Maxim Shevchenko
“Mikhail Gorbachev was a politician and statesman who left a huge impact on the course of world history. He led our country during a period of complex, dramatic changes, navigating large-scale foreign policy, economic, and social challenges. He deeply understood that reforms were necessary, and sought to offer his own solutions to pressing problems.” That’s what Vladimir Putin said.
Of course, Nicholas II was also a politician who “left a huge impact on the course of world history,” namely, the collapse of the Romanov dynasty and the Russian Empire. If we wish to argue in this way, we can say that Hitler also had a huge impact on the course of world history. Why stop there? Judas also had a huge impact on the course of world history. But Nicholas at least left a positive legacy behind, precisely because he thereby precipitated the revolution and the power of the people. Gorbachev had the opposite effect on history, bringing about the capitalist restoration and, finally, taking power from the people.
Gorbachev is the captain of the Titanic, escaping while many of his ship’s passengers died.
He not only saved himself, but lived the rest of his days in comfort. He escaped with the first-class passengers, with whom he drank coffee and brandy, and sometimes danced in the wardroom. Together with the captain, the officers also escaped, as did the head cook, ship’s priest, stewards, and bartender. The steerage-class passengers were left to the mercies of the waves, fate, and chance.
But the lucky survivors all explained the catastrophe and their salvation by the fact that the Titanic was a monstrosity of totalitarian shipbuilding personally designed by a Tyrant and, therefore, poorly conceived and improperly constructed (with haste, to please the Tyrant). That they had objected at the time (but who listened to them?). That the captain and the crew were prevented from the ship properly by intelligence agents and political bodies. That there had been fifty years of tyranny and repression before the ship had even left the port, and how can you steer the ship until you understand the history? That, of course, every human life is priceless, but since no one was promised anything, since everyone bought their tickets voluntarily, and since everyone has families and loved ones, they decided to save themselves when the ship was sinking. After all, everyone’s position is determined by will and ingenuity, and if they had reached leadership positions on the Titanic, it is solely due to that will and ingenuity. The world rests on people like them, and equality and responsibility are leveling lies.
But, if they are special, then their salvation means more than just their own safety, it is the guarantee of a future, a free and open world in which their unique experience of disaster will become the foundation of universal prosperity.
After all, someone has to tell what really happened!
Therefore, they, along with the captain, got into the boats while the rest of the losers - and what else to call second-class passengers? - choked in icy water.
Having reached the shore, the captain and all the survivors led the social movement - “A World without the Titanic,” which came to power after a quick revision of history and a small coup d’état in the name of freedom and prosperity, leading the red-brown cattle back in their pens, and showing the representatives of the lower classes that the time of totalitarianism and the errors of the Titanic had passed.
The captain of the Titanic received a well-deserved pension and received numerous congratulations, thanks and gifts from the heads of the very companies competing with the Titanic.
The iceberg that the Titanic hit was named “The Iceberg of Freedom,” and the day of the disaster began to be celebrated as a public holiday.
And what else to say about Gorbachev?
Well, as I see it, Gorbachev was one of those who wanted to "awaken from the nightmare of history." A man of reason who couldn't understand why things couldn't be reasonable, like, say, converting the Russian empire into a bigger Sweden. A failure of the imagination,
you might say. Nightmare wasn't interested; Nightmare doesn't give up so easily; Nightmare has lots of friends and relatives, both inside and out. So things didn't work out so well. Indeed, not well at all. Nightmare says, "Well, at least these days I'm not marching millions of people off to death camps." A kinder and gentler Nightmare, at least for the moment.
About all Gorbachev got was someone in Germany wrote "Danke, Gorbi" on a wall. And I wrote the following poem:
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Greeting-Card Verse, 1989 (you guys have these over in Russia too, right?)
They say that
unimagineable things
have happened
in the East:
that the sky is blue,
that the dogs are still,
that the wire fences
bow down in the snow
gracefully
offering apology —
Who knows
what we will see
when spring returns?
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Well, we found out, didn't we? But thanks for trying, Gorbi,
and good luck with your next project.
It was another world. All anyone said about him in the Chicago clubs was - Hey, great guy who helped trash the Wall - or - Why doesn't he get rid of that birthmark, it's pretty easy to do!....Photos of the breadlines, the dilapidated, poorly constructed buildings followed. Corrupt multinational oligarchs, much like the carpetbaggers after the Civil War, took advantage and accrued great wealth. Mikhail got a comfy pension, protection and relative peace. The West respected him, and Russia at least acknowledged "good intentions". But, without his weakness and ineptitude, The Russian people would not have freed themselves of the Soviet yoke, and their country would not be the beautiful place it is today