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 Lev Navrozov emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1972 He settled in New York City where he quickly learned that there was no market for his eloquent and powerful English language attacks on the Soviet Union. To this day, he writes without fear or favor or the conventions of polite society. He chaired the "Alternative to the New York Times Committee" in 1980, challenged the editors of the New York Times to a debate (which they declined) and became a columnist for the New York City Tribune. His columns are today read in both English and Russian.
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After Stalin helped Mao come to power in 1949, the ideological unity of the two countries seemed complete, and hence the West perceived them as a single political entity, which called itself Òthe camp of peace and socialism.Ó Actually, the two countries soon nearly came to war. The relations were not improved when the Chinese maps represented Siberia as part of China.
It may seem that today, when there is no ideological affinity between Russia and China, and in contrast to Western capitalism, Russia has no acute need for trade with China and its cheap labor, the Russian suspicion and fear of the Chinese dictators' intentions must be at the highest level.
The (racist) phrase Òyellow perilÓ has had for many Russians a special overtone. In the 13th century Russia was conquered by the Mongols and threw off the ÒMongol yokeÓ only in the late 15th century. For a while the Mongols ruled China as well, but for many Russians both Mongols and Chinese were the Òyellow peril,Ó the Òthreat from the East.Ó
Yet instead of the Russian age-old suspicion and fear of the Òyellow peril,Ó Russia and China are now allies, united against their common foe. According to ÒThe People's DailyÓ of March 16, 2004, Yury Baluyevsky, the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation had arrived in Beijing to attend personally Òthe eighth [!] round of Sino-Russian military consultations.Ó
What can China get from its ally? All-out military development began in Soviet Russia decades before it did in post-1949 China. It will be recalled that Soviet Russia put man into space ahead of the United States. Putin's Russia may give China what is of geostrategic value but what China does not yet have, nor can get in the United States or even elsewhere in the West in general.
Here is one example. Announced in Moscow, Russia, on April 1, 2004, was the start of ÒCompetition of Russian Youth Projects of Molecular [!] Nanotechnology.Ó So, the United States government and Congress have not allocated a cent on MOLECULAR nanotechnology, officially declared in the United States to be Eric Drexler's fantasy, while a competition is held in Moscow among YOUTHS for the best project in MOLECULAR nanotechnology. Certainly China may benefit from the cooperation with Russia in molecular nanotechnology, essential for molecular nano superweapons, expected to be able to nano-annihilate the West by circumventing Mutual Assured (Nuclear) Destruction.
But how is this Sino-Russian Òstrategic cooperationÓ useful to Russia Ñ who is the Sino-Russian foe? How come the Russian political establishment does not suspect China of the possibility of its nano-annihilation of Russia as well?
Stalin concluded a nonaggression treaty with Hitler in the hope that Hitler would be preoccupied with the conquest of the West and hence would not attack Russia. Besides, Stalin hoped that his Russia and Hitler's Germany would divide the world amicably Ñ would establish a joint world domination. Thus, Stalin was ready to let the German troops pass through Soviet territory and invade India.
Actually, Stalin's ally attacked ÒperfidiouslyÓ (as the Soviet press put it) Stalin's Russia and nearly conquered it.
Putin's hopes re China are as dreamlike, wishful, and ambiguous as were Stalin's hopes re Hitler's Germany. China is going to be the world's most geostrategically powerful country. Why not be its ally? Putin has been trying to Òout-friendshipÓ the Sino-Western friendship and divert the Chinese geostrategic thrust from Russia and onto the West Ñ we are allies, and the United States is our enemy.
Stalin's conviction that Hitler's Germany would be his ally came from nothing but his wishful thinking. Putin's conviction that China is a perennially peaceful country (and hence can at least be his loyal ally) come not only from his wishful thinking but also from the prevailing Western perception of China. The West knows!
Many Russians have considered Russia culturally and intellectually the periphery of the West. In the 19th century, the cultural elite of Russia often spoke French better than Russian. Even when Russia became Marxist, it should be remembered that Marx and Engels were Westerners. If the West regards China as a perennially peaceful society, this must be true.
On the other hand, according to many books and articles, published by Americans themselves, following the invasion of Iraq, the United States is in the quest of world domination, which some of these American authors argue in disgust, while others in elation. The fact is that the United States has been trying to impose on Iraq the Western Òform of government,Ó but it is not clear what percentage of the Islamic population of Iraq does not want it or is indifferent. Iraq is, a gnat, as against a tiger (China), but by talking Iraq daily for years, the U.S. political establishment, including the mainstream media, has blown up the war against a gnat into a well-nigh third world war in imaginary scale and scope, and both eulogists and critics of it regard it as only the beginning. What about Russia?
On March 23 we saw on television a Russian journalist at the press conference devoted to the NATO membership of East-European countries. The Russian journalist tried to explain in impeccable English that Putin had been proposing for a long time to make Russia a NATO member. There were smirks among the Western press corps in the hall. If Russia becomes a NATO member, then whom is NATO going to defend from whom? Russia from China? Ha-ha-ha! China attacking Russia! Can you imagine THAT?
Of course, the new East-European members of NATO are sure that their NATO is to defend them from Russia, which kept them in colonial captivity for decades.
But how does the new NATO look to the Russian political establishment? So, all of Europe west of Russia, plus the United States, is to become a single socio-economic, political and military North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Atlantic Ocean will begin at the Western border of Russia and go across the Atlantic and the United States up to Alaska.
On President Clinton's initiative in 1999, NATO bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days until the country surrendered. Why did President Clinton need this war? To make the American people forget his forthcoming impeachment.
Whether Putin is a dictator or an impeccably democratic top executive, he cannot help imagining that a certain U.S. president may use NATO, now spreading up to the western border of Russia, as President Clinton used it against Yugoslavia, which, incidentally, means in Russian ÒSouthern Slavic [!] Country.Ó
But neighboring on Russia in the East is a country that the West considers perennially peaceful Ñ post-1949 China. This is Russia's ally, with which Russia is to share its scientific and technological achievements, such as molecular nanotechnology, in which youth competitions are already held in Moscow, while in the United States the area has been ignored by the government and Congress though the founder of nanotechnology, Eric Drexler, is a born American.
Lev Navrozov's (navlev@cloud9.net] new book is available on-line at www.levnavrozov.com. To request an outline of the book, send an e-mail to webmaster@levnavrozov.com.