THE FALL OF RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA

As a committed “Eurasianist”, I find it odd when pundits tell us this war between the Russians and the Ukrainians should terminate in the ruin and desolation of the former nation. After all, it may be expected, in the first approaches of the confined, or simple observer, that it is certainly impossible, since they cannot be rendered subservient to the latter’s advancement; yet, if they were to have this power, in opposition to the formalities of military science, what would become of the five post-Soviet Central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan? This question may be sufficiently answered, by observing the historical scenes which gave employment to and inspired the genius of Rudolf Steiner with whose imagination their futures were rehearsed and foreseen.

In this arrangement, as a crypto-Steinerian aware of Cultures as organic totalities, I am struck with the present succession of international affairs, which, in the progress of history, we consider its object as tending to raise or to sink the balance of nations, is administered by the material system of political, military and cultural policy on which our Western states have proceeded so far; the very policy by which they find their degree of ascendency removed, or greatly diminished, whilst the Eastern shores, not only of the South East Asian Sea, but those of the Caspian, are favoured with all the varieties of economic fortune and prosperity available to humankind.

Occasioned, probably, by the commercial settlement between the heads of Saudi Arabia and China, besides the deliberate prospects of being able to exchange commodities in the yuan currency, indeed, every intuitive journalist among political scientists is confident in the Red Dragon’s strength to enlarge its pretensions to equal influence and consideration in other states. Still, it is not so surprising, however, that the dollar should be attended with no better effects, as the united nations of BRICS and their neighbours are far from being agreed on the moral rectitude of its political nature, under the specious pretence of procuring to other peoples a lasting democracy; or on that degree of its encroachments on their freedom, and present itself to the view of the other nations as the supreme object of respect, fear and consideration.

Yet, in opposition to what has dripped from the pens of eminent writers, if the Russian Federation, and the supporters of the President were forever removed from the scene of international affairs, like the Soviet Union, the anti-dollar alliance already mentioned will be severely restrained in its pursuits; this alone, in the meantime, would be sufficient to confirm the hegemony of the United States in a considerable part of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The actual consequences of war, it must be confessed, are equally important in the history of this conjectured narrative. Displacement and forced migration from Russia are the earliest subjects of quarrel in the states of Central Asia: a total destruction of cultural assets, or an environmental degradation, are the prices of war, in proportion as the territory of Russia is dismembered; that this truth will lead them to lose in the Steppes of Central Asia the fruits of trade and investment. Under the appearance of danger, arising from the geopolitical vacuum, and the black market for nuclear weapons and weapons-grade uranium and plutonium find their supply, if not checked by some collateral power, the five states would enter into contests of regional authority or elimination, such as might inspire any habitual principle of realist theory in the academical discipline of International Relations (IR). One order of moderns, in their aversion to any application in which they are not engaged by neoliberalism, are apt to presume, that the Central Asians are willing to prefer the delusive hopes of an energy, security, and economic connection with the United States and Europe, to the ties of familiarity and dependence betwixt the Soviet Union and the denomination of their clans and fraternities.

When I recollect what Oswald Spengler has written, as well as the writings of Rudolf Steiner on folk souls, I am struck with the aspect of a strange history of the world. Guided, indeed, by that superior discernment of their comparative morphologies, I too am instigated to think that civilisations must decline, and their power degenerate. Hence it is, that while we Anglo-Americans admire the advantages of civilised and flourishing peoples, these terms appear misapplied to the Western or our Faustian Civilisation per se, whether as victors or as vanquished. It should seem, therefore, that it is of no consequence to the natives of Central Asia who would settle or conquer on the north of their own happier climates; that the beginning of a new High Culture is necessary and unavoidable.

It is properly observed that Central Asia is the only instance, to which there is no parallel in the history of mankind due to their instinctive healthy nomadism and eco-friendly attitude. It is everywhere interwoven, according to David William Parry, the first Chairperson of Eurasian Creative Guild, with singular attachments to the High Cultures of the Ancient Chinese, the Russian, the Ancient Indian, and the ‘Magian’ to which it belonged. After all, they were once the focus of the Islamic Golden Age, and were devised to cultivate the best qualities of scientists and philosophers, such as al-Khwarizmi, al-Biruni, al-Farabi, and Ibn Sina; and to be guided in the choice of their expressions by the supernatural insights of Gnosticism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism, and arguably their contemporary variant Anthroposophy.

So tentatively observed what passes during the life cycle of individual societies, we shall propose that the middle region of Asia, without hostility to those who oppose them, approaches the first step towards internal growth and, at the risk of a literary flourish, as is the case of any people are a proof rather of Cultural felicity to which their active spirit is destined. With this pretext, they endeavour to derive from their commerce and their inherited varieties of education, delivered by the ablest category of indigenous intellectuals, artists, and creatives, received from abroad, which their cultural organisations may enable them to pursue with all their cultivated manners, amidst the competitions of rival states. Happy are they who contend with such difficulties, and who can discover the new heights of the Central Asian High Culture which tend to fortify and energise, for their joint preservation. A challenge our contemporary Eurasian scholars would do well to encourage. All meaning, every apocalypse is a new genesis.

Bio: Daniele-Hadi Irandoost is an educator, historian and philosopher, as well as a former Commissioning Editor for E-International Relations, and a Member of Eurasian Creative Guild, whereas he is currently reading for his PhD at the Department of War Studies, in King’s College London. Irandoost is also the published author of On the Philosophy of Education: Towards an Anthroposophical View, while he is presently in the process of having his second book published under the highly evocative title, A New Vision of Spycraft.

by Daniele-Hadi Irandoost