Harmonious Economics or The New World Order

When borrowing from others, the Russian always try to make their own contributions. Thus, the Greek Orthodox religion that was adopted in the country at the end of the tenth century has been transformed to acquire a Russian character: it still preserves some pagan elements, proving in this way the continuity of religions, the respect towards national history and the past, while preserving eloquent national traits. Russian Orthodox Church has incorporated the inherent Russian aspiration for mutual completion, for respect of other opinions and faiths. And this should not come as a surprise, after all faith is not a garment, which can be changed easily and entirely.

The processes described above impregnated Russian vision of the good, justice and morality with the fundamental principles of the Orthodox religion. It excludes such ugly exaggerations as patriotic fetishism or disdain for other peoples and cultures. This form of Christianity does not accept the separation of God from his expression of the Truth, just as the Sun cannot be seen separately from its life-giving rays. A Russian proverb advises: “defend the Truth, and God will be with you’. Within Russian culture people are led to believe that only the nationalism that does not defy other people and does not contradict the Orthodox Christianity canons is worthy of respect. This religion’s mission consists in acting as a link between the ethnic civilisations and in encouraging mutual spiritual improvement and recreation of God’s peace, that is, formation of a fraternal union of peoples instead of serving as a source of discord and money-grabbing.

In Russia, people have always understood the value of multiplicity and the limitations and lack of expressiveness of clichés. Let us remember the Saint Basil’s Cathedral, with its violent colours, asymmetry of images, and unique design of the cupolas. This is indeed the symbol of Russia, powerful and original, incomparable with the others. This uniqueness is something that enraptures most and exasperates most at the same time. Fyodor Tyutchev was right when he wrote: “Russia is a thing of which | the intellect cannot conceive. | Hers is no common yardstick…”[25 - Cit. ex F. Tyutchev, The Complete Poems of Tyutchev. Translated by F. Jude (Durham, 2000).]

The Russians, however, always seek something proper and original. This distinguishes them from other peoples and often makes them seem stupid and pathetic. The irrationality and the romanticism of the Russians is hard, sometimes even impossible to understand. It is not rare for Russian people to fail to put their feelings and thoughts in words. Moreover, when a Russian person looks after pecuniary personal profit, something he is not skilful at, he always ends up outwitted and betrayed, for Russians are no experts in working for their own benefit.

That is why freedom is a tool for self-affirmation for Europeans, while Russian people see it as a lack of limits, as liberty, that is, liberation of the soul. Russians understand that excessive material prosperity deforms a human being as much as scarce means of existence. This is why the motivation of a Russian man has been limited by the criterion of “sufficiency’. Here “sufficiency’ means an income sufficient to lead a decent life without subordinating and disfiguring the owner of this income.

Even though Russians unwillingly prove themselves worthy in the everyday life, they stand up to the challenge when an impossible feat is required from them. Russian people are not incline to squander their talents on trifles, they need something powerful that nobody else would cope with. Only then will they hit their stride. “Russia cannot be saved through small actions’, reminded Nikolay Berdyaev. Suffice it for a Russian person to cast off the mask he wears and make certain that he is right, then he acquires instantly the skill, the wisdom, the force and the beauty, as if by magic.

All these circumstances have influenced the Russian national character, remarked by many eminent personalities. “Russian soul is infinite generosity’, said Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. “Russian people work diligently and gratuitously as long as there is a moral idea, righteous objective in the society’, to quote Friedrich Hegel. Winston Churchill believed, “The concept of good nature – living in accordance with one’s conscience – is very Russian, indeed’[26 - [Translator’s note: The attribution of these three quotations to their authors is strongly contested.]]. And this has always been the attitude to Russian people. “And asked Andrew John, his disciple: “Rabbi! To which peoples should we bring the good news of our Father in heaven?” And Joshua replied: “Go to the people in the east, and to the people in the west, and to the people in the south… But you need not go to the pagans from the north, as they know not sins and vices of the House of Israel’ (Apostle Andrew, Apocryphal Acts). However, “when they entered [the fold of] Christianity, the faith blunted their swords, the door of their livelihood was closed to them, they returned to hardship and poverty, and their livelihood shrank’[27 - Cit. ex V. Minorsky, Sharaf al-Zamān Ṭāhir Marvazī on China, the Turks, and India; Arabic text circa AD 1120. (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1942).] (Marvazī). But at least the Byzantine Empire gave a sigh of relief.

The severe environment typical of the Eastern Europe made it difficult to survive on one’s own, people needed support and mutual assistance. That is why they tended to live in communities, clans and tribes, and to join effort to resolve common problems. The informal relations between the members, based on the notions of truth and justice, has a higher value than formal relationships. This, in turn, influenced the family and economic relations and the entire everyday life.

In the West, the situation was quite different: the environment and the climate allowed people to live successfully on their own. The only thing required was legalizing the relationships between them. That is why the ideologic system of a rule-of-law state flourished there, imposing unconditional rule of rights and of law: “Let the world perish, the law will triumph!”, “Law is strict but it is law’, etc. In Russia, the notion of “law’ is understood in a broader manner. There is definitely a need for order in the world, however “Only the law that views itself as an obligation is efficient’ (M. N. Katkov, Russian government official of the twentieth century). Russia believed that “custom is more binding than a law: a law can be made up; a custom is formulated by life itself’ (Val. Ivanov). It is not a seemingly egalitarian law invented by people that should form a basis for the life of the human beings, but God’s laws of truth, conscience and justice.

All the obscure in other peoples seems intriguing to Russians and ugly and nasty to Europeans. “He who thinks or teaches ‘otherwise’ is sinful, a backslider, a foe, and he is fought down without mercy’ (O. Spengler)[28 - Cit. ex O. Spengler, The Decline of the West (Oxford University Press, 1991), 176.]. For this reason, “Great Britain has no constant enemies or friends but rather constant interests’ (W. Churchill). Western business ethic is unfamiliar with the notion of gratitude. “One would search in vain higher moral impulses in European politics. It is solely driven by the thirst for profit… informed people claim that at present only eccentric men with old-fashioned views pay the debts of honour, while enlightened nations do not’[29 - [Translator’s note: Translated by me.]] (P. N. Wrangel, the last Commander-in-Chief of the White armies in the south of Russia

).

Summarizing the above, Europe has chosen a different path of development. Its spiritual culture started its decline in the twelfth century, when “a germ of the new, completely different principle emerged that consisted in… only attributing sense meaning to what one sees, hears, touches, feels and perceives through the senses’[30 - [Translator’s note: Translated by me.]] (Pitirim Sorokin

). This has given rise to the infinite European pragmatism that has become the basis for Europe’s material prosperity, though not for spiritual prosperity. As opposed to Russia who glorifies justice, the West proclaimed “Vae victus!”[31 - [Translator’s note: In the original, Vie victis, incorrect].] (Woe to the vanquished). The pagan cult of power and financial prosperity has subordinated Europe and the rule of force prevailed the force of law. The mentality of wild freedom and of relentless fight for existence prevails the principles of Truth and Justice.

This explains why in Europe primary importance has always been assigned to personal well-being. The supreme valour of the western hero resides in being strong and inflicting suffering and grief on the others: “The world belongs to those who are braver and stronger. We do not ask when we want to take somebody’s life or property. We do not rob, we take away. We have faith in nothing but in our arms force and our courage’ (from Scandinavian sagas). “Is it the oar of galley moves among the shadows and ice floes, or the propeller froths the sea? The Waves and the Time echo each other: woe to the weakest one, woe!” (R. Kipling). “The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad, for all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad’ (H. Chesterton)[32 - Cit. ex G. K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse (Courier Corporation, 2013), 26.], etc.

Needless to say, Russia has never known any such beliefs, tales, poems, national epic, songs or legends. In the existing folklore battles are not described as a process of physical elimination or enslaving of the enemy, but as a hard labour, a spiritual and moral fight against injustice, sacrilege and global evil.

The cruelty celebrated in the western literature and art is more than a lyrical exaggeration. It determines the motives and the behaviour of western people, it is conditioned by their lifestyle, and history and armed with their ideologic and religious dogmas. The image of the foe was as essential for western man, as bloody flesh is for a wild beast. The West cannot survive without a foe and the social adrenalin he generates. This is why the West keeps making foes, real and invented ones. To vanquish them and feed its prosperity with their ashes.

A good example of this attitude is the fate of the North American natives, all of them either exterminated or locked up in reservations. The “civilized’ US authorities would pay generously for each scalped Indian, be this a warrior, a woman or a child. Besides, entire populations of unique animals, such as American buffalos, jaguars, white elks, dodos and others, were wiped out. And these excessive measures were not applied only once. Europeans have completed the “civilizing mission’ of the West by destroying, with a sword and a cross, the ancient cultures of Yucatan, Mexico and Peru, by annihilating the Incas and the Aztecs. Similarly, they have enslaved millions of Africans, making them work for western people. Benin, one of the most powerful and developed African states that once existed on the territory of modern Nigeria, has successfully fought the enslavers back until the nineteenth century, when the English colonizers gave it over to fire and sword.

It is interesting to point out that in Siberia, which was being conquered by Russia around the same time, not a single ethnic group perished, even among the smallest ones, and all animal populations were preserved. Siberia never knew any reservations, deportations, slavery of the natives or their total extermination.

This has been true throughout the course of history. It was not by chance that British historian Stuart Laycock entitled one of his books All the Countries We’ve Ever Invaded and the Few We Never Got Round To. Out of 193 UN member-states, 171 have been attacked by Anglo-Saxons. This estimation does not cover the numerous hybrid and information wars that are waged all over the planet. In 2004, the Congressional Research Service made an attempt at assessing the total number of military conflicts that the US has ever participated in. The result was the astronomic figure of 261 acts of aggression or “actions to defend democracy’ across the world. Furthermore, the majority of these attacks were launched against known weak adversaries, which makes it evident with whom the initiative lies.

Moreover, such interventions were not military only. As US President Dwight D. Eisenhower admitted, “Hitherto applicable norms of conduct do not apply… We must… learn to subvert, sabotage, and destroy our enemy by more clever, more sophisticated and more effective methods than those used against us’[33 - Cit. ex S. E. Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier and President (Simon and Schuster, 1991)]. As the result, entire nations are made fools of, the leaders who do not suit the US are removed, confrontations between different groups within the same people are set up, governments are overthrown, and civil wars unleashed. The rivers of blood are to satisfy the American thirst for global hegemony, and there is an endless number of examples to support this claim.

Besides shaping the state philosophy in Europe and the US, actively employed in practice, such psychology has assured its own continuity, and has almost become official. Its fruit is state policy driven by deception, cynicism and avarice. This system completely ignores the notions of Truth and Justice, or else uses them as required.

Though it is evident that the West still has many romantics who are truly grieved by the troubles of the others, however this sympathy should not be associated with the state politics.

Without any doubt, throughout its complex history Russia has not always been an amorphous and invariably just power. But then, is there any country in the world that could have escaped this fate and that would have always been right? For justice’s sake, it might be pointed out that per each offensive of the Russian army there were eight defences. Russians fought back the Khazars, the Pechenegs, the Cumans, the Mongols, the Tatars, the Swedes, the Polish, the Lithuanians, the Hungarians, the Croatians, the Turks, the French, the English, the German… Often Russia did it at the cost of numerous victims, mostly among the local civilian population. Here lies the fundamental difference of the Russian and the western civilisations, the differences of their visions and understanding of the limit between what is allowed and what is forbidden.

As the result, the West developed an unprecedented aggression towards all other peoples, in particular, towards Russians, as people of different cultural values. Indeed, the European hatred for Russia has existed for a long time. It is even more deeply rooted than state competition or ideologic discord. For instance, the motto “Drang nach Osten’ (“drive toward the East’) was coined in the times when Russian tribes living along the Volkhov and Dnieper rivers were completely unfamiliar with statehood. It was first proposed by Charles the Great in the eighth century, then it was taken up by the first leaders of the Holy Romain Empire; later – adopted by the Anglo-Saxons.

This hatred was evoked by Mikhail Lomonosov, Alexander Pushkin and Ivan Turgenev. “There is no other nation about whom as many lies, absurdities and calumnies have been made up, as there have been about Russians’ (Empress Catherine the Great, 1729—1796). “We should not deceive ourselves. The hostility of Europe is too evident: it does not reside in the chance combinations of European politics, or in the ambition of any of the state leaders, but in the key European interests’ (N. Danilevsky, nineteenth century). “And there is not a piece of slander that Europe would not circulate against us’ (Fyodor Dostoevsky)[34 - Cit. ex F. Dostoevsky, A Writer’s Diary. Translated by Kenneth Lantz. Abridged edition (Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois, 2009)].

In total, the centuries-long western policy towards Russia may be described in the following way: “Europeans need an ugly Russia: barbarian, so that they could ‘civilize’ it according to their own taste; dangerously big, so that they could split it; aggressive, so that they could set up a coalition against it; reactionary and religiously decaying, so that they could break in with their propaganda of Reformation and Catholicism; and economically insolvent, so that they could claim its ‘unused’ territories, its raw materials, or, at least, its profitable trade agreements and concessions’ (philosopher I. A. Iliyn). Though these words were written 90 years ago, they still ring a bell with the modern people.

Moreover, throughout its history, whenever Europe was in trouble, it was helped out by Russia, who never saw its assistance returned. On the contrary, Europe always allied with the enemies of Russia, be it during Russia’s struggle against the predatory eastern hordes, the Time of Troubles, the wars against Turkey, all other wars or even the present day international terrorism counteraction. “No Russian service for the all-European causes (the Seven Years’ War, fight against Napoleon, the rescue of Prussia in 1805—1815, the rescue of Austria in 1849, the rescue of France in 1875, the peaceful politics of Alexander III, The Hague Conferences, or the sacrifice in the war against Germany in 1914—1917) is valid in front of this fear; no noble and selfless actions of the Russian leaders were capable of stop this European ranting’ (I. A. Iliyin).

The West has always been hostile to Russia. Thus, as the February and the October revolutions of 1917, together with the liberals, the Bolshevism and the subsequent events, were not born in the Russian soil, they were welcomed by the “progressive’ movements of the West. Besides, “All [revolutionary] movements in Russia emerged under the influence of Western Europe and bore the imprint of the prevailing European beliefs’ (Prince P. A. Kropotkin).

Even during World War II, besides the official allies of the Nazi Germany (Finland, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, and Italy), the USSR had to face 18 thousand volunteers from the occupied Netherlands, 12 thousand Danish, Swedes and Norwegians, 6 thousand French, 4 thousand Walloons, and 4 thousand Spanish (data provided by the Major General of Wehrmacht von Buttlar). The Hitlerites were well supplied with raw materials and arms from France, Slovakia, Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and even Switzerland, so the USSR was in fact fighting against entire Europe.

A real genocide of Russians, including their history, culture and language, was under way after the collapse of the USSR in the Baltic countries, in Ukraine and many CIS countries; it has been invariably and cynically welcomed by the advocates of “human rights’ in the West. If it views the adversaries of black people as racists, those of the Jewish – as anti-Semites, and those of Russians – as human rights activists. These are links in one and the same chain, the result of one centuries-long policy. Useless to call for truth and justice, to try to evoke the nobility or even basic decency. For all of these are absent.

The fundamental incompatibility of the Russian and the western world is further proven by the observation that as soon as Russia became closer with the West, it faced decline, new troubles and cataclysms. Indeed, only friendship with the Anglo-Saxons can be more devastating than the war with them. “To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal’, warned Henry Kissinger. The West has actually taken advantage of Russia’s credulity to proceed to information attacks against the country, to deceive, to rob and to humiliate. N. Berdyaev claimed that Marxism first appeared in Russia as an “extreme form of westernism’. It conforms better with the western struggle for existence than with the Russian struggle for the truth. This is why there is no surprise in the deplorable result of such assimilations, as the desire to impose foreign ideas in an unsuitable soil cannot result in success. Besides, the current “reforms’, ugly and deceptive as they are, were not conceived in Russia.

“The West has been and will be God’s punishment for us, which we still fail to realize. We are stuck in the western mud up to the ears, and we are good. We have eyes, but fail to see; we have ears, but fail to hear, and our heart is ignorant’ (Theophan the Recluse of the Vysha Monastery). This thought is echoed by professor Yu. M. Osipov: “The tragedy of Russia lies in its interaction with Europe’. For this reason, only then Russian revival started when the country discarded western values and was nourished by its own roots. And this is precisely what we witness today.

Thus, the confrontation of Russia and the West is of fundamental nature. It is produced by the collision of different civilisations, and not only by simple disagreement with certain actions, ideology, leaders, or their policy. Due to its uncompromising stand, the West cannot reconcile itself neither with Russia’s difference, not with its religion, its originality or wealth.

The processes described above have left us too different from one another. While a western person defends his individuality, a Russian affirms his belonging to a greater entity. Western people are attached to law, to private property and to man-made justice; Russians are inspired by fairness, social prosperity and justice of Heaven. Where they attempt to resolve problems by force, we act through compromise and agreement.

On the other hand, western society has also created a unique culture, has produced greatest philosophy, painting, music, architecture and poetry. Western pragmatism has improved economic systems, social structure and everyday life. It has generated modern science, education and art. Thus, it has significantly influenced all aspects of the daily life in Russia and the entire world. This attitude has also shaped the mind of the Russian westernists, who adore western culture and do the best to introduce western values on the Russian territory. Above all, the west has in many ways been regarded as a standard of “good’ development.

The considerable differences between the European and the Russian civilisations, cultures, and values prevent the efficient implementation of the said achievements in Russia. Our country is thus relegated to the position of permanent lagging behind, of imitation and longing for applause. For instance, Russian people tend to believe that “human being is superior to the property principle’ and that the idea of “natural law’, which serves as the basis of the Western European moral, is understood through the ideals of Virtue, Justice and Truth. Is it possible then for Capitalism to be as successful in Russia as it is in the West?

On the contrary, the model based on the activity of smaller groups, where “one is for all, and all – for one’ has proved most productive in Russia. The main rules of such system are described in paragraph 2.3. This set-up employs the group initiative, inherent of Russian people, as well as original thinking and collective talent. “These factors precisely have contributed, from the initial stages and throughout the history, to the formation of common, group structures for governance, of collective, often artel-type forms of labour organisation; they have laid the foundation of the further development of corporations’[35 - [Translator’s note: Translated by me.]] (academician L. T. Abalkin

). Where Russians abandoned these principles, and tried to follow blindly the foreign rules of organisation, of human relations, and property, they inevitably failed. This entailed useless lamentations on the originality, incapacity, backwardness, stupidity, lack of culture and mystery of the Slavic soul. However, it would suffice to give up foreign authorities and let Russia live in accordance with its own principles.

For this reason, the ideology of unlimited private property has failed and will fail to get rooted in the Russian soil. The principle that preconizes that the more money a person has, the more rights this person enjoys, will never be understood by the Russian people. It is evident that the western principle of money-grabbing that is not conductive to the well-being of the society is regarded by Russians as deeply immoral.

At the same time, it should be admitted that Russian society has not been able to find its proper economic system that would conform as much as possible with its culture, faith, harmonious vision of the world, sobornost and reality of life. That is why during the entire past millennium Russia has been forced to use western-made surrogates. This brings a feeling of disharmony in the economic relations and fundamental national values. Science starts rushing frantically from one fashionable western doctrine to another. And the West, with a certain desire of profit, keeps supplying new doctrines. Sometimes it is done through information media, and sometimes – through collaborators, by means of disinformation and force. Besides, the West enjoys shamelessly the opportunities that such methods provide.

In the light of the foregoing, the sanctions imposed on Russia by the West are, in reality, beneficial for the country. They finally oblige it to look for its own ways of resolving the problems that have accumulated and of resorting to its advantages based the country’s specific features. Russia is forced to propose an alternative society organisation, a new world order inspired by the national roots, experience and history not of Russians, but of all other peoples as well. The present book is dedicated to the description of one possible type of such organisation.

§1.2. Economic objectives and tools

1.2.1. What is economics?

…the reason for some gods to be overthrown, and for others – worshipped, has always been and still is not religion, but politics…

V. I. Sergeev

Let us consider this phenomenon in greater detail. The term “economics’ is derived from the Greek word oikonomike which means “the art of managing a household’. For the first time it was mentioned in the fifth century by Xenophon, who put it as a title for his work. In it he considered the rational rules for household and agricultural management with the view of increasing profitability. Later the scope of economy as a science was expanded to encompass the entire range of economic activities. It was also then when first discrepancies in interpretation emerged.

Plato, for instance, believed that the purpose of an ideal state was to “banish meanness and covetousness from the souls of men’

[36 - [Translator’s note: Cit. ex Plato, Laws. Translated by Benjamin Jowett (Cosimo Classics, New York, 2008). In the original, this quotation is attributed to Plato’s The Republic, wrongly.]]. Aristotle distinguished between the true economic activities aimed at producing goods for home and for the state, and other activities seeking to make profit (this second type was known as chrematistics)

. In fact, he considered the latter type of economic activities perverted. In particular, the philosopher was indignant at the interest that let the usurer make profit without participating in the production of useful goods, but just by transforming money into a source of new money. This, according to Aristotle, distorted its nature, for money is meant for exchange, and not for making non-productive profit.

One of the first economists, Jean-Baptiste Say claimed in 1803 that economics “…teaches about the constitution, the distribution and the consumption of wealth’. Some modern scientists believe that “economics is a discipline that studies the way a society with limited, scarce resources decides upon what should be produced, how and for whom’ (S. Fisher, R. Dornbush, R. Shmlenzi). But there exist other definitions: “There are four main ways to acquire wealth: violence, lawful transfer, gift and exchange. Among the four, only the last one is related to economics’ (Jacques Leon Rueff). The problem is that people try to use economics in all of the cited cases.