List of Russia Posts

These are what I think are the best articles from Da Russophile. They are divided by category and sub-listed chronologically. Must-reads are marked in bold.

Da Russophile

Geopolitics & Philosophical Thoughts on Russia

  • Reading Russia Right – this essay is the earliest summary of my main views on Russia, which exposes some of the common myths about Russia’s (supposed) autocracy, corruption and catastrophic demography.
  • Towards a New Russian Century? – the initial incarnation of my theory that Russia will profit from current trends in economic convergence, information technology and climate change relative to other Powers, and as such may become a swing state determining the balance of power between the two superpowers – the US and China.
  • Russia and Limits to Growth – how Russia should steer itself in a world of limited resources and pollution sinks.
  • Armageddon – how Russia’s youth are rejecting the Idea of the West, the fusion of postmodernist skepticism and civilizational identities and how this will lead to Armageddon.
  • Putvedev is Russia’s White Rider – explores Russia’s cycles of consolidation, reassertion, over-extension, stagnation and collapse, and how the rule of Putin and Medvedev fit into this pattern.
  • Kremlin Dreams Sometimes Come True – Russia’s high level of human capital, good macroeconomics, and energy windfall stand it in good stead for rapid convergence to Western living standards.
  • Reconsidering Parshev – a new look at the work of the geographical determinist Parshev, who wrote that Russia is not America on account of its exceptionally harsh climate, geography and security situation. In this era of economic crisis and rising disillusionment with the West, I posit that Russia is returning to its future of sovereignty, autarky and sobornost.
  • The Struggle between Europe and Mankind – an exposition of Nikolai Trubetzkoy’s 1920 essay Europe and Mankind, in which he argues that the notion of European supremacy is born of nothing more than a misguided egocentricity, and as such attempted assimilation tends to have baleful effects on the Westernizing culture – as frequently attested to in Russian history.
  • The Sisyphean Loop – this ‘unified theory’ of Russian history is the culmination of much of my work. Arguing from the nature and linkages between Russia’s geography, cultural traditions, imperial cycles, and belief dynamics, I conclude that Russia is caught in a ‘Sisyphean Loop’ in which all its attempts to Westernize – for a panoply of economic, cultural, and political reasons – merely end returning it to its imperial Eurasian past-and-future. The essay ends with projections of Russia’s future socio-political trajectory.
  • Defending the Loop – clarifications on and defense of The Sisyphean Loop.
  • Lessons from Byzantium – a review of Father Tikhon’s film Death of an Empire: the Byzantine Lesson.

Politics, International Relations, & Military

  • Lying Liars and their Lies – exposes three myths about Russia: Third World levels of corruption; falsified elections; and the Russian government’s supposed participation in the poisoning of Litvinenko.
  • More Reflections on Election Fraud – I criticize Illarianov’s methodology “proving” that Putin’s election results were majorly inflated.
  • Western Media, Craven Shills – a rather angry piece I wrote on the MSM’s mendacious coverage of the 2008 Ossetia War.
  • The Corpse Stumbles On – confirming the utterly premeditated and almost-genocidal nature of Saakashvili’s assault on South Ossetia.
  • Twitter Terror in Moldova – uncovers the myth that the bulk of Moldova’s color revolutionaries are popular or even democratic (disturbing links to Romanian ultra-nationalist organizations).
  • Review of “The Prodigal Superpower” (S. Rosefielde) – an intriguing, counter-intuitive book emphasizing the “structural militarization” of the late Soviet economy and its continuing effects on the Russian economy and politics today.
  • A New Russia-Georgia War? – self-explanatory, and apparently not – at least in 2009.
  • Perils of Water – a series of water-related news stories on Russia including a) the explosion at the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam in Siberia, b) a contrarian review of the Kursk sinking, c) piracy cases from the Arctic Sea to Georgia’s violations of maritime law.
  • Voice of the People Part 3 – English translations of Levada opinion polls, for Russians rarely say the same things as their limousine liberals. See also Lovely Levada.
  • Regathering of the Russian Lands? – I theorize on the wider meaning and implications of: 1) The victory of Yanukovych in the Ukrainian presidential elections, 2) the redrawing of the Eurasian energy map, 3) Russia’s continuing economic development, 4) Russia’s population growth in 2009, and 5) the volatile military situation in the Caucasus.
  • Sublime News #5, #3 – Saakashvili is getting desperate or more insane, however you look at it.

Economic Matters

  • The Trouble with the Economist – I criticize an Economist article dismissing Russia’s economic growth under Putin to rising global oil prices, citing the much more important role played by retail, construction and import-substituting manufacturing.
  • Education as Growth Elixir – I note that the speed of economic convergence largely depends on the “potential gap” between a nation’s human capital and its actual GDP per capita; considering that Russian education system is of First World, this stands it in good stead for rapid economic growth over the next decade.
  • Importance of Self-Sufficiency – an economic article I wrote in December 2008 about the crisis in Russia; some things I got right (including the lack of widespread social catastrophe, a neutral current account, growing state intervention and rising Russian influence over the Near Abroad), but I underestimated the scale of the downturn because I did not fully realize Russian companies’ sheer dependence on cheap Western credit during the boom years.
  • Decoupling from the Unwinding – the idea that those emerging markets (including eventually Russia) not capsized by the sinking and insolvent Western financial system are going to decouple from the economic unwinding once the initial shock from loss of cheap credit and export markets wears off.
  • Вторая Великая Депрессия – my Russian-language article outlining my main views on our continuing economic crisis.
  • Missing the Forest for the Trees – this post presents a unique-to-this-site article by Dietwald Claus, who works from his experiences in Russia to construct a counter-intuitive analysis of the causes of corruption, its consequences, and how to reduce it. “Corruption is the consequence of regulation and poverty: regulation creates the incentives for corruption, while poverty determines its price”.

Population & Demography

  • The Russian Cross Reversed? – initial thoughts on Russia’s fertility.
  • Out of the Death Spiral – an indepth look at its mortality crisis and prospects for improvement.
  • Faces of the Future – my model of Russia’s demographic prospects to 2050, which I argue are not anywhere near as dire as commonly portrayed by the alarmists. This is because the “pessimistic” models that forecast a decline to around 100mn by that date make questionable assumptions about continuing low fertility and high mortality patterns.
  • Myth of Russian AIDS Apocalypse – prognoses of an AIDS mortality crisis are unwarranted because they rely on unsubstantiated assumptions that the epidemic would be essentially heterosexual in nature and follow trends observed in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Myth of the Yellow Peril – demolishes the myth that Chinese settlers are taking over the Russian Far East.
  • Rite of Spring: Russia Fertility Trends – most comprehensive versions of my demographic work to date, in which I argue Russia’s population will slowly increase or stagnate in the coming decades instead of plummeting as in most scenarios. “Counter-intuitive and deeply contextualizing” – Thomas P.M. Barnett.
  • Russia’s Demographic Resilience – I predict the economic crisis will not have a major effect on Russian demography, especially in the longer term.
  • Through the Looking Glass at Russia’s Demography – in this summary of Rite of Spring, I note that Russian fertility expectations, average birth sequence figures and rising social confidence preclude a catastrophic fall in population over the next decades.
  • Russia’s Demographic Resilience II – this guest post by Sergei Slobodyan notes that contrary to the doomsayers, Russia’s demography continued improving in 2009 despite the economic crisis, with the population experiencing its first natural growth in August for the past 15 years.
  • Russia’s “Abortion Apocalypse”: А был ли мальчик? – a second guest post by Sergei Slobodyan unravels the media hysteria over a (non-existent) wave of crisis-induced abortions.
  • 10 Myths about Russia’s Demography – a summary of my demographic work on Russia for reference purposes.

History

  • Myths of the Eastern Front – explains how popular views of the Eastern Front are dominated by the memoirs of self-serving former Wehrmacht officers, who glossed over German war crimes and wrongly attributed the Red Army’s victories to its manpower superiority.
  • The Case of the “Stalinist” Textbook – a translation of the infamous chapter from Filippov’s textbook that apparently glorifies Stalinism (according to the Western commentariat).
  • Manipulating Russia’s Manipulation of History – though Russia is constructing a national myth out of the Great Patriotic War, it is certainly not the case that it is unique amongst other post-Communist states in manipulating history.
  • The Nazi-Soviet Pact as Second Munich – a close look at the antebellum timeline reveals that the Soviet tactical alliance with Nazi Germany was justifiable in the context of symmetrical Western actions and that current efforts to portray it as a co-instigator of the Second World War are just another example of Western “double standards”.
  • Fear and Fervor under Stalinist Industrialization – a review of John Scott’s excellent book Behind the Urals, who makes timeless observations on the absurd polarity of Western views on Russia. An incorrigible supporter of the socialist dream, he shows that though “the USSR in the 1930’s may not have been a utopia or anything remotely close, but neither was it the unadulterated Hell of deportations, famines and gulags painted by today’s Cold Warriors and their fellow travelers”.
  • Soviet Resilience Under Fire – a review of Alexander Werth’s Moscow War Diary about the Soviet Union and its people during the first, dark months of the Great Patriotic War. It focuses on the reappearance of national Russian symbols to bolster morale and the resilience of the Soviet people in the face of the murderous Nazi onslaught.

Russophiles & Russophobes

Liberasts

  • I Appear on Al-Jazeera – I get duped and used by the mendacious propagandists who run Al-Jazeera.
  • Kasparov the Bolshevik – how the rhetoric and mindsets of modern-day liberasts are little different from the old Bolsheviks.
  • Korchevnaya, a Russian Heroine – translation from a disillusioned liberast who reveals their bizarro-world in all its horrific detail: liberast web brigades, indoctrination sessions, paranoia and the elevation of the idea of “liberal democracy” beyond ordinary human compassion and decency.
  • “Radio Liberty – The Liberty of Mendacity” – my translation of an LJ post by Ksenia Larina about her husband Rinat Valiulin’s unpleasant experiences with RFERL, which she presents as a once-respectable institution that has degenerated into a nest of corruption, bureaucracy and censorship.
  • My series Sublime News, started in February 2010, has weekly updates on liberasm and Russophobia.

News & Misc

Culture & Humor

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