Consider the following propositions: (1) the universe consists of a finite number of particles; (2) the variable arrangement of particles is also finite; (3) once every arrangement has been tried, the universe is left to repeat earlier arrangements. Therefore, as we travel to the end of time we also travel closer to the beginning. According to the theory of "eternal recurrence," the future is the past and the past is the future. All things recur eternally. It now appears that certain world leaders have their own version of this thesis. They believe that the only way forward is to plunge backward. Like a man who clings to lost love, they predicate themselves on what can never be again. They glorify the past and imagine no other adventure than the misadventure of their predecessors. So poor are these reactionaries in imagination, so bereft of trust in the beautiful mystery of existence, that they cling to yesterday's folly in order to court tomorrow's.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is such a man.
I have warned my readers, again and again, about Russia. There is a dangerous chemistry in that country. "The Russian people," said Stalin, "is a tsarist people." The formula appears again; only this time the man who strikes the tsarist pose is not a pockmarked thief from the Caucasus, but a spy from Leningrad. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not hindered by the meanness of Stalin. He is not driven by spite, revenge or envy. His spirit is healthier. Therefore, he is less subtle, more efficient, more dangerous. Putin is not a sly drunkard, like Khrushchev, or a falling-down drunk like Yeltsin. He is not a doddering old man, like Brezhnev. He is not Yuri Andropov, stuck with failing kidneys. He is not a liberal reformer and actor, like Gorbachev, globetrotting with an empty slogan. Putin is unlike previous Russian rulers. He represents a new reptilian species.
In a recent televised speech, Putin said, "it is worth acknowledging that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." Imagine the chain of logic that holds this monstrosity to the light of day. The American newspapers write dismissively of Putin's prospects. His popularity, they say, is falling. A new democratic revolution is bound to sweep him away. But dictators specialize in manufacturing popularity. And sometimes they dispense with popularity altogether. There will always be teachers or bosses who boldly announce that they are "not engaged in a popularity contest." After all, men do not obey popularity. They obey from habit, hope and fear.
As Aristotle noted, the dictatorship of one depends on the work of an oligarchy. The oligarchy that stands behind Putin is Russia's old KGB and Communist Party elite. A new book has come out which outlines, indirectly, the problem with this oligarchy. (But before reading further you must understand that genuine change is rare. Human beings are what they are, and fundamental change is not the normal course. In fact, it rarely happens.) I refer to a book titled Biological Espionage, written by former KGB officer Alexander Kouzminov who worked for something called "Department 12, Directorate S." This is the directorate that oversees Moscow's "illegals" (i.e., Russian agents posing as Westerners, operating under deep cover). In an interview with the California Literary Review, Kouzminov said: "[KGB Department 12 was charged with] planning and preparation for acts of biological terrorism and sabotage on the territory of target countries, carrying them out in an event of war and/or a large-scale military conflict...."
It is worth noting that Alexander Kouzminov has relocated to New Zealand, the remotest large island in the world, located in the southernmost outwash of the South Pacific. According to Kouzminov, the work of Department 12 "has grown" since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Genetic engineering has brought forth new biological horrors. And these are to be unleashed in the event of something called "Day X," which signifies the beginning of the next world war. Soviet military thinkers believe that such a war will involve the mass use of nuclear as well as biological weapons. "The formula 'Day X' in our documents meant the beginning of a large-scale war against the West," Kouzminov explained. Department 12 and Department 8 of the KGB were tasked with preparing "clandestine acts of biological sabotage against 'potential strike targets' on the enemy's territory." These potential targets include military research labs, combat units, weapon stockpiles, public drinking water, food stores, vaccine repositories, pharmaceutical plants and the overall economy of the target country. These departments would also assassinate Western officials and "important persons" (where "important" is determined by the exigencies of war). Diversionary attacks are also part of Day X. Kouzminov doesn't admit that Russia is still counting down to Day X. He talks as if Putin's Russia would never contemplate such an attack. Only "rogue states" would do such a thing. And yet, Kouzminov is - of all places on this earth - living in New Zealand!
Kouzminov also mentions something called "false flag recruitment," which is very important in Russian espionage work. False flag recruitment is important for understanding extremist political movements, terrorist attacks, sabotage and subversion. "Russian intelligence carries out recruitment in such a way that it cannot be found out that in reality he or she has agreed to work for Russian Intelligence," Kouzminov explained. It may be, in fact, that a person thinks they are working with Islamic Fundamentalists or MOSSAD; but in reality, they are working for the KGB (SVR). The charade might last for years. "Directorate S would continue to preserve the source's belief that he or she is being controlled by people from [name your favorite cause or country] ... and not from the Moscow Centre."
Because of false flag recruitments, the real history of the past fifty years has yet to be written. We now learn that Moscow ordered the assassination of Pope John Paul II. Since the KGB has not disappeared, since its files remain under lock and key, the deepest secrets remain buried for a reason. After all, a KGB officer is Russia's head of state. The old agenda, therefore, becomes the new agenda when the new boss mourns the passing of the old Soviet Union. People always give themselves away. Hitler mourned the passing of the German Empire as he decried the "November criminals." Putin mourns the passing of the USSR as he decries the "corrupt oligarchs" and capitalist profiteers. Those who cannot read danger in these details are either naïve or suffering from an ideological blockage.
The universe is made up of a finite number of particles, and the brain of a simple-minded person is more finite still. What has happened before will happen again. The foolishness that preceded the last world war is already far advanced before the next. Those who believe there is "peace in our time" will congratulate themselves. The dictators will rejoice in private, licking their chops. After the signing of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in 1938 Hitler was overheard telling his foreign minister: "Oh don't take it so seriously. That piece of paper is of no further significance whatsoever."
Can we imagine that KGB Lieutenant Colonel Putin values "pieces of paper" any more than Hitler?
In his outline of Russia's long range deception strategy (see The Perestroika Deception), KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn wrote: "The West has failed to comprehend the deceptive, controlled nature of the new 'democratic' and 'non-Communist' structures which have been introduced in the USSR and Eastern Europe." The communists, he added, "have succeeded in concealing from the West that this so-called 'political opposition' of 'dissidents' has been created, brought up and guided by the Bloc's Communist Parties and security services during the long period of preparation for 'perestroika.' The Bloc's political and security potential have been fully developed in the interests of this strategy."
Even the revelations of KGB retirees in New Zealand mask the layered levels of disinformation, deception and misdirection coming out of Moscow. To understand chess one must study and play the game. An apprenticeship of one month or one year is not sufficient. A course of many years is required. Even then, mastery is given to the few. It is likewise difficult for Americans to understand the many subtle mechanisms of totalitarianism. By some accounts, two thirds of the population cooperated with the secret police during the Stalin era by informing on their neighbors, friends and relatives. Two thirds were corrupted, and two thirds sought advantage for themselves at the expense of the honest few. Americans have no experience to compare with this demoralizing sequence. We do not understand the power of secret organizations unencumbered by checks and balances, run by murderers. We reserve a bad name for Senator Joseph McCarthy (whose demeanor left much to be desired); and some still insist that Whittaker Chambers was a liar. But now, a whole generation has grown up in ignorance of Whittaker Chambers and his Witness. In the 1950s Americans learned of a secret communist apparatus on U.S. soil. They learned of this through the testimony of American communists like Elizabeth Bentley and Whittaker Chambers. In the 1960s and 1970s anti-communism was ridiculed by popular culture. Now it is totally forgotten and we have no context - as a people - for understanding KGB Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Putin. Our poverty of knowledge leaves us unable to grasp the twisted thinking of a man who bemoans the fate of the USSR. The KGB president of Russia wants to reestablish the USSR. Whether America likes it or not, this very fact leads us to a new Cold War.
In his book Whittaker Chambers wrote: "Why, then, do men cease to be Communists? One answer is: Very few do." Men rarely change. The appearance of change, more often than not, is deceptive. Personal experience will verify this statement, as history bears witness to its truth. What has happened before will happen again. Political crisis, revolution, war and destruction continually recur. Perhaps they "eternally recur."
