Naive Zelensky Believes in Europe

In his War and Peace, Tolstoy has an amazing image of Napoleon, as the French army is being kicked out of Russia.

Tolstoy compares him to a child sitting deep in a horse carriage, who pulls the curtain strings and thinks that these actions direct the horse.

For Tolstoy, Napoleon’s invasion had unleashed the forces, that neither he, no anyone else could control. Smart people, like Russian military leader, Kutuzov, were aware of it, and let powerful players (Russian soldiers’ commitment, resentment of Russian people against invasion, bad climate, shortages and so on) take care of things. Yet, for the western mind of Napoleon, he was still in charge. He still had to issue orders, which have the same effect as the action of the child pulling the curtain strings of the carriage.

That’s exactly what we’ve been witnessing recently. Incompetent Macron, Starmer, Germans, still think that something depends on their idiotic meetings, consultations, manifestations of solidarity, denouncements of Russian threats, and other forms of political theater and posturing. The train had left the station, yet the clowns still go through the motions, incapable of comprehending or coming to terms with the forces that they’ve unleashed.

Same applies to their counterparts in US. The Democratic establishment, which refuses to wake up, despite endless wake up calls. They still write high-winded exposes of Trump that they publish in New Yorker, denounce “new fascism” on NPR, and believe that had Putin been replaced, Russia would suddenly go away, breaking itself up in the process, and offering the juiciest peaces of itself to Uncle Sam and his hyenas.

Which takes me to Zelensky and his cronies. Those guys, actually know first hand, that the situation on the front had changed, and would change even more drastically, when US puts a pressure on them. So Zelensky is somewhat different from a child in the horse carriage pulling the curtain strings. What he has, however, is the naive Soviet believe in superiority of the West, which many Soviets, equated to Europe. So he still believes that the EU leaders matter.

But he also, obviously, can’t think outside the box. For years, the only fuel, that drove Ukrainian society, was hatred of Russia. That was their spiritual and physical nourishment. So what can he and his society do now?

It takes a lot of strength, confidence, historical precedence and general competence to suddenly back off, change the tune, and start from the scratch. Not many countries or rulers are capable of doing it. There is absolutely nothing in the history of Ukraine, in the current history of its leaders or the ideological and material state of the country that suggest that the country is ready or even capable of changes.

Examples of great Russian leaders from Prince Vladimir who baptized Russia, to Ivan the Terrible, Peter, Catherine, early Soviet leaders all point to Russia’s ability to change. Ukraine has a different pattern: meaningless, brutal, frequently courageous , yet self-destructive rebellion, and eventual switch of masters. Now Poles, now Austro-Hungarians, now Russians, now Germans, now EU. Just read Gogol with his imagery of wild troika ride, and his description of Taras Bulba and his self-destructive, suicidal military campaign, if you don’t trust me.

So the carriage is heading off the cliff, carried away by the wild and crazy horse, and incompetent children in the carriage who think that they control it.