Su Ershinao's recent work "Northern Birth"

Nov 15, 2023

Vladislav Surkov, known as the "grey cardinal" of Russian politics, published a short article a few months ago that caused a stir.

Surkov's latest work "The Birth of the North"
[Remaining case: Vladislav Surkov, known as the "grey cardinal" of Russian politics, published a short article a few months ago that caused thousands of waves with one stone. The original title was "The Birth of the North." When it was pushed on the home page of RT's website, it was renamed intentionally or unintentionally to the more straightforward "Here's why Russia will eventually align with the United States and the European Union." will eventually all with the US and EU). This article is not long, so the English translation will be placed later. Interested friends can take a look.
The article begins with a look back at history. Lamented that the great geographical discoveries started by Vasco da Gama in the 15th century did not realize the vision of King Manuel of Portugal, and failed to find the overseas partners needed for Portugal's expansion of power wherever it went. The reason is not that there are no earth kings overseas. But these earth kings are not the Christian elders that Portugal hopes to see. The lesson that emerges from this sounds familiar: Taoism does not work together. Without shared values, cooperation is not easy.
Surkov's nostalgia for the past is, of course, intended to lead to his argument. Next, he questioned whether the current United States and the European Union had made the same mistakes as the King of Portugal.
We believe that Ukraine is a worthy partner, not a dispensable player on the chessboard. So, what can you see if you clear away the fog? If the waste pieces are erased from the chessboard, can the situation be opened up?

What’s coming soon is: The Great North! Russia, the United States and Western Europe form a cultural circle based on common beliefs. Before this concept was formed, the opposite Great South had been popular around the world for many years. How can there be north if there is no south? The so-called "Great North" here is roughly equivalent to the previously widely popular "West", but it does not reflect the whole truth. In his view, Russia in the north spans east and west. Mentioning the West alone does not fully cover it. So there is no need to rest on our laurels. Now that the concept of the Great North has emerged, it can be said to be an epoch-making recognition. It sounds ridiculous, but it might as well be compared to the miracles that really happened in history: Great Russia, Great Europe, and Great America. Who could have imagined it before it was realized?
Such a grand vision will naturally not come easily. In his opinion, this process has already begun for centuries, so waiting a few more decades is not too much.
It has been widely circulated that Putin sent a message when he first came to power that the then US leader wanted to join the NATO cloud. Speaking this historical rumor from the mouth of Cardinal Gray undoubtedly adds weight to this theory. The short-sightedness of Western politicians resulted in them missing this great opportunity at the beginning of the century. The Yankees are worried that Russia will take over the United States' superpower status and replace it. History can only wait for them to mature quickly and mature enough to understand how and what can be relied upon to maintain world order. Such a prospect is neither imminent nor likely ever to be realized.
The author's argument is nothing short of amazing. It is a pity that it is somewhat pedantic and confuses the basis of beliefs that once existed in history with reality. Little do they know that today's European, American and Western countries already have anti-traditional and anti-Western values called for by "cancelism". As Raymond Aron, who has been debating with Sartre for decades, pointed out very early: The West is self-righteous and blindly advocates American personal freedom, believing that consumer pleasure plus votes are the West’s eternal source of optimism. Eventually, it will lead to the white left trend prevailing in Europe, America and the West today: liquidationism distorts, tampering and obliterates history, confuses the standards of right and wrong, and leads society to fragmentation through identity politics. I once used an old "kitchen debate" incident to prove that this tendency is not the fallacy of a few ignorant people. At that time, when Nixon was competing with the leaders of the Soviet Union, he thought he had the trump card to win. In fact, it was just people's excessive material desires and greed. They relied on this to defeat the idealism of Soviet Russia, but they did not expect that they would end up shooting themselves in the foot. Half a century later, it finally turned into its own opposite: letting China rely on this weapon to play with Europe, the United States and the West.
Many good people still believe that the United States has not reached a point of hopelessness and that there is still a way to cure it. The reason is that the number of Christians is among the highest in the world and the conservatives who seem to still have vitality are fighting tenaciously at all levels of society and even in the political arena. But is it too optimistic? The results of the just-concluded November state-level elections seemed to present an ominous picture. Some deep red states have seen both chambers of Congress swing blue. It aroused the carnival of many progressive advocates, saying that as a new generation soaked in the milk of the white left wolf grows up to become voters, the American political arena will be completely blue. Next year's presidential election will be the ultimate battle between blue and red. Lao Chuan was of no help. Once we are defeated by the equal defeat curve again, the outcome will be decided, and there will no longer be a stage for conservatives.
Don't think this is alarmist. People have always regarded the existence of the United States, the so-called city on a hill, as an indicator of the continuation of Christian civilization. Who will win? Can Putin’s wishful thinking really work?
Instead, we can use the traditional Eastern dialectics to think about it. Can it be said that things must be reversed when they reach their extreme?
Why can't the "South", which is called pagan in the traditional perspective, not be "reversed" and become the new "North" based on traditional Western values?
To paraphrase an old saying, the so-called wind and water change. The west is not bright but the east is bright. The Western white left forces that have abandoned tradition are no longer Putin’s partners in Russia. And why couldn’t it be the former colonies, the former pagan areas, that picked up Christian values?
Of course there are still many questions. For example, who can take charge? Are there such talented people in reality? And then it was not the last: don’t forget that Christianity spent a whole thousand years trying to recreate the barbarians at that time. This was the Middle Ages known as the Dark Ages in history. Modern academic circles are willing to rethink and clarify whether this era is really "dark". If so, how could the Renaissance come about? Where did today’s Western tradition come from? It's a pity that time is not with me. Even if you have such courage, will the world have the corresponding patience?
The even more worrying fact is that compared to the Western Church during the Roman Empire, the Orthodox Church itself seems to place too much emphasis on secular rights, is too dependent on secular royal power, and does not have the history and power to check and balance royal power. Richard Pipes, a Polish-born Harvard history professor, pointed out in "Russia Under Old Regime" that even the concept of the so-called Third Rome was an idea adopted by the Orthodox Church in order to please the Tsar. But then again, without the blessing of the Roman Empire, could the Western Church become as powerful as it is still imaginable? It seems easier to understand if the secular power represented by Caesar is expressed in the Chinese tradition. Before the revolution between Zhou and Qin, the emperor of Zhou united politics and religion and acted for heaven, so he was called the "Emperor". The spiritual power that can surpass the royal power does not actually transcend the "Son of Heaven", but acts (executes, implements) on behalf of (represents) "Heaven" and uses "Tao" (spiritual power, so it can surpass the executor). "Emperor" is just a virtual king. The princes and nobles with the ability to "execute" are the "royal power and political power" that must be restricted and balanced by spiritual power. After changing from "Zhou" to "Qin", the title of emperor has not changed, but the actual meaning has changed. Become a tyrant and arrogant person who corrects the edict of "Heaven". The unchecked royal power finally turned into a colonizer that enslaved the people. Tianxia (wherever the executive power goes) becomes its private domain and inner colony. It is in this sense that the so-called "Qin system" is nothing more than an Eastern name for the colonial empire. Both have exactly the same nature.
It can be seen that the European "feudalism" that is different from the Eastern tradition is exactly the "Zhou system" before the changes of Zhou and Qin. The key point is that the "Emperor" must be the "Xujun". Those who can be restrained and balanced by the "Tao" of heaven, that is, the spiritual power, must be the princes and nobles who can check and balance each other. That is, the local "kings" and various factions who were bound by Western Christianity in the European Middle Ages. What Surkov lamented at the beginning of his article actually pointed out that King Manuel of Portugal ignored the heroes of all walks of life who cooperated with him during the Crusades. They are the force behind Christianity's eastward advance, not the imaginary king he imagined. To be fair, Richard Pipes' criticism of the Orthodox Church is somewhat emotional and unfair. Proposing the "Third Rome" as a norm to constrain the czar's governing vision is in itself worthy of praise and praise. Human history itself is a process of continuous accumulation and precipitation. This is a completely different realm where the crazy leftists like the Bai Zuo will change the world at every turn and everything will have to be overthrown and started over. Surkov later refers to the future of the image of the Pax Romana. The Roman Empire, which lasted for hundreds of years, is indeed the glory and benchmark of Western European history. It cannot be said that pursuing such a state is completely unreasonable.
Interestingly, RT published the different opinions of "Andrew Korybko" the next day. Even the title is so tit-for-tat: "Russia Won't Ally With The Great North Against The Global South." It seems that the editorial department is cautious in this special time and space. What later attracted the attention of the reading world was a report that the Russian police were conducting an investigation to see if the article was deliberately antagonizing the authorities. The focus of criticism is not directed at Surkov. I just think that forming an alliance with the North does not have to go against the South. Su Wen was quoted in the article as saying that he was just a poet. After all, it did not provide a feasible path for alliance with the West. So it's just wishful thinking. But Surkov was full of confidence and believed that this was a feat after Charlemagne unified Europe. There is no doubt that this is exactly the same idea as Russia has always regarded itself as the successor of the Third Roman Empire. Unfortunately, in the eyes of critics, this fantastic idea simply goes against Russia's current national policy. After all, those we are currently allied with are what Su Wen calls the “South,” including India, China, and the so-called BRICS countries. Can the power based on a common Christian cultural background really replace real geopolitical considerations?
Because I wanted to repost this article, I searched for Sheng Shiliang inside the wall (researcher at the World Issues Research Center of Xinhua News Agency: Xinhuanet 2019/04/28 21:31 Putin leads Russia to follow a non-Western development path - an analysis of Surkov's article "The Long-lasting Putin State"). The focus is exactly the opposite. After all, it is because articles written in different eras have different footings. Or maybe time has changed, and Surkov has a new understanding of the world pattern. It remains to be seen. 】
Below is an English translation of Surkov’s recent work:

Here's why Russia will eventually ally with the US and EU

Moscow's eventual victory in Ukraine will lead to profound changes in the global order, but not in the ways most commentators currently predict.

When the explorer Vasco da Gama set out to find a water route to India in 1497, King Manuel of Portugal ordered him to gain an audience with the powerful overseas rulers, Prester John and the Raja of Calicut.
The mission was only half completed. The raja was contacted, but not the Prester. This was particularly unfortunate because John was supposedly the king of a powerful Christian empire flourishing "somewhere beyond the Nile," and Portugal expected him to support it as a co -religionist in its struggle with non-believers for control of spice and gold routes.
The alliance with the Prester's kingdom was an essential element of the Portuguese expansion plan.
In the end, the scheme had to be adjusted. To their credit, the Portuguese managed more or less alone. But their 'punctuated' empire in the Indian Ocean, for all its success, was still not as strong, extensive, or durable as it could have been had they been able to draw on the resources of a major ally.

It would be rash to blame Vasco da Gama for this failure. He did not make an alliance with John. But not because he was negligent or unwise, which he certainly was not. It was because that kingdom never existed anywhere. Sadly.
King Manuel was let down by his scholarship - he based his plans on strictly scientific data and the most reliable sources. Of the time, of course.
The certainty that, whether in Africa or Asia, there was a fraternal superpower of the king-priest gave the Crusaders of the twelfth century strength. They "knew" that he could march into Palestine on their side. The Pope then sent a delegation to John. But it never returned. Later, the Prester was "clearly" described by Marco Polo. His land was "known" to the Arabs, the Byzantines, the Persians, the Mongols .... and to the Old Russian tradition under the name of the Kingdom of Ivan the Priest.
There is nothing unusual in the fact that this vivid geopolitical hallucination influenced the behavior of serious states to a greater or lesser extent for four hundred years. And if geopolitics is indeed a "grandiose chessboard," then in addition to the rather wooden kings and pawns , there is always "present" the ghostly, non-existent, but mighty, figure of Prester John.
Every strategist has his own John, his favorite illusion, his intoxicating mistake, which is freely placed alongside sober calculations. This factor is the driving force behind every great game. Without it, no player would have started the process. Simply because he wouldn' t believe it was possible to win.
And it's not about wanting to cheat or being cheated. There is no messing about here, only simple-mindedness.
Human thinking as such does not perceive reality in its pure form, but always in an augmented state. Augmented by the unreal. Fiction acts as a catalyst for action. And as a manifestation of truth. Without fantasy there is no movement. And after the subsequent encounter with reality, sometimes not a happy one, we can lament that "it looked smooth on paper..."
The mind produces errors as generously as it produces correct judgments. The infallible is unreasonable. Artificial intelligence will only equal and surpass human intelligence when it learns to make mistakes.
In any ambitious plan, at least one of the two or three pivots on which the earth is to be turned is, by definition, fictitious. (The wonder of fantastic ideas lies precisely in their impracticality.)
Geopolitical hallucinations are no less important in the current redistribution of the world than they were in the days of Vasco da Gama. And it is not so important whether the strategists in Washington dreamed that they saw an embroidered shirt with the words "In hoc signo vinces (By this sign, conquer)". Or whether the planners in Berlin imagined that "as always," with their allegedly peculiar "German pedantry," they had resolutely sorted everything out and foreseen everything. Or all of them together considered Ukraine to be the kingdom of Prester John, a wonderful foreign country, ready for anything, that would help them.
What matters is that in their bloody game they will achieve goals that no one is striving for today. And everyone will not get exactly, or at all, what they seek. And momentary delusions will manifest a distant truth.
What can we see ahead if we try to look beyond the mirage? What will happen if we remove the false pieces from the chessboard?
There will be the Great North - Russia, the United States, and Western Europe - forming a common socio-cultural space. A tripartite northern geopolitical cluster.
The premonition of the North has already manifested itself in the increasingly frequent use of the term 'Global South'. And there is no South without the North.
In the past, the term 'Global North' was virtually synonymous with the 'West' and did not take root because of the obvious redundancy. Now the contours of the Global North, though barely visible, are emerging and taking on a very different meaning .
It is now hard to believe that the conflicting systems will eventually reach a high degree of convergence. But it was just as hard to believe in a united Russia when Mikhail of Tver was fighting the Moscow Principality. united Europe in the time of the Bohemian warlord Albrecht von Wallenstein. Or in the union of the American states at the beginning of the Civil War.
A violent reaction of the synthesis of civilizations is taking place before our eyes. Its result will be the dissolution of both the West and the East into the Great North, when all the falsehoods have been precipitated.
All participants in this process are experiencing and will continue to experience tragic transformations until they begin to fit together in a common historical project. This has taken centuries and will take many more decades.
No, not for a while. No, "not on our watch." The chance to create a Great Northern Alliance was lost in the early 2000s when our president suggested to the Americans that Russia should be considered for NATO membership. The proposal was rejected . Most likely because of the fear that within the new security contour Moscow would be able to challenge Washington's hegemony and snatch away the levers of influence of the 'junior' members of the Alliance.
Such offers are not made twice. The US continues to live with its chronic phobias and delusions. The EU is not yet independent and remains an enlarged version of the Bizone, the American and British occupation zones in post-war West Germany.
The path of Americans and Western Europeans from paranoia to metanoia is long and winding, and it will not be long before they mature into the right world. But not soon is not never.
The Great North is neither utopia nor dystopia; it will be neither an idyll nor a dystopia. It will be full of contradictions - yet obsessed with the unifying idea of collective leadership.
A common future is prefigured by common roots.
The three major northern civilizations, Russian, Western European, and American, draw inspiration for their political development from the image of the Pax Romana. The word of the Elder Philotheus of Pskov still guides Russia. The European Union has proclaimed Charlemagne, the 'Emperor of the Romans', as its forefather. Washington's most famous hill is named after the legendary Capitol.
The source code of these three metacultures is embedded in the Iliad and the Gospel. Their kinship is obvious.
Our victory will change us as well as the so-called West. It will be a new step towards the integration of the Great North, where our country will act as a co-leader of the global triumvirate.
The evil of this day will be replaced by creation. And that will be the merit not so much of the politicians of the future, but of Homer and St. Mark.