I’ve been answering questions about various things in the comments, and have found that to be a good way to address all topics people are interested in which might not fit into an article anytime soon. Consider scanning them, you may find something useful there.
I’ll try to keep articles shorter, writing more often instead.
“Russia’s only real allies are her army and navy.” – Tsar Alexander III (+1894)
People don’t often have this on their list when thinking about places to move to but they should, because when things get serious, only a strong military will save you.
Sure there might be plenty of small countries which might be attractive in one way or another, but what happens 10 years from now when a big bully takes them over, or forces their ideology on them? Latin America’s history is a sad litany of assaults coming from the US. It seems rather naive to hope that they won’t continue, or intensify as global tensions rise.
In this, Russia truly stands alone, for she comes as close to unconquerable as a country can, for reasons not well understood in the West.
Westerners who’ve moved here often mention, and I very much experience it too, – a sense of security, stability, and safety, safe in the sense that Russia has no neighbors or far flung enemies who could seriously threaten her militarily. It’s something I never thought about in past decades living here, but today, with regional war threatening the Middle East, race war threatening Europe, the US and China facing off over Taiwan, and civil war in the US, Russia seems like an island of calm in a raging sea, even with the ‘Ukraine’ conflict ongoing. Russia’s only serious potential threat would be China, with her much larger population, but China and Russia are the closest of allies these days. The sense of safety here is a real, palpable thing, and a real benefit of living here. Feeling on edge about what’s in store for the West? In Russia, you can relax.
You ask, if she is so mighty, why is much smaller Ukraine hanging on? For many reasons, for one thing, Russia is not fighting an all-out war because she is interested in keeping ‘Ukrainian’ infrastructure as undamaged as possible, both the parts which will become part of Russia, and those which won’t. Second, it isn’t just ‘Ukraine’ Russia fights, but a combined NATO, using the hapless ‘Ukrainians’ as cannon fodder – armaments production, financing, rebuilding damaged infrastructure, satellite communications, targeting, intel, training, etc. is being done by NATO. There are many more arguments from military types.
The bottom line is that ‘Ukraine’ is no indicator of what Russia’s military is capable of, and I want to spare your time, and explain some things you perhaps don’t know about why Russia is virtually unconquerable. The main reasons are:
- Her size
- The mindset of the military here and its history
- Cutting edge technology (addressed in preceding article)
- The stubbornness and patriotism of the population
- Economic autarky – especially energy
- Changes in technology favor land powers and hurt sea powers.
- Her Christian faith
Some of these need no explanation. Trying to make articles shorter, I’ll only address a couple.
Military mindset. – Many people don’t realize what a martial culture exists here, and how deeply engrained it is in the psyche. Since the beginning of the Russian state 1000 years ago she has been almost continually at war. Her flat open plains allowed her European heartland to be attacked and invaded from every possible direction, by Mongols, Turks, Poles, Austrians, British, Hungarians, Swedes, French, Germans . The latter two massive armies included large contingents from every imaginable nationality in Europe. The only way she survived was to develop powerful military traditions and attitudes, which make Russians renowned soldiers, ready to perform feats of mind-boggling bravery and stoicism, and die for their country. Darwin was a quack, but Darwinian is the right word to describe Russia’s military toughness.
It’s not just personal bravery, but professional competence. ‘Ukraine’ revealed that there is much to criticize in the Russian military, but also impressive achievement. But the key thing is the centuries old traditions – of manufacturing cutting-edge armaments, of training officers and fighting men, of maintaining a large standing army. Russia has been doing this on a world-class level since Peter the Great, that is, for 350 years, and there is great national pride in doing this well, with many brilliant generals, heroes, and battles to take inspiration from. She is in no way inferior to Prussia in this glorious history.
A tweet posted today.
As a journalist, I’ve had to cover Russia’s military parades on Red Square, which if you haven’t seen, are stunning, and have compared them to other countries’ and it’s not even close. Russians are so much better at this. Wars aren’t won on parade grounds, but in this case they reflect of the superiority of her martial tradition.
A recurring theme in these articles is how incorrect much of what is taught about Russian history is in the West. For example, the Russian military was not defeated in WW1, and was poised to deal Germany a knockout blow in the Spring of 1917 when she was collapsed from within by a color revolution. I’ll write about the revolution some other time, but trust me on this, it’s true. Russia also owes much of her WW2 victory to men born and raised, especially the officers, before the ravages of Communism. It is not to Communism that Russia owes that success but rather despite it. It is due to the Communist disaster that the Germans came very close to winning.
ZOG media makes much of the heroism of ‘Ukrainian’ fighting men, and I too find it impressive. And therein lies another lie which needs to be untangled. Those aren’t ‘Ukrainians’, they’re Russians! There is not now, nor ever has been, a ‘Ukrainian’ ethnicity. Their heroism shows how Russians fight. I use quotation marks for a reason. So many journalists who take Russia’s side in the conflict fall into this error. Subject for a future article – moving on.
Much is made of Russia’s nuclear arsenal, but I’m skeptical. Even in all-out war, the logic of mutually assured destruction holds, and it is not at all clear that going nuclear would make any sense to Russian leadership if faced with defeat on the battlefield. They like to threaten for political points, but pulling the trigger is another matter entirely. The main value of nukes, and it is a huge one, is to deter anyone else from using theirs against you.
Stubbornness of the population – Even if by some unlikely chance invaders managed to defeat the military, they would then have to occupy this enormous country, and fight for it city block by city block with an armed populace willing to die. It would be a nightmare, and the ongoing guerilla war would likely be more than any invading army could manage. And even if this were overcome, Russians simply would not cooperate. One reason Communism didn’t work very well here was because the people engaged in widespread passive-aggressive behavior, which they developed into an art form, seeming to comply with its absurd demands, but resisting all the way. The pedantic and orderly East Germans were much better at Stalinism then the Russians ever were. This behavior came back with a vengeance during Covid. I pity the occupying regime dealing with that.
Russia and America are similar in their impregnability. America has two oceans, a tough fighting mentality (the white people anyway, though not as tough as Russians), and an armed population. Both can fall only through internal subversion, currently at an advanced stage in America. If Kamala is installed (I pray not), it may well be over for her. Nice to know there is a good place to move to if that happens.
I recently stumbled across an interesting short article on Twitter about how changes in technology now favor land powers over sea powers, due to inexpensive guided munitions. Worth a look – also from a good account promoting the idea of moving to Russia. Gone are the days when sea power England or the US could force their dominance with a fleet. Russia could sink the entire US navy within a couple of hours with submarine launched missiles. More to the point, the tiny Houthis can close the red sea, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
The banner with Christ has become the most popular and ubiquitous battle flag in the conflict in Ukraine. It is Russia’s oldest battle flag, going back 800 years. The documentary mentioned below discusses its meaning at length.
Russia’s Christian faith – It’s a serious military asset. It differs from Christianity in the West in that it is completely aligned with a sense of national identity, and in times of crisis, it unifies the people and the fighting men in a way Western Christianity cannot, anemic and divided as it is among so many denominations, most of them a parody of Christianity. If you are a believer, you should know that there are many examples in Russian history when the nation fasted, repented, and prayed before entering battles against hopeless odds – and won. Russian Christianity teaches that this is due to intervention by God and the heavenly hosts. As a believer myself, I think this is true. Finally, the demons who run US foreign policy have made it a priority to attack and weaken Orthodox Christianity in Russia. Why? Because they understand its power, both spiritual and practical (and hate Christ).
(Outside Moscow, and very impressive, with one of the biggest WW2 museums in the world next to it.)
This is a very good Russian documentary on Rumble with English subs about how Christianity is spreading rapidly among troops the ‘Ukraine’, and how it radically increases their will to fight.
Russia is as close to impregnable as a country could possibly be, and in our age of war and rumours of war, this is profoundly reassuring. For people looking for a land truly safe from the predations of Christ-hating elites gone mad, Russia is the only country which can gaurantee that with raw military power, which is the only thing which matters in a fight.
An ending quote to mirror the one above:
“Remind me, how many divisions does the Pope have?” – Stalin after WW2, discussing the influence of the Vatican.
Let me know if you think this was too long. I’m trying, I really am. It was made longer by all the interesting pics and videos, of which, on this subject there is an inexhaustible supply. Here are a couple more.
(Another huge military cathedral, to honor the war against Napoleon. I remember swimming in the pool which temporarily replaced it in the 1970s.)
(The navy has its own massive cathedral on an island near St. Petersburg, completed in 1913)
PS – Some of the images above are from a very good Russian Christian meme channel. They do a good job combining good quotes from Orthodox saints, most of them Russian, often with excellent Russian Christian art, much of it from the 19th c., largely unknown in the West. They convey very well the essence and flavor of Russian Christianity, crucial to understanding the Russian psyche, and would be of interest to Christians of all denominations, and others. On Twitter and Telegram, especially their older posts. They stopped posting to Telegram a few months ago. I know the people running this, and will urge them to resume on Telegram.
