On Russia And China (Again).

Do you recall this? 

 Or this: 

     Putin’s Shame: Russia Is Becoming China’s Junior Partner. 

Or many other things of similar nature, so you get the gist of propaganda which was pushed for years at Western and, by design, Chinese, Russian and other consumers of Western mass-media sewer and "analysis". While I may disagree (and radically at that) with Andrei Raevsky's (The Saker) definition of Russian-Chinese relations as symbiotic and as double helix, I feel a need to address the latest events in Russian-Chinese relations and namely a stunning revelation by Vladimir Putin that Russia effectively builds a Chinese (SRPN) Missile Attack Early Warning System. But not only that, once one considers WHAT military and civilian technology Russia increasingly begins to offer for export. 

It is an established fact that Chinese economy is about four-five times larger than that of Russia, with Chinese population being 10 times that of Russia. It is also an established fact that Western assessment methods of the actual power of the states are an institutionalized fraud built around dubious at best, deliberate lying at worst, criteria, which are also aggravated with, pardon my French, very shitty so called "intelligence."  So, in order to measure actual power and status of the state one must be able to unify economic, soft and military power much of which rests with what time after time, using numbers and opinions of people of such scale as Sergei Lavrov, always comes down to Corelli Barnett's prophetic: 

 power of the nation-state by no means consist only in its armed forces, but also in its economic and technological resources; in the dexterity, foresight and resolution with which its foreign policy is conducted; in the efficiency of its social and political organization. It consists most of all in the nation itself, the people, their skills, energy, ambition, discipline, initiative; their beliefs, myths and illusions. And it consists, further, in the way all these factors are related to one another.  

In modern world it is the ability to build machines, amazing machines, which counts hugely towards the status and real power. I addressed not for once this issue. Time to address again. Russia produces machines China cannot. Those machines unlike undeniably impressive China's commercial technologies, such as 5G, massive commercial shipbuilding or high-speed trains, directly change global balance of power. Russia has a state-of-the-art system which enhances China's global position dramatically, in fact, in revolutionary way, Russia shares (some of) this system with China--this is unprecedented historically. Chinese know that, they also know that it will be Russian aerospace industry, through joint venture which will produce CR-929 with Russia responsible for wing, center section and PD-35 engines for this aircraft. And, of course, Russia supplying domestic versions of SU-35 and S-400 to China. 

The question which MUST be asked here is not who is "junior" or "senior" partner in this now almost official alliance, but what technologies and machines Russia is NOT exporting to China. Once this issue is pondered, one will stop driving this propaganda BS about Russia being a "junior" partner. This is not how it works and it becomes increasingly clear that it is Russia's technologies which increasingly drive the emerging security arrangement of Eurasia and globally. China, of course, contributes too, not least through mutual cooperation, such as direct investment into Russia and trade. Enough to take a look at some of the massive gigantic cranes at new Russia's monstrous shipyard Zvezda in the Far East, those cranes and control systems were made in China. 

This dated photo merely shows cyclopic Chinese-made cranes, the area today is occupied by the hulls of few new Aframax tankers being built at Zvezda. So, in general, Russian-Chines cooperation, including military one develops extremely well. Obviously, for the combined West which sees the surrounding world only as a place for zero-sum interactions, such a level of relations is simply beyond the grasp. But latest events have shown that "revelation" in terms of Russia's technologies will continue and they will continue to shake and reshape the world in the most profound way. So much for a "junior" partner. So, West's propaganda campaign, against Russian-Chinese relations failed miserably and, in the end, can West provide China with what Russia can--an enhanced security? No, in fact, it becomes increasingly clear that there are no machines in the West which can do that, especially against newly emerging technologies. As, forgive me, I predicted years ago.  

Give Real Socialists Credit Where It Is Due.

They fight Green fascism and today's trolling was nothing short of brilliant. "Swedish professor" and "Bombing Russia" was a giveaway immediately, but eating babies--AOC's constituents probably wouldn't mind. After all, abortions "to reduce carbon footprint" is nothing new. 

The trolling of the 80 level! I admit--I enjoyed it.

I Am Not Surprised At All.

I already tuned myself to more damning things coming out of Boeing. I do not work at Boeing, so I am not in the position to judge company's current atmosphere and mood, but this caught my eye.  

Boeing has had issues with several models of its jets over the last year. The 737 Max has been grounded since March, the 787 and 777X have engine problems and the KC-46 tanker is restricted from carrying passengers and cargo.AirInsight, an aerospace research, data and analysis firm created in 2009, says it has never before called for any aerospace industry CEO to be replaced.

And then they explain WHY Boeing's CEO Dennis Muilenburg must be replaced. Here is explanation:

"While reducing costs and being competitive is laudable, it can, and has, gone too far at Boeing," Arvai wrote. "Safety appears to be the victim of rushing and cost reduction pressures, guided by a corporate culture that starts at the top." Muilenburg's strategy appears aimed at maximizing the Boeing Company's share price and his executives rather than investing more in new products to better rival Airbus, Arvai argued. The result is Boeing’s market share is falling and the jet maker's failures have caused the company to lose its long-standing reputation for quality and safety, Arvai said.

Ah, isn't it "wonderful" when "financialization" hits the fan and bottom line becomes the only guiding principle behind what is tantamount today to killing Boeing's long time accumulated reputation for quality. I sure as hell recall really well when magnificent B-777 took to the air and it was barely 20 years ago. Today, saying (as it is printed on Boeing's mugs and other merchandising) If It is not Boeing I am Not Going (If ain't Boeing, I am not going) seems like a bad joke. But I wouldn't go as far as this:

"We’ve been looking for good news about Boeing, but simply can’t find any. The 737 Max will end up years from now as a Harvard Business School case study in mismanagement, and the buck stops with the CEO," Arvai wrote. 

And what is so significant in Harvard or any other Business School in America, most of which preach a complete monetarist voodoo BS as an "economy study", when Boeing is just a private case of a much larger complete dysfunction of American political system, much of which is infested with the products of Harvard and other Ivy League degree mills in nothing practical or scientific. Boeing and its current worrisome fate (and I always liked Boeing's aircraft) is just a manifestation of the profound crisis of American statehood. Take a look at Democratic Party--those guys are a complete mental basket case and, as Paul Craig Roberts (correctly I may add) states:

If you are such an insouciant, dumbshit, totally stupid American that you cannot see that there is in front of your eyes, assuming you have any eyes open, an attempt based entirely in the constant repeat of lies by the presstitute media to destroy the political stability of the United States, you should be lined up against the wall and shot for your unimaginable stupidity. That is the message I am getting from many readers. The reason is that it now turns out that the “whistleblower,” an orchestration, first spoke to the piece of dog excrement “Shifty Schiff,” who helped him to write his false complaint before leaking it. The totally false story hyped by the whores who comprise the US media was contradicted in whole by the released unredacted official transcript of the alleged impeachable telephone call.

So, what is the Boeing's case against the background of slow, insidious coup and high treason being committed by primarily democratic establishment against the country? Both are related to what I repeat ad nauseam--they, the so called "elites", do not give a rat's ass about what remains of the nation. Money and power rule, in Boeing's case it is greed of the fat cats, in case of DNC--it is all consuming hunger for power based on delusional and dangerous ideologies. The loss of competence is beginning to reach catastrophic proportions. They simply resorted to making shit up--be it safety of aircraft or basic functions of the state. Does Putin (and Xi) know something we don't? Yes they do. We are left, however, with only one thing--to make sense of the pattern and, if need be, buckle up.

"Revelation" Mode.

Vladimir Putin at Valdai today drops a bomb. 

"Не знаю, большой тайны, наверно, не открою, все равно это станет ясно. Мы сейчас помогаем нашим китайским партнерам создать систему СПРН - систему предупреждения о ракетном нападении. Это очень серьезная вещь, которая капитальным, кардинальным образом повысит обороноспособность КНР. Потому что сейчас такую систему имеет только США и Россия"

Translation: "I don't know, I probably wouldn't open a huge secret, it will become known one way or another. We are helping our Chinese partners to create (SRPN) Missile Attack Early Warning System. This is a very serious system, which radically increases China's defensive capabilities. Currently only Russia and the United States have such systems."

This is stunning, honestly. It also answers a gigantic host of questions about the future of Eurasia and of Europe, and the United States. This also, especially in a view of Russia successfully shooting down hyper-sonic targets by S-400s, begs an irresistible question--what are OTHER technologies Russia is not talking about, considering the fact that she helps to completely redefine China's defensive capabilities. It is also funny against the background of lament of Russia getting ready to export (in Russian) her latest radar Rezonans-NE (E stands for export) capable of detecting any types of targets, including hypersonic ones (which are extremely difficult to detect, unlike "Stealth") at the over-horizon ranges up to 1,100 kilometers. 

It is also funny how it coincided with famous political and ideological opportunist such as Sergei Karaganov stating what I am writing about for years (in Russian): Defending the World May Become  Russia's New Mission. I would say, I would start with dissolution of Karaganov's current place of employment--High School of Economics (VShE), a malignant cancerous growth on Russia's academe and the body of higher educational facilities. But never mind, these people will always find someone who would pay them. Yet, even Karaganov and Suslov in their latest Report on "New Understanding and Ways To Improve Multilateral Strategic Stability" (Новое понимание и пути укрепления     огосторонней стратегической стабильности) arrive to a very mature conclusion, on page 27. Listing threats to global strategic stability they declare next:

2.3.1.5. Особая проблема–падение интеллектуального и морального уровня элит многих стран. Идет антимеритократический отбор. В руководство пришли люди телевизионного поколения, склонные немедленно реагировать на новости и «картинку», и о ней более всего и заботящиеся. Они не способны к стратегическому и даже оперативному мышлению, по нарастающей безответственны. Особенно заметны эти процессы в современных демократиях. При этом на подходе «поколение айфонов», у которого эти недостатки развиты, видимо, еще сильнее.

Translation: "A special problem is a decline of intellectual and moral level of elites in many nations. The anti-meritocratic selection is ongoing. People of TV generation are making now to the political top, they are inclined to react immediately to the news and TV "picture", they also care about this picture most of all. They are not capable of strategic and even operational thinking, they are increasingly irresponsible. These processes are most pronounced in modern democracies. Moreover, the "iPhone" generation is nearing, those failings are even more acute among them."

If you think that this is about POTUS think again--have you taken a look at Western Media and governments as of lately? Do you see there anyone who can be taken seriously as any partner in any negotiations let alone be trusted with anything? I see nobody but infantile, badly educated, power-hungry ignoramuses and, as I stated not for once, I feel much calmer when Gerasimov and Milley talk directly, per Western  political top--what's the point of talking? That is why Russia and China are taking unprecedented steps in making sure that some nutjob thinks twice before deciding that his degree in law or in political science makes him (or her) eligible to make decisions on the most serious matters of global war and peace. But in the end, still, what a stunning development.

On The Importnace Of Being Thrifty.

As you may have recalled, Vladimir Putin few months ago gave the order to develop anti-hyper-sonic missiles defenses. You also should remember that I spoke not for once on the "revelation" mode of Russia's defense industry and armed forces. It is a process of steady, incremental, exposure of military technological capability which is behind (sorry for repeating it ad nauseam) real revolution in military affairs. Such as this little piece of news:

МОСКВА, 2 окт - РИА Новости. Расчеты С-400 в Астраханской области отстрелялись по уникальным гиперзвуковым ракетам-мишеням "Фаворит РМ", уничтожив все цели, говорится в сообщении пресс-службы ЗВО. "Боевые расчёты зенитной ракетной системы С-400 "Триумф" зенитного ракетного полка соединения противовоздушной обороны Ленинградской армии ВВС и ПВО Западного военного округа провели успешные боевые стрельбы", - говорится в сообщении.

Translation: Combat crews of S-400, in Astrakhan Region, held combat exercises against hypersonic target-missiles "Favorit PM" and destroyed all targets. The statement of the press-service of Western Military District announced.  The crews of S-400 Triumphs were from the units of air-defense of Leningrad Army of Air Force and Air Defense of Western Military District.

And what this "Favorit PM" missile-target complex is? Very simple, it is deeply modernized good ol' S-300 P series which allows to use missiles of types 5V55 which have their explosives removed and are capable of atmospheric maneuverable flight with the velocities of Mach=6 (in excess of 7,000 kilometers per hour). These are genuine hyper-sonic missile-targets and, evidently, and I don't have any reasons to doubt it, S-400 had very little problems shooting them down. So, there you are. This whole thing also has an immense naval ramifications since Poliment-Redut complex installed on project 22350 frigates uses a number of same missiles as S-400 and we do not still know REAL parameters of these AD missiles. Obviously, everyone knows that 40 and 48 series long range missiles used by S-400 are Mach=14 capable, but it becomes really foggy once the talk about 9M series begins. Some sources state that those are capable of intercepting targets moving with the velocities of up to M=15. 

So, good luck launching subsonic ASMs at those ships. Evidently modernized pr. 1144 Admiral Nakhimov (with Peter The Great being next in line for modernization) will carry an ungodly number of these missiles. This all comes on the heels of my yesterday elaboration on Dmitry Gorenburg's piece on Russia's naval "strategy", which as I write since hell knows when, including in US Naval Institute publications, can ONLY be a sea-denial, I quote myself from more than two years ago:

The Russian Navy doesn’t need to fight for a global sea control. The Russian Navy is not going to challenge the U.S. Navy’s global maritime dominance. The Russian Navy’s main task is to provide a reliable defense of Russia’s shores and avoid war by presenting a defensive and forbidding posture. The Russian Navy is an organic part of the larger military force of Russia, whose only concern is preventing a global conflict. In this sense, the Russian Navy is completely integrated into the Russian tradition of national security, which spreads across the wide spectrum of activities, encompassing diplomacy, coherent foreign policy, intelligence and military force—a set of security imperatives erroneously dubbed in the West “hybrid warfare". 

But in general, I will lie, if I will say that I am not satisfied. I am satisfied in a sense that an arduous task I took upon myself of trying to open eyes of many in establishment to a military-political realities of a present historic moment is supported by empirical evidence. Unlike it is with a body of work on Russia, geopolitics and warfare concocted in the echo-chamber of the American think-tankdom. Nothing is wrong with stating: "I told you so." Yesterday's news is just another confirmation, including a good demonstration of importance of being very thrifty by not throwing away old but still very good things, such as S-300 P missile complexes. 

Military Newspeak, Same As Oldspeak.

I am always cranky whenever I see all kinds of taxonomies and "classifications", never more so than when those, mostly vague and, often, propaganda-driven distinction methods are applied to military affairs. Make no mistake, I am not against systematization, generalization and proper linguistic representation of military, or any other, phenomena--I am all for it, when done professionally, after all, there is a reason one of the first books on the table of any officer in Russian Navy or Army, as an example, is the small book called "Command Words" and phrases. Things, any things, need to be named correctly and have a very good reaction "path" to the brains of those to who they are addressed--be it a young soldier or an experienced rear-admiral. Clarity is the main requirement. Hm, maybe that is why I am published by Clarity Press. Maybe it wasn't accidental that I decided to go with them. 

Well, here I am again, ranting. This time I had it with the term Blue Water Navy. I opened Yahoo News feed today and, bang--Dmitry Gorenburg of Center for Naval Analysis writes this:

In the near to medium term, the Russian Navy’s role will be to serve primarily as a deterrence force to constrain U.S. and NATO operations in the eastern Mediterranean and to provide forward defense for approaches to the Russian homeland through the Black Sea. It will have some power projection through its ability to hold opponents’ territory at risk with its cruise missile capability, rather than through traditional naval strike groups. Out-of-area deployment capability will increasingly shift to smaller patrol ships and to submarines as Russia’s remaining Soviet-era large surface ships become increasingly less reliable. Over the last decade, there has been a transition in the Russian Navy’s future planning from unattainable blue-water aspirations to establishing a fairly capable green-water force. Its overall focus remains defensive in the near term, with the possibility of greater emphasis on power projection in the medium term as more Yasen-class nuclear attack submarines come online and older Soviet submarines are armed with Kalibr cruise missiles as part of ongoing modernization plans.

While Gorenburg's piece, surprisingly more-or-less balanced (for "American" analyst), is not wrong in a matter-of-fact way, passage highlighted in yellow makes by eyebrows being raised pretty high. For starters, what are "blue-water aspirations"? Let's see. We go to WiKi, and why not.

In public discourse blue-water capability is identified with the operation of iconic capital ships such as battleships/battlecruisers, aircraft carriers, and nuclear submarines.  

Public discourse, of course, is important but I was getting away from this term for a long time now, since it makes NO operational sense whatsoever if it is not judged relative to its mission against PROBABLE adversaries.  Here is how some people define these Blue-Water, Green-Water, what have you, capabilities. 

So, is the United States Navy a Blue-Water Navy? Absolutely--it is large, it can sail globally, it single-handedly can destroy some countries and in a civilian logic which still exists at the power-balance configuration circa 1999-2003 it is, it MUST be, a Blue-Water Navy. Well, I have issues with this statement in October, 2019. For starters, I took Stansfield Turner's (and not his only) operational truism to heart, long time ago. 

“It isn’t the number of keels, or size of ships that count. It is the capacity to do what might be decisive in some particular situation.”(c)

Blue-Water Navy's definition is as operational (or strategic, if one wishes) as it is a geopolitical qualifier and here is, where Gorenburg, while making his point within old, and, I would dare to say, obsolete cognitive apparatus, born primarily within deep recesses of Pentagonese Newspeak and fantasies taught as "science" in the Political Science courses in US Universities, is wrong. Blue-Waterness or lack there of is defined primarily by such tactical, operational, strategic and geographical term as the RANGE, distance that is. The further one's navy sails, the bluer this navy becomes. But as of lately, this range thing turned into a peculiar category. Just on this merit alone, as in the distance one's navy assets sail, we cannot be particularly sure, or otherwise, that Russian nuclear subs are not hanging out somewhere in the Gulf of Alaska, or at the entrance to Gibraltar. Who knows, but if the prior experience is any indication, chances are that they are there. So, in this respect, Russian Navy is a Blue-Water Navy because ANY Navy which has nuclear submarine forces equaling in capability Russian one is a Blue-Water navy by definition, since it sails its serious assets globally. So, Gorenburg, basically contradicts himself immediately following what I highlighted in yellow. This is not the way to conduct analysis by contradicting oneself immediately after making statements.

He also forgets to mention that Project-885 (Yasen-class) SSGNs are armed not with just 3M14 but primarily with 800-km range capable P-800 Onyx supersonic anti-shipping missiles with 1000-km range 3M22 Zirkon slated for the first underwater launch from this very same class of subs next year. So, a single Yasen-class SSGN with Zircon creates an exclusion zone of area A=pi x r^2= 3.14 x 1,000^2=3.14 million square kilometers. "Parked"  somewhere in or "near" GIUK Gap a single Yasen creates A2/AD "bubble" from roughly Greenland to UK. That is if this (or these) sub(s) operate there, if it moves beyond GIUK Gap in the  South-Western direction roughly  700 miles (around 1,000 km), two subs of this class can completely wreck havoc on Atlantic SLOCs. If that is not Blue-Water operations, I don't know what is. Mind you, those have nothing in common with "power projection", those will be good ol' classic SLOCs' interdiction operations and, frankly, sinking the enemy fleet. That is how real wars are fought. As we may all know (not from me) US Navy has no viable defense against salvos of high supersonic missiles such as P-800 Onyx and will not have viable defense against hypersonic missiles any time soon. So, where all this leaves us with this Blue-Water thing. Here is what Dmitri Gorenburg thinks:

The Mediterranean will play a key role in Russian naval strategy because of its strategic significance as an access point to southern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. For Russia, the Mediterranean symbolizes the larger competition between Moscow and Washington. By building up its naval forces, Russia is hoping to circumscribe NATO access to the region, protect Russia’s southern flank, and assist its current and potential future client states in the region. At the same time, maintaining forces in the eastern Mediterranean is less of a priority for Russian strategy than defending the homeland. Maintaining naval presence in the Mediterranean is a far more effective strategy for the Russian Navy than pursuing a globally active blue-water navy because Russia has neither the resources nor the global ambitions to challenge U.S. naval supremacy around the world.

Here is a conundrum, for Gorenburg and the US Navy--Russia does not need a clone of US Navy to deny its "supremacy" which was, apart from being grossly overstated, dramatically reduced by consecutive denial its "Bluishness" by means of creation of vast impregnable exclusion zones around Eurasia. What's the point of moving enormously expensive assets, such as US Navy's CBGs, into such zones where they (CBGs) are simply not survivable, forget any effective use of their weapons. With Russia's M=10+ capable Kinzhal having own range of 2000 km (up to 3,000 with MiG-31K range), or X-32 with own 1,000 km range with TU-22M3 combat range of 2,500 kilometers, or with recently paraded China's DF-17 2,000 kilometer range hypersonic missiles, what kind of "supremacy" Gorenburg is talking about? What does this "supremacy" even mean? Russia doesn't really care if US Navy exercises its supremacy anywhere other than in a Russia's (and generally Eurasia) vicinity. South Atlantic sounds fine, Pacific Ocean? Sure. Hawaii is a lovely place. Why should one build a vast, ungainly, ridiculously expensive and dubiously combat effective force to meet a challenge, when the US Navy, for all its glorious combat history and impressive visuals was turned obsolete for a minute fraction of a price by introduction of weapons, force structure and operational concepts which created a synergistic effect? The answer is obvious--there is no justification for such a ridiculous waste of money and resources, not to mention the fact, which Gorenburg accurately omits, that the United States itself has no resources to support its grossly unrealistic ambitions. The nation is simply bankrupt and demoralized. But sure, US Navy still maintains "supremacy" in numbers of platforms most of which are fat and prestigious targets for new weapons which drive Real Revolution in Military Affairs.

So, what is a Blue-Water Navy then? The answer is simple--it is not what one may think or try to express it in Pentagonese or Political Scientinese. It is really sad that many complexities of modern warfare (and of geopolitics)  have been reduced to a couple of obvious, to just about anybody, traits and memes while Turner's brilliant operational truism 'It is the capacity to do what might be decisive in some particular situation' was discarded in favor of propaganda expediency and inherent ignorance of political "scientists", which is in the foundation of the American economic, military, moral and intellectual decline. As per the American field of the so called "Russian Studies", as I stated it not for once--it is a wasteland of pseudo-"science", pseudo-"history" by pseudo-"academe" about the country which realistically never existed and which continues, being a civilization, to masquerade itself as a nation. As per warfare and "supremacy", reduced to a simple truism (or meme), this is how it is done, too bad few people took the lesson to heart. Maybe they need to learn a new language?

What Is And What Should Never Be.

Led Zeppelin classic’s lyrics fully apply when proclaim that if the wind won't blow, you really shouldn't go. But the wind, the wind of massive historic change that is, is blowing and now is reaching a hurricane strength. It becomes almost a sign of the bad taste to write something on relations between Russia and combined West nowadays, but this issue simply wouldn’t go away. Anyone suggesting otherwise spent last 10 years under some very remote stone and will be lying through the teeth to oneself when denying the obvious fact that combined West is obsessed with all thing Russian and for a bad reason primarily. 

Things picked up their pace as of lately in public commentary space, with President of France Emmanuelle Macron officially stating the fact about which I am writing for years now, that the combined West is in a decline and that Russia is, somehow, relevant now because she is getting herself away from the combined West straight into the China’s arms. One of the immediate things which commentariat started to discuss actively is the issue of Russia being a Western, or otherwise, non-Western, country. Someone, recently, paraphrasing late Senator John McCain’s famous, or notorious, ‘Russia is a gas station, masquerading as a country’, came up with this: ‘Russia is a civilization masquerading as a nation.’ McCain’s assertion about gas station has been debunked in the most dramatic fashion, while late Senator was still alive, on a few occasions and someone from Western establishment media universe started to suspect that Senator McCain wasnot exactly fully informed about Russia—a chronic debilitating illness of the Western political class. Surely Russia was not a gas station only, but Civilization? 

Late Samuel Huntington came up with a succinct observation: ‘civilization is a culture writ large.’ But what is culture? Well, obviously, having a good taste in Scotch or in cigars can be construed as culture, but, speaking broadly, culture is not just the ability not to fart at the restaurant table or refraining from speaking in worst profanities at the kindergarten “graduation” ceremony. Very often person’s exemplary behavior on public and ability to enjoy finer (and often very expensive) things are misconstrued as a person’s culture, or being cultured, that is. Never mind, that such traits often are exhibited by the low life scambags and sociopaths. Culture, thus, is a behavioral matrix of people, based on their values. Me, not liking Glenlivet 12 or preferring Seiko or Movado watches over some other brands, many of them very good ones, speaks very little about my culture, but me feeling compassion to disabled people, especially children, does. It signals, not some “virtue” but a value person holds dear. Once any person begins to help other people, and starts feeling compassion for less fortunate, and begins to enjoy music of Bach or art by Michelangelo, or Leonardo, one immediately can arrive to some fairly accurate conclusions in regards to values exhibited in this particular matrix. Pay attention, I am talking about a sum of behavioral traits, not just separate ones. After all, Hitler loved music of Wagner and some SS were very sentimental. It is the sum of things which constitute the culture. 

Nations and civilizations consist of persons, sometimes very many of them, and the reason those persons do live together and form nations and civilizations, apart from having (required) shared historical experience, are the foundational values which allow one person of the same civilization recognize the other—a cultural code. And here is one which makes Russia different from the West, especially European West, with the United States being somewhat different in its outlook. While the amount of “scholarly” works on Russia in the West is vast, very few of them, including those written by the so called Russians themselves, really get to the bottom of what is the actual difference between modern Russia and the modern West are. I, through my writing both in this blog and in books and articles always stress one of the two major cultural factors—a dramatic difference in historic experiences in warfare between Russia and what we traditionally understand as a combined West. Those experiences are dramatically different and the this difference grows into unbridgeable abyss the more one moves geographically to the West—away from Russia and towards Anglo-Saxon civilizational realm. 

The second one is view of the community—no, not in Berdyaev’s sense, which saw Russian salvation only as a whole, community, national that is, not as a personal only salvation. But in an economic sense behind which, in words of Vladimir Timakov, when he speaks about Soviet project, is a very long historic tradition: 

Прошло уже почти тридцать лет с тех пор, как советский проект канул в лету, не выдержав испытания временем. Но большинство русских по-прежнему не признаёт справедливым общество, которое делится на «избранных» и «отверженных», и по-прежнему считает, что все люди, независимо от рождения, имеют равные права на богатства родной земли. Что сбережение людей важнее сбережения богатства. Что нельзя повышать уровень жизни одних за счёт унижения других.

Translation: Thirty years passed by since the Soviet project faded in history when failed the test of time. But majority of Russians still does not accept society which stratifies into “elites” and “outcasts” as a just one. Russians still thinks that all people, regardless of birth, have equal rights to the riches of native land. That preservation of people is more important than preservation of wealth. That one cannot live better at the expense of others.

I can totally testify to Timakov’s correctness of a “diagnosis” of Russian culture and her dramatic difference, in this respect, with the nominal West. Even today, when on the surface Russia looks more, way more Western than the West itself. But even today, Russian idea of true economic justice, that everyone has a chance, that everyone has this decent minimum for decent existence, is still there, together with traditional Russian contempt towards excessive wealth and its deliberate showing off, even among younger generation. It is also this idea which, despite all vast efforts of Western propaganda outlets, NGOs and subversive activities, cannot be replaced by Western vision of “justice” removed totally from the key issue of the time into the field of identity, racial and gender, “justice” which is in the foundation of increasing Western degeneracy and loss of the contact with reality. It is also the source of its desperation after numerous failed attempts to “Westernize” Russia in accordance to West’s neo-liberal playbook.

Thus, while sharing some important cultural traits, including in relation to some critical behavioral matrices—and Russians in outlook are very Western—a fundamental, philosophical difference between Russia and West remains and will remain so, because Western project in general reached its natural limits with liberalism, which is in the foundation of modern West, being absolutely inapplicable to Russian historic, geographic and cultural realities. Russians, certainly, absorbed and adapted from the West what they liked, yes, including modernization which had much in common with the West, not least through Marxism—a strictly Western invention. And it seemed, at a time that historic Russia was simply West’s prodigal son (or daughter)—this was a wrong impression. The wind from the West blows and Russia goes as a separate civilization which increasingly is self-aware of own significance. She also holds deep inside something very dear to average Russian soul, what once even silent rebels Strugatsky Brothers plainly expressed in the conclusion to one of the most important Soviet sci-fi novels (followed by Tarkovsky’s movie Stalker)—The Roadside Picnic: 

И он уже больше не пытался думать. Он только твердил про себя с отчаянием, как молитву: «Я животное, ты же видишь, я животное. У меня нет слов, меня не научили словам, я не умею думать, эти гады не дали мне научиться думать. Но если ты на самом деле такой… всемогущий, всесильный, всепонимающий… разберись! Загляни в мою душу, я знаю, там есть всё, что тебе надо. Должно быть. Душу-то ведь я никогда и никому не продавал! Она моя, человеческая! Вытяни из меня сам, чего же я хочу, — ведь не может же быть, чтобы я хотел плохого! Будь оно всё проклято, ведь я ничего не могу придумать, кроме этих его слов: “СЧАСТЬЕ ДЛЯ ВСЕХ, ДАРОМ, И ПУСТЬ НИКТО НЕ УЙДЁТ ОБИЖЕННЫЙ!”

Translation: and he wasn’t even trying to think anymore. He was repeating to himself in desperation as a prayer: “I am an animal, you can see that I am an animal. I don’t have words, nobody taught me words, I am unable to think, and those scoundrels didn’t allow me to learn how to think. But if you are really what you are… omnipotent, almighty, all understanding…sort it out! Look into my soul, I know there is everything what you need. It must be there. I never sold my soul to anyone! It is mine, it is human! Get out of it what I really want,--it cannot be that I want anything bad!  Damn it all, because I cannot come up with anything but these his words: “Happiness, free, for everyone. And let no one be forgotten.”