History Repeating Itself

( You may wish to turn up the volume on your computer ).


Old Saint Nick

on the 1968 Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia

The incursion of the troops of the five socialist countries into Czechoslovakia constitutes a great error – a grave danger – for [preserving] peace in Europe, and for the fate of socialism throughout the world.

It is inconceivable, in today's world, when people are rising up in battle, to defend their national independence, [fighting] for equal rights, for a socialist state, for socialist states, to infringe upon the freedom and independence of another state.

There is no justification, nor can any reason prove acceptable, in admitting, even for a single moment, the mere idea of a military intervention, in the affairs of a rightful socialist state.

[...]
Choosing the [right] way of constructing socialism, is [ultimately] a question facing every party, every state, every nation:

No one can erect themselves as advisor, or as guide, of the way in which socialism is [meant] to be constructed.

[Rather], it is each nation's [own] concern, and we consider that [...] the immixture in the affairs of other states, and of other parties, has to cease, once and for all.

[...]
We are determined to act, with all [our] might, and with all our responsibility, so that we may contribute to determining the [best] way for quickly solving this situation, created by the incursion of foreign troops into Czechoslovakia, so that Czechoslovakians might [finally] be able to conduct their business in peace.

We are firmly determined to act, so that, together with other socialist countries, with other communist and workers' parties, we may [eventually] contribute to eliminating divergences, [thereby] strengthening the unity of socialist countries, and of communist parties, because we are convinced that, only in this manner, do we serve people's interests, as well as the interests of socialism throughout the whole world.

The above words belong not, as one might initially be inclined to think, to a democratically elected leader of the free world, but to one of the fiercest communist dictators known to history, heading, for many decades, one of Europe's most brutal and repressive totalitarian regimes.

Nor were they spoken today, but rather well over half a century ago, all of this only serving to show Russia's current president's increasing inadequacy, on the world's geopolitical stage, within the larger historical context.