By Andrei Sorokin, September 4th 2015

Translation: TB

Original article: http://www.odnako.org/blogs/parad-samoopredeleniy-na-paradah-pobedi/

Once upon a time in the West, there was a science called “sovietology”. It was concerned with researching the secret plots of the Kremlin through examining the positions taken by the members of the Politbureau on the Mausoleum tribune during workers’ marches and military parades. Based on this, it made conclusions and gave its valuable recommendations to the Western political leadership.

Of course, we couldn’t dream of rising to such lofty heights of science. However, we could make some conclusions of a similar kind based on the results of the two Victory Parades – the one in Moscow on May 9th and the one which took place yesterday in Beijing. Those conclusions would be in line with the Western scientific canons, based on observing “who stood where”. Or, rather, who wasn’t standing anywhere.

Our observation would be very simple: the main celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the two nations which bore the overwhelming brunt of the Second World War were not considered necessary to attend both by their erstwhile allies and by a few international partners of today. The USA and the majority of EU countries did not respond to the invitations sent from Moscow and from Beijing.

Even though the skeptics would have it that the cunning Chinese fellows, going by their observations of the anti-Moscow positions expressed on May 9th, sent two types of invitations to their “international partners”: one for those who they really wanted to see attending, and one for those whom it would be rude not to invite but who they would rather not see in Beijing.

Be as it may, the list of attendants on the stands in both the Red Square and the Tiananmen Square is basically the same, aside from variations based on regional specifics and other accidental factors.

And, my friends, it doesn’t seem like a “mausoleum fortune reading” or even a coincidence to me.

This, dear comrades, is the self-determination of the actors in the international political process made at the peak of the world systemic crisis.

First of all, this is an act of self-determination in regards to the main historic event of the XX century. Our “Western partners” and their clients have decided that the Second World War has been reduced to a Hollywood comic reading, with its lessons thrown out to the scrapheap due to being unnecessary and uncomfortable. Thus, history has already been falsified and rewritten based on the current needs of the masters and beneficiaries of today’s world order and the enthusiasts of a new Big War (which are one and the same). Nothing happened – which means that we can start the war chants all over again.

Secondly, this is an act of self-determination in regards to the Yalta system as the main result of the Second World War. Generally, here our “Western partners” are being honest. They openly proclaim the fait accompli of the death of the Yalta system and – and this is more important – they announce their renunciation of its main principles. To be more precise: any and all sorts of rules of engagement and competition between different civilizational projects, and even the very right to any different civilizational projects are eliminated from the current world order. There is only one true project – the Western one, and it grants others the license of being in line with itself. China and Russia have now been denied that license twice – on May 9th and September 3rd.

Thus, there is no such thing as “the united will of the great powers” anymore, because there can be only one “great power”, and it acknowledges no “rules of engagement and competition” – all it needs is “might makes right”.

Thirdly, this is an act of self-determination in regards to the delineation of frontlines in the current worldwide conflict. That is, the worldwide conflict itself is also acknowledged as an obvious reality and receives no further discussion. Here, our “Western partners” have drawn a very clear line: on one side, there is the “Progressive Humanity”, which has ignored the “militaristic” and “aggressive” Victory Parades in Moscow and Beijing, and on the other, respectively, there are the “outcasts”, the “Axis of Evil” of the XXI century. It isn’t exactly hard to tell who is going to be “the bad guy” and the prospective victim of the current worldwide conflict.

Among all this brilliant clarity of our “Western partners’” self-determination, we have two questions remaining:

  1. What is the matter of the current world conflict?
  2. What is the self-determination of the “Victory Parade powers” in regards to this matter?

This is to be discussed at a later time.

About the author: Andrei Sorokin, advisor to the Minister of Culture of Russia, publishing director of the Odnako group. Born in 1969 in Bryansk. Graduated from the department of journalism of the Moscow State University in 1990. Worked in the following publications: “Soviet Youth” (“Sovetskaya molodezh”); Riga’s “The Hour” (“Chas”), Latvia; “The Independent Paper” (“Nezavisimaya gazeta”); “Red Star” (“Krasnaya zvezda”), “The Profile” (“Profil”), “Russian Industrialist” (“Promyshlennik Rossii”), Moscow.

Personal quote: “Tanks do not need a road – tanks need a mission.”