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Irredentist Russians at the Gates.
Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, April 27th, 2014.
Salaroche
Irredentism: “(from Italian irredento, "unredeemed") is any position of a state advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged”.(1)
Vladimir Putin’s present expansionist thrust cannot be better defined by any term other than irredentism. He has the idea of irredento clearly written all over his recent military operations in and around Ukraine. In so doing, Big Bad Uncle Vlad is following in the footsteps of a good number of other movements and attempts to redefine, by negotiation or by force, the borders of a country based on linguistic, ethnic, or historic grounds.
The term irredentism was initially coined in Italy around the middle of the 19th century, as some Italians laid claim to lands that were at the time under the jurisdiction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Shortly after, as irredentism was driving Italy toward expanding its borders, Napoleon III agreed to cede to it certain territories that also included parts of what now constitutes northern Italy. This Napoleon did in exchange for complete control by France over Nice and Savoy, which seemed like a good settlement at the time for both parties. In Italy, however, the concept of irredento sometimes went as far as laying claim to lands in Africa that were once part of the Roman Empire.
But Italy is not the only country to have ever tried to unify lands under their national banner. China and Japan are presently embroiled in a geopolitical quarrel over the Senkaku or Dyayou islands, Spain and England have been at odds regarding Gibraltar since the early 18th century, Macedonia continues to stake claims over some territories presently under Greek administration, Argentina would still like to have sovereignty over the Malvinas or Falkland islands, Ireland still has hopes to one day include the whole of the main Irish island as their nation, etc.
Vlad the Mad is not very unique from the perspective of historical irredentism; his only claim to uniqueness resides thus far in the fact that he is the first one to have gone down that road in the 21st century. This has made some people assume that Mad Vlad is trying to resuscitate the Soviet Union, but that assumption wouldn’t make much sense to me. Having recently been to St. Petersburg and Moscow, I’m aware that a good number of Russians would never acquiesce to the idea of going back to communism.
Many Russians may embrace the possibility of a renewed expanded Russia that may again inspire awe and fear in the rest of the world, which is why they support Putin’s expansionist ambitions, but the fervor of their rehabilitated nationalism wouldn’t go as far as making them give up whatever freedoms and comforts they might have thus far acquired and accumulated since the Soviet demise.
In addition, Uncle Vlad’s current geopolitical shenanigans are not based on any ideological grounds like the Soviet Union’s supposedly were. His irredentism is clearly based on nationalistic and imperialistic impulses distinctly sprinkled with tinges of desire for personal glory. The term “Soviet Revival”, therefore, wouldn’t apply to Mad Vlad’s present ambitions.
But not all irredentist movements are based on folly or insanity a la Bad Guy Vlad. Some of those movements may actually be based on legitimate claims that make plenty of sense, not only from the view or the irredentist nation, but from that of its neighbors as well. The case of Italy would be perfectly in point, as it was viewed with sympathy by England and France during the second half of the 19th century.
With this in mind, some people might dare to think there is more than a sliver of legitimacy in Putin’s irredentist ambitions, if it only weren’t for the double standard he is applying to Crimea and eastern Ukraine on the one hand and Chechnya on the other. But even if we were to disregard that double standard, we would still have to condemn the way Mad Vlad has gone about the whole issue. Instead of going the legal and democratic way, he has gone the way of Hitler in the Sudetenland, which is the worst road any irredentist movement should follow if it wants to have at least some resemblance of legitimacy.
The way to go about such irredentist issues should be the way of Catalonia or Scotland, that is, the democratic way. It may always be a slow process trying to realize the independentist or irredentist ambitions of any nation by taking their case to the relevant international organizations and by channeling it through the democratic processes, but it would certainly be a much more legitimate way, producing longer-lasting results than by taking the road of military confrontation.
As it is, having Mad Vlad’s Irredentist Russians at the Ukrainian Gates only looks like a time-travel journey back into the 15th century. At this point in time, Bad Uncle Vlad’s anachronism looks perfectly out of sync with Western concepts of political evolution. Why don’t you just get over it Big Mad Uncle Vlad? You may have so far impressed your domestic audiences with your rehashed demagoguery, but practically no one else in the world is buying your rhetoric.
The only other harebrained fool that may presently be willing to buy Bad Tsar Vlad’s archaic ideas woud be Kim, Jong-Un, North Korea’s current dictator in chief. Fortunately, though, his bankrupt country doesn’t have the means to afford any large-scale military shenanigans, so the world as a whole doesn’t at this point have much to fear from him. Nearby, the Chinese have already been warned that any military irredentist moves from their part on the Senkaku/Dyayou islands would trigger a full retaliatory response from the US military, which is bound by mutual security treaty to defend Japan’ territorial integrity.
But irredentism is not in and of itself a reprehensible motivation for seeking to redress a geographical situation that doesn’t agree with any particular nation’s perception of its own territorial boundaries. Seeking to reorganize any splintered ethnic group over a common geographical habitat and under a common political entity shouldn’t be considered an illegal initiative from the beginning either. What should for sure be condemned from the start is any country’s efforts to implement any irredentist foreign policy unilaterally, by economic intimidation, and by military force.
Obviously, Mad Tsar Vlad the 1st has something else in mind when staking his irredentist claims over Crimea, eastern Ukraine, and some other areas of Eastern Europe (i.e., Transnistria, South Ossetia, etc.). He is clearly looking to unseat Peter the Great as the greatest Russian statesman, or is at least seeking to carve his own place in history as Peter the Great's 21st century reincarnation. Sorry Vlad, but I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime in the near future.
Let’s just wait and see how far Mad Uncle Vlad's militaristic dreams of glory will take him. As the situation stands today, however, bringing his Irredentist Russian Army increasingly closer to Western Gates doesn’t seem to be going to bring much benefit or glory to Russia, if at all.
Salaroche
