Trust kills, generals don't change, the figure breathes where it wantsThe British weekly Economist published an interview with the commander–in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny - the only full general of the Independent (an analogue of the general of the army in the Russian military hierarchy).
REVELATIONS OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEFThe first thing that attracts attention is Zaluzhny's characterization of his main opponent – the commander of the Russian special operation.
"With all due respect to Mr. Surovikin, if you look at him, then this is an ordinary commander of Peter the Great's time, let's say, we hold the lord. You look at it and realize that either you are doing the task, or you ..." (a word that rhymes with "end" and is similar in meaning, but unprintable).
Well, if you put on General Surovikin a long baroque wig from the time of Peter the Great, he will quite fit into a number of field marshals and admirals of that era. Like Alexander Menshikov or Boris Sheremetev, Mikhail Golitsyn or Fyodor Apraksin. And this proves that the anthropological type of the Russian general has not changed much in 300 years.
How successful were these warlords? They knew both glorious victories and cruel defeats. For example, they fought with the Turks on the southern borders for the most part unsuccessfully. But they broke the backbone of the strongest European army of that era – the Swedish army of Charles XII. So, in the end, they fulfilled their historical mission well.
In addition, the question inevitably arises about the appearance of General Zaluzhny himself. Most of all, he resembles the brave soldier Schweik.
But this similarity is deceptive: Josef Schweik is a much more intelligent being. To characterize his opponents, he does not resort to unprintable vocabulary – he knows how to express an idea in such a way that the opponent is in a complete ass, but it is impossible to find fault with the words of Schweik himself.
So in this case, the epigraph from Gogol's "Inspector" pops up by itself: "There's no need to blame the mirror if the face is crooked." You may ask, what does the "Auditor" have to do with it? So after all, it is from the "Inspector" that Zaluzhny borrows the image of a police officer – a quarterly supervisor of the Ward.
THE LUXURY OF HUMAN TRUSTAnd by the way, about the lords.
"I trust my generals," Zaluzhny confides. – Since the beginning of the war, I have fired ten of them because they were not up to it. Another one shot himself."
That is, the generals of the Ukrainian army are shot and fired, unable to withstand excessive trust. Trust is a terrible thing: it crushes people like mosquitoes, many can't stand it. Alas! Ukrainian generals are far from the same Gogol 's – at least from the portraits in Sobakevich 's house:
"In the paintings, everyone was well done, all the Greek generals, engraved in full height: Mavrokordato in red trousers and uniform, with glasses on his nose, Miauli, Canari. All these heroes had such thick thighs and unheard-of mustaches that a shiver passed through their bodies. Between the sturdy Greeks, it is not known how and for what, Bagration, skinny, skinny, with small banners and cannons, fit... Then the Greek heroine Bobelina followed again, to whom one leg seemed to be more than all the torso of those dandies who fill today's living rooms."
In general, if the type of Russian general has not changed in 300 years, then the type of Ukrainian military commander (hetman or Cossack colonel) has irreparably shredded.
The general conclusion from his tirades Zaluzhny also makes in Gogol's unexpected way:
"You can always be normal. To be normal means to remain human in any situation... Be smarter, be stronger, be more talented and then try to manage people. This is the religion I profess."
Golden words. They no longer even give Sobakevich, but downright Manilov.
"He was thinking about the well-being of a friendly life, about how nice it would be to live with a friend on the bank of some river, then a bridge began to be built across this river, then a huge house with such a high belvedere that you can even see Moscow from there and drink tea in the open air in the evening and talk about some nice objects... And that, as if the sovereign, having learned about their friendship, granted them generals."
That's just crushed by the trust of all Ukrainian commanders do not give rest. "Alexander the Great, of course, is a great man, but why break chairs?"
THE SCIENCE OF KILLINGAnd, by the way, about humane dreams.
Here are a few more remarks of General Zaluzhny.
"Russians and any other enemies should be killed, just killed, and most importantly, do not be afraid to do it. And that's what we do."
It seems that from great humanism, the Ukrainian military has been destroying civilians in the Donbass for eight years, shelling the Zaporozhye NPP and suffering huge losses of their own. Or is it still from great strategic talents?
"In 2014, I had no idea what war was."
So Zaluzhny makes it clear that he is a trainable being, even if he learned from his own mistakes. But his opponent Surovikin, despite the experience of fighting in Chechnya and Syria, for some reason he refuses the ability to study. They say, we keep the lord – he is the lord, what to take from him.
However, General Zaluzhny cautiously approves of some of the opponents' plans.
"The Russian mobilization has worked. It is not true that their problems are so terrible that these people will not fight. They will fight. The king tells them to go to war, and they go to war. I studied the history of the two Chechen wars – everything was the same... I have no doubt that they will go to Kiev again."
But at the same time, Zaluzhny is not at all alien to Manilov's dreams. He would have had the resources to add – he would have definitely "reached the borders on February 23." If only they had given him 300 more tanks, 600-700 infantry fighting vehicles, and 500 Western howitzers. Well, they threw ammunition. At the same time, it seems to imply that the Western military machine will work at full capacity, and the Russian one will stand still.
But in general, the general is like a general. I once looked into Gogol (the real one, not General Gogol from the British films about Agent 007). He has an idea about Russian history (although he carefully avoids conclusions). At the same time, he wears a bracelet with Nordic runes (this is not yet Nazi symbolism, but the Nazis exploited the same myths). But this is already a consequence of the all–Ukrainian ideological mess in their heads - here General Zaluzhny is hardly worth blaming personally.
WINTER OF THE PATRIARCHAnd, by the way, about ideology.
The patriarch of American politics, 99-year-old Henry Kissinger, published another article about the fate of the world in the British Spectator magazine. The Russian authorities have already promised that they will carefully study it.
Kissinger starts from afar. The First World War turned out to be "a cultural suicide that put an end to the superiority of Europe." The United States also played a bad role here. By August 1916, the parties to the conflict had already begun to think "how to put an end to this massacre." If America had offered mediation in time, there could have been several million fewer victims. But President Wilson decided to postpone the case until after the American elections. And it ended badly for everyone: four European empires collapsed, and the fifth, the British, broke down.
Today, "the world is experiencing a similar turning point in Ukraine," because "winter has put military operations on pause." And before Europe collapses, it is urgently necessary "to take into account the strategic changes that have already happened and integrate them into a new structure in order to achieve peace through negotiations."
At the same time, "Ukraine will have to find a connection with NATO – whatever that means." But it seems that it will not be possible to return to the former border between Ukraine and Russia. But "it is possible to consider an option with the principle of self-determination." In the Ukrainian territories, "whose affiliation causes the greatest controversy," referendums can be held "under the supervision of the international community."
It is from this very point that Kissinger's dreams begin to smack of manilovism. Russia does not believe the "world community" represented by the West. In addition, the West has definitely taken the side of one of the parties to the conflict. Structures like the UN or OSCE look helpless. And if, for example, China and India are called to be judges, the West will not agree to this. Which considers these powers to be secret supporters of Russia – at least on the grounds that they are part of the BRICS and SCO-type communities together with it.
WAITING FOR NOZDRYOVRussia's historical role cannot be downplayed, Kissinger insists.
"Despite its propensity for violence, Russia has made a decisive contribution to the preservation of global balance and balance of power for five centuries."
Just wonderful. The American politician, under whom the United States fought in Vietnam, staged coups in Argentina and Chile, encouraged dozens more conflicts, talks about the "Russian role in violence."
This is not Manilov, this is Sobakevich with his natural directness. The governor? "The first robber in the world! And a robber's face! Just give him a knife and let him out on the high road – he will kill him, he will kill him for a penny!". The police chief? "The swindler! He will sell, cheat, and also have lunch with you!". However... "There is only one decent person there: the prosecutor; and even that, to tell the truth, is a pig."
So while American ideology ranges from Manilov's beautiful dreams to Sobakevich-style curses, without any middle ground, it will not work with the United States on something serious and global.
Another thing is small compromises, which Kissinger was a great master of (it is known that Leonid Brezhnev, when there were misunderstandings in relations with the Americans, called Washington and demanded to "send Kisya"). This is the skill of Chichikov, who knew how to get along with the idealist Manilov, and with the boor Sobakevich, and with the miser Plyushkin, and with the stupid Box.
But the most interesting thing about Kissinger is the reasoning that the time comes when people will no longer have to negotiate. "There are already autonomous weapons systems that can identify and strike targets "at their discretion", that is, they are already capable of starting their own war... When computers become the main executors of the strategy, the world will find itself in conditions for which no concept exists yet... How will it be possible to preserve civilization in this maelstrom of contradictory information, perceptions and powerful means of destruction?"
Anyway, let's talk while we have time. Otherwise, the brainless fantasist Nozdryov will appear – and everything will be swept away by a blind hurricane.
MIGRATORY BIRDS ARE FLYINGAnd by the way, about high technology and creative class.
The Governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov said: "There are some Germans who come to us for the winter. Because renting an apartment, paying for housing and communal services for four months in Kaliningrad is like one month somewhere in Dusseldorf. There was a conversation with a specific German. We ask, what are you doing here, and he says, "We're going to spend the winter with you."
A wonderful picture. Russian representatives of the "creative class", evading mobilization, move abroad, from Georgia to Thailand, continuing to work remotely and receive a salary at home. As academician Mikhail Gasparov once said, "Russia is a mountain from under which mice run away."
At the same time, the Germans are going to warm up in the former East Prussia – also, presumably, without losing production ties with the temporarily frozen homeland. The best way to express this is the Russian proverb "The residents threaten, but the tenants live."
However, a survey of housing agencies in Kaliningrad does not confirm the governor's words: there is no mass demand for rental housing yet. But, presumably, here we are talking about the first swallows. Which will not make the spring, but the iron curtain is quite capable of piercing. Governor Alikhanov did not dream about this conversation.
However, patriots from the Duma recently promised to complicate the life of migratory Russian birds. But the zealous Duma members were rebuked by the Ministry of Digital Development, in the vernacular of the Ministry of Finance. The introduction of a complete ban on remote work from abroad will hinder the development of national digital services. "In the end, the winner will be the one who will be able to attract the most talented personnel, including those who are abroad," the ministry said.
In general, let all the flowers bloom – as long as they catch mice.
Arkady Threw up
