russians, eh?

THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, EH?

An Offhand, Out-of-Line Commentary

By Izzy Ess of Inverted-Ness

A sunny day on Hudson’s Bay brought sailors from old Russia toward Canada for reasons that were secretive.  Of course the Russians had their own fresh water but they were running out of good old fashioned air, the stuff that must be had for the survival of the fittest and it was this attitude that Russians had that they would be the Rulers of the World.  Before them, Fascists had fought hard to be the leaders of the so-called “Free World.”  They had failed in WWII.  However, circumstances being what they were, America supported Germany against the Russians and almost seventy years later, Germany is really leader of the Europeans and again has visions of trying once again to conquer other countries, economically, like France, Great Britain, Greece and Italy.  Americans act innocent but I agree with some that they would be the Kings, the Rulers of the Free World, holding out Democracy as a Political Ideal and reason for their righteousness in acting like they do.  I wondered what the Russians were up in my native land; I know what the Americans are up to...

In 1960, I was in Acapulco Bay and there the Russians were, again, with about 10 Russian submarines afloat in a very tranquil tropical bay in Mexico, where tourists gather to see the divers dive at La Perla, to honeymoon, to catch a glimpse of underwater wonders, to get a sunburn and to watch the gecko’s crawl along the walls and ceilings of their bedrooms.  I wondered what the Russians were doing there?  I sketched a picture of the submarines with red flags waving, a picture which was lost along with the marriage vows a few years afterwards.

Tsars, in Russia, were replaced by Commissars who took advantage of a weakened Germany to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, which ranged from China to a huge chunk of the Eastern part of Europe, including half of Germany.  When the Union and the Brandenburg collapsed, Russia’s borders did recede back east, while all the old Republics did revolt and take back sovereignty, once more, including former East and Western Germany.  Memories are long in Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, old Latvia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and what’s left of Yugoslavia, Bosnia, old Serbia and other Baltic Countries.  Germany’s Third Reich did not last a predicted thousand years but rather did collapse abruptly in the year of 1945, when Russian troops did enter old Berlin and found the body of Der Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler Schicklgruber, charred beyond an easy recognition.

Not long ago, the powerful Teutonic Hapsburgs ruled the central part of Europe, annexing Hungary and parts of Germany and Italy and having influence in Spain and Portugal by virtue of the children of the Empress of the Eastern Kingdom, Oesterreich, or Austria, in English.  Antoinette, Marie, who became the Queen of France and Portugal’s Prince Philip, were both children of the Empress of the Austria that was so powerful.  The Austro-Hungarian Empire did collapse after WWI and gave back all its territories to the countries that it had controlled.  During WWII, the Western Kingdom, the Third Reich, successfully extended its control from the old English Channel to the Suburbs of old Moscow before it, too, collapsed in unconditional surrenders to all the Allies, which then included Russia under Stalin’s Iron Rule.  WWIII was then begun with the establishment of Russia’s Iron Curtain, running right through Germany.

This great big sweep of History is brought to you by one who missed the action of the war in Europe which began officially in 1939 just after I was born in Hamilton, Ontario in Canada, in February, 1938.  I was aware that in the year of 1945, my parents waited for the phone calls from Ukraine and Austria that would have told them that their kith and kin in Europe were alive and doing well.  The phone calls never came, nor did any letters or transmissions otherwise because their kith and kin, all told a hundred of them, had been murdered in the Nazi Death Camps.  The lucky ones had immigrated to this country, Canada, between the first and second world wars.  I could feel my parents’ sadness but was unaware of what the details were until much later when I lived in Europe from 1967 to 1969 where first hand accounts and written stories were available.  The two best books I read were “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” and “The Arms of Krupp.”  In 1968, the Russians militarily took over Czechoslovakia while in 1954, they’d taken Hungary.  A Czech escapee worked with us in Bern, Switzerland, and told a first hand story of events in Eastern Europe, from his view of having just escaped from Czechoslovakia before the Russians closed the borders.

Of interest to me was the 1968 Democratic Convention back in the Chicago that I had adopted as my foreign city.  The pictures of Police suppressing mobs of rioters reminded Europeans of the Fascist methods for inciting riots and then taking over countries, declaring that they were just helping friends in other countries.  The European newspapers and media spread the pictures of Police hitting students on their heads with Bobby Sticks and arresting them.  They seemed to see this as a suppressed attempt at revolution fostered by the students in America.  Student unrest and riots were occurring over all the world, including the much publicized deaths of four students at the hands of Police in Kent University in Ohio.  Since that time, some real concessions have been made by leaders in all countries to increase respect for younger folks who need a voice in government.

Since then, I’ve recognized the same techniques of conquest in Chechnya and Syria, Iraq and Georgia, Rwanda and Ethiopia and other countries.  Right or wrong, I’ve felt that WWIII began just after WWII and it’s being fought with different techniques including monetary ones.  The latest battle over Syria is being fought by the USA and Russia and it is Russia that seems to be a winner now by supporting the present rulers while the Americans have been supporting the revolutionary forces, each side attempting to convince the world that righteousness does play a role in World Opinion.  Perhaps the clever Putin will slip up and World Opinion will swing over to Obama who seems to lack the World’s Opinion and UN Support, at this very moment.  Presently, Putin seems to have saved the Americans from an embarrassing military action.  What actually happened may not ever be revealed as predicted by George Orwell in his masterpiece, “1984.”  In his book, Orwell predicts that entire wars will be staged or really fought depending on the power of just a few strong leaders who will change the world’s opinions with words instead of weapons, gold instead of mass destruction, subtle changes in historical records instead of just the facts.  He predicted the extensive use of mass surveillance for increased control without the bloodshed of the innocents.  He predicted that the World Opinions will be manipulated by the clever leaders and their staffs without so much as a small explosion or a death or two.  Unfortunately, the leaders in his book were much more efficient than the present leaders of the world.  There’s still a lot of innocents that lose their lives, men, women and their children.  The trend is promising.  During WWII ten million Germans and twenty-five million Russians were annihilated, as well as untold numbers of Japanese, Italians, Austrians, Americans, Canadians and others who did or didn’t choose up sides.  I believe the Viet Nam “border skirmish,” involved the loss of 50,000 American lives.  The incursion into Iraq by the British and Americans cost much less in deaths by the invaders but I believe there were some 100,000 Iraqis that were killed.

I’ve taken many literary liberties to write this commentary.  Please forgive me and forgive my errors in the details that must be more complicated than I have written them.  If I have written something glaringly, or subtlety, in error, please don’t hesitate to let me know; that’s how I learn.  I am aware that I must simplify most things before I learn them.  In my teaching days, I understood that if I couldn’t summarize something in less than five minutes, then I really didn’t know my subject well.  This subject of war and domination has been plaguing me for many years.  I wish I understood it more than in the simple sense that some folks are greedier than the rest of us.  Thank you for listening…

THE END

© izzy sommers, md

Welland, Canada

Septembre Vingtième, 2013