One hundred and twelve years ago the Bolshevik Revolution brought about the demise of the Russian Czar, Nicholas II, and the rise of the beleaguered working class. Communism, led by Comrade Lenin, took over and they (the workers) were all singing the national anthem together, “Arise, workers of the world, all the world’s starving and enslaved!”
A mere 20 years later Joseph Stalin had taken over and instituted harsh laws that he thought would help modernize the nation. Instead they resulted in famines and purges that killed millions of people. A mere 20 years after the Bolshevik Revolution had everybody singing the national anthem together with Comrade Lenin, the working class was under the yoke again. It was called the Soviet Union. It was just a circle journey for those people. They were back where they started.
Thirty three years ago (1989) the Berlin Wall came tumbling down amid much fanfare and celebration. The hated symbol of repression and totalitarianism had fallen. It was as if a new era had begun. Shortly after that, the Soviet Union itself disbanded. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Armenia and Ukraine were all reborn as independent countries, free to pursue their own destiny.
Now Russia is trying to assert control over Ukraine all over again, claiming it was never a sovereign country anyways and a bunch of other hooey about ancient ties.
It’s painful to witness and all I can think of is, wow, the wheel turns and it keeps turning as is has always turned.
Dark and light. Night and day. In the course of a year, there is exactly the same amount of darkness as there is light. It all balances out by the end of the year, solstice to equinox to solstice and equinox again.
The subatomic particles that make up our reality flash in and out of existence a billion times a second, according to the physicists. The universe flashes in and out of existence too but that takes billions of years. We’ve only measured the expansion so far but likely it will decide to reverse course, walk down the same road backwards, return to its primordial form. Everything turns and returns.
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The experience of watching Russia invade Ukraine in real time has caused these thoughts to arise in my mind. It feels like a violation, not only against the people of Ukraine but against some assumed level of decency among the ‘civilized’ nations, among all of us. We don’t just invade you anymore because we feel like it or because we want your riches or because we think you might steal ours. No, we have borders and we respect them.
Then, on the other hand, how is this any different from the American invasion of Iraq? Infact the Russians pointedly told the Americans to shut up with their moralizing, what with your record of invading people . . .
And if this is a turning wheel, then is it rolling somewhere? Are we making headway against the headwinds? Have we got our cart hitched to the right horse?
Just asking. I certainly don’t have the answers. I don’t think Putin does either. The other day he’s advising that no one interfere, that Russia is a major nuclear power, by the way. The wisdom of nukes is all he’s got? The wisdom of brute power is no wisdom at all, it’s the glaring lack of it.
In George Orwell’s classic novel ‘Animal Farm’ (published in 1945), he parodies the Russian revolution. The animals of Manor Farm rise up against their drunken master Mr Jones, and the pigs, being the most intelligent of all the animals, take control of the revolution. Their leader Old Major (basically Lenin) dies and two of the pigs, Snowball and Napoleon (representing Trotsky and Stalin) battle for political control of the farm. Eventually, Napoleon (Stalin) is victorious and Snowball is forced into exile. In the meantime the ideals which inspired the revolution are trivialized and forgotten. In the end the farm returns to a system of autocracy just as it was at the beginning, except now the pigs are running the place, not the humans. It’s a classic because it’s so human. It’s just easier to write about when it’s animals.
If you want to increase your sphere of influence (I’m talking to you Putin) then make a nice country where people want to live. Then they will be influenced. Duh. What’s so hard to understand about that?
A country where the people are taken care of first, not the rich elites, not the bomb makers, but the normal average good old people. Taking care of the people is what a nation is supposed to be all about or it’s just preparing for the next revolution. A turning wheel. Dark and light.
What’s so hard to understand about that?
music playlist by Blume So Far Away
Oliver Franken - Drifting 41:30
Marion - Sleeping Trees 38:20
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Darkness and light and the invasion of Ukraine