Legend has it that Lenin once said “When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will vie with each other for the rope contract.”
Although this quote is apocryphal and no one has ever been able to find it in any of Lenin’s writings, it is as pertinent today as it was when US intelligence officer Major George Racy Jordan ‘quoted’ him in a 1955 article in the “The Commonwealth: Official Journal of the Commonwealth Club of California”. Jordan was a fierce anti-communist writing as the Cold War was just starting to get rather warm. Whether this was said by Lenin or just imagined by Major Jordan, we will probably never confirm, but it is starkly accurate today in so many ways.
As we are all so acutely aware now on the 24th February this year Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal attack on a peaceful neighbour, starting war again in Europe for the fist time since the Yugoslav civil war between 1991 and 1995. The war commenced with powerful missile strikes on several Ukrainian cities inflicting many casualties and massive damage to infrastructure and housing. What is not so widely known however is that those missiles work so well because they are full of sophisticated electronic guidance systems made not in Russia but in the democratic capitalist market economies of the West.
In 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed bringing into being many new independent states. Russia and Ukraine being but two of them, right from the outset. The former Soviet states attracted political and economic advisors from the ‘winning’ side in the Cold War. The United States and Western Europe flooded those countries with our experts in turning the former communist empire into democratic market economies fit to join the civilised world. The talk at the time was of the superiority of the democratic, market economies having prevailed at what US political scientist Francis Fukuyama called “The End of History”.
Fukuyama’s premise was that political and economic history was an evolutionary process and that the Western way of life was almost predetermined to prevail. The End of History marked a major turning point. We now might conclude that that sentiment was hopelessly optimistic, even naïve in the face of what history had told us already. The sunlit-uplands of democracy, peace, love and understanding did not last long at all. Some might argue it was still-born. No sooner had the Soviet Union collapsed but war broke out in its neighbourhood in the disintegrating former communist state of Yugoslavia.
The democratic market economies in the new states emerging from Soviet control never really happened either. All of the former Soviet Republics descended rapidly into oligarchies and eventually to Kleptocracies, including Ukraine. We quite rightly support the valiant people of Ukraine in their fight against an imperialist aggressor but we should not forget that the same corruption that brought about the regime in Moscow was alive and kicking in Kyiv and Kharkiv too. Kleptocracy, oligarchy and illicit finance are the biggest threat to peace and security in the world and we in the West heve facilitated and enabled it.
Western bankers, lawyers and advisors continued to offer advice, finance and legal support long after the rose tinted view of a democratic market economy had faded from view in the former Soviet states. Right up to the imposition of the biggest package of sanctions in history Westerners happily cosied-up to the people we now call war criminals and murderers. Some of the advisors, particularly the lawyers who facilitated Russian oligarchs bringing legal actions in the West to silence the press and media, still shamefully justify it with the absurd statements “they have a right to be represented”. It is notable that such a ‘right’ is determined by the depth of the clients pocket rather than the merit of their case. It is doubtful that the recent libel action by Roman Abramovich against Catherine Belton and her publishers was carried out on legal aid rates.
Now to the most amazing reflection on ‘Lenin’s observation’. Those missiles hitting Ukrainian apartment blocks are full of electronics and avionics built in the west. The SSC-8 is a Russian ground-launched cruise missile with a range of 2,500 km. It has a US made computer aboard to facilitate its ability to operate its control systems at very low altitude and high speed. Thanks to American hardware it is incredibly accurate. The computer and the rails that connect it to the computer housing as super heat resistant as would be necessary in such a weapon. The Svir and Refleks guided 300-mm rocket, the principal weapon of the Russian precision artillery for the Tornado-S multiple launch rocket system uses a US-made fibre-optic gyroscope for its inertial navigation.
The Russian TOR-M2 air-defence system, one of the most potent short-ranged air-defence systems in the world relies on a British-designed oscillator in the computer controlling the platform’s radar. The UK has a long tradition of supplying weapons that get used against us and our allies and friendly countries. The MIG 15 fighters that were the scourge of the skies in the Korean War were powered by a Rolls Royce designed Nene jet engine that was sold to the Soviet Union. The Argentine Navy was the proud owner of Type 42 warships designed and built in the UK and sold to a fascist dictator.
The US, UK, Germany, The Netherlands, South Korea and Japan have all had a thriving trade selling weapon components to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Parts of those missiles that hit Ukrainian targets have been examined by the Royal United Services Institute in the UK, sure enough they are full of kit designed and built in the West. What is even more astonishing is that the flow of components continued right up to the attack on Ukraine, long after Russia adopted its highly aggressive and threatening stance against the West.
Whether Comrade Lenin made that prediction or not, we can see that the prediction itself is absolutely correct and there is no wonder it has stood the test of time among all Soviet/Russian predictions.
Barry Turner is a Senior Lecturer in War Reporting and Human Rights and a member of the Royal United Services Institute.
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An emergency road closure will be put in place for two hours in Stamford’s Red Lion Square on Wednesday as expert crews carry out road materials testing.
The critical work will take place on Wednesday, May 25 and the road closure in and around the square will be in effect from 10am until 12pm. A full route diversion will be signposted.
The roads will have to be closed because some of the materials testing will be carried out on the live northbound traffic lane in the area.
The route map for traffic whilst testing is underway. | Photo: LCC
Just last week a forty-year-old gas main was discovered during works to replace the old cobbles in Red Lion Square, which the county council said was likely to delay the completion of the £1.4 million project. The site team began the works but later identified the shallow gas main on-site that may need to be diverted.
Lincolnshire County Council will keep, and update, the cobbled square despite the mayor of Stamford previously calling on the authority to instead use tarmac. Local residents had previously reacted in horror when the traditional paving setts were repacked with patches of tarmac in 2020.
Red Lion Square in Stamford. | Photo: LCC
Karen Cassar, assistant director for highways at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “We are sorry for the inconvenience that these material tests will cause and for the late notice of the road closure in Red Lion Square.
“Our on-site team has uncovered questions about the road materials which need clear answers and these can only come about through these tests.
“Rather than postpone the works further we will close the road for two hours to carry out the tests and then resume to the original plan of works for the area. We are doing this to absolutely minimise the disruption to road users as much as possible.
“Whilst this situation is not ideal, we appreciate the efforts of all concerned. I want to thank everyone effected for their patience in this matter whilst we carry out these tests.”
Over 300 kilos of essential food was donated to Lincoln Foodbank at the opening night of the Hunchback of Notre Dame on Monday, and the show’s producers are offering a prize draw of free tickets to people who continue to help the cause.
The Starring Lincoln Theatre Company’s production of the classic Victor Hugo novel had its opening night at Lincoln Cathedral on Monday, May 23, and it will continue to bring shows to the legendary venue until Saturday, June 4.
The company called on ticket buyers to bring food donations with them to the cathedral for Lincoln Foodbank, and the results certainly did not disappoint.
Andrew Buhagiar, a 20-year-old student from Malta, stars in the production as Quasimodo. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Over 300kgs of goods such as UHT milk, sugar, tuna and tinned foods were collected at the cathedral, a brilliant start to Starring Lincoln’s target of four tonnes – which was achieved during performances of Oliver! in 2017.
The appeal has never been more necessary, with Lincoln Foodbank taking on more people’s needs than ever before, and it has even reached the stage where some of the Hunchback performers are relying on the use of the food bank.
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Visitors are being invited to continue bringing food donations with them, with a collection point situated in the nave of the cathedral.
All donations are welcome, even from those without tickets to a Hunchback production, and anyone who brings something along will be entered into a prize draw to win a ticket to one of the shows.
A magical display inside Lincoln Cathedral. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Tim Marks, who plays Clopin in the Hunchback of Notre Dame said: “It is heartbreaking frankly that people in one of the richest countries in the world simply cannot afford food.
“We know the people of Lincoln have gone above and beyond before with their kindness and crikey we thank them for it, but the Foodbank has never been more in need of donations.
“We have friends, some of whom in the cast who are in need of the Foodbank’s services, so please bring what you can and in return we promise we will entertain you with an absolute stonker of a show!”
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