In the Crimean War, 1853-54, over 750,000 Soldiers died and countless civilians. This conflict, involved Russia, France, Britain, The Ottoman Empire and many other countries. The match that lit that struggle was Russia. In an excerpt from: Figes, Orlando. “The Crimean War.” he states
“As for the Tsar, Nicholas I, the man more than anyone responsible for the Crimean War, he was partly driven by inflated pride and arrogance,…..“partly by his sense of how a great power such as Russia should behave towards its weaker neighbors,”
In a document used throughout history to describe Russian aggression, “The Testament of Peter the Great”, the writer, speaking for Russia states,
“We must keep steadily extending our frontiers northward along the Baltic and southwards along the shores of the Black Sea.
We must progress as much as possible in the direction of Constantinople and India. He who can once get the possession of these points is the real ruler of the world.
With this in view we must provoke constant quarrels at the one time with Turkey, at another with Persia. We must establish wharves and docks in the Black Sea and by degrees make ourselves master of that sea, as well as the Baltic, which is a doubly important element in the success of our plan. We must hasten the downfall of Persia, push on to the Persian Gulf, if possible re-establish the ancient commerciality with the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean) through Syria, and force our way into the Indies, which are the storehouses of the world. Once there, we can dispense with English gold.”
If anyone doubts that the attitude shown in these writing is not in the current Russian Leader, they would be woefully misguided. Tsar, Nicholas I’s pretense was to protect the rights of Russian Orthodox Christians presiding in the Ottoman Empire. Putin’s original pretense was to protect the rights of Russian’s abroad. In Aesop’s Fable “The Wolf and the Lamb” the moral stands, “The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.”
Remember that when you give a monster a cookie, he wants a glass of milk. Putin has his cookie in Crimea, and now moves for the milk, which is the rest of the Ukraine!
Jack Galloway
