On “Vyshinsky school”

It is not in vain that Mikhail Gorbachev received in his youth a Soviet-style higher juridical education based on the fundamental works of the Stalin Prize winner Andrey Vyshinsky, such as The Theory of Judicial Evidence in Soviet Law, Lenin and Stalin – Great Organizers of the Soviet State, The Questions of International Law and International Politics, and The Questions of the Theory of State and Law. The Vyshinsky school means the ability to play with ideas, use false arguments, present the white as the black and vice versa, and ascribe your government’s crimes to somebody else, as was the case of Polish officers’ execution in Katyn.

In the last period of his life, along with writing books on the theory of Soviet law, Andrey Yanuarevich (as the grassroots called him) performed on the diplomatic arena and held the office of USSR foreign minister in 1949-53. He exposed the leaders of democratic states as “rabid warmongers,” “gross falsifiers of the historical truth,” “enemies of peace and progress,” and “vile slanderers,” and, on the other hand, sang praises of the totalitarian Soviet system and “great Stalin’s peace-loving policy.”

The last CPSU Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev’s article, “Unfreezing Relations,” in Rossiyskaya gazeta proves that he learned very well the lessons of his student years – on the level of subconsciousness and the logic of thinking. The first sentence in the article is the gospel truth: “The situation in Europe and the rest of the world is extremely alarming.” But the second one, which seems to continue the statement of obvious facts, is a lie: “The Ukrainian crisis continues.” What “Ukrainian crisis?” It is the same as calling the 1938 rebellion of Sudeten Germans, masterminded and funded by Berlin, as “Czechoslovak crisis” and the USSR’s wintertime war against Finland in 1939-40 as “Finnish crisis.” But they were called so! Hitler and Goebbels announced that this rebellion and the ensuing intervention of a “volunteer corps” from the territory of Germany were a purely Czechoslovak problem, while Molotov declared to the outside world that the USSR was not fighting against Finland but was helping the “legitimate Finnish government” to overthrow the “Mannerheim-Tanner usurpatory fascist clique.” It was a domestic conflict which involved “the risen Finnish workers and peasants,” you know…

Now, too, in the logic of Vyshinsky and Gorbachev, there is a “Ukrainian crisis,” “both sides of the conflict,” a “propagandistic pandemonium” on both sides, and even more: “Both sides are guilty of using particularly dangerous varieties of      weapons and human rights abuses.” And Russia has nothing to do with this – it only “has a possibility to influence Donetsk and Luhansk.” No more than this. But it can only influence them if the EU “pressures” Ukraine into refusing to use force in the Donbas and in fact recognize the “DNR” and the “LNR” as legitimate “parties to the conflict.”

Then Gorbachev suggests a kind of the arithmetic mean between the Munich Agreement and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: “I suggest that the leaders of Russia and the US ponder over holding a summit with a broad agenda and without any preliminary conditions. They should broach the whole range of relations and problems because the two countries bear a special responsibility. Whenever they forget the latter, the world faces difficult consequences. A similar summit should be held between Russia and the EU.” Taking into account the previous text, these summits are also supposed to discuss the “Ukrainian conflict” – without Ukraine – and other Russian-made “problem spots” in Europe. Clearly, the problem of Transnistria will be discussed without Moldova, that of Abkhazia without Georgia, and that of Nagorno-Karabakh without Armenia and Azerbaijan, etc. Again, Russia and the US are being treated equally because they, you see, bear “special responsibility.” Yes, Russia is really responsible for all the conflicts that it was and still is triggering if it is not held by the arms, for the aggression against Georgia and Ukraine, for state-sponsored terrorism (somebody is served tea with polonium in London, somebody is shot dead in the Emirates…), for the rabid propaganda of xenophobia and totalitarianism disguised as struggle against “gays” and “faggots” for the sake of “primordial values.”

If the West refuses to in fact surrender to the Kremlin by lifting at least some sanctions (about which Gorbachev writes) and making a deal “on a broad range of problems,” the consequences may prove to be tragic for the West itself: “Given the current pitch of tension, we may even fail to live through these years – somebody’s nerve may fail him.” In other words, this nervous “somebody” may push the “red button” after hiding in an underground city that is rumored to have been built in the Altai to accommodate several thousand persons from the inner circle of “His Excellency.”

It will be recalled that, speaking in the capital of Germany to mark the anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall, Gorbachev urged the West to heed Putin: “I want to urge you to take a serious attitude to Vladimir Putin’s recent speech at the Valdai forum. In spite of all the tough and critical remarks about the West, particularly the United States, I saw in his speech a wish to find ways to ease tension and, later, to lay the new groundwork for partnership.” That’s that – the new groundwork. The old groundwork – equality, noninterference into internal affairs, commitment to international agreements, peacefulness, and mutually beneficial partnership – seems to be of no use now.

So, it is very sad that the Nobel Peace Prize winner and a creator of perestroika and glasnost has recalled in the twilight of his life that he had once graduated with distinctions from the “Vyshinsky school” and spoke in the style of a “Stalinist mouthpiece.”

“I’D LIKE TO ADVISE GORBACHEV TO INVITE GIRKIN-STRELKOV FOR A  CUP OF TEA”

Yevhen MARCHUK:

“Mr. Gorbachev is back to it again. I’d like to advise him to invite Girkin-Strelkov or Gubarev to his foundation so that they fill him in on the ‘Ukrainian crisis’ or on observing the day of silence today. Or, Mr. Gorbachev, please call your General Staff, and let them tell you confidentially how many Russian servicemen are in the Ukrainian Donbas now – 5 or 7 thousand. Who and why sent them and what are they doing there? And also find out how many of them were killed and what their mothers were told.”