An Irony of Fate

About the eightieth birthday of Gennady Zyuganov, an old bogeyman of the West, who should have won in 1996

Contrary to what some especially benighted and provincial neo-Cold Warriors, especially among the American “elite,” still can’t wrap their heads around, contemporary Russia is not Soviet, Communist, or even socialist. Instead, in precisely one way, all the over-confident Western “transition” experts of the 1990s did get their fondest wish: Russia is now as capitalist as can be.

Otherwise, of course, nothing worked out as they had planned, imagined, and dreamed: Russia has not become a subservient part of a “globalized” world order under Western, that is, ultimately American command. Since, at the latest, 2007, its leadership has resisted, ever more directly, resolutely, and successfully, the permanent degradation to second-rate power this would have required.

Moreover, recently – largely together with China – Moscow has also turned into a leading force in not only challenging and stymying Western claims to global dominance but organizing alternatives (most importantly the BRICS+ association) that strive to facilitate the multipolar order which is – inevitably – going to supersede a declining America’s always somewhat delusional “unipolar moment.” Russia, in short – and, again, next to China – has re-emerged not only as a modern great power (its normal international position since, at the latest, 1721) but as the post-Cold War West’s most important and, as the war in and over Ukraine has shown, very effective geopolitical opponent.

It may be counterintuitive, but one figure – both already historic and still alive as well as active – that can help us understand how we got to this point is Gennady Zyuganov. While a household name in Russia, many in the West hardly know about him. That is a pity because thinking about Zyuganov, the leader of Russia’s Communist Party for now over three decades and four-time (unsuccessful) candidate for the presidency, is an excellent way to grapple with some recent history that has shaped our present, and not only of Russia, but also – surprising as it may sound – the West and, beyond that, even the post-Cold War world as a whole. We’ll get to why that is the case in a moment.