Dear friends of the Russia & America Good Will Association (www.raga.org) and antiwar colleagues! In my previous newsletter RAGA Antidote 46, I let you know I was heading to Northern Vermont University for a scholarly conference dedicated to the memory of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. How did it go? You could read about it in The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/09/07/us/ap-us-solzhenitsyn-conference.html
Or listen the Voice of America video report, mostly in Russian, with English quotes
https://www.golos-ameriki.ru/a/solzhenitsyn-100-anniversary/4582048.html
My own contribution at the forum was telling the people of my books "Solzhenitsyn and Dostoevsky: A Study in the Polyphonic Novel" (Athens, Georgia: 1980) https://www.amazon.com/Solzhenitsyn-Dostoevsky-Study-Polyphonic-Novel/dp/0820304727
and "Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth," published in Bolder, Colorado in 1991, before the collapse of the USSR. You don't believe me?
Then read or re-read Solzhenitsyn's 1980 piece "Misconceptions about Russia Are a Threat to America"
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in Foreign Affairs, published by the Council on Foreign Relations
Vol. 58, No. 4 (Spring, 1980), pp. 797-834
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20040505?read-now=1&googleloggedin=true&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
It is as timely NOW as it was in 1980! However, before you read further, whose who know Russian may want to listen to my interview about the Solzhenitsyn forum in Vermont on RADIO RADONEZH, an independent Russian Christian WORLD-wide broadcaster,on Tuesday October 30, 2018 at 22:10 Moscow time. If you miss this time, you can always listen to it in the Radio's Archive http://radonezh.ru/radio/2018/10/30/22-13 I confess I do admire Solzhenitsyn, especially as far as US-Russia relations are concerned, RAGA stands with him. But occasionally I disagree with him, as you can see in my recent article
Emperor Michael II in the Solzhenitsyn House - Author: Vladislav Krasnov
http://www.raga.org/news/emperor-michael-ii-in-the-solzhenitsyn-house-author-vladislav-krasnov
Владислав Краснов. Император Михаил II в Доме Солженицына -
http://www.raga.org/novosti/imperator-mikhail-ii-v-dome-solzhenitsyna
Below are other highlights:
Who Putin Is Not. Falsely demonizing Russia’s leader has made the new Cold War even more dangerous.
By Stephen F. Cohen SEPTEMBER 20, 2018
The specter of an evil-doing Vladimir Putin has loomed over and undermined US thinking about Russia for at least a decade. Henry Kissinger deserves credit for having warned, perhaps alone among prominent American political figures, against this badly distorted image of Russia’s leader since 2000: “The demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy. It is an alibi for not having one.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/who-putin-is-not/
By Paul Grenier · Friday, September 7, 2018
Are the divisions that fragment the United States primarily driven by some deep flaw in its political life, or was the United States doing just fine, thank you very much—until Russia came along during the 2016 presidential race and started sowing division and dissension? Framed that way, the question answers itself. Whatever some state-sanctioned Russian actors may have done to pester the American political process, it is obvious that America’s deep divisions exist for reasons having essentially nothing to do with Russia. They long precede the last election.
http://www.telospress.com/russia-gate-as-symptom-the-crisis-of-american-community/
As the US is meddling in the Middle East in an alliance with Israel, please read this remarkable article by a Washington Post famed columnist Dana Milbank, September 21, 2018
<<My rabbi, Danny Zemel, comes from Zionist royalty: His grandfather, Rabbi Solomon Goldman, led the Zionist Organization of America in the late 1930s, and presided over the World Zionist Convention in Zurich in 1939. So Zemel’s words carried weight when he told his flock this week on Kol Nidre, the holiest night of the Jewish year, that “the current government of Israel has turned its back on Zionism.”...…A poll for the American Jewish Committee in June found that while 77 percent of Israeli Jews approve of Trump’s handling of the U.S.-Israeli relationship, only 34 percent of American Jews approve. Although Trump is popular in Israel, only 26 percent of American Jews approve of him. Most Jews feel less secure in the United States than they did a year ago…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/israel-is-driving-jewish-america-farther-and-farther-away/2018/09/21/de2716f8-bdbb-11e8-8792-78719177250f_story.html?utm_term=.efc054250abb&wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1
By Edward Lozansky - - Wednesday, September 26, 2018
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
During the past six months, the U.S. and Russia came close at least three times to a direct military clash in Syria with unpredictable consequences, including possible use of nuclear weapons. Each time unthinkable disaster was avoided at the last minute, but no one knows if we will be lucky again the next time.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/sep/26/crosstalk-us-russia-play-chicken-syria/
As usually, we have Patrick Armstrong's sound recommendation:
STRATEGIC CULTURE FOUNDATION. Let me put in a plug for this site. It has now acquired quite a stable of writers (myself included) and is a good place to get alternative views to those repeated by the drearily monotonic Western outlets.
https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2018/10/25/russian-federation-sitrep-25-october-2018/
By Daniel J. Mahoney, the author of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent from Ideology, on Putin's and Solzhenitsyn's Russia, August 07, 2018
The time has arrived for some moderation and clarity in thinking about contemporary Russia and its relationship to the Western world. Ronald Reagan was not wrong in the 1980s to call the Soviet Union an “evil empire.” Its death in 1991 was a welcome victory for liberty, peace, and political civilization. But post-communist Russia is not the Soviet Union and it cannot reasonably be called an “evil empire.” The continuity between the two political orders is woefully exaggerated in the West, with some on the left hating contemporary Russia, a half-authoritarian autocracy, more than they ever opposed communist totalitarianism.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/08/07/post-communist_russia_is_not_the_soviet_union_137730.html
The Trajan Manifesto By Martin Sieff, Edward Lozansky, James Jatras and Gilbert Doctorow - Tuesday, September 4, 2018
First, the United States should follow the strategic principles executed by the Roman emperor Trajan at the end of the first century AD.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/sep/4/trajan-manifesto/
Finally, a very independent observer, Ajay Goyal, My life of Zen, on Oct 8, 2018, finds Ten reasons Moscow is the best capital city in EuropeMoscow of 2018 is a new city with a rich heritage and history. The city has gone through a massive facelift with new and modern infrastructure and institutions. Here is how it compares with London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and other great European cities. https://medium.com/@ajay.zen/ten-reasons-moscow-is-the-best-capital-city-in-europe-d1a904af9c39 Peace and Justice to the World. миру мир и благоволение в сердцах
From RAGA site: "We are an association of Americans who believe it is in the U.S. national interests to foster friendship with Russia on the basis of mutual Good Will and non-interference in each other's affairs. RAGA is a gathering of people who share common interests in Russia's history, culture, religion, economy, politics and the way of life. We feel that Russian people have made outstanding contributions to humankind and are capable of greater achievements. We envision Russia as a strong, independent, proud and free nation and as a partner in achieving peace in the world." |