J.R. Nyquist January 3, 2019 Updated: August 14, 2019
(this is an article by the Jeff Nyquist, the specialist in China and Russia that met with Gregg on Patriot Games today)
Part 1 of 2The Threat of Communism: Then and Now
One of the most famous enemies of Soviet communism is Vladimir Bukovsky. He was tortured by Soviet authorities and spent many years in Soviet prisons. He was even declared “insane” and sent to a psychiatric prison. When Bukovsky was exiled to the West, people paid lip service to his courage; but few heeded his warnings about Gorbachev’s Perestroika.
Bukovsky reminded everyone that all Soviet leaders were liars. Gorbachev, he said, was no exception—and was certainly no democrat. Like Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev, Gorbachev was a liar and a hangman. But hardly anyone listened. Everyone wanted to believe the Cold War was over.
But how could we have won the Cold War? This was the inconvenient question Bukovsky asked. Random House senior editor Jason Epstein rejected Bukovsky’s question altogether. And so, Bukovsky’s book on the equivocal “fall of communism” was not published in English—until now.
The book’s title is “Judgment in Moscow.”
Communism Everywhere
Vladimir Bukovsky: “There were some complimentary reviews in France, but few really paid it much attention. In Germany the reception was even more subdued.”
J.R. Nyquist: “And how will Bukovsky’s tale of Western complicity in communist crimes, and Western obliviousness—and the bungled ‘end of the Cold War’—be received in the English-speaking world?”
Mr. Bukovsky: “It is a lonely struggle I have conducted since the age of 16. And the struggle will continue to be lonely. The real problem is the elite in the West, the forces of ‘peace and progress.’ The Western elite is socialist. They were never serious about fighting Soviet power.”
Mr. Nyquist: “And what about the conservatives? Weren’t they serious about opposing communism?”
Mr. Bukovsky: “They wouldn’t realize the truth. There was a mistaken idea behind them. Most of the conservatives believed it was not so bad in the West. The first to notice was Solzhenitsyn. He said communism is in front of everyone, yet no one understands what it is.”
Mr. Nyquist: “If they did not understand communism, couldn’t you have explained it to them?”
Mr. Bukovsky: “Unfortunately there is no short way of doing it and, because the subject is complicated, people quickly lose interest. It bores them. They are lazy and prefer superficial answers.”
Mr. Nyquist: “So the West never understood communism. Or perhaps they came to think that anti-communism was crazy.”
Mr. Bukovsky: “No, it’s a question of losing the audience. People are lazy. They prefer superficial assessments. It is impossible for them to go deep. When you talk about communism, their eyes glaze over. They become bored.”
Mr. Nyquist: “Could that be true?”
Mr. Bukovsky: “Yes, I have delivered many lectures on the subject. People get up in the middle and leave. The concepts are too difficult for them. They want it to be easy.”
Mr. Nyquist: “What is the hope for the future?”
Mr. Bukovsky: “There will be more suffering, more ruined lives.”
Mr. Nyquist: “Are the communists in Russia putting the Soviet Union back together?”
Mr. Bukovsky: “Yes, they are naive enough to think they can do this. But they will never succeed.”
Hope in Ukraine?
Mr. Nyquist: “What about the orange revolution in Ukraine? Surely there is hope in Ukraine.”
Mr. Bukovsky: “Ukraine is on a razor’s edge. The whole thing hangs in the balance. It could go either way.”
Mr. Nyquist: “What about Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko?”
Mr. Bukovsky: “Poroshenko is just another apparatchik. He is typical. The problem in Ukraine, like in Russia—we don’t have any leaders. It is the same old story, same old biographies. Their thinking is not that different from the Soviet past.”
Mr. Nyquist: “We have a similar problem in the West.”
Mr. Bukovsky: “At the moment, you’re right. The absence of leadership is frightening. Our so-called elites became rotten. In the past, in history, the elites would be periodically wiped out in revolutions. In our time, it does not happen. We are too civilized.”
Mr. Nyquist: “Yet, could the ideal of freedom spread from Ukraine into Russia?”
Mr. Bukovsky: “Yes, but not yet. Ukrainian nationalism arose from serious Russian mistakes. Moscow made tremendous blunders in Ukraine.”
Mr. Nyquist: “Could these blunders be corrected after Putin leaves office?”
Mr. Bukovsky: “No, they cannot fix it. The Kremlin insulted the Ukrainians as junior brothers. ‘You are too little to decide for yourself,’ they said. ‘Moscow has to decide for you.’ This was the reason for the rise of Ukrainian nationalism.”
Mr. Nyquist: “So the Kremlin made a big mistake?”
Mr. Bukovsky: “Yes, they have a real problem. But so does the West.”…
https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-threat-of-communism-then-and-now_2744626.html