Russia: White Terror, Red Terror and Dry Terror

Given the appalling circumstances in Ukraine today due to the invasion of the criminal Putin, it is imperative to retrace the Russian record. Crushing with truths is necessary in the hope of influencing some noble minds that must be shaken by so much totalitarian propaganda.

As an introduction to this news story, I confirm that in his 2019 inaugural speech in Ukraine, the brand-new President Volodymyr Zelensky told legislators: “I don't want my picture in his offices: the president is not an icon, an idol or a portrait. Post photos of your children and look at them every time you make a decision.” It was an example of moral hygiene for all politicians around the world.

It has been said very lightly and stupidly that the current Russian regime is one of “capitalism of friends”, which constitutes a contradiction in terms since capitalism or liberalism is a system that inexorably entails the division of powers, freedom of the press, competing political parties and freedom all of which is abolished in today's Russia, in addition to relentless persecutions of all dissent, poisoning opponents and imprisonment of all protests against the regime's boots. Capitalism is not exhausted in bank transfers, it is first and foremost a moral system based on mutual respect, which is clearly absent in the current system dominated by a gang of outlaws.

In this regard, it should be noted that Alexei Navalny — a leader of the opposition in hiding and one of those poisoned by Putin, rescued by German doctors — is now encouraging his fellow citizens from his presidency in Moscow to continue protests due to the invasion of Ukraine, which currently number more than thirteen thousand detainees, while attacks by Russian forces do not even respect mothers and children's hospitals, schools, humanitarian corridors or accredited journalists. All in open violation of the Geneva Conventions that turn invaders, in addition to the outrage of other people's territory, into war criminals.

Richard Pipes' monumental work entitled The Russian Revolution is only comparable to that of William Herny Chamberlin not yet translated into our language: The Russian Revolution. In the first mentioned 1045-page book in the Barcelona-Debate edition, the author detains himself in the tsarist regime implemented in 1547 by Ivan IV ('The Terrible'), over time he was characterized by the abuses of the political police (Okhrana) with its repeated requisitions, prisons and torture, censorship, anti-Semitism, the servants of the gleba in the context of the use and disposal of land by the tsars and their acolytes without any representation of those governed in any form. Until, due to irresistible pressure and when it was too late due to constant abuses, Nicholas II consented to the Duma (three times interrupted) in the midst of revolts, various ruminations and an excessive influence of Alexandra (“the German” as the opposition in the middle of the war) based on the atrabiliary councils of Rasputin. Finally, the tsar abdicated first, and then a Provisional Government was formed, ultimately led by Kerensky, who promised “the establishment of democracy” but which eventually handed over power to the Bolsheviks (when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Kerensky, from New York, offered help to Stalin by correspondence which was not answered, a sign of contempt deserved by those who intend to act on both ends).

Imagine the situation of the entire peasant population in tsars' Russia, uneducated that absorbed the most radicalized positions of the long period from 1905 when the revolts began until 1917 when the revolution broke out first in February and then in October when the soviets rose to power under Lenin's command. Imagine these people who were promised to give all the lands of the nobility to others who proposed to limit power in a regime of constitutional and parliamentary monarchy. Undoubtedly, for these people, the first path was much more attractive than that of “saving the monarchy of the monarch”. When there were cessions of some lands, the communal system was established, which a few leaders tried unsuccessfully to replace with that of private property (primarily because of Stolipin's stolipin's efforts). The fact is that land in the hands of the nobility as an imposition led to believe that all property was an injustice, extrapolating the privilege to legitimate acquisitions.

Of the four revolutions that have so far most influenced events in the world, the English revolutions of 1688 that dethroned James II by Mary and William of Orange, where over time the ideas of authors such as Algernon Sidney and John Locke were increasingly collected, the American of 1776 that marked a point even more profound and an example for all open societies with regard to respect for individual autonomies, the French Revolution of 1789 which enshrined human freedoms, especially with regard to equal rights (art. 1), that is, equality before law and property (art. 2), although the counterrevolution shattered and finally the Russian Revolution of 1917, which, from the perspective of the demolition of the dignity of the human being, constituted a coup of major proportions that still endures without the addition of “communism” because it carries the memory of hundreds of millions of massacres and many other famines. From white terror to red terror made things worse and, as is known, the current system in Russia is one of mafias entrenched in power: terror in its entirety.

We have previously written about Vladimir Bukovsky — the most prominent dissident alongside Solzhenitsyn — but now we add something very little known about his claim to free nations: “Thousands of books have been written in the West and hundreds of doctrines have been created by prominent politicians to find a compromise with this type of regime. Everyone is avoiding the only correct solution, moral opposition. Western democracies have forgotten their past and their essence, that is, democracy does not consist of a comfortable home, a smart car or a profit at work, but first of all it is the inalienable ability and desire to defend individual rights.” The Soviet Union provoked the greatest genocide in human history: 100 million murders from 1917 to 1989 as shown, in addition to the work of Pipes, the Black Book of Communism written by six researchers led by S. Courtois.

We have already said that Garry Kasparov — better known for chess — wrote that current President Vladimir Putin celebrated nothing less than the history of the KGB, printed effigies of the murderer Felix Dzerzhinsky, eliminated the debate about whether Lenin should be removed from the place of honor he occupies on Red Square, since he stated that “to do so would be to tell them to the Russians that they have venerated false values.” Kasparov also pointed out that the texts disseminated by Moscow University misrepresent the most important events in Soviet history and “the invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia are described as joint operations of the Warsaw Pact to preserve the integrity of the socialist system.” Kasparov was rightly outraged by the fact that the Russian authorities — unlike what happened after the Hitler Holocaust or the recent inauguration of The House of Terror in Hungary — have not produced even the slightest mea culpa. He insists that Putin “is the greatest enemy of the free world”, with whom “there is no dialogue possible” and “nothing is true of what he says about Ukraine”, invaded by the rogue Russian government... An international scandal for all decent people.

The current situation in Russia, as has been said, dominated by the old nomenclature, has taken over by those thugs the most important part of that country's economic activity. In the midst of intimidation and curtailment of the press and threats every time there is a simulation of electoral processes and institutionalized violence, this grotesque parody poses a danger to civilization as well as a catastrophe for the suffering Russian people who must absorb dictates from power that life are approved and which are disapproved. Let us bear in mind that the liberal tradition implies unrestricted respect for the life plans of others, that is, defensive force can only be used when there are violations of the rights of others; everything else must be respected regardless of the opinions that one may have about the characteristics of the neighbor's life project. Respect is unrestricted, only the invasion of individual rights deserves to be blocked, something that — among many other issues — the Russian bully and boss is not willing to accept. In this line of argument, there are those who have made the fuss of suggesting that in order to understand what is happening we must try to resort to the logic embedded in Putin's gang as if there were the possibility of two logics in a context where universal rules of logic are confused with errors of appreciation, in truth it is opposite values: freedom in the face of tyranny. One plane is that of logical or illogical and another is that of true or false propositions.

Now the very dignified coordination of Ukraine's defense by President Volodymyr Zelensky in the courageous and moving metre-by-meter struggle, despite his manifest inferiority of forces, has encouraged the United States and Europe to send arms and to establish severe financial sanctions on the Russian autocrat. . The scenes broadcast by journalism of refugee women and children elsewhere to leave husbands and fathers behind in the defensive war of a brutal attack are truly moving. Putin, a hundredth killer with 6000 nuclear warheads, but the Ukrainian defense is fierce, while the Russian advance also suffers casualties from high-ranking generals and military devices run out of gasoline, their tires are punctured, they suffer serious mechanical damage and there are even Russian soldiers who change sides in between of drones and bazookas that destroy their tanks. All in the midst of repeated displays of disagreement in various areas in the Russian high echelons, but while the damage inflicted by invading boots on Ukrainians is horrifying.

Ukraine is part of Eastern Europe, covering six hundred thousand square kilometers, with forty million inhabitants, dates back to 882 and after invasions by Mongols and Russians it was able to consolidate its territory in 1919 at the Peace Conference in Paris, which is unknown to the USSR amid always criminal “ethnic cleansing” until the collapse of the Wall of Shame and in 1991 it was declared an independent state with ups and downs of varying magnitude up to the present day known to all (including the pro-Russian Viktor Yanvkovich who finally fled after having decreed the shooting of rebel students and other major troubles).

The imprint of great excellence of Kiev University, the remarkable agricultural and industrial production of Ukraine, the elegance of the buildings of its cities, the high quality cuisine, the local music and above all the religious, cordial and supportive spirit of its people should be highlighted. For now, the humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on that suffering people continues its cruel and appalling course. At the time of writing this note we do not know how this embarrassing episode will end for elementary civilized behavior, but whatever the outcome Ukraine will have won comfortably on the most relevant plane: the moral plane, the level of dignity, the plane of courage and the most expensive values to what is inherent in what is properly human, while Putin and his henchmen have sunk deep into the manure of history.

The task for those who intend to live in a free society is to meet the fallacies of statism, whatever denomination is used for Leviathan to run over people's rights. The moral obligation of all those who claim to be respected is to contribute to straightening and strengthening the pillars of freedom. There is no excuse for refraining from such a large mission. At this stage of the process of cultural evolution, it is imperative to establish additional limits on political power so as not to run the risk of turning the planet into a huge Gulag in the name of a democracy that is actually degrading towards kleptocracies of varying degrees. Today the greatest danger is disgusting characters like Putin, only admired by slave spirits.

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