Socialism and Democracy, December, 2019
The Russians are Coming, Again
Jeremy Kuzmarov and John Marciano, (New York: Monthly Review
Press, 2018, 237 pp., $16)Harry Targ (2019) The Russians are Coming, Again, Socialism and Democracy, DOI: 10.1080/08854300.2019.1658967
The primary purpose of
this book is to challenge the popular view that Russia, led by Vladimir Putin,
represents a challenge to US democracy much as the former Soviet Union was
alleged to have been during the Cold War. The authors, taking The New York
Times as their prime source, argue that what is called Russiagate, a story
about the nefarious use of computer hacking, spying, and bribing and
threatening to expose public figures, including President Trump, is being
promoted day-after-day as the root cause of the outcome of the 2016 election.
In addition, they suggest that those who vigorously embrace the Russiagate
explanation of the 2016 election are claiming that Russia’s interference might
be part of a longer-term Russian threat to American democracy. This is so
because alleged hackers spread misinformation about candidates and issues, thus
distorting dialogue and debate.
The authors review the
charges of subversion of the elections that have been “proven”, or so The
New York Times claims. The “proof” includes statements released by
spokespersons from the FBI, the CIA and other national security agencies that
Russian operatives, agencies, and private institutions have hacked social media
with “fake news” about candidates running for office (especially, Hillary
Clinton). Advocates of this view presume that such misinformation influenced
the voter choices of the American electorate. These are the same institutions
that figured so prominently in presenting distorted views of a Soviet “threat”
during the Cold War that justified the arms race and massive US military
expenditures.To illustrate the seriousness of the charges of the impact of Russia’s interference in the election they quote Thomas Friedman who claimed that the Russian hacking of the election was “… a 9/11 scale event. … that goes to the very core of our democracy.” Along with similar opinion pieces by Charles Blow, Timothy Snyder, and other columnists, news stories, Kuzmarov and Marciano say, have been replete with similar claims. The New York Times narrative concludes that the hacking and interference in the US election is designed to promote victories of candidates for public office who would be sympathetic, and subservient to Russia. The long-range goal of Russia, their stories suggest, is to promote Russian expansionism and its restoration to great power status.
After developing their
critique of the Russiagate narrative, Kuzmarov and Marciano, make the case that
United States foreign policy since 1917 has been motivated by the desire to
crush the Russian Revolution and limit the influence and power of the Soviet
Union in world affairs. The Russiagate narrative, they suggest, is primarily a
continuation of the story each US administration told the American people about
a “Soviet threat” to justify the escalation of the arms race and military
spending. They argue that proponents of the Russiagate scenario promote the
idea of a new “Russian threat.”
In fact, Kuzmarov and
Marciano say, Russia’s foreign policy in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Eastern
Europe today reflects its perception of a threat from the United States and the
NATO countries. For example, President George Herbert Walker Bush promised Mikhail
Gorbachev that NATO would not establish new military installations in Eastern
Europe. With new NATO forward bases in Poland and the United States’ support of
a coup in Ukraine, the Russians see the United States as having aggressive
intent. From Russia’s vantage point United States threats to Soviet/Russian
security have been a feature of East/West relations from the Russian
Revolution, through the Cold War, to hostile relations with the United States
in the twenty-first century.All too briefly, Kuzmarov and Marciano review the history of the root causes of the United States’ Cold War policy, the lies perpetrated about the Soviet threat, and the enormous damage Cold War policies did to the American people and the victims of war around the world. For those who have not lived through the Cold War and students who are not taught about alternative narratives to “American exceptionalism” this brief volume is very useful. It draws upon the best of historical revisionist scholarship, including the works of William Appleman Williams, Joyce and Gabriel Kolko, Gar Alperowitz, and Ellen Schrecker. It has chapters on the onset of the Cold War and its causes; the attack by Cold War advocates on democracy; Truman, McCarthy, and anti-communism; and the war against the Global South. In sum, the story begins with the substantial US military intervention during the Russian civil war after the Bolshevik victory and continues to Russiagate today.
The authors effectively develop their two main themes. First, they challenge the argument that Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, represents a threat to US democracy much as the former Soviet Union was alleged to have done during the Cold War. They argue that the Russiagate narrative is fraudulent. Second, they briefly revisit the history of United States/Soviet/Russian relations to argue that the one-hundred-year conflict between the two sides was largely caused by United States’ imperial policies and that proponents of the Russiagate thesis seek to rekindle a new Cold War with Russia.
