third Reich, and it would take Hitler’s remarkable combination of arrogance and stupidity to end up as the eventual loser of World War II.

Any German who had lived long enough to witness Germany’s reemergence from the ashes, to become the predominant power of Europe, by the end of the unquestionably disastrous for Germany twentieth century, decisively eclipsing the big winners of that last war Britain and France, might be wondering how different the world would have looked had Germany in fact won World War II, and frankly, he would not be able to come up with too much overall difference.

Yet, why such devastating losses at all? Not incidentally, each time that Germany suffered defeat, Russia was on the other side (the late-hour 1918 Brest Litovsk Peace Treaty between the new Soviet Bolshevik Government and Germany obviously does not count, except to prove that Germany should not have fought a war with Russia in the first place), and, I repeat, this was anything but a coincidence. In both these cases, Kaiser Wilhelm in World War I, and, of course, Hitler in World War II, were both showing a reckless disregard for their own history and for the most important historical testament left to them by the father of modern Germany, with Germany each time having to pay a terrible price for their waywardness.

Prince Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), the creator of Germany’s Second Reich, was a remarkable man in all respects and, as a true genius, he has not been able to fit into any mold, except that of a German patriot and a statesman of great wisdom. Portrayed as a solid conservative in domestic policies, this square stereotype overlooks the fact that he was the first European statesman to create an effective social security system for the German workers, including health and accident insurance and old age retirement benefits. As for his brilliance in foreign affairs, it has been exhaustively recorded by the historians, but my particular emphasis is on his key legacy to all future German leaders: never fight wars on two fronts, and, therefore, be on good terms with Russia. Those two subsequently lost world wars were Germany’s inescapable punishment for ignoring Bismarck’s bequest… Could there be a third catastrophe in a row of the same nature? No, even the thought of it sounds ridiculous, despite the uneasy history of the Cold War and the inherent East-West disagreements. Moreover, I am perfectly convinced that Germany has learned her Russian lesson so well, that in this twenty-first century Russia will have few better friends than her erstwhile archenemy Germany, and none more sincere.

…But will the Russians ever accept German friendship? After all, the hair-raising memory of the horrors of that last war is still shockingly alive in the nation’s memory. And the anti-German cinematic and musical masterpiece Alexander Nevsky (see my references to it in several places elsewhere) will never be retired as Russia’s living cultural treasure, each time bringing back the tragic memories of the past generations with a renewed sense of pride for the nation’s repeated, but no less glorious for that, triumphs.

It takes a true nobleness of character, some would call it national-chauvinism, to rise above the insults and unpleasantnesses of the past, and, worst of all, a national tragedy that had cost over twenty million lives. A lesser nation than Russia would not have been able to do it, but Russia can. After all, it was Germany who was utterly defeated at the end. It was Germany who became the instrument of that unprecedented Russian victory that turned a great power into a superpower. Nothing sweetens the bitter taste of a national tragedy like the sweetness of the final triumph. There is no hero without a tragedy surrounding him, and Germany has supplied that sine-qua-non ingredient for Russia.