05.09.2023 12:30
Valery Garbuzov
I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all those thinking people who responded to my article “Lost illusions of a bygone era”, published in NG on August 29, 2023: to all my many former students, students and graduate students, as well as colleagues and friends , acquaintances and even complete strangers, but caring citizens.
To the same organizers and participants in professorial robes and civilian uniforms (with scientific titles, academic degrees and without them) of large-scale persecution, using federal television channels, using administrative artillery, aggressive propaganda and outright and too primitive lies (TV channel Rossiya 1 Evening with Vladimir Solovyov from 08/30/2023) I want to say: the ideas presented in this article are not new. They are contained in hundreds of scientific works previously published by domestic historians, political scientists and sociologists. Don’t be lazy and read them!
Just arranging historical facts and events in a logical chain, identifying cause-and-effect relationships leads to the result that this publication was. For those who have not been able to determine its genre, I will say: it was deliberately written not in strict academic forms, but using scientific terminology that has developed over a long time in the style of political journalism. Because it was published not in the scientific, but in the socio-political press.
I explain it popularly and clearly to those who, for various reasons, did not understand its main idea. The main motive of my story is this: myths created at different times and introduced into mass public consciousness contribute, along with other factors, to temporary social consolidation around the current government in order to achieve a certain goal. History of Russia in the 20th century. and the realities of our time prove this well.
Throughout all this time, the Soviet/Russian government, under different political regimes, used tools that formed mythologies and the mythological consciousness of an entire nation (world revolution, communism, developed socialism, the general crisis of capitalism, sovereign democracy, deep people, etc.), which often created a distorted picture of the world. With the change of regimes, the instruments also changed. Russia was no exception here. This practice was typical for many countries in different historical eras.
And now, regarding the most painful topic for today. I appeal first of all to all those who have become overly saturated with anti-Western and anti-American sentiments (by the way, please note: this is a very serious and even very dangerous disease). Let me remind you that as a former school history teacher (by the way, I was never ashamed of this), the Western vector began to take shape in Russia a long time ago. From Europe, through Poland and Lithuania, the Baltic and Byzantium, it reached our country (the name of which, however, was different then). But it finally gained a foothold with the reforms of Peter I. Even the schoolchildren of our vast Motherland know this.
One of the laws of global development is that at a certain stage of its evolution, any country “steps over” its borders and spreads its own segments into the world space. This is how informal, cultural and other expansion of peoples occurs. This is how Russia influences the rest of the world. The United States does this too, whose influence is present even in the current Russian Constitution: in particular, in the form of the principle of separation of powers and the institution of presidential power.
From now on, no one will be able to eradicate Western influence, roll under asphalt, wall up in concrete (I’m using the most innocent vocabulary adopted in television talk shows) segments of Western culture and way of life. Just as it will not be possible to expel Russian culture from the Western space, in which Russian segments are present in great numbers. Too much time has passed since then. And the historical process, having a progressive nature, is known to be irreversible (this is for people with no historical consciousness, of which there are quite a few around!).
What about the current main Russian enemy – the United States of America – a state with which Russia has had the most diverse range of relations throughout history: from allied to acutely confrontational? Even because of this fact, I dare to suggest: someday another time will come, and they will change. Simply because of banal laws: evolution is inevitable in everything, including in this area (I hope this is not a seditious thought?).
During one of the talk shows, derogatory, extremely tactless and unacceptable words were spoken about my homeland – the ancient Russian city of Pskov, where I was born and raised, St. Petersburg, where I studied, as well as regarding the profession of a school teacher, whose authority dates back to the times of Lenin unsuccessfully trying to “raise to an unattainable height.” How long will open television rudeness and impunity continue to flourish in my country? Will anyone ever answer this question?
The allegations that I am connected by some invisible but strong threads with the White House, the Capitol and other “Washington masters”, to whom I supposedly regularly report, are so primitive, artless and comical that I will leave them without any comments at all. . Although such slanderous accusations are, without a doubt, subject to jurisdiction.
My biography, bound by strong ties with the cities of Pskov and St. Petersburg (which I visit regularly), is in no way connected with the NATO bloc. Let me note that we are not blood brothers, or even half-brothers. Although I could tell you how to build constructive relations with this largest military-political organization in the world (if it comes to that, of course).
I assure you (take my word for it if you can): the Fulbright program, of which I, like many of my compatriots, was once a scholarship recipient, does not recruit Russian spies for the United States. And I myself am not a hidden agent of Western intelligence services, not an Anglo-Saxon spy and not an internal enemy of my own Fatherland.
Fulbright is the world’s largest mutual exchange program, providing internships for students and teachers around the world. Its activities, by the way, were quite officially supported for a long time by the Russian government, which, unfortunately, has no similar analogues.
In addition, my works do not contain calls for the overthrow of the current government, and I myself am clean before my Motherland, which I do not intend to leave under any circumstances. I have never had any questions from the KGB/FSB, or other Russian intelligence services and law enforcement agencies!
Presented in an extremely offensive manner, openly false statements that the institute is undergoing a financial audit that revealed theft, and that, having accumulated ill-gotten millions, I myself am preparing to escape to the West, to my “masters” who order and pay for my articles – absurd and extracted from a poorly written script sprinkled with stale mothballs, which is apparently designed for narrow-minded ordinary people.
The pathetic and disgusting bacchanalia that instantly unfolded around my article involves those who, apparently, are not fully aware that one of the features of humanitarian knowledge is its open and disputable nature. It is he who plays the role of oxygen for history and political science, psychology and philosophy, sociology and literature, generating new ideas and concepts.
It has long been known that the main function of “homo sapiens” is mental – not pure contemplation of reality, but critical (precisely critical!) perception of it. No one can take away the thinking given to him by nature. Are the behests of old man Engels so quickly consigned to the dustbin of history, and he himself undeservedly found himself in complete oblivion?
The Institute of the USA and Canada, which I headed. Academician G.A. Arbatov RAS since 1967 has been engaged not in political propaganda, but in a serious and important matter – critical understanding of events and processes occurring in the surrounding world, in particular – a comprehensive scientific study of the countries of the North American region (USA and Canada) and carries out its functions through government tasks approved founder. Evidence of this is the thousands of scientific publications of our employees – Americanists and Canadian scholars, international relations specialists, recognized both in our country and in the rest of the world.
I remind adherents of a strict academic style: all of the above is not a classic scientific text with all its mandatory attributes.
And finally, especially for modern false patriots: the scientific staff of the institute has never been and is not a nest of foreign intelligence or a circle of insidious Carbonari who prepared secret conspiracies against the Soviet regime or its successors.
Although, they say that patients suffering from certain disorders (especially when they are dressed in a pseudo-patriotic toga) think so.
Good health to you. You can contact with me any time!