Posted on 07/26/2008 8:33:55 PM PDT by WesternCulture
There are, indeed, many reasons why people of Russian ancestry ought to keep their heads high.
But just perhaps, the nation which my country - Sweden -nowaday manages to outdo in hockey rinks, although not in football/soccer fields (it was the other way around some decades ago) needs to rethink its self image.
Russia of today is a giant, but sadly backward nation, presently going through a phase reminiscent of what took place in Italy during the 1920s and 1930s; she firmly believes in proudly waving a national banner and claiming territory, but her understanding of the very concept of what a nation IS, unfortunately, is rudimentary.
The die-hard worshipping of Peter the Great throughout all of Russia is a shining example of this.
Peter the Great often is associated with national progress and enlightenment, but the end result of his campaign against Sweden - which was a rather poor and underdeveloped north European country at that time - actually was nothing but scorched earth and continued domestic chaos.
In reality, Peter the Great turned Russia even more "Russian" compared to Western Europe and Russia will continue being the "Russia" of Europe as long as this stupidity prevails.
In German schools, pupils were, to a great extent, kept unaware of the horrors that arose from Nazism and World War II during the 1930s and 1940s until the late 1970s. By today, this inexcusable irresponsibility in the field of national education has, gladly enough, come to an end - aided by a strong NATIONAL will of understanding not only what Germany was, but what a future, aware and freedom loving Germany could become.
Yes, Hitler, Göring and Goebbles all existed just some decades ago over here in Europe, but when walking around in silent side streets of Berlin, Munich and Nuremberg at midnight, their horrifying voices are no longer present.
Germany though, eternally is.
Proper education is vital to true liberty. This goes for little, most lovable, Germans and Russians growing up these very days and it also goes for little Afghanistan girls who are on their way to school and get shot in the back by machine gun fire by brainwashed talibans.
Ignorance is a close neighbor of evil and ignorance also is a close neighbor of the phenomena of false national propaganda.
Today, few Russians are aware of the damage Peter the Great caused not only Scandinavia, Poland but above all his own country. Instead, this military fiasco is portrayed as a great Russian triumph and the pyrric victory of Poltava is considered as being well worth the cost of a raped and raided Russian motherland - a horror no sane Swede ever has wished a land that SHOULD be a good neighbor of ours.
Hopefully, things will develop in that direction.
Wars fought in the freezing cold probably are worse than those fought in any other type of climate.
I'm not whining over the fate of my forebearers and we Swedes usually handle low temperatures pretty well, but believe me, chosing between;
1. Freezing to death trying to liberate another soldier who some hours ago lost stamina while defending your back from attacking Cossack raiders out of the very welcoming arms of death
2. Seeing your beautiful Swedish wife and your likewise wonderful offspring again
3. Returning to the slaughterhouse of the battlefield
- isn't an easy decision for a 20 year old Swedish soldier "who could not read and write so well" to make.
Sometimes, wars are worth fighting and this is a basic aspect of human existence.
All the same, ordinary Russians have gained absolutely NOTHING from the expansionist lunacy they've foddered for throughout history.
The stupidity of Russian megalomaniacs have cause my corner of the world a great deal of harm and the scars are still there, but we Swedes have gotten away very, very cheap and easily from the many tragic aspects of Russian expansionist adventures compared to the people who are born into misery of inhabitating the earth of our giant, gigantically clumsy, eternally backward eastern neighbor country.
The Danes and the Poles were wise enough to surrender after Sweden unleashed the hell of what, at that time, was one of the most efficient war machines on earth and at least the Danes did so in due time.
Russia did not.
If you were "lucky" enough to survive what Swedish troops as well as the fleeing Russian army did to the Western part of Russia in the wake of the 18th century, you were left with the funny quest of trying to sustain yourself in a land consisting of more or less nothing burnt soil.
Fighting a war with Sweden has never been fun. Neither is fighting an army of Napoleon or confronting millions of invading Nazi soldiers. But at the havoc my nation caused Russia could easily have been spared millions of innocent Russians - by not making foolish plots.
Around 1700, Sweden constituted no threat against Russia as long as neither party underestimated the military capacity of one another. Unfortunately, the Russian leaders arrived at the conclusion that an axis of Russia-Poland-Denmark easily could crush Swedish hegemony over the Baltic Sea and... here we go again.
In theory, defeating a small nation ruled by a young, inexperienced monarch always is an easy match for one of the leading military powers on earth, but in reality fighting spirit, patriotism, intelligence and understanding of military issues matter A LOT.
The US wasn't run by a young, adolescent monarch at the time when USA was fighting a revolution war against an cross-continental oppressor, but the MORAL qualities of Washington and his men were the same as those of ancestors of mine who resisted the inevitability of the Baltic Sea being a
Even an attack against neighboring Finland could easily end up in a disastrous setback - ask the few Stalin worshippers still existing.
Lesson one; population base doesn't necessarily mean much in the art of warfare.
Lesson two; Nordic Capitalism isn't the most powerful economic or military factor on Earth perhaps (although the Viking achievement of the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries by all means meant a lot to restoring trade routes and securing, but the Nordic area is the only human culture that has proven to be virtually undefeatable. Sweden, which is the backbone of the Nordic area is the only country that never has been occupied.
Did the ruling segments of Russia learn something of lasting value from the backfiring conspiracy directed towards Sweden?
Nope.
Evil-doers sometimes regret, but for sheer stupidity there is no cure.
During the Napoleonic Wars, the Russian expansionist insanity went on. Russia managed to conquer Finland in 1809, which was a true military triumph unlike the end result of the Great Nordic War on Russia's behalf, but at what price?
Again, thousands of good Swedes and Russians lost everything and Russia gained nothing but yet another province its imbecile upper class was unable of running.
Some decades later poor, tiny Sweden exploded with economic growth while Russia kept on dreaming of more territory to terrorize with feudalism (from 1870 to 1970, Sweden was unparallelled in the department of GDP growth and by today Sweden is the 8th richest country on Earth - despite lacking oil and questionable legal directives for the financial sector of the economy).
Any intelligent Russian AS WELL as any intelligent Western European must come to this conclusion;
Something here isn't right.
Today, millions of Russians are aroused by the idea of territorial expansion while shunning simple things in life like staying sober for 24 hours in a row and doing a honest day's work.
Placing waterproof flags on Arctic sea beds is just fine with me, but what is the basic difference between efforts like that and what the leaders of Iran are up to each and every day instead of running their own country?
Furthermore, how could a Russian reconquest of the Baltic nations (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) possibly do the average Russian any good?
As soon as Russian tanks start rolling in, the future of thousands of well run Baltic business will be ruined - which is EXACTLY what happened in this part of Europe when Russia believed to have conquered the thriving Baltic economies about three hundered years ago.
Giving up often is way better than screwing up.
The Baltic Ocean is Sweden's "mare nostrum" and more or less all of the non-Swedish people living close to this wonderful sea of ours wish to ally with Nordic interests of trade and just as an example of how firmly rooted this belief in Swedish/Nordic business endevours actually are, it's worth mentioning that people in northern Germany, a nation recently plauged by both Nazism and Communism say things like "I don't live in Germany, I live in Südschweden (Southern Sweden)".
There is no future in constantly screwing up.
Probably, I'm a racist by some - hideous - PC standards by claiming that most Germans and Russians living 70 years ago were unacquainted whith proper teaching in the field of history, but these words of mine certainly do NOT come from bitter hatred towards great nations like Russia and Germany, they are the language of future business opportunities.
Something humanity sadly has misunderstood is the great beauty and marvel of trade. In this sense, we Finns, Danes, Icelandics, Norwegians and Swedes are trifle less miseducated than the rest of mankind.
Three ethnic groups have done more for international trade than all other people:
- The Ancient Romans
- The British
- The Vikings
Swedish Viking settlers brought a great deal of civilization to Russia at a time when the good people over there were struggling to haul their territory into pre-Christian barbarism. Thanks to this aid, Russia managed to reach the Dark Ages about the same time Renaissance sprung forth amidst the masonry, devotion, money, ruthlessness and cruel ambition of 15th century Florence.
Many experts, Swedish and non-Swedish alike, claim the very name "Russia" stem from an ancient name for the area north-east of today's Stockholm, which was called something like the land of the "Ros" or "Rus" meaning where people who row live.
Interesting facts, but unlike Peter the Great, who in fact sent spies to Sweden in order to find out the secret of Swedish efficiency,
It might be a question of pure luck that countries like Libya and Saudi Arabia have a lot of oil, but it, simultaneously, is a great disfortune to these countries that the intellectual processes of their leaders forever seem to be struggling to get out of brood level.
Although we Swedes sure could live well from exporting the iron ore and copper our soil is blessed with, we've decided we should make the most of our country. In consequence to this insight, we produce and gladly export fighter planes, heavy trucks and apparatus so technically advanced and costly that a simple person like me don't know what to properly label these goods even in Swedish without making a fool of myself, so I'll just refrain from doing so..
What's the secret behind the world's highest standard of living, ordinary middle class families owning two houses and average Swedes driving around in cars more expensive than the inhabitants of "rich" Monaco and Switzerland (most people down there actually DO NOT drive Ferarris, Porsches and Lamborghiniss)?
A spirit of competetiveness, a sincere wish of knowing what reality looks like, getting out of bed, working at least 40 hours a week (unlike the French) and coming back home, confident that not only did you not screw up at work but also confident that freedom, civilization and democracy are not just plain words, but something you took part in creating by your daily efforts at Ericsson/Volvo/SAAB/ABB/Electrolux/SKF/IKEA/.
The Nordic countries (Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Denmark) has a tiny population of 25 million but boasts a combined GDP 125% of Russia's (yes GDP, not GDP per capita!)
This is not because of heavy taxes and Socialist oppression.
Socialism is diametrically opposed to core Nordic cultural values. Therefore, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Norway will never become Socialist nations. Whatever morons employed by Financial Times and Wall Street Journal write, Sweden remains a model of Capitalist performance and Manhattan remains a part of the world housing plenty of interesting ethnic restaurants and unable cab drivers.
In the Nordic countries, life isn't all rosy.
We, admittedly, have some Muslims here who constanly work themself into a rage which many of us believe to be a kind of very irrational pattern of behavior and sometimes it's pretty dark and cold over here, but why bother as long as our women look, dance and kiss like they do and a person like me can afford a nice car, eating and drinking like a king and travelling the world?
I agree to Swedish Capitalism with all its faults.
All of the Nordic countries are moving away from the Socialist ideals of the past, while maintaining our belief in things like individual freedom, the need of proper education for all (and its close ties to the ABILITY of true citizenship) and well run Capitalist businesses.
Hundreds of years ago, while continental Europeans and Russians suffered from the yoke of feudalist order, the inhabitants of the Nordic countries were running their own farms. THIS culture of enterprise and self government is what has made us rich, not Socialism and high taxes.
The Capitalist sagas of IKEA, Nokia, Lego etc, etc, etc have very little to do with Marxism.
To me, it's all very evident how to run a country and how to ruin a country.
Especially by today, the QUALITY OF THE (PERFORMANCE OF THE) AVERAGE WORKER decides the economic future of any given nation.
THIS is where the Nordic countries truly outperform more or less all other competitors in the global economic race and NOT in the area of taxes, Socialism, political stability, PC dilettants like Blix, strong currencies, Viking genes or ABBA recordings.
So, why do a lot of nations either skip Capitalism, education or both of them?
In the case of the leaders of Russia, their stupidity has lead a nation of almost 150 million inhabitants believe worshipping empty national SYMBOLS of power like void traditional ceremonies and unsuccessful institutions of the past like tsarism, someday, perhaps someday will make Russia prosperous and admired.
This is all just as ridiculous as it sounds like.
The only solution for Russia if it truly wishes to become a rich and respected part of Europe, as well as of the globe, is to quit drinking all day long, do away with unpragmatic, visionary fantasies of national expansion and empires and dare to go to work and accomplish something there which makes you feel like a man.
Having a closer look at certain fake national leaders sure could help too, especially those figuring among the pages of Russian history books.
Uh, pingworthyness your highness?
I hope I scoop BLAM woce again.
Ken, boyfriend of Barbie?
The Ruskies lost a ton of people. Like in ONE DAY because they were so stupid and considered "people" as material
Dude, WHY is RUssio so big? Lets look at Senegal. Its not as big as Russia.
Apparently, some words are missing here and there in the article, but I can’t remember what these words were supposed to be, so reading this post was evidently a waste of time although I probably manage to sound rather polite.
Hopefully, reading the article itself wasn’t a complete waste of time (although I wouldn’t exactly be surprised by any such remark - in fact, I’ve grown very used to what debating over the Internet actually is like. It’s cruel.)
Prior to Peter, Russia had greater political and cultural interaction with Asia and the Near East. It should never be considered a “western” country in any sense of the word. Catherine the German was explicit in her desire to “westernize” the “oriental” Russians.
Plus chemistry. The quarry of Ytterby had no less than SIX elements named after it and its country (Y, Yb, Er, Tb, Tm, and Ho).
I really liked it...It is pretty accurate and as you say- The history will be repeat by the drunkin and leaders.
Instead, they were referred to as “souls” and despite (verbally) acknowledging the fact that every human being is gifted with a soul, these villeins were sometimes used as gambling stakes by the same idle cretins.
At the same time, Swedish peasants were not only self-governing farmers, but also enjoyed representation in parliament.
My point here isn't that the Nordic countries are oh so great, always have been and all that, but that liberty and successful economic development go hand in hand. The Nordic countries got off to a slow start in the early days of Industrialism due to various reasons, but today Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Finland and Sweden are very livable places despite mass non-European immigration and an overabundance of PC politicians.
The US and the Nordic countries actually have VERY much in common concerning areas like work ethics, business culture, belief in democracy, freedom of speech, independence and law and order. But for some reason, these shared ideals and true cultural values often get lost somewhere in heated discussions over ridiculous topics like whether or not the Vikings have developed PC nanny states and whether or not Americans have too little of gun control.
There's nothing wrong with believing in the way your own country is structured and run as long as this country of yours nurtures a true respect for the freedom of the individual as well as the Independence of other freedom loving people of the world, but perhaps Europeans and Americans in general tend to argue too much over matters like ketchup addiction and soccer not being a true sport etc, etc.
Bashing and mud throwing over the Internet sure CAN be fun, but we Westerners ALSO ought to remember from time to time that we presently are in a war together.
We should honor the men and women who daily risk their lives defending civilization in the role of soldiers, at least by every now and then making use of free speech in a dignified manner.
Please allow me to do so;
God bless America from Europe!
I don't know much 'bout Russia, but I did read a novel that is as historically correct as Tom Clancy is with with his stuff. Ruska I believe the book was called.
How did Russia get SO big?
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[2] On the people who most facilitated international trade, the author left out the Mongols, who probably did more for trade than anyone since the Romans.
It is indeed erroneous to view Russia as a Western country comparable to, say, the US, the Netherlands or Italy.
The understanding of what things like democracy, individual freedom, liberty and human dignity all are about is evidently lacking to a great extent.
But there is, indeed, hope for Russia.
Something of great importance is the fact that the economic structures of Russia and Western European are integrating more and more. Increased trade go hand in hand with increased cultural exchange and hopefully, Russians will discover the benefits associated with true democracy and individual freedom.
Love of true freedom and the will of founding as well as contributing to well functioning societies is such a strong, intrinsic human drive that no fake religion, dictator or method of brainwashing possibly is could hold this natural struggle back forever.
One day, even people in Iran and Northern Korea will be able to freely speak their minds.
“On the people who most facilitated international trade, the author left out the Mongols, who probably did more for trade than anyone since the Romans.”
- Possibly true.
I promise to study this issue.
Thanks for your comments, fellow freeper.
Excellent piece. Sharp, well written, funny, and true.
Tsar=Dictator=not worth of praise
We, admittedly, have some Muslims here who constanly work themself into a rage which many of us believe to be a kind of very irrational pattern of behavior and sometimes it's pretty dark and cold over here, but why bother as long as our women look, dance and kiss like they do and a person like me can afford a nice car, eating and drinking like a king and travelling the world?
Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we may sharia?
The grapes up there are challenged by the overcast and cold and as a result are very sour.
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