Cerebral Flatulence

The latest brutal argument in the Caucasus, this time between Russia and Georgia, has ended with the Bear resurgent, Georgia humiliated and the West looking like savvy, co-opted bystanders. No, it’s not 1938 Czechoslovakia, but there’s no doubt we’ve entered a rough period of Realpolitik.

As always, history has a lot to say about news that seemingly popped out of left field. Lesley Blanch’s truly fabulous book The Sabres of Paradise will do more to enlighten you about the long, bloody, romantic relationship between Russia and the Caucasus than any number of news bulletins and documentaries. Pushkin was a young officer in the Tsar’s Caucasian campaigns; Georgia was long a Christian bulwark vassal called upon to harry the obstreperous Muslim mountain tribes. Shamyl’s heroic and ultimately doomed struggle against the Russian military, during the same era as Native Americans’ struggles with the U.S. Army, foreshadows the Afghanistan of the 1980’s and 2000’s, as well as the Chechen Wars and other Caucasian conflicts.

(An interesting discovery to be made when reading this book: it’s obvious that Frank Herbert read it while preparing his sci-fi masterpiece, Dune. No only are major elements modeled on Tsarist Russia, Caucasian insurgents and Muslim thought and history, but words long familiar to sci-fi fans — sietch and kanly, for example — are real Caucasian words.)

Note that the Caucasus propelled Vladimir Putin to power and continues to provide a means for him to remain in charge. (Whatever What’s-His-Name may do. You know, just like here). And the occupied Georgian town of Gori gave Russia its most famous and feared ruler, after molding his character with its quaint local customs.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 7:35 am and is filed under Blather, Noise.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.