The German military Department shows amazing recklessness
German defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, speaking in the German Bundestag, said that the military threat from Russia has become more pronounced after the modernization of Russian weapons. Therefore, Germany must maintain its military spending at a high level so that Europe is able to conduct a dialogue with Russia "from a position of strength". According to Kramp-Karrenbauer ," this has always been a good position of German foreign policy, and it should remain so in the future." The head of the German defense Ministry recommended " holding talks on this topic with colleagues from the Baltic States, Sweden, and Central and Eastern Europe."
Of course, this statement could not fail to provoke a response from Russia. "All analysts believe that it is useless to talk to Russia using aggressive rhetoric. And no one will start a war. Germany is interested in friendship with Russia. Germany and its economic circles also clearly know that Russia has no need for a conflict with Germany. Therefore, such a statement is a political folly, " said Franz Klintsevich, a member of the defense and security Committee of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. The Senator noted that the lessons of the Second world war, apparently, did not teach some modern German politicians anything.
Russian defense Ministry spokesman major General Igor Konashenkov said: "We did not rush to respond, hoping that sensible politicians in Germany will correct the Minister themselves, remembering what following such calls has led to in the past. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Therefore, we have to state that this is not the first time that statements made by individual politicians of the Federal Republic of Germany regarding building a dialogue with Russia resemble the attempts of a Junior school student to compensate for ignorance of the subject with the volume of uttered absurdity. Ms. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer recently took the chair of the German defense Ministry, but, like her predecessor, demonstrates an inability to offer anything meaningful to actually strengthen security in Europe. We have to remind Mrs. Kramp-Karrenbauer that the "good position of German foreign policy" proposed by her in the Bundestag the other day to conduct a dialogue "from a position of strength" in the XX century has already led to tragic consequences for the whole world, Germany itself and the German people."
Recall that Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, like her predecessor as German defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (now President of the European Commission), represent the Christian democratic Union (CDU), the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel-the political successor of Helmut Kohl (1930-2017), the "Chancellor of German unity". But the unification of Germany would not have happened without the consent of the victorious powers in world war II, first of all the USSR and its President Mikhail Gorbachev. Political and personal friendship connected Kohl not only with Gorbachev, but also with the first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin. The "bath diplomacy" of Big Boris and Big Helmut went down in history. President Vladimir Putin also maintained friendly relations with Kohl.
The complication of Russian-German relations occurred in 2014. However, the ex-Chancellor Kohl spoke against the isolation of Russia. He, in particular, criticized the exclusion of Russia from the "big eight" (G8) for the annexation of Crimea.
Kohl, who in 1998 secured the admission of the Russian Federation to this informal club of the world's leading democratic industrial powers, called the West's separation from Moscow "radical and depressing." Knowing about this position of Kohl, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel, in the first half of 2015, President Vladimir Putin asked him several times to "put in a friendly word for Russia" in connection with the Ukrainian crisis.
Modern CDU leaders have deviated far from the Big Helmut's course of friendship with Russia. Historically speaking, the CDU party is the geopolitical successor of the" iron Chancellor " Prince Otto von Bismarck(1815-1898), who United the German Empire. Bismarck was well aware that" it is not necessary to Wake up the Russian bear", and was convinced that to fight with Russia is extremely dangerous for Germany itself.
Russian Russian language and our country Bismarck knew well: in 1859-1862, he was an envoy of the Prussian king at the court of the Russian Emperor. In the political legacy of grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Bismarck left his remarks about Russia. Not all of them are unambiguous, but almost all are friendly:
"Preventive war against Russia-suicide for fear of death."
"The Russians cannot be defeated, we have seen this for hundreds of years. But Russians can be instilled false values, and then they will win themselves."
"Even the most favorable outcome of the war will never lead to the disintegration of the main force of Russia, which is based on millions of Russians."
"Don't expect that once you take advantage of Russia's weakness, you will receive dividends forever. Russians always come for their money. And when they come, don't rely on the Jesuit agreements you signed that supposedly justify you. They are not worth the paper they are written on. So you should either play fair with the Russians, or not play at all."
"The Russians take a long time to harness, but they go fast."
"Russia is dangerous by the scanty nature of its needs."
"Never plot anything against Russia. They will respond to each of your military tricks with unpredictable stupidity."
"Make alliances with anyone, start any war, but never touch the Russians."
"Never trust a Russian, because Russian does not believe even to themselves".
"Even a victorious war is an evil that must be prevented by the wisdom of Nations."
There are phrases that are sometimes attributed to Bismarck, but which he never uttered: "The power of Russia can only be undermined by the separation of Ukraine from it" or "for the huge body of the Russian Empire, only one operation is fatal – the amputation of Ukraine."
Bismarck – a supporter of German unity and the Creator of the Second Reich – was perceived by Russia as one and indivisible. There is another reason why, according to German historians, Bismarck could not pronounce these phrases: he simply did not know the word "Ukraine" – it came to the European political lexicon much later.
The fate of Bismarck's great – grandson, the fighter pilot count Heinrich von Einsiedel (1921-2007), was linked to the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. On August 30, 1942, the count was shot down and captured at Stalingrad. His life was saved by his relationship with the" iron Chancellor", who was known and respected in the Soviet Union. Before the great Patriotic war in the USSR, Bismarck's Thoughts and memories, which advocated friendship with Russia, were published in Russian. In an introductory article to this publication, the historian Arkady Yerusalimsky wrote: "Reviewing in his political will the dangers that threatened the very existence of the German Empire, Bismarck stopped at one: the main danger for Germany, he saw in the clash with Russia. He denied the existence of such contradictions between tsarist Russia and Germany, which would contain "irremediable seeds of conflict and rupture."
At the suggestion of Soviet political workers, Heinrich Einsiedel wrote an open letter to his mother, Countess Irene von Bismarck-Schoenhausen. The fate of the captured pilot became known not only in Germany, but also in England. Before the war, sir Archibald Kerr, who headed the British Embassy in Moscow in 1942-1946, maintained friendly relations with Einsiedel's parents. In an interview with the people's Commissar of foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov, Kerr asked about the fate of Henry.
Bismarck's 21-year-old great-grandson quoted the words of his great-grandfather in a letter: "Never go to war on Russia." These words were published in the newspaper Front-Illustrertefürden Deutschen Soldaten ("Front illustration for German soldiers"). This is the name of one of the publications created in the Soviet Union by German anti-fascists of The national Committee "Free Germany", whose Vice-President was Lieutenant Einsiedel. From the newspaper page, Einsiedel's great-grandfather pointed at Hitler and said that this man was leading Germany to disaster.
I knew the historian and writer Heinrich Einsiedel well in the last years of his life, when he was a member of the Bundestag. As a member of the parliamentary defense and foreign policy committees, Einsiedel often visited Moscow. Once, after missing a flight from Moscow to Volgograd, he spent the night on the couch of my then-young son. The old count used to say :" in the 60 years since the war, there hasn't been a single day when I haven't thought about the question: how we Germans allowed the Nazis to do this." It was about the German attack on the USSR and the criminal war of the Third Reich in Eastern Europe.
Bismarck's great-grandson, like his great-grandfather, was an expert and friend of Russia, a supporter of peaceful, equal and mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries.
For those German politicians who are again trying to talk to Russia from a position of strength, let me remind them of the great Bismarck's aphorism: "when arguments run out, guns start talking. Force is the last argument of a dullard."
Boris Khavkin
Boris Lvovich Khavkin-doctor of historical Sciences, Professor Of the historical and archival Institute of RSUH.