The Sueddeutscher Zeitung published this interesting commentary, "Enemies, Vassals and Americans' on September 12 by Russian playwright Yevgeny Grischkowez. Playing off an assertion made by George Kennan that Russia has only vassals or enemies as neighbors; Grischokwez argues that an American cannot possibly understand the complex relationship between Russia and its neighbors as America is only bordered by two countries.
He juxtaposes the American soldier in Georgia, who speaks only English and stays in luxurious hotels with the supposedly folksier Russians, who speak with the Georgian man on the street (in their own language, Russian) in order to demonstrate that Russians are better able to penetrate and understand the cultures of their neighbors. Because the histories of the countries are so intertwined, their religions the same and knowledge of Russian is widespread in Georgia, Grischokowez argues that the recent war is better characterized as a civil war.
Grischokowez, either by accident or design, fails to point out that the reason the peoples of Russia's neighboring countries share so many cultural and linguistic similarities to Russia is not that they have cheerfully, and voluntarily embraced the culture of their much bigger neighbor, but rather that their countries were militarily impressed into the Soviet Union and the Tsarist empire before that. As a playwright, Grischokowez travels throughout the Former Soviet Union, from the Baltics to Central Asia. Certainly, he must have noticed the museums in Riga and Tallinn of the "Soviet Occupation.' Those countries do not see Russia as a close friend but rather as a colonizing enemy. In 2006, the Georgian government also opened a museum of the Soviet Occupation in Tblisi.
Museum of the Occupation, Riga, Latvia
Museum of Occupations, Tallinn, Estonia
Museum of the Soviet Occupation, Tblisi, Georgia
Finally, Grischowez expresses deep skepticism about American claims to support democracy in Georgia (and suggests many Americans confuse the country with the U.S. state). He claims that Americans perceive Saakashvili as a character in a game called Georgia while Russians are involved, heart and soul. The question remains, to what end are the Russians truly involved "heart and soul' and do they understand the meaning of independent countries? It seems that Grischokowez makes an interesting point about the violence between places that share so many common features, but what he misses is the dangers posed to the international system by these kinds of wars.
