And the Germans have no agreement
Germany has many new features that appeared and manifested in the past quarter century - after the collapse of the socialist camp. Not all of them are widely known in our country, although they are very curious.
A trip to Berlin for the ILA-2014 aerospace show made it possible not only to assess the level of high technologies of the Old World, but also to talk with the Germans, to ask their views on events in the country and the world, to ask about many things that remain outside the scope of television news gear. It was not very difficult to do this, since many Germans - former residents of the GDR - speak Russian well, and there are simply millions of Russian Germans in Germany.
My interest was also explained by the fact that once I, the son of a Soviet officer, lived for several years in the GDR, where I graduated from high school in the city of Schwerin. And for the rest of my life, my attitude towards Germany and the Germans remained the most benevolent.
I was interested in attitude to events in Ukraine.
German television is absolutely anti-Russian. In the reports from the Donetsk region, announcers assert that “Russian separatists” are fighting there. At the same time, everything that concerns the “Maidan” and its inhabitants is served in an exceptionally friendly light.
If in the winter the name of the newly elected president “Square” in the credits on the screen was written as Petr, then since April it has been written in Ukrainian: Petro. And all of it seems to be a kind of kind-hearted fat man - sweet and “in chocolate”. As the Germans themselves told me, in the plots about him it is emphasized that he owns the confectionery industry, and not the enterprise of the military-industrial complex. So, by definition, can not be aggressive and evil. In the western understanding of the master of the chocolate business - people almost with a childish mind who want goodness and an abundance of sweets for everyone.
Most ethnic Germans have no desire to dwell on Ukrainian problems. Grandfathers and great-grandfathers died in Ukraine many, therefore this geographic name itself does not cause any warm feelings. Yes, and Chernobyl is not all forgotten.
Those who are interested in politics are divided into three parts. Some believe that Germany must urgently intervene to protect the sovereignty of the matured, finally, until the realization of its own state independence, that is, Ukraine. There are even those who call to send part of the Bundeswehr to the aid of Kiev. But they are a tiny minority. A much larger number of Germans are sure that this is an internal affair of the CIS - they know such an abbreviation there, and let Russia and Ukraine understand each other themselves. But there are some very advanced experts. storieswho openly say: Kiev illegally claims on lands that it never belonged to. In their opinion, Moscow is still too gently acting. Once this situation has developed, it is necessary to send troops throughout the territory of Little Russia - and they know this name - in order to return what has always been a part of Russia.
But there are also humanist liberals. In a fiercest way, those who belong to various Green parties are scourging Moscow. An amazing thing, Western environmentalists literally jump out of their pants and skirts, protesting against the extraction of shale gas, and, at the same time, demand to stop the “Russian aggression” in the Donetsk region, watering the leaders of our country with streams of verbal mud.
I asked one of the "greens": did he know that the United States had already developed plans for the mass production of shale gas just in the Donetsk region? Local residents are unhappy with this and, in particular, therefore, do not want to be under the authority of Kiev, which has already given the go-ahead for such works. He was genuinely surprised, said he did not know anything about it. And then he came to his usual state of "zombies" and shouted: this can not be, this is all Russian propaganda.
Indicative is the position of the Russian Germans - those in whom the blood of Germanic ancestors flows, but who, due to historical circumstances, was born and raised in the USSR or in independent republics after the collapse of the Union. A massive return to their historic homeland happened at the very end of the eighties and continued throughout the “dashing nineties”.
Adapting to new living conditions was difficult. The overwhelming majority remained “Rusaki”, although they mastered the German language well and settled well in the everyday plan.
So, all the Germans who once returned to Germany from Russia, Ukraine and the republics of Central Asia, with regard to the Russian-Ukrainian disputes, clearly on the side of Moscow.
Even those who still have family and friendly ties in Ukraine, to the current authorities in Kiev are, to put it mildly, condemning.
Literally in the last few years an interesting trend has emerged. Many Germans - immigrants from the USSR - turn to our embassy with a request to obtain Russian citizenship, without planning to refuse the German one. To travel to relatives and friends without tedious visa processing and to conduct business in Russia.
Mostly the workers' families returned to Germany - from miners, metallurgists, and collective farmers. They did not have the opportunity to become oligarchs. But they were able to establish themselves in the capitalist world, to stand firmly on their feet. And now they want to invest their own, even if small, capital in Russia, and not in Africa, and not even in Ukraine. Alas, neither our diplomats in Berlin, nor high politicians in Moscow, such aspirations seem to be incomprehensible. Getting a Russian passport was and remains a big problem for the Germans.
There are generally amazing cases. Young men from families of Russian Germans are already coming to the embassy, wondering if it is possible to serve in the Russian army instead of in the Bundeswehr.
Such impulses can be attributed, probably, to youthful maximalism, especially since it is impossible to "retract" from service in one army, referring to service in another. But the facts are the place to be. Speaking of the Bundeswehr. All military analysts are a priori confident that the German armed forces are the most combat-ready in Western Europe. Is it so? After all, in order to win on the battlefield, you need not only the most modern equipment, but also fighting spirit.
In the army of modern Germany, everything is in order with technology. And with the spirit? If Hitler drove into the brains of the citizens of his country that they are superhuman, and all around are subhuman, then the Americans, who took up the re-education of post-war Germany, convinced the Germans that they were subhuman. Nurturing army personnel, aviation и fleet Germany, when this country was allowed to recreate its armed forces, was built on the universal values of democracy and tolerance.
Well, they built a certain military structure with formidable and really the best in the world tanks "Leopard", which is controlled by amorphous, almost asexual entities, but not warriors.
Not that in Russia, in Germany, few people know about the growing number of suicides among Bundeswehr personnel - the press, under pressure from politicians, hides this. The cause of suicide can be any, from our point of view, a sheer trifle. Hazing in the German army is not, but they fool around over-aged stupid girls in military uniform. So, there was a case when strong guys robbed a “mama's son” of a chocolate bar that he was given for breakfast. The soldier did not tolerate humiliation, wept, left the dining room and ... hanged himself.
The Bundeswehr carries its military service before Washington in Afghanistan. The service there is selected very carefully. Only those who have already served in Germany, at the age of about thirty years. Solid, established men and, like, real warriors. And with all this, the number of suicides among the soldiers of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan is one of the highest among all military contingents from different countries stationed in this country. For all the time of the Afghan epic, the German contingent has lost the soldiers who committed suicide there, much more than as a result of armed clashes.
And for what, in fact, modern German soldiers to go into a deadly battle? For pederasty, lesbianism, the expansion of the rights of the Arab and Turkish population of their country, for the financial burden that their country carries, containing virtually the entire crisis of Europe? For the financial interests of those who are just like that, for the sake of intimidation, did you burn down the peaceful Dresden with all its inhabitants? Maybe thinking about these questions, they climb into the loop?
An amazing thing that has not received publicity in Russia, nor any serious assessment. After the unification of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany, the East Germans were in almost all head and shoulders above the West - except for financial and material support.
The military personnel of the GDR army in vocational training and morale were better than those who served in the Bundeswehr. If the soldiers of the FRG army were brought up in a tolerant vacuum, then, strangely enough, the reflection of the victories of the Soviet Army fell on the GDR army. And the quality of combat training in the GDR was much better than in all NATO armies. However, in a quarter of a century everything was leveled.
Schoolchildren and students of educational institutions of the GDR, when they merged, were surprised to find that their outlook and general educational level was incomparably higher than that of their western peers. Again, why? The German school in the first half of the twentieth century was considered one of the best in the world, and the Russian was a copy of it. Later, the Soviet school continued the tradition of Russian, and, therefore, German. It turned out that the teaching culture was not interrupted in the GDR, although, of course, the basic values had completely changed. And in Germany introduced the Americanized model of education. The results of the effectiveness of the two educational systems were evident. So why, in Russia, have thrown the best school in the world, middle and highest, into the dustbin of history, and began to copy the monkey’s western “pedagogical values”?
Realizing their intellectual loss, the West Germans simply began to criticize the East, calling them contemptuously "Aussie." They were hindered by career growth, in the case of crisis situations, they were fired in the first place, and other “tricks” did. This could not but cause internal resistance.
And it seems to me personally that a surge of nostalgia for the GDR in present-day Germany is not far off.
In this regard, I want to tell a story that, in turn, was told to me by an acquaintance who, in the nineties, went to the West to study design art. In the workshop of the famous master of industrial design, he met with a young German who worked as a carpenter. The guy was an interesting fate.
He was born and grew up in the GDR. Even a schoolboy imbued with Western values, became a complete dissident who hated his socialist homeland. Tried to flee to Germany. On the border he was caught, imprisoned. There he studied English and wrote letters to all international human rights organizations. Chancellor Helmut Kohl even stood up for him. And so, even before the collapse of the GDR, the guy was given freedom and released to the desired West. The Chancellor himself procured him a passport of a citizen of the free Federal Republic of Germany. A young man opened all the way! And in prison he became addicted to woodworking, became a good carpenter and carpenter, did not chase after many. He was important spirit of freedom. He breathed very quickly, living in a well-fed and absolutely free West Germany was so fed up with him that he went to Switzerland, where he found a job he liked.
My acquaintance was surprised that his new comrade, unlike the others, was distinguished by a hospitality that was not accepted in Europe, offered him beer, food, and never asked for money for it. Loved having drunk a beer, talk for life. And once gave such a philosophical thought. It turns out that while living in the GDR, he himself did not understand how free he was inside. And yet, as it turned out, the Russian spirit infiltrated through him, although he treated the USSR as an invader country.
So what is the main difference between the West and the East, in the opinion of that German? In the East, there is a Soul - with a capital letter, and in the West there is Money - also with a capital letter, but there is no Soul there.
It was difficult for the German to express all this in words, but he convinced the Russian interlocutor that even with complete freedom and financial prosperity it was very hard to live without a soul. And he expressed confidence that no matter how well the life of a Russian student in the West would be, he would still return to Russia. So it happened.
Here are just a brief impression from Germany and the Germans. Russia has many directions, developing which, it can become a very influential force in this country. And the main thing here, it seems to me, is not gas supplies at all. So, will we continue to ruin our educational system in favor of "world standards"? continue to ignore fellow countrymen, even if they are “Germans”? And, with great diligence deploying a well-paid PR campaign, we will start looking for a “new national idea”, forgetting that everything new is well forgotten old?
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