Putin has a poor knowledge of Russian history

Putin came to the temporarily occupied part of Ukraine and presented his general Teplynsky with an icon of the tsarist war minister Pyotr Vannovsky (1822-1904), and called Vannovsky one of the best ministers. And I remembered a famous quote about Vannovsky: "During the entire reign of Emperor Alexander III, Vannovsky was the Minister of War, and during all this time there was a terrible stagnation in the military department. Whose fault it was, whether the sovereign himself or Vannovsky, I do not know, but the consequences of this stagnation were terrible. Incapable and decrepit people were not fired, appointments were made according to seniority, capable people were not promoted, but moved along the line, they lost interest in service, initiative and energy, and when they got to the highest positions, they already differed little from the surrounding mass of mediocrities. This absurd system also explains the terrible composition of commanding officials, both towards the end of the reign of Alexander III, and later, during the Japanese war!"

This is a quote by another tsarist war minister, Alexander Rediger, from his book The Story of My Life. Vannovsky was a minister of Emperor Alexander III, and Rediger was appointed by Emperor Nicholas II to carry out reforms and correct the terrible problems of the tsarist army that led to the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. Rediger wrote in the book his true thoughts - this memoir was published long after his death - and he believed that the defeat by Japan was a consequence of Vannovsky’s rule.

“Putin is a well-known admirer of Emperor Alexander III, trying to draw parallels between his reign and foreign policy with Putin’s time. In fact, the glorification of Vannovsky shows historical ignorance of Putin, who has little history knowledge and whose favorite philosopher is Ilyin, a supporter of Hitler and German Nazism”

Putin is a well-known admirer of Emperor Alexander III, trying to draw parallels between his reign and foreign policy with Putin’s time. In fact, the glorification of Vannovsky shows historical ignorance of Putin, who has little history knowledge and whose favorite philosopher is Ilyin, a supporter of Hitler and German Nazism. And the best minister is Vannovsky, whose rule led to the defeat of the Russian army in Manchuria by  Japan, much weaker at the time.

Poor knowledge of its own history on the part of Russia, which is trying to educate its neighbors using some references to the past, means that they do not even understand or know anything about themselves, imposing ignorance and stupidity on other countries.

Source.

About the author: Yuriy Butusov, journalist, soldier with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The editorial staff do not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.