THIS explains why Russia starts insane wars
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- As Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine continues, we take a broader look at the roots of Russian imperialism. We go back to the 19th century and look at a book by Nikolai Gogol called Dead Souls. It contains a paragraph that exquisitely defines Russian historical identity. NOTE: while Gogol's portrayal of the troika captures Russian identity, Gogol himself came from Ukraine.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
00:22 Nikolai Gogol and his novel Dead Souls
04:35 Russia as a European country
06:35 Francis Fukuyama, The End Of History
08:44 Alexander Herzen and Isaiah Berlin
10:05 Economic shock therapy
12:05 Putin and Lenin
15:35 Russia's historical mission and fascism
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The author of a paragraph that captures Russian identity is actually a Ukrainian Cossack.
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Chances are your dad understood the situation, but just by pointing interesting stuff out he could keep other people's attention away and preventing them from panicking. I only reasoned that because I assume you got your good brain cells from somewhere.
It's funny how the USA is the only country to use nukes and they killed over 1/4 million people, yet the talk is how Russia is going to use nukes
😂
"What good is the world for us, if it is a world without Russia?", says the guy with Satan II missiles, each loaded with 10 warheads of X kilotons/megatons. This can't be good for anyone.
@@oisnowy5368 hee hee
@@shinymike4301 yeap
Russia: stop imposing yourself on us, Westerners, we have our own identity
Also Russia: *imposes self on Ukraine*
And not just Ukraine but all the countries around them, and then all the countries around those, and so on
@@SmirkyWaters oh fuck !
In many ways Russian views here mirror the UK Brexiter ones. People who have not grasped yet that the age of empires by force has passed and that nobody will give you any respect for trying to bring it back.
Another words!... This is one huge f... mess! Either because of Russist russia... or because of 'satanic' West! ...Welcome to Hell, then!
☠️🔥🇷🇺🕳️❗
no terrorussia - no problems for neighbors and the whole world!
UK person here. I was 15 years old when the Berlin wall came down in 1989 and 17 when the USSR and Eastern Europe totally changed in 1991. As a young woman, I remember feeling as if Europe was just opening up with great promise just as my own adult life was beginning. It was an inspirational time and a great feeling. I started my first year of university in 1992, when the European Union became completely open to free movement. Then, I remember at university in 1994/5 being part of a student group raising funds to send trucks of help to the students at Tuzla University in Bosnia during the horrible war at that time. Things seemed to be getting a bit darker. A few years passed. In the late 90s, the thinking that you mentioned epitomised by Fukuyama's book prevailed, and it was connected with the zeitgeist in terms of the birth of the world wide web and its spread. I had studied Chinese Studies at university, and in the late 90s I remember a tech geek friend of mine chatting to me at a party explaining with evangelical zeal that the web/internet would make everyone across the planet free forever in the future, because no longer could authoritarian governments hide the truth from their people. That really was the prevailing thinking at the time in those circles. I told him point blank that I was quite sure the Chinese government would be able to find a way to stop Chinese people from accessing the full truth, regardless of the details of how modern tech was implemented. He looked at me with a certain soft pity in his eyes and tried to be as gentle as possible in his rejection of my evidently ignorant belief. Today, he's a very successful and wealthy thought leader in the IT industry. 😅 Anyway, now I'm 48 and it does feel to me as if there's a danger the world could close down again, with autocracy getting the edge over democracy. Which is making me feel even worse about heading into old age than I otherwise might. On the other hand, this could be simply the start of a new, more hopeful age, depending on how things work out. That's why this situation is so desperately important. Thank you so much for all you do to educate us.
one insecure beady-eyed little man in the kremlin and the whole world suffers
Thank you for sharing your thoughts
Hey, you weren’t wrong back then in college. I was a teenager at the time you mentioned in the late 90’s and was just like your friend. I’m sure we both thought we were smart but we were just regurgitating the same talking points from Silicon Valley tech leaders at the time. It certainly did feel like it was a path to complete freedom in a sense though because putting a document on the web meant that it was available to everyone. It was the invention of social media and the accidental creation of the worlds greatest distribution network of dark propaganda that really screwed up the utopian dreams of those involved in the early years of the internet however.
Our hearts were in the right place, albeit naively.
Anne, I read you slowly. Thank you so much for sharing this.
He’s probably one of the companies helping China and Russia censor the internet, not to mention UA-cam Google and Facebook etc. The idea that we’re getting the full truth in this war is laughable, it is quite frightening how many people are willingly lapping up the propaganda that is cementing the one sided narrative we are being sold
It should be pointed out that Fukuyama has since agreed that yes, he was wrong. He was pretty nuanced about the whole thing. In his book on the thesis of the End of History, the entire last chapter was basically him saying that "Yes, History can start up again and it probably will"
But history never stopped. His thesis was beyond absurd.
“The end of history” was not literally his thesis, it was a title for a book. And a very good one considering how referenced it is
End of History and the last Man by Francis Fukuyama.
Good book,like the Oil's End,by Kunzler,very good too Stategy and Logístics.Xau❤🇵🇹
Fukuyama is an intellectual degenerate like most Leftist professors who live in a fantasy world detached from reality. They may be smart in their field of expertise but they have zero wisdom
@@eca3101 A good read doesn't preclude the assertions it makes from being absurd.
Nikolai Gogol was born in 1809 in Sorochyntsi, in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire, which is present-day Ukraine. Although Gogol wrote in Russian and is considered one of the giants of Russian literature, he was deeply influenced by Ukrainian folklore, culture, and history.
He was Ukrainian and also wrote in Ukrainian--He preferred it to RuZZian, but the money was in Moscow!
Gogol's passage in "Dead Souls" which says, "Rus, where are you hurtling?" reminded me of Jack Kerouac's passage in his "On the Road" where he says, "Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?"
Nice catch.
Neato, maybe he was making the reference.
@@vickisnemeth7474 definitely
I’ve heard Keroauc was inspired by Dostoevsky and other Russian writers.
@@bikerbardofohio5076 What decent writer isn't? 😉 (I'm sort of kidding and sort of not.)
Not mentioned is the that Gogol was Ukrainian, a descendant of Cossak nobility. His books are a reflection of Harold Innis's concept that ideas always come from the periphery of empire, not the centre. Only through being both a part of, and at the same time looking from the edge or outside can a deeper understnding be generated.
Gogol himself said that he considers himself both Ukrainian and Russian. That is, he has the right to be considered a Russian writer, especially if he wrote in Russian. It's funny, by the way, because he was banned in Ukraine)
@@veronchan2003 well, he never said that he was a ukrainian. It's bullshit. But he said that he was half-russian and half-maloross. To know it you have to know the russian to read his words. Before 1917 there were no ukrainians but malorossy. They - ukrainians - were only in west part of modern Ukraine that was the part of Poland those days.
@@JohnnyDonnyDon I agree that this is an exaggeration, but not a mistake. Territory, language, culture are all the same, the name is just different. Gogol used the word "Khokhlyatskaya", which modern Russians associate specifically with Ukrainians (now, however, this is a cruder concept). He was born on the territory of modern Ukraine, used many Ukrainian dialects, and also described the activities of the Cossacks (who, by the way, the Ukrainians appropriated). I am not a historian, but a literary critic, the historical context is not important to me, but only the worldview of the authors themselves. In Russia, he is considered a Russian writer with Ukrainian and Polish blood (usually they say this at school, which is no less correct right now).
@UCfTWiF2wd-MEJpL5l2IpQcw gee, stop thinking up what wasn't. it doesn't prove anything. As I said before then it wasn't Ukraine and there wasn't such a thing as "ukrainian". It's a new self-name or nation, it doesn't matter. Anyway, he saw himself as russian and part of Russia's culture and did a lot to enlarge it. And his words in 1844 says more who he was and what he thought about his identity - russian-maloross- (stressed for you): "На это вам скажу, что сам не знаю, какая у меня душа, хохлацкая или русская. Знаю только то, что никак бы не дал преимущества ни МАЛОРОССИЯНИНУ перед русским, ни русскому пред МАЛОРОССИЯНИНОМ. Обе природы слишком щедро одарены Богом, и как нарочно каждая из них порознь заключает в себе то, чего нет в другой, - явный знак, что они должны пополнить одна другую. "
@@veronchan2003 as a russian I say to you that in school he is considered as russian. Nothing about ukrainian. But it's true that he wrote about whereabouts of the people who lived there. Anyway he considered himself russian but don't forgot where he was born - Malorossy (or Littlerussia). It was always his dilemma. From modern perspective it's difficult to understand but before communists there weren't such a thing as "nationality" in Russia and the russian language. And everyone in Russian Empire was considered as russian if he spoke it and served the king. :)
12:30 some context: Ukraine had decommunization campaign going, meaning removing soviet era monuments, renaming the streets and cities named after communist leaders etc. which generally were associated also with Russia
So when Putin said ‘REAL decommunization’ he actually meant: ‘You will lose not only the monuments, but EVERYTHING that was built during the soviet era’
I thought Putin was rather referring to the whole notion of Ukraine being separate from Russia, which it formally wasn't in Imperial Russia but became when the Soviet government created the Ukrainian SSR.
Yes, I also believe the video’s author got that one backwards. It veas sarcasm by Khuilo, similar to Ukraine mocking the invaders excuse for this war of aggression and reverse calling it by saying that destroying the invaders is the real denazification of Ukraine.
Большая часть территории Украины была добавлена ей как раз коммунистами и большевиками: Харьков, Луганск, Донецк, Николаев, Одесса, Львов, Ужгород, Буковина, Бессарабия и много чего ещё. Исторические земли Украины это Киев, Черкассы и Кировоград.
@@user-ju7cf9iu8z о, а я смотрю, вы эксперт в исторической геополитике? Можете описать границы УНР, воссоединенной с ЗУНР?
@@tarasbaturenko5216 Нравится это украинцам или нет, но их государственность появилась после 1917 года. А в пучине хаоса гражданской войны в России конечно можно на мгновение «отщипнуть» территорий и потом сказать «это моё» ;)
This is by far the most enlightening thing I have ever seen on Russia.
You are obviously very educated and an excellent communicator.
He's an Oxford educated Ph.D on the subject, which is why I always leave his videos feeling like I've had access to one of the world's best lecturers on the subject.
I went to school in Kyiv in 90s (Ukrainian language as primary) and Gogol was read in the original in my school and he was presented as a Ukrainian writer that like many artists trying to make it big went to the capital of the empire and started speaking/wring in Russian. He was also presented as a Bridge writer. Someone that tried to create a bridge between Russians and Ukrainians culturally. I think he was also trying to make sense of Russian culture for himself.
And now he's considered a part of Russian opression, his monuments are being deconstructed all over Ukraine. It's curious.
@@Sonchikas1 it is not true. and he is still in school program
Gogol is ukrainian, yes. you description about bridge making is on point
well Nikolai Gogol was in fact Ukrainian, he also suffered in later life with mental health issues. I'm not sure why he is considered to be Russian since this would be like saying Oscar Wilde was English. However we are forgetting here that most Russians don't know he was Ukrainian. Nor do most Brits know that Oscar Wilde was Irish.
@@elizabethkorobko1199 I'm fairly sure Sorochyntsi, the birthplace of Nikolai Gogol is in Ukraine. Gogol's native language was Ukrainian, which was spoken in his family and his hometown of Sorochyntsi. However, he also learned Russian and wrote in both languages. Now, speaking Russian does not make you Russian any more than Speaking English makes you British! There are lots of people in Khabarovsk that speak Chinese you know...
I’m a westernized immigrant born in Ukraine, and I’m so happy I found your channel! Brilliant view on everything happening with explanations that go so deep into history and russian self understanding/russian identity. A great way of explaining the situation to foreigners! BRAVO!
Hypocrisy.
Thank you so much!
As an American who served in West Germany during the cold war, Russia was our enemy. But I know precious little of Russia. Given the harshness of their totalitarian regimes, from the Czars to Stalin to Putin, I feel for the Russian people. But I totally don’t understand why they think themselves to be great. How can a country or society think themselves great when they rule by oppression? And always have?
.
“Great” is meaningless without a baseline to compare against. Who is the baseline for Russia then? China? Russia does not win there. Europe? I don’t see it. The US? Please. Turkey? Stop embarrassing yourselves.
.
I totally get Russia’s identity crisis. The largest nation on earth, many scientific and cultural achievements. All only possible because of brutal repression. I just don’t get it.
@@CorePathway What don't you get? The brutal repression of Donbass residents? The persecution of Russians on their ancestral lands?
@@frostflower5555 please finish your thought
Hi Vlad,
This was the video that introduced me to your work and I want to thank you so much for your translation and presentation of this passage from Dead Souls. It continues to have an extremely emotional effect on me- especially so after meditating on Basilashvili’s comment on the underlying pain within the piece. God bless the poets of this world.
Thank you, Vlad. Once again, you encapsulate so many important reflections on the matter!
As a Pole, I feel that Fukuyama's 'end of history' was an elaborate way of sweeping East European achievements under the rug. It's not that we dismantled communism through decades of continued, evolving and maturing resistance. It's not that our totalitarian leaders stepped up to the challenge and allowed - sometimes even fostered - the change. No, it was all inevitable. We didn't really accomplish anything, we merely embraced the correct values. It was all thanks to the West.
Also as a Pole, I just need to comment on the 'shock therapy policy'. We - among with Czech Republic and Baltic States - are the poster boys for its success. We managed to transform our countries into functional capitalist societies. Back in 2000s, there was an attitude that Poland vindicated the 'shock therapy policy', and if other countries didn't make it? Well... It's somehow _their_ fault.
Never mind that the 'shock therapy transformation' had grotesque socio-economic consequences that we feel to this day. Never mind that Poles, Czechs and Balts were under communist oppression for only half as long as former USSR states (including Russia). Never mind that Poles and Czechs had strong free market traditions, which communism never managed to root out. It's not like our history, circumstances and conditions affected the outcome. To Fukuyama's followers, were just a western vanity project. Once we succeeded, we somehow became a tool to shame everyone who didn't.
That's what I hate the most about the pro Putin talkers "but it's all the American imperialism/fault/propaganda" basically denying every other nation their own history, values, sentiments even will of power grab etc. Making everone a puppet, also acting like American politics in itself never changed one bit and always had a clear goal that everyone followed along with no changes in policy. You have Taiwan openly asking the US for protection, yet my ex making it a conspiracy acting like the US forces poor Taiwan, negating all of the history even how Taiwan and mainland China came to be in the first place. I hate those "but the US"-conversations. They are simplistic, black and white, boring even, as there is no interest shown to dive into history, maybe learn from others arguments, that you can check if you doubt. It's changing discussion partners, but it's always the same old propaganda talking points. After some time it's like talking to a dry wall, on which some of the phrases are written. Even if you trap them argumentatively, like let's say ok, maybe it's American proxy war, but why does Putin bomb civilians most of the time, or don't take their wounded Russian soldiers with them? They will hold their breath for a short break (you can literally hear their brain gears working) then bring some unrelated "argument" like the Americans bombed civilians in Afghanistan too, yeah sure I didn't ask about the US though, how does them bombing Afghan civilians make it somehow ok for the apparent "good guy" Putin to bomb cilvilians? And why don't we take what Taiwanese, Poles etc say into consideration? It all usually ends them shouting something like "you watch too much propaganda" and leaving the conversation, because they have no real arguments, just the same old stupid propaganda talking points they never really questioned.
Very interesting thought provoking video. Thank you. I want to mention that Gogol was Ukrainian, born in Poltava , Ukraine. In the early 19th century the publication of Ukrainian books was forbidden by the czar. Exceptions were made for comedic writing, or fol;klore literature where two Ukrainian peasants argued over a cow. Gogol's father wrote such comedic plays in Ukrainian for the local theater group. But in 1863 and 1876 Russia passed laws that forbade any book in Ukrainian. Gogol is credited with starting the debate over the "russian Soul" and "Russian World" much debated by Russian intellectuals in the 19th century. They prophesized Russia would become the "Third Rome" and save decadent Europe from itslf. But I cannot imagine anything more decadent and murderous than today's Russia.
how about todays germany?
Plus meurtrier et décadent, vous avez l'occident, tout simplement, il suffit pour cela d'une petite introspection.
All modern West is the same bs, lol
@@Slothface how about all of the worldwide oligarchies?
I agree a very interesting video and very thought provoking.
As a child in WWII Britain and now 87 I dare not mention to anyone the danger I think we are in. In Britain we are following childish political antics every day. It is not realised that it could all go, literally, in a flash never to return. I can only hope I will be gone before that flash arrives. Meanwhile like you Vlad, I study history to try to understand. Yes, I did a course on atomic civil defence many years ago in the forces.
Feeling the same in the US, a year ago and now too.
I think that every day. The news in U.K. is so irrelevant and trite compared to the big picture of Russian belligerence which is just ignored
Rewatched this just now. Quality from the top shelf. Respect.
I love the thread you pull through your videos. Honestly might be the best I’ve ever seen, well done!
What an education paying attention to your videos brings. Time well spent. Thank you.
I was mesmerized by the "Rus! Rus!" passage when I first read it so long ago. It was exhilarating and also very lonely, as I was a young man in the US, where Gogol is too arcane even for intellectuals. Finally, one day, at a dinner party at a big fancy house in the Maryland countryside, I met an elderly Russian lady who understood my exhilaration. Tears came to our eyes as we noted how the big, kitschy country house was like Manilov's mansion, or how the boisterous host was like Sobakevich, etc. We promised to stay in touch, and I wrote her some months later, but she never responded. She had mentioned that her son worked in the FSB, so probably for the better.
you can't work at fsb and have any relatives abroad.
@@groovie444 I'm not sure it was FSB. She said her son was a policeman of some sort in the agency that used to be, or have something to do with, the KGB. This was in the late 90s.
@@groovie444 YOU CAN
Thank you Vlad for being in this space!
You are helping me to heal. Similarly to you I moved from Russia long time ago, but back in 1994… and I never looked back, but I feel the weight of my ancestral curse more then ever since the war in Ukraine and trying to understand it all, you are helping me to sort it all.
I really appreciate all of your excellent work, thank you Vlad!
Vlad, what a lovely translation. It gives rise to the idea that Russia is a mystery even to itself.
LIke Francis Fukuyama, I am a third-generation Japanese-American (in other words, our grandparents emigrated from Japan to the U.S. I was born and raised in Los Angeles.). He's some years older than me, but I was an adult when his "End of History" book came out, and I recall that he was subjected to much criticism for suggesting that liberal democracy would simply spread throughout the world and that we wouldn't need to deal with scary nations like Russia that had nukes because - of course - they would choose to become like us!
To Fukuyama's credit, he's been making the rounds of the news programs these days and discussing the end of history concept again, which, as you noted, he got all wrong (he more or less acknowledges this now).
This war in Ukraine feels not only like a clash of cultures, but a clash of centuries. We're in the 21st century, but Putin is coming from the early 20th or even 19th century. A lot of what is happening in Ukraine is terrifying me, but none more than the fact that Russian soldiers are literally kidnapping Ukrainian civilians and busing them to Russia... for what?? Who even does things like this? Putin's war with all of its strategic mistakes is leaving Russia without even a sense of dignity as a nation in the world's eyes. This is painful to me simply as an observer, it must be exponentially more so for Russians now living in the west.
Russia has a long history of seizing people from one part of their "domain" and scattering them elsewhere as a way to fracture communities and to prevent nationalism amongst its minorities.
I’m afraid the future is with Putin’s politics. To think he’s from the past is another Fukuyamian fairytale, and why folks in the West struggle to grasp him. Lethal struggle over territory motivated by mystical visions is normal. It has always happened. And will always happen. To Fukuyama’a credit, his book captured the self picture of the age. His concessions have been fascinating. He’s walked back the 1989/1992 contribution incrementally, over three decades. I like him. Thank you so much for sharing a little of your background.
Fukuyama expressed in ponderous American what "1066 and All That" had expressed 60 years earlier: "America is now Top Nation and History has come to an End." You can't get more teleological than that!
When Fukuyama's book came out I decided he was an idiot. Everything that has happened in the world since then proves, unfortunately, that I was right.
@@VladVexler The persistence of religious beliefs of all flavours, in a time when we know so much, is another example of the motivation of "mystical visions".
Thank you Vlad. Your video essays about Russia are invaluable for allowing we outsiders to at least begin to understand the psyche of Putin, the Russian state, and the Russian peoples. None do it so eloquently, or with such perceptive clarity.
That's so kind thank you so much!
@@letsgetthissorted go and watch The New Atlas, The Duran or The Greyzone if you want to know what the west is doing.
@@hathawayrose2183 I googled the first two and can tell by content it'll be near bullshit filled with assumptions, propaganda and nonsense.
@@hathawayrose2183 Then there's the "Grey zone" media showing extreme media bias. Hard pass Ms. Rose. You may be into extremism but I prefer democracy.
@@letsgetthissorted then stay happy in your ignorance Sergeant Rock, you're clearly no help to Mrs Rock, or anyone else.
What an excellent commentary and analysis. Great work. Thanks for that.
Outstanding, fascinating stuff. The ones further up the "watch this next" chain are making more sense to me now!
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God...... Its finalllllly herrrrreeee!!!!! Love your videos!! Soothing to my soul.
Sorry for the delay. I look a bit crap but I am back in action!!! I do hope you enjoy.
Totally agree..!
Thank you. In college, I had a roomate (who'd spent several years in Siberia) try to explain Dead Souls and The Idiot to me. I'd recently returned from France (which had a very different form of metaphysical nihilism), and I know that he must have seen my eyes glazing over. He was very patient. I now wish I'd paid closer attention.
You got the novel completely wrong. Christian prose cannot be nihilistic. Especially when the main character is a holy man.The same thing with the author of the channel. He only imitates the fact that he understands Russian culture and civilization. In fact, what he says is a figment of his imagination and individual perception, for the most part
Tack! Thanks Vlad for your work. It is so much of a general education and it should be obligatory for all.
I got the book after I saw this video. I’m a Gogol fan but had not read this. There’s a surreal timelessness to the characters. Thank you for explaining this I’ve been watching you since the invasion of Ukraine. 😭
BTW: Hohol was Ukrainian!
I'm Russian and I love Dead Soul book, which I read in Russian language at the age of 11 or 12. Remember that the book was written at the time of absolute power of the tsars and zero free speech. As the Russians had no freedom of speech, they could never openly describe their situation, and hence, they used literature as a form of art, to metaphorically represent truth. Similarly, American slaves used art to represent their truth, but they used music instead of literature. Dead Soul refers to our Russian slaves(the unfree people) - the serfs that had to toil on land. It's a true masterpiece of literature.
And for those who might not know, Gogol was Ukranian! Or maybe he was both: Russian-Ukranian. But I think he was really Ukranian from Ukraine.
Anyway, Russian identity is VERY different. Living in the USA, I can never admit that I am a white person, which many Americans claim to be my "real" identity. "White person" identity is an anglo/Western invention or concept, which has no way anything close to representing a Russian person. Russians are located in Europe, and so, they are European, right? Geographically - yes, but politically/culturally/historically it is not so. I am a person of white skin, NOT white identity. My identity is Russian. And I don't consider myself European! Neither I consider myself Asian, although geographically I am Eurasian, and even genetically Eurasian as well (I have a small part Asian genetics), which is common among Russians to the East of Volga river all the way to Siberia, and I am from that part of the world far away from Moscow. Having both Asian and Eastern European genes, I am never European nor Asian in any way. I am just Russian.
When I saw a picture of three horses in the black background, I felt like home and nostalgic. An American would see there just three horses. But I saw my home and more - I FELT home at the sight of those three horses. Today I choose not to visit my homeland due to the present conflict. I am sad and actually I am in grieve over the Ukranian and Russian people today.
Russia under Putin doesn't have free speech that won't result in those who tell the truth about the Ukraine invasion "disappearing" to never be seen or heard from, again? And why do the majority of Russians love and support Putin and the illegal invasion of a peaceful, sovereign nation? No other country, except maybe China and their madman Xi Jinping would ever even think of invading a country with so many nuclear weapons as Russia! Putin is severely mentally and physically diseased, and he would commit suicide through a nuclear holocaust that would destroy all life on earth forever, leaving this planet a barren ice ball.
The Russian identity crisis has no solution because it is too large a country with too much variation in local identities.
‘Putin’s brain’ Aleksandr Dugin calls for the end to white civilisation.
And there is this too:
Russian intelligence service goals:
• inciting ⚫️ separatism to impair the territorial integrity of the United States,
• supporting nationalist movements to degrade the international situation and fostering a revolutionary mood by undermining social order, also through the reinforced Marxist ideology,
• using racism to generate tensions in U.S. society before affecting the country’s domestic and foreign policy.
In A.Dugin’s(Putin’s🧠) book “Foundations of Geopolitics,” a maniacal screed advocating Russian world domination, the occultist openly calls for unleashing ⚫️ racists against ⚪️ America as a subversion strategy:
“Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism,”
wrote Dugin.
Provoking “Afro-American racists” was key to the strategy, as that would serve to “introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity.” He further encouraged “all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements - extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics.”
So did Gogol write Dead Souls to champion the rights of those serfs toiling the land, albeit in a ‘metaphorical’ way? Was Gogol a champion for free speech and the abolition of serfdom?
You said it so well.
Specifically about the “white” in the US while being of the Russian culture. I resented the “white” box in all matters official in the US, and always marked “other” or “decline to state”. But for my generation who grew up in the USSR (it’s various republics), there must be some all-Union brotherhood sentiment also lingering in us due to propaganda and the actual requirement of learning the national language in school starting in 2nd grade (Uzbek for me). And then I started learning Ukrainian in 5th grade when my family moved to Ukraine. This last detail changed the course of my life. Thank you for your comment 🙏🌿💙💛
Dead Souls is actually one of my favourite books. It's fascinating to watch how someone seen as an outlier and a bit of madman during his life has been so absorbed into the Russian national psyche after his death.
Yes! I think in the West Gogol is far behind Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in readership, but in Russia it’s closer.
@@VladVexler would you ever consider an analysis of my all time favourite, The Master And Margarita please?
I believe Nietzsche did the same for the Germans.
@@VladVexler Studied his short stories in Russian language class in high school, in France. Had Russian as a second foreign language, German as 1st foreign language, Spanish as 3rd, Italian as 4th.
@@Lulusnotreadyforthis There are about three filmed adaptations, two of them might be found on utube. I watched them a couple of times over, can't make heads or tails out of them.
Thanks for all the videos!
Another great book from the same period (my favourite book, and one of Tolstoy's favourites) :
Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov. Russia between Asia and Europe, between progress and stagnation all portrayed by a guy who struggles to get up in the morning.
A great story.
It's kinda racist for russians to always stereotype Asia like that especially when it was far ahead of russia in... almost everything, throughout most of history.
@@KasumiRINA
I guess it made sense at the time the book was written (mid 19th century). At the time, Europe was getting miles ahead of the rest of the world with an explosion in technology and industry, whereas China had just been defeated twice by the British, and Japan was still a medieval backwater that had just made contact with the US.
europe proper was, but not so much Ru. , re getting ahead of ROW@@bakerzermatt
That passage in Dead Souls might as well have been a retelling of the Germanic mythology of The Wild Hunt, especially how connected the Rus are to the vikings.
Nice of you to paint a picture of modern Russia with broad historical brush strokes. But I found the most telling anecdote in one of Putin's biographies that came out soon after Yeltsin picked him from obscurity. It was how Putin felt, soon after his deployment to East Berlin, the deep resentment at the higher standard of living among the common East Germans than his own family's upper middle class shared apartment block in St. Petersburg. So I wondered what specificly bothered Putin. It was kitchen appliances. He was mad that the Germans had better cookware, utensils, gadgets, stoves, and, yes, washing machines.
Russian soldiers looting washing machines in Ukraine has finally clicked in my mind. Another Russian soldier's phone call to his mother from the battle front in Ukraine was intercepted to reveal this deep sense of injustice. Son: on the way out, I turned the tank and shot up all the empty houses on the street. Mother: but why? Son: because they have better roads even though their village is smaller than ours. Mother: yes, they don't deserve it.
Russians are indeed hurtling down on a trioka, but for all the wrong reasons. That has always been the problem throughout Russian history. Putin is just the latest who happens to be fixated on a spinning metal drum used for cleaning clothes. Conquering Ukraine ain't curing that pain.
I think we all know what the ill-composed joke is around here 😂
@@user-zx6fg9lv4d but it’s a fact. That looted washing machines, you can go to Ukraine and ask people who lived in occupied cities. Russia has mor resources then Ukraine, but those resources are in hands of Putin and his friends. In median, Russians are more poor then Ukrainians.
@@user-zx6fg9lv4d It depends on how poor those soldiers are, right? From my limited understanding, most wealth is in the hands of a few oligarchs/companies, and there is a lot of wealth disparity.
Damn insightful.
Bravo!
@@user-zx6fg9lv4d You may very well be right. Ukraine may be poorer as far as its economy goes. It's the distribution of wealth that is the problem. It seems that Russia has put all that money into super-yachts.
I was a Russian Studies major at university in the 1980s. This analysis is brilliant. I don't think I could have grasped the accuracy of its analysis back then due to Reagan era US deterministic optimism. Continuing to follow Russia and world events for the past 40 years, it now resonates.
I am still an ardent believer in Jefferson's vision that all men are created equal with inalienable rights. The creation of a world where governments agree on such foundational ideas and work together in harmony, however, will take much more patience and much less preaching than I believed in my youth.
This is easily one of the smartest, most informative yet also most beautiful and inspiring videos I have ever seen.
What a masterpiece. Thank you Mr. Vexler!
Definitely. I wish our state leaders here in Europe would listen to Vlad, because I think, the final point he's making in this video - the sad truth to which he's culminating to - is an unpleasant and terrifying truth nobody wants to hear here in Europe. They are all like🙉: "🎶La-la-la-la... I don't hear a thing!"
Fully agreed👍
Wow your feckin kidding aren’t you
@@Piersmoron oh look it's the guy from kindergarden who spells all the dirty words wrong.
@@zorglub667 oh look it’s the little infant who can’t even work out that if you use incorrect spelling you can get point across without getting flagged 🫵🏻🖕😆💪🇷🇺🤓you clearly are a feckin moron are you vlads brother 👦 ya feckin moron 😂
Yet another fascinating video essay, thank you.
P.S. The passage from Gogol’s book was incredibly powerful and vivid, I am adding that to me ever growing reading list.
Thank you so much!!
Same here
I never heard of Nikolai Gogol and Dead Souls. But a friend made me read Dostoyevski after college, an amazing thinker, shows a personal understanding of inner suffering.
Wonderful you read Dostoyevsky.
Ironically Golgotha is Hebrew for the Skull where they crucified Jesus in Jerusalem Israel.
Gogol is a Ukrainian author Russians keep for themselves because they never rejected their imperialistic tendencies.
He wrote as much Ukrainian centric pieces as imperial centric and yet i haven't heard one word that Gogol is a Ukrainian in this video analyzing Russian tendencies of inslaving nations and assimilating cultures.
Kind of ironic.
Full circle.
Well done, Vlad, keep it up.
Although I have little background knowledge of this subject matter, I found your analysis and delivery to be very interesting and insightful. Also, if you ever run out of things to talk about, I think you should record some audio books as I find your voice and cadence somewhat calming and helpful at relieving stress.
This is the type of material I'd only expect to hear at an (always waitlisted) graduate seminar at a top university in the US. Thank you for the video.
My pleasure. There is also a second channel called vlad Vexler Chat, with Q&As and longer commentary. If you ever want a thought commented on or a question answered, just drop it in a new comment!
@@VladVexler I have enjoyed those videos a lot as well, although I personally prefer this type of format. My freshman year at NYU I took an incredible course called "Russia: Between East and West" with a wonderful professor (Yanni Kotsonis), and I think this video was about as revealing as several weeks worth of lectures.
I don't know how you feel about this, but there is a long history of exiled philosophers and social scientists helping Western militaries/governments in conflicts in order to understand their opponent. The most well-known example would be the contributions of the Frankfurt School to the OSS and their assistance in rebuilding Germany after the war. Recently, Peter Zeihan has given several lectures hosted by the US government. I think civilian and military intelligence/leadership would find your insight into the Russian psyche extremely fascinating. I think it is also vital for people to understand that Russia's motivations are much deeper than what most public intellectuals state, and how broken Russian society is.
I didn't realize this before February 24th, but many of my Russian friends really do live in another dimension from the rest of us. The stuff they would tell me about the West, even people who in my mind were European was very shocking. For example, one friend of many years who's a brilliant programmer told me he thought the reason Americans say "Let's go Brandon!" instead of a more profane statement about the President was to avoid going to jail and thought I was lying when I said that doesn't happen here...
Believe me, people in Poland, Moldova etc and especially the Baltics are keenly aware we ourselves are in danger which is one of the reasons we're so eager to help. So I think what you said at the end mostly to Western Europe like France Germany Italy
🇵🇱🇺🇦
The reaction of Poland's People to the invasion has made me sooo happy and proud of the polish family I have. Nevertheless the last years have shown that it is very important to support those in Poland who defend democracy. This concerns many, many western countries. The autocrats have found ways to undermine the principles of democracy which are not obvious to the lesser critic minds. They always attach their propaganda to some very important and undisputable values. It is like agreeing to some of the mottoes of the Nazi Regime which - if taken literally - sounded so right.
I am Austrian and all branches of my family had to leave their homes in many former austrian territories because of Russian Revolution, WWI or WWII (Poland, Ukraine, Czechia, Roumania). I can well remember the impact of Soviet Union on those who have stayed and on the West also. Today the family consists of protesters and of supporters of law and order. In some way therefore I can relate to mixed ukrainian-russian families
Actually half of Moldova and Transnistria with Gagauzia are supporting Russia or neutral to them. So Moldova is not unite with Poland and Baltics.
What an amazing translation! Just beautiful.
These videos keep getting better. Great work, Vlad! Really appreciate your analysis.
Thanks so much!
I think the struggle Gogol had with writing, rewriting, embracing and rejecting the 'dead souls' over and over again across the period of years is deeply intertwined with the book and ingrained in its reception.
There are also rumors that he wrote a continuation for it, but burned the manuscript for some reason.
@@robomaster5274 That's not a rumour. He burnt much of the second part, and starved himself to death shortly afterwards. The book was intended to be in three parts, but we have only the first part, fragments of the second and the third was never written.
Thank you for an eye-opening perspective. Great work.
Gogol is definitely very important figure for both cultures - ukrainian and russian. So if a lot of russians will figure the paragraph about troika, many ukrainians are knows about “Do you know a Ukraine night?..." from Gogol. A very iconic passage IMHO
Какой прекрасный у вас язык и манера речи! Слушаю и чувствую себя умным человеком.
Smart exposure. I like how you've brilliantly articulated your demonstration around "Dead Souls" of Gogol, making it the starting point of your questioning and coming back at it toward the end to show how one could easily with time twists the inner meaning.
This was brilliant! Cheers
This will stay for now the most genial attempt of conceptualisation of Moscovian history and political filosophy for me. Thank you Vlad, cheers from Kharkiv, Ukraine
"Moscovian", lol. Then there is no need to be surprised when you are called "Hohols"
@@rustr01 , Ukraine isn’t a country but contains different peoples. It will end up being partitioned as in past historical eras. The clowns that support The Kiev Regime defend a construct and borders establish by The USSR!
Wasn't Gogol born in the Ukraine? I seem to remember that one of his first works was based on Ukrainian folk tales? In any case, 'Dead Souls' is a fabulous read.
Yes, Ukrainian
"Taras Bulba" is a great novel that paints a vivid picture of the free-spirited warrior culture in the steppe.
@@ahmedabdullahi8180 at the time it was part of the Russian empire, and linguistically in that era, if you spoke and wrote in Russian, you counted as Russian first and foremost.
Yes, this book is called "Вечера на хуторе близь Диканьки". Once I visited his village in Poltava region, a place called Velyki Sorochyntsi with a designated museum during his life there, before he moved to St.Peterburg.
@@sergpodolnii3962 Thanks for that.
So now you have added to my already challenging future reading list. Once again, you have broken down a pretty complex subject into its constituent parts that even the layperson can understand. Thanks for the Gogol passages. Speaking of that wonderful writer, I wonder how much of the world has been exposed to his writings. To say Putin has no mind for history is an understatement. I wonder if he realizes that the people he is screwing over in Eastern Ukraine are descendants of the Zaporozhian Cossacks? He needs only to have someone read "Taras Bulba" to him to get a greater insight into the bravery and tenacity of those people. Thanks again, Vlad.
@Buddy Rojek How can others compare themselves to people with this kind of bravery. I don't know if I could.
@Buddy Rojek The whole premise for the invasion is a myth. That is what's so sad about the whole thing: tiny little despots upsetting the balance once again. This only proves the lack of understanding of their own past and blindness toward the will, not only of the Ukrainians but his own people. My tight circle of friends includes other Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles. We have gotten along for years in America and this invasion only brought us closer together. There is absolutely no animosity between any of us, but there Is a sadness that we tty to work through, but also hope that Ukraine wins and can start re-building. Many of us are no strangers to the horse and saber from childhood and never really forget the feelings those early days inspired.
Drastically improve my vocabulary with your videos. Great overview also
I like your content more and more. Its not something i can put on in the background and still get the point, when i watch you, i have to stop, digest rewind, watch a clip again, its what i like, you go deep, not for the timid or feeble minded...thankyou.
wow this channel is a true gem, thanks for sharing this, Vlad.
Utter pleasure!
The mysterious and wonderful UA-cam algorithms brought me to your channel. And I’m so grateful. A really extraordinary find!
From an American perspective, and specifically a New York one, I’d like to add (perhaps slightly out of the context of this video) that one of the reasons the west was so slow in seeing the rise of Putin and discerning the breadcrumbs leading to the trajectory to where we find ourselves today - and one I have not heard many analysts mention - is on account of September 11, 2001. I was there, I remember the horror. And I remember for the next X years the fear and concerns of Islamic extremism seemingly dominating all international thought and policy (leading, and being the excuse, to such terrible decisions like GWB’s Iraq war of 2004, for one). But with regards to Putin then, I still clearly remember him being referred to as an “ally” in the context of this newly expanded West coalition and this being the way his war against “violently Islamic” Chechnya was portrayed. The same US MSM outlets recasting today the horror of his history of invasions had a very different point of view some 19 years ago.
Just a thought…:)
Very valid point x
Wonderful the winds of the algorithm allowed you to drop by. I think the people who are now appalled by Putin break into several groups. Those who were very wary from the start. Those who got wary in his second term. And those who got wary when he came back in 2012. I was in the first group, but I can't boast, because it is true that he has undergone a vast transformation. I talk about his civilizational turn circa 2012 in other videos.
@@VladVexler
G'day,
Those same Algorithms brought me here, too.
If you might like to consider a Kangaroo Feeder's Viewpoint...(?).
Last Wednesday I uploaded,
"Pop-Psychobabble Analysing (Lilli)Putin's Waaauugh(!)..."
and yesterday I posted
"Global Warming Sit.Rep. ; Ukraine War-Effect Analysed..."
My Channel runs on a prepaid Mobile Phone, so I can't post Links...; you'll have to backtrack to my Videos to find them.
Think of it as a Contra Deal, you've shared your view ; hopefully you'll allow me to share mine.
Such is life,
Have a good one...
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
@@VladVexler it seems then he gave up all pretense about then of an open or intellectual society: the "don't say gay" laws, the foreign agent registration laws, etc. It would be great to hear you further analyze the personal & public influences on the Russian executive power around that time.
@@timgerk3262 we will talk more about all of this!
I love your lessons, Vlad! I don't know why. They won't do me any good. But it's still extremely pleasant to listen to such well organized and well presented material. I don't need to know this, but I enjoy learning it. I suppose I need guidance. Длинный Джон
Vlad, thank you and congratulations to a highly enlightening precious video. That's a great inspiration, honestly.
My pleasure and thank you - for being here.
This is fascinating, wow. Thank you for this carefully crafted explanation.
Such a struggle for Russia, forging its own identity. Sort of like it's an adopted elder child in the EU, trying to find itself both in its "family" unit and independent of that family. Integrating the familial values that little Russia was initially raised with, with the EU family's thoroughly different (and very Western) values, then trying to mix all of that with its own idea of what they should be. Going with the analogy, Lenin was a biological predecessor despised by this adopted child version of Russia - whose legacy left the Russia we know now with trauma stemming from being born into a failed, dysfunctional, deeply sick family. That kind of upbringing feeds a visceral all-or-nothing sense of vitriolic bitterness. "I'm not making your mistakes, you fucked us all up and now I'm left to fix the mess you made of me." But that trauma begets more trauma. Often identical to their own, sometimes more brutal than what they experienced, sometimes less, but always painful in its own way. Where can healing be allowed to occur when all you know is wounding and hiding (and hiding from) your centuries-old necrotic wounds?
Of course, this goes back much, much further than Lenin's regime. Generational trauma dies hard. I hope Russia can find the stubborn determination to heal in spite of its former (and current) selves. Debridement and amputation aren't pleasant procedures to undergo by any means, but to spare what viable flesh is left is worthwhile. There's hope in the aftermath of this madness.
Yes, I also think historical trauma has a great deal with the Insanity, relatively speaking, going on. Moving from this psychological framework to that of the spiritual one known by shamanic cultures, the trouble could be understood as collective “soul loss”. Golgol’s Dead Souls-as a title, an ironic theme and a true theme- fits right in. The indigenous, traditional Mongolian cultures of the lands east of current Russia, but part of the Soviet as well as earlier empires-were and are informed by this concept of soul loss. It typically occurs after trauma. A significant, necessary part of the soul detaches and becomes unavailable to the rest of the person. It takes the skills and knowledge of the shaman to bring it back. Until then, that part of the soul is stuck in the the underworld, land of the dead, or some such “place”-but in effect, a dead soul. As this is a collective problem, the soul is a plural one-Dead Souls, the metaphor Golgol uses in his many-layered novel reflecting the Russian psyche.
Hoping to share this thought with @Vlad Vexler as well as with you.
There seems to be a rogue remnant that loves and thrives on being spiteful ly out of step with decent humanity. Criminal brutish manipulaters of systems. Manipulating popular support to gain control and then to go rogue. Dragging a following of brutes along with them into the abyss filled with depravity and unspeakable inhumane actions, becoming a cancerous tumor on the body of humanity
Russia had its "chances" in 1918 and again in 1991 to establish a new way forward from the horrendous suffering created by their own rulers....some sniffed out a little money or petty power but most Russian are still SERFS...and did NOTHING...that is who Russian really are.
Lenin brought evil (communism) to Russia. Germany was almost on its knees during the First World War. In order to be able to send an army from the east to the west without consequences, the Germans send Lenin through diplomatic channels with a large amount of money, for soldiers, weapons, etc. Lenin spreads communism, the civil war begins and with that they solve the issue of Russia. While in other parts of Europe, communists were imprisoned, killed, expelled, etc. The ever-caring Germany sponsored the Russian Communists. The greatest misfortune that happened to Russia was communism, the destruction of religion, putting everything under one communist roof, labor camps, gulags in Siberia. How much the Russian people suffered because of Karl Marx's idea, which would not have passed even in Russia if it had not been sneakily introduced from the West (German, some historians mention Switzerland as well as England)
@@ceceliablair9177 ребят, это у вас травма..
Thank you for this brilliant (and frightening) analysis! ( By the way, the Dead Souls has been my Bibel during the last half century, I have read it like hundred times...)
Incredible!
For me this is so informative! thank you alot!
I just finished the translation. Excellent Vlad.
This is such a unique and well-articulatred presentation of the current situation from a Russian historical perspective that Putin obviously holds. You are particularly insightful as to why Putin does not like Lenin, something that has not made sense to me from my Western thinking. I am so thankful for the opportunity to see this even if the implications are somewhat disturbing. Thank you so much!
Well, actually he hates Lenin for one particular thing especally. Namely, as Lenin started the Soviet Union, he gave qute a lot of autonomy to all of the territories previously subjugated by the Russian Empire. Under Lenin's USSR model, these countries which then became distinct soviet republics should have had their self-governance as long as the 'whole body' of USSR was kept coherent. This is in straght contradicton to putler's idealized Russia's model in which it subjugates as much as it virtually can without giving any freedom to any of its subjects. In other words, he wants something like Roman Empire, thinking that it is Russia's destiny to designate the course of the world while at the same time he sees himself as some sort of chosen messiah or similar crap. As you can see, there is indeed a lot of paralells to nazism in his ideology.
@@martinpiekarski1512 didn’t Lenin draw up the borders of the modern Ukraine, a national and borders which had never before existed? And encouraged Ukrainian nationalism and made schools teach in Ukrainian for the first time?
@@GuinessOriginal Lenin deserves little credit for Ukrainization. From 1917-1922, the Bloodlands west of the Dnipro lived up to their name with WWI and a series of civil and international wars. There were two short-lived Ukrainian states, more likely because the Soviet Union had other things on their mind, like a civil war.
The move toward Ukrainization began late in Lenin's term, and continued through the years that Stalin consolidated his power in the Kremlin. Stalin reversed it starting in 1929. By the 1950s there was sort of an official Ukrainian culture: Shevchenko statues started appearing, Soviet cinema produced two films that presented him as anti-Tsar (which he was) but not quite as a Ukrainian nationalist (which he also was). Official Ukrainian culture was rural, "salt of the earth" and Russophilic. To be sure, Ukrainians contributed so greatly to Soviet achievements that they should be referred to as "Soviet", not "Russian".
@@GuinessOriginal Not exactly. Borders of Ukraine as an independent country were first drawn around 19 c., when t was still under Russan Empire but did not exist as an independent state. It gained some temporary independence around WWI after large chunk of its territory was taken over by Germans who served Russians some real harsh beating. Because Russan Empire collapsed and the successor soviet government was still in disarray facing multitude of problems at once, it temporarily gave up on Ukraine which had almost exact shape it has now, except for the fact it was divided into two parts: the alrger eastern region and smaller western area around Lviv which was largely populated by Poles who refused to give it up to Ukrainians and so fighting for that territory broke out. But the soviets under Lenin did not want to give up on Ukraine and during the 1920 campaign they were able to absorb the region to the USSR. Then they tried to do the same thing with Poland but failed. Still, for its doom Ukraine remained in soviet hands but was kind of autonomous republic known as Ukrainian SSR. For its doom especially because Holodomor happened not too long later. Ukrainian nationalism is one of the by-products of those times. Largely propelled by Holodomor which was a huge catastrophe. But it's not like it appeared right after Holodomor and did not exist before, because it has existed in ukrainian mentality for at the very least 200 years. Interestingly, those extremist nationalist factions, such as the Organization of Independent Ukraine were formed n the western, previously polish regions.
@@GuinessOriginal Also, keep in mind that Lenin was russian and not ukrainian, so naturally, he cared primarily for the russian interests. Later soviet leaders, such as Khrushchev and Brezhnev were ethnically ukrainian so they actually did more for Ukrainians. Still, Lenin had some contribution to ukrainian independence at the very least.
Well, I’ve watched a lot of your videos this afternoon and found them utterly fascinating and they really helped me connect the dots on a couple of things. Thank you.
Amazing insight Vlad. I just bought the book and look forward to reading it
Rewatching this video of yours is, among other, very enjoyable and entertaining
Thank you for posting this video. Your use of the metaphor in Gogol's Dead Souls describing Russia's rush to destiny with no clear direction is an interesting way to analyze the "special operation" and Putin's desire to restore the Russian empire. This is a brilliant and intellectually perceptive way to present this topic. What a coincidence that I had just started Reading Dead Souls after completing a re-read of Dostoevsky's The Idiot when I discovered this video. I look forward to more of your presentations.
Thank you very much for this video. How fascinating, that a work of literature can shed light on what is happening today in Russia, Ukraine, and Europe! It made me think about the assumptions that we who are educated in the Western democracies take for granted. The scariest part of this video was Putin's statement "What good is the world for us, if it is a world without Russia?" It made me feel that the entire world is being taken to the edge of a dangerous existential precipice.
I've been clicking through these videos for what feels like ages now, and I swear I'm going in circles! It's like one video leads to the next, and then the next, and before you know it, I'm lost in a vortex of endless content. Will there ever be a grand finale? A theory we can either confirm or debunk down the line? Or am I doomed to forever be stuck here, endlessly clicking one link after another?
This is a wonderfully perceptive piece of intellectual analysis. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to listen to your views on this subject. You have managed to pull together aspects of this situation that I had been dimly aware of and show how they are connected and may well have formed the backdrop to the mess that Putin has now got his country and potentially much of the world into.
Thank you!!
Same for me. Kudos, Vlad.
@@ghlscitel6714 thank you!
@@VladVexler It is an honour.
Absolutely loving these analytical videos! Really contextually emphasising and explanatory, so much so in fact that I really think you should become some sort of academic speaker! Love it, keep it up Vlad.
Thank you, I am an academic off youtube. I am a political philosopher.
@@VladVexler ahhh I see, had a feeling you were as you explain things so effectively. Anyways, love your videos and will definitely be spreading the word about you.
Dear Vlad,
I thoroughly enjoy your perspective on Russia in general, and on Putin’s aggressive ambitions and actions in particular.
This video is my personal favorite, and I must have seen it four times by now, a full year later. Both passionately poetic and analytically astute, it is an absolute gem.
Every time I watch it, however, I am curious as to why you don’t comment on Gogol’s Ukrainian ancestry. If nothing else, it is a curious coincidence.
Thanks again for your thoughts and your perspective. I wish you all the best.
Best regards,
Per
He mentioned it in the written video description. Maybe added later? I certainly noticed that he avoided this fact. Still a great video. Even intelligent Russians need to grapple with the level of propaganda they have absorbed.
What a beautiful passage. I'll have to look for a translation of Dead Souls to read.
You are a true classic. I'm following you since almost the very beginning and you hasn't ceased to amaze me.
When did you jump on board?
@@VladVexler very long time ago. There were around 100 subscribers I guess.
@@corneliumorgovan3505 wow! Sorry the early videos would have been bad!!
@@VladVexler No way. Not at all.
Wow! I enjoyed your analysis of the Russian psyche. You explained the tendency for Russia to see itself as the "other" - to reject the imposition of Western thought and methods of modernization. Question: Can you elaborate on what the Russian vision for itself would be, beyond rejecting and distancing from the West? Does it have one? The scene from Gogol seems to describe an unstoppable force hurtling forward, uncontrollably, without a clearly defined goal. Please elaborate on this topic in a future video. Thanks!
Yes, where is this going?
What a wonderful question. I think the shortest answer would be to go back to the 1910s, and draw a great deal from that period. Russia was culturally looking to the West. Democratic reforms felt possible. Politics was useless but shockingly low on corruption. To get more specific, I think there are political reforms Russia would have to make to stand any chance of letting go of its Imperial complex.
Well, read about the american exepcionalism, and interventions and land steal since it could started to do. Begining with the indiginous people holocaust, then against Mexico.
And the british, the french...
@@VladVexler That is an interesting way to put it. In the West, our historical education puts the late Tsarists period as particularly authoritarian. Thus, it was not any more ideal than Soviet Communism or post-Soviet Kleptocracy. What is modern Russia's attitude on that part of their history? If I wanted to be really cynical, I could make a case that it was the culmination of the Western-style feudal-monarchical progression that was common in pre-industrial Europe when it was first learnt. Did Russia get screwed by a "Western experiment" again?
Seems to me that all this ignores the fact that ideas are difficult to stop. Anywhere. Russia isn't unique in buying the first idea that claims to solve all ills.
@@VladVexler what do you think of the "Ruskiy mir" as a Russified version of the Pax Romana and the way some Russians see the country as the Third Rome and unifier of the Slavic and Orthodox world? I am yet to see anyone addressing this part of Russian history and its direct or indirect impact on the modern Russian culture and politics.
I have only recently discovered your channel, so please excuse me if you already discussed it.
I am so glad I found your channel. It always infuriated me that many Americans saw Russians as just Americans who talked funny.
Beautiful analysis.
I don't think Russia knows what Russia wants.
Putin looks back in time and uses that as a guide to move forward. But it's a different world, everyone has moved on. Ukraine is Russia's Vietnam. It's going to be costly and any gains will be disappointing.
Russia is 1922 with 2022 weaponry.
Vlad I am grateful for the amazing educational journey you are taking me on. Thank-you.
Thank you so much! I am still learning !
Bravo Mr. Vexler .....That is one fine educational video you put together there .....
This is your most important video imo, and definitely my favourite. It's such a scary and interesting thought, that at the core of the russian identity there is a question mark.
Indeed. My greatest takeaway from 17 months of war and watching Russian TV, is that the nation has a MAJOR identity crisis. They don't know who they are without an "empire", without an enemy, without the intellectual and cultural heritage in Kyiv - which can't be replicated. Ironically, Ukraine's identity and cultural ethos is much crisper.
Thank you for making videos on UA-cam 🤝🤝
Recently I’ve seen many great explanations of this Russian ideology, such as yours. I’m kind of new to the topic and what is really terrifying for me is how openely irrational it is. Western totalitarian ideologies at least TRY to rationalize their actions by some kind of pseudo-scientific argumentation or by presenting vision of ideal future, which is worth suffering for now. Where this Russian ideology is just openely bonkers. This is really scary.
LOL, this "analysis" is bull shit. You can't explain "irrational" behavior, you try to find some justification it is really irrational. And you readily find "evidences" everywhere. LMAO. This guy is dumb as flat Earth believers. If you really want to understand, first you should admit that there is rational explanation but you can't grasp it because you're out of context. You should admit you are wrong and stupid and can't clearly judge what is right and what is not. Only after you put aside your arrogant attitude "to know better" and humbly try to listen then you'll get your answer. And if you try to understand whats happening from a book, the best book for this is "War and Peace".
You know what's even scarier? Living in country with such a suicidal ideology :)
Hi from Russia👋
@Theta russian nazi
Hi Vlad Vexler,
Your analogy and way of speaking and telling about this subject truly touched me. It's an inspiration to start reading the literature you mentioned Thank you so so so much. Kind regards from the Netherlands.
Hug back at ya from London!
Dear Lord, Fukuyama couldn't have been more wrong...
Just found you, and I'm enjoying the uploads. Very informative and I appreciate your opinions... subscribed
This mentality was an evolutionary biological development necessary to chase wooly mammoths across long flat plains. Either you land the meal of a lifetime or become a stepped on smudge of flesh, you must keep rushing toward, don't ask where you are going to end.
I am smiling
There is so much details and information in this video! For someone interested about Russia and the USSR, it’s a real treasure. It is always worth waiting for your video. That reference to Gogol at the beginning is great. Thanks Vlad! Now always keep your health first. ;) We can wait.
Michel what a kind comment, thanks so much. Wishing you a lovely Sunday evening!
I agree, Michel, it is always worth waiting for Vlad's videos. They are invaluable to me. Like sitting in on an interesting university lecture. Vlad details insights with historical context, intelligence and a beautiful voice. ♥
Thanks Vlad. I just discovered your very interesting and informative site. Best wishes.
Great you discovered this place. There is also a second channel called Vlad Vexler Chat, where I answer Qs and talk more casually.
I've listened to a few hours of your videos, and Jesus Dude, why you are not over 1M subscribers is beyond me. You give tons more rich analysis than any other youtuber on the subject.
Spot on, thanks
Thanks Vlad. As someone with only a high-school understanding of philosophy, your videos are insightful and interesting. Especially since you mostly focus on contemporary topics. I do have one rather burning question: Do you think philosophers often need to express themselves in obusfacted / cryptic language? I feel like that's just a disguise for logical gaps, or at least that's how most people communicate when given the need to fill such.
This was interesting. I think your point about Russia's feeling of destiny without a clear cause is to the point. I've only read Pusjkin so far - I will definitely read Gogol. Is it possible Russia's lack of true direction started at the age of illumination? It is a country where both realism and romanticism are 'hard currency', I think. Just like being in Europe and not being in Europe. Being religious and being rationalistic. Spanning Asia but not being in Asia. Russia is a schism in and of itself. I believe Russia can be truly great and important, if it learns to live with these schisms, and continue to contribute to the worlds science and culture. But this will not happen under Putin's mafia regime or in a militarized police state. Yet I hope it will happen one day. I am hereby subscribing to your channel. Greetings from Norway.
As a Russian, my favourite writer is Dostoevsky. In many ways he was a deeply reactionary (right-wing and traditionalist) thinker and philosopher, which he expressed all too well in his more journalistic works, but... but... as a writer he was something else. I shit you not, I've read a lot of literature, Russian, English, French, American and from all over the world, but nothing touched me quite the same way as Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov". The other his 2 books I like a lot are "Crime and Punishment" and "The Idiot". I think my soul died, went through hell a bit, and then returned resurrected just from reading those books. And yes, I don't even like Dostoevsky's views and "politics", but, man, what a writer he was!
@@kosmosyche In Norwegian we also have such a problematic writer, Knut Hamsun. Horrible politics (he admired Hitler, and went to meet him) - beautiful, deep and vivid literature. He is still regarded as toxic, but he was also Nobel laureate. The world is a place for contradictions. Cognitive dissonance is the background music of the movie about humanity..
I highly recommend Gogol (who is, fun fact, Ukrainian as it turns out). I'm no expert, but Gogol has a sense of humor/absurdity that has quite a bit more... approachable than the other great Russian language writers of the Romantic era. He's got a lot in common with Kafka. His works aren't comedies, but they're clearly aware of absurdity.
@@tommarren3809 Thank you. I will request Gogol at my local library (my aunt is the current librarian).
@@erlinggaratun6726 Gogol is the one who wrote "Dead Souls", the one the author of this video quotes about Troika - Russia. You can for sure sense some absurdism and surrealism in his prose. Not quite on the level of Kafka, but it wouldn't surprise me if Kafka read Gogol and was influenced by him a bit. Or perhaps they were just kindred spirits.
Thank for the very thought provoking video.
war is ignorance, peace is compromise and compassion, this can only occur with understanding of the other, thank you for educating me. The more we understand the less we fear
Thank you Vlad, from yet another recent discoverer of your work, for this insightful tour into Russia's history and culture. Via an exquisite and pivotal quote from Gogol, no less...
I wonder what you think of the notion of Russia's fundamental differences from Western Europe when looked at from an even deeper historical perspective. By this I mean the rise to dominance of Muscovy, having taken on and started to emulate the strategies of absolutist authoritarian leadership from the Mongols who previously dominated them. In stark contrast to Novgorod, with its fledgling institutions and self-correcting mechanisms much more similar to those developing in Western Europe at the time - no doubt influenced by its membership of the Hanseatic League. I think it's a legitimate question to wonder if Russia would have become something very different to what it is today had Novgorod not been decimated, leaving no alternative to Moscow's concept of statehood on the table. Or indeed if Novgorod itself had risen to primacy over Moscow, setting up the beginnings of a Russian state from a very different set of values and ideology entirely.
There's a great (if somewhat light on details) UA-cam video about this very idea, at least as a basic overview to this picture. I'd love to hear your take on this much longer historical perspective. In fact, I think everyone would benefit a great deal from hearing your views on this!
ua-cam.com/video/f8ZqBLcIvw0/v-deo.html
I was about to ask the same question. Could you please share your take? Is it possible that Gogol correctly embodied the Russian psyche as aimless- or at least undefined as to their vision- yet furious and powerful (and ruthlessly conquering), like the Mongols?
My guess is that Moscow would have won anyway. The Mongols were impartial, if brutal, rulers, choosing whomever allied with the Khan. This happened to be Moscow- ironically, Novgorod submitted to the Mongols instead of fighting, and wasn't entirely destroyed.
So we don't even need to imagine; Moscow was propped up to balance against a rising Lithuania-- but to simply switch Novgorod in its place is an assumption that could not happen. I think that if Novgorod weren't destroyed, or become stronger than Moscow, it would simply have been what Moscow is today.
For any of the Russian cities to gain power, they would have had to accept Mongol rule, cooperate with them against Lithuania, and adopt some of their ideas. The common factor here is the Mongols. If Rus had never been broken apart, I think it would be a more European country. But history wanted differently...
I remember when Poland started her integration into CEE. Well, the Poles I was in contact with at that time were very irritated by the European narrative of bringing them into a better world where their old values suddenly seemed outdated. Their reaction was of wounded pride, and at that time European found them childish and ungrateful, and I think we missed something here. Now, the Poles have made a great work on themselves to adapt and benefit from the new situation within Europe, although this cultural shock still has aftermath in nowaday politics, when you hear their leaders. Russia has more difficulties in finding a new way of her own and choose to resort to old nationalist pride and blame game, becoming a war game. The rejection of western belief in convergence, under the guidance of anglo-saxon/european way, technology and business practices, is shared by many many countries, among them those with anciant civilisation : China, India, Iran, Turkiye, Arab world. But this feeling, which one can understand, is largely weaponized by authoritarian leaders with an aim to manipulate their people, while themselves are sending their own children in western schools and are buying assets in the hatred decadent - but rich - world.
Do you know, that between Moscovia and Poland/ Polish-Lithauen Commonwealth in last 500 years was 19 wars?! That milions of Polish was transfer to Sibieria during last 254 years? [ England his opponents was transfering to ....Australia ]. Can you show others country figing so much against Tyrrant? Because Moscovia since 1490 have ideology to spread his Ivan the Terrible imperializm and terror. And this Ivan , Stalin are idols for shorty Putin.
@@tomaszser470 Yes, I read a lot about Poland history. The period of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth should be better known by westerners. What I wanted to say is that Poland had her own moral resources to find her way in the post communist world and in the EU construction. I specially have admiration towards women in Poland, dating from when I visited the country during the last years of the communist era, women were simply fantastic in the difficult context ! Today Poland is a very important country for our Europe.
Are you French my guy? You should hold of with evaluating others. Poland might have once had a chip on its shoulder, but as of recently our society as well as leaders have had the clearest view of all, about what's realy important. As you in the western europe were trying to redefine biological axioms and building Nord Streams we were sounding the alarm. In the mean time your leaders are sanctioning us. You should look inwards and chill out with the condescention.
Really, Gogol answered why Russia started the war in Ukraine - by being born on the territory of today's Ukraine and considering it as a part of Russia :)
Gogol is arguably one of the most insightful Slavic writers of the 19th c!