RUSSIA AS A VANGUARD OF EUROPE

Ambassador Rogozin

Reply to Dmitri Rogozin's Article on  Russia and Europe

Ответ на статью Дмитрия Рогозина об отношениях между Россией и Европой 
Risposta all' articolo di Dmitri Rogozin sui rapporti fra Russia ed Europa
Réponse à l'article  de Dmitri Rogozin sur les rapports entre la Russie et l'Europe
Antwort zu Dmitri Rogozins Artikel ueber Russland und Europa

The article of His Excellence Dmitry Rogozin "Repeating the abduction of Europe (in http://natomission.ru/en/society/article/society/artnews/42/) touches some themes which are at the center of my blog http://www.europestwolongs.blogspot.com, with a freedom of judgment which is appreciable in a diplomat.

Although we completely subscribe to the central thesis of Mr. Rogozin, i.e., that “juxtaposing Europe and Russia” amounts to “a profound delusion and misinterpreting the whole is blind to history”, we have some precisions to add as to certain aspects of the mutual relationships of these two areas, which are dealt with in details in our blog.

1.Europe, the West and the South

I remark preliminary that the Straights of Bering and even Vladivostok are much more “eastern” than Indonesia proper and the island of Moro in the Philippines, the more Eastern countries of Islamic Faith, and that Senegal and Morocco, the most Western parts of Islam, are more “Western” than Iceland and Portugal.

In practice, the “West” is in reality just the North of the Planet, and both Europe and Russia, but also the United States and Canada, belong to it. At its turn, the Islamic town of Kazan is on the same parallel of Moscow, Edinburgh and Belfast, i. es., more “Northern” than Berlin, Paris, London and Brussels. So, one has to be cautions in utilizing geographic metaphors for designating cultural identities.

The latter may be traced, and even with difficulty, thanks to historical, philosophical and political concepts, more than to geographic ones.

Personally, I find that “Western Civilizations” are characterized first of all by their common descent from the Old Testament; hence, they include both Islam and Western Secularism, but all of them differ from the “Eastern” traditions of San Jião and from the “Southern” traditions of animism and pantheism.

Within this broad “Western Cultural Area” there is a “tighter” “circle”of “European” culture, which is characterized by the acceptance of the continuity of the Roman tradition, through the “Translatio Imperî” via the “Three Romes”; hence, Western Europe, Russia and Turkey, whilst the USA, the Shiite Islamic countries and Israel do not want to pertain to this “core Europe”, because they reject a legitimization through the theory of the “Three Romes”, seeking their own, messianic, forms of historical legitimation.

2.Russia in Europe

The whole of my blog is devoted to void the prejudice, which His Excellence very appropriately calls “Repeating the abduction of Europe”, according to which Europe and Russia are “completely distinct civilizations with manifestly dissimilar values”.

My blog tries to demonstrate this point of view by dealing with a lot of specific historical and cultural phases, where the role of Russia and of Europe is absolutely interchangeable (migrations of the peoples, Eastern and Græco-Roman influences, Absolutism, Enlightenment, European Federalism, Romanticism, Nationalism, Marxism, a s.o.).I hope that my objective has been achieved, since statistics show that a growing number of readers oall over Europe are following attentively my posts.

3.West and South

According to my point of view, the “South” of the World should not encompass Islam, which is so similar to Europe that many if the characteristics of Europe came even from it. When young, the present Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan used to say that, should all Europeans convert to Islam, nobody would even perceive a difference.

Let’s mention the objective of the unification of the World which was anticipated in Dante’s idea of the Christian Empire, but whose model was the Caliphate; the main features of Catholic and Evangelic theologies (aristotelism, averroism, thomism); the national characters of Spain, Southern Italy and the Balcanic States (besides the ones of many Republics of the Russian Federation) which are deeply impressed by mysticism, Islamic architecture and Arabic or Turkish linguistics.

It is true that Islam participates, today, to an external pressure exerted on “the West” by other parts of the World, for changing the  present cultural and political balance of the same. However, this pressure does not come, primarily, from Islam, which is partially “internal” to the West, and is also politically weak, but, rather, from the Far East. The changes which will likely derive from these pressures are an open question, that needs to be addressed attentively by public opinions, intellectuals and authorities. However, some form of change is needed in Europe’s best interest, because the present balance of the West is too much unbalanced Westwards, so that many “typically European” values, like spirituality, culture, excellence, are sacrificed to performance, economy, technology, profit, and this leads to that overall cultural crisis of Western Europe that the Ambassador correctly denounces.

Such balance shift would not not mean, according to us, a demise of the European Identity, but, on the contrary, the re-discovery of its most deep-rooted origins, which include the ancient Middle East, the Peoples of the Steppes, the Arab Philosophy as well as the heritage of the German, Russian, Austrian and Ottoman Empires.

According to us, a Europe which would become more “Eastern and Southern” will be much nearer to Russia than the Europe of today. At the end of the day, the Polovcy of the Slovo o Polku Igoreva, the Khazars,the Shagané, Hadji Murad, Chakovskij and Diagilev are  an integral  part of  Russian Culture, in the same way as Averroes, Suleiman the Magnificent and Orhan Pamuk are full-fledged Europeans.

4.The Role of Russia

We agree that, so as his Excellence affirms,  Russia is exercising already now a role as a guardian of European culture. That role was expressed very appropriately, in his times, by Tjutchev, by his expression “the Russian Arch”, which has been utilized again by Sokurov, for his film bearing the same name. This expression means that Russia has absorbed so much the culture of Europe, that it is in a condition to preserve such culture inside itself even in these times, when it risks to be overwhelmed by globalization.

However, it is globalization, not “the South”, that endangers Europe’s culture and future.

As outlined in our blog, we recognise a certain  well-groundedness in the idea that Europe is culturally in decadence, and Russia is in the side of the future. This idea has not been invented either by Russian nationalists, nor by the newly born Russian Federation, but, on the contrary, has been a constant theme for a large part of European intelligencija, from Križanić to Kühlmann, from Leibniz to Herder, from Von Baader to Krüdener, from De Maistre to Nietzsche.

In the present days’ turmoil of the European Union, Russia is indeed the sole country with a clear cut vision for the future of the whole Continent, and having the means for implementing it.

However, this extraordinary opportunity, that Russia presently has, could be jeopardized easily, as it happened after the Congress of Vienna, when Russia did not succeed to have its proposals about the nature of the Holy Alliance endorsed  by Austria and England, and this brought about a continuous conflict between Great Powers and nationalities.

Joseph De Maistre, author of “Les Soirees de St. Petersburg”, whilst leaving his long-term assignment as the Ambassador in Russia of the Kingdom of Sardinia, affirmed: “Russia could have done so much for Europe but has done nothing”.

For being able to exploit the present opportunities, both Russia and Europe should focus much more on the study of their cultural traditions and on the ways in which they could foster cooperation alongside such traditions.

5.From the Atlantic to Urals

It is also true that today De Gaulle’s slogan is outdated. First of all, De Gaulle left the power more than 40 years ago, and the world has changed dramatically, emphasizing large distances and brood spaces.

Secondly, he was, unfortunately, no more successful, in implementing his vision, than Tsar Aleksandr 1^st in implementing his one.

It goes without saying that Russia is not limited to Urals, but includes also Siberia, Donji Vostok and a lot of Asiatic Republics.

A project for a really united Europe should have a consideration also for the future of such territories.

It is also true that Russia is doing very much in Siberia, and the visit of Nr. Barroso and Mr. Solana in Khabarovsk should have been very instructive for them under this point of view.

It is true, finally, that economic cooperation with West Europeans for Siberia will be the best way for assuring the European character of that area. Very good examples exist, such as the collaboration with the Italian Alenia and Pininfarina, for the production, in Komsomolsk na Amure, of the “Sukhoi Superjet 100”. However, long term problems for Siberia exist, and they should become an item of Euro-Russian discussions.

6.Operational suggestions

We hope that the article of Mr. Rogozin will be useful for persuading diplomatic, political and cultural circles, that a further reflection on the theme of the cultural interrelationships between Russia and Europe is urgent, for being able to lay the grounds of a necessary cooperation between the two areas in many and many fields.

Our blog cited above is a first tentative to find a ground where, by the utilization of modern technologies, Europeans of the East  and of the West may discuss about their common problems.

We would be happy to have also the Ambassador Rogozin and other Russian diplomats on our pages.

LES SOIREES DE ST.PETERSBOURG

The De Maistre, a Russian-Savoyan Family

де Местр: русско-Савойская семья

I De Maistre: una famiglia russo-savoiarda

Les  De Maistre: une famille russo-savoisienne

Die De Maistre: eine russisch-savoische Familie

One of the most impressing achievements of Russia’s successes in Napoleon’s war was the fact that St. Petersburg had become one of the most important intellectual centers of Europe, also because it became the target of different groups, most of them thinkers, as well as Freemasons, of aristocrats fleeing from the Revolution’s and Napoleon persecutions.

A family, which well symbolizes this “Golden Age” of St. Petersburg, is the De Maistre Family, whose statues are in front of the Castle of Chambéry, in France,the  former capital city of the Duchy of Savoy and the native city of the two brothers.

Joseph et Xavier De Maistre were the sons of the higher magistrate of the Duchy of Savoy, the original cradle of the Dynasty, which, at the time of the French Revolution, was governed by local magistrates on behalf of the King of Sardinia, residing in Torino.

Savoy was, already at that time, a country of French culture, in the same way as other territories of the Kingdom of Sardinia, such as the County of Nice and the Duchy of Aosta.

As many other European aristocrats, Joseph de Maistre had embraced Freemasonry, which, according to him, would have offered a purer way of understanding religion, as well as a way for fighting against the moral degeneration of the ruling classes, which characterized the last period of the Ancien Régime (as testified by famous masterpieces, like “Les Liaisons Dangéreuses” of Choderlos de Laclos). In fact, it results that one of the main objectives of famous revolutionaries, such as Robespierre, was, precisely, as it had been for Puritans, the one of hinging back Religion to its originary purity, as well as to fight public immorality.

However, the path followed by Joseph de Maistre was different from the one followed by French revolutionaries. Similar to what happened to most of the “Enlightened Monarchs”, such as Catherine 2^nd and Joseph 2^nd, and to Goethe, when the French Revolution came up, he gave up his belonging in Freemasonry and in Enlightenment, and fled, from the native Savoy, into the core of Sardinia’s Kingdom.

He also moved his core interests, from the urgency of a purification of religion and customs, into a reflection on French Revolution, which, according to him, fulfilled, to a certain extent, his wishes of purification, in the sense that it constituted the long-due punishment of France, of its Kingdom and of its aristocracy for their guilts. Notwithstanding the above positive impact, the Revolution lacked, for De Maistre, a constructive character. According to him, the deep-rooted nature of humankind is well expressed by the Catholic idea of original sin. No social revolution may change this fact, so that a sound society may be grounded only upon a realistic and pessimistic notion of mankind, on the necessity of  the alliance Throne and Altar as a discipline needed for minimizing Evil. In conclusion, the French Revolution has been a purification of the past sins, imposed by the Divine Providence. It will allow the Church and the Kingdom to stand up stronger than before. For this reason, no use withstanding Revolution using its own methods: and, this, not only because, according to De Maistre, traditional institutions must show themselves morally superior to the ones of Revolution, but also because Revolution, having been decided by God, is, to a certain extent, irreversible. t can just be overcome, not destroyed. Finally, the end of Ancien Régime has also another positive aspect, the elimination of the pretention by the Monarchs, to achieve a “sovereign” power, whilst, according to him, the only real “sovereign” power belongs to the Pope. So, at the end of the day, De Maistre is not a reactionary, but, on the contrary, the forebear of conservatives like Tocqueville.I

Following to the important role of Marshal Suvorov in fight against Napoleon in Piedmont, Joseph de Maistre establishes a link with Russia, which, according to him, might fulfill, after France, a providential task within Europe’s history: the one to save Europe from himself (i.e., from the corruption of the Ancien Régime and the fanatism of Revolution). An idea which will be shared by many authors, the most famous being Dostojevskij. In the meantime, an opposite, but parallel,  attitude was rising in liberal and progressive circles. For instance, Heinrich Heine expressed the hope that the Revolution, defeated in the West, could take place in Russia (an idea which, it goes without saying, would have received a large support).

So, Joseph de Maistre transferred his family (including his brother Xavier) at its own change, to St. Petersburg, where it represented, on a voluntary basis, the Kingdom of Sardinia, which, at that time, had been reduced, by Napoleon’s conquests, to the sole island of Sardinia, and that, therefore, could not afford the expenses of a full-fledged Embassy in Russia.

The long years of stay in St. Petersburg were very fruitful, from a cultural point of view, for both De Maistre brothers. Joseph entered into the very complex and sophisticated political and cultural environment of the Emperor, dominated by Cazrtoryski, Novosiltzev and Baroness von Krüdener. However, his policy was conflictual with the one of the Tsar, especially because he tried to push the Tsar and the Russian aristocracy to embrace on his own positions, including a tentative to convert the Tsar himself, or, at least, many important aristocrats, to the Catholic Church. This tentative was in line, but also in competition, with peaceful efforts  undertaken  by German protestant sects, and, in particular, by Baroness von Krüdener.

The Tsar did not appreciate this very personal and very passionated way to interpret his ambassador’s role, and asked the King of Sardinia to call back De Maistre to Sardinia’s capital, Torino. Indeed, De Maistre was very critical of the Tsar’s position, affirming that: «Russia could have done very much for Europe, but it does not do anything».

De Maistre criticized especially the trend towards Protestantism, which, according to him, had found its expression in the Manifesto of the Holy Alliance, which was, in practice, an alliance between Orthodox and Protestant powers; according to De Maistre, Russia, having refused to reunite with Catholicism, was preparing a new revolution. From his point of view, De Maistre was undoubtedly right, since the cultural basis of the Holy Alliance were the philosophy of Saint Martin (to which De Maistre adhered during his “Masonic” period), the Baroness von Krüdener (a protestant mystic, living at Alexander’s Court), Franz von Baader and Jung-Stilling (seeVon Baader’s “Über das durch die Französische Revolution herbeigeführte Bedürfniss einer neueren und innigen Verbindung der Religion mit der Politik“, which Von Baader composed in 1814 and sent to the King of Prussia and to the Emperors of Austria and Russia).

According to Jung-Stilling, the French Revolution precedes immediately the Advent of Antichrist. Whilst the Antichrist proceeded from East to West, true believers should have proceeded the opposite way, towards Russia. Under the influence of von Krüdener and Jung-Stilling, thousands of “awakened” flocked to Crimea.

In the meantime, De Maistre had written “Les Soirée de St. Petersbourg”, one of the masterpieces of philosophical literature in French, which, whilst expressing in a classical form his philosophical and theological points of view, constitutes also a vibrant celebration of St. Petersburg as a crucial cultural center of Europe during the first half of the XIX Century, and an act of personal nostalgy for the City.

Eventually, De Maistre was also, for a short period, Prime Minister of the Sardinian Kingdom, and Governor of the Island of Sardinia, implementing, in these roles, the theories he had worked out, about the needlessness, for Counter-revolution, to follow the violent and intolerant paths typical for revolutions. In fact, he opposed to persecuting the many Piemontese aristocrats which, under the Napoleonian occupation, had collaborated with the French, so betraying Sardinia. Moreover, De Maistre, contrary to what could be imagined, was a forebear of the theories of the Piemontese Historical Right, that catholic-liberal élite which imposed to the country Italian unification under a constitutional monarchy.

De Maistre’s work is described, in the manuals of history, together with the ones of Bonald and of Burke, as the basis for the counter-revolutionary thought of Restauration. This is truly the case. However, the main interest for such works today does not reside in their aspect of critics towards liberalism, but, on the contrary, especially in the one that, by trying to overcome the culture of the Revolution, these authors anticipated philosophies and ideas of later thinkers, which, at their turn, have deeply influenced today’s society. So, whilst Burke anticipated Dirk Russel’s ideas about the opposition between the American and the French Revolutions, and Bonald the ones of socialist utopic revolutionaries, De Maistre’s stress on a supposed pre-existing harmony of Ancien Régime, axed on the character of the Pope, anticipated St. Simon’s and Comte’s ideas of an “organic society”, whereby such society would have been governed, no more, by Throne and Altar, but by Science and Management.

Le Soirées de Saint Petersbourg was published in Paris before De Maistre’s death.

Joseph’s brother, Xavier, was also an intellectual deeply involved in the anti-Napoleonic struggle. His main profession was to be an officer. He served in the Sardinian Army as long as Sardinia resisted Napoleon. Afterward, he entered the Russian Army and fought in the Caucasus against Cechens. The military adventures of Xavier de Maistre allowed him to realize some of the most famous works of French Romanticism, such as “L’histoire du Lépreux de la Ville d’Aoste”, which he wrote during the retreat of the Sardinian Army, defeated by Napoleon, from Savoy to the Aosta Valley, as well as “Voyage autour de ma chambre”, and  “Le prisonnier du Caucase”, devoted to Chechnya, which anticipates several works of Russian authors, including  Tolstoj, on the same subject.

The history of the De Maistre brothers, Savoyan, Piedmontese and Sardinian officials, politicians and intellectuals in Russia, shows how deeply Western Europe and Russia have been interconnected in that period of their history.