Understanding History Puts Modern Russia in Context
BOOK REVIEW: Containing History: How Cold War History Explains US-Russia Relations
By Stephen P. Friot / University of Oklahoma Press
Reviewed by Jean-Thomas Nicole
The Reviewer: Jean-Thomas Nicole is a Policy Advisor with Public Safety Canada.
REVIEW – Stephen P. Friot and his book Containing History are intriguing, to say the least – in a good way. To begin, it is rare that you see a former Senior U.S. District Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (appointed by George W. Bush, from 2001 to 2014) now being an Associate of the University of Oklahoma’s Romanoff Center for Russian Studies.
According to its website, the Romanoff Center for Russian Studies promotes the interdisciplinary study of the Russian Federation and its larger historical precursors, the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire.
Founded in September 2022, at the bequest of Princess Janet Romanoff (see Janet Schonwald), the American wife of Prince Nikita Nikitich Romanoff, an apparent direct descendant of the Russian ruling dynasty before the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, the Center is dedicated to informing both the University of Oklahoma community and the broader public about the history and culture of Russia, current events involving the Russian Federation, and Russia’s actions on the world stage.
The ex-judge Friot has also traveled extensively in the Russian Federation while serving as guest lecturer with the faculties of law at numerous universities in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, and Ulyanovsk. He is also the author of three articles published in the Comparative Constitutional Review (Moscow).
Want to know what the top minds in cyber are most worried about right now? Save yourself a seat at The Cyber Initiatives Group virtual Summer Summit on Wednesday, June 28th.
As Friot tells us with underlying emotion, his book is very much then the product of a “collaborative work” between he and his “Russian friends and colleagues in academia, the judiciary, the legal profession, and elsewhere”. They helped him to learn about their nation, “its incomparable culture and people, and the challenges it faces”.
Secondly, the book’s title is consciously inspired by George F. Kennan (1904–2005), the intellectual father and pioneer of the containment’s doctrine. According to Friot, “Kennan’s intellectual contributions to [U.S] national security are as relevant now as they were when he wrote so perceptively about “the Russians” nearly eight decades ago”.
Along these lines, and like many books concerning Russia these days, Friot’s work thus starts in the wake of February 24, 2022, the fatidic date which saw the brutal and unprovoked attack by land, sea, and air on Ukraine and its people. By doing so, according to Friot, Putin’s dual motive was to prevent a thriving democracy from developing in Ukraine and to upend the post–Cold War Euro-Atlantic security order.
Further, he posits, quite rightly, that: “As fate would have it, the Cold War era was the period in which hundreds of years of history, on both sides of the East-West divide, were fused into historical memory and popular consciousness with consequences that undeniably persist to this day”.
Consequently, if we follow the author’s reasoning, “the Cold War years have much to do with how we got here. Those years still have much to teach us [American readers]”.
Friot drives this point home clearly when he sets the singular political, historical and cultural – dare we say civilizational? – foundations of his demonstration within the enormous Cold War literature:
“Public attitudes in Russia are — in the twenty-first century — the product of a thousand years of history, including searing experiences in the twentieth century that have no counterpart in U.S. history. Contemporary Russia has been shaped in part by the forty-five years of the Cold War and in part by the seventy years of the Soviet era, all against the backdrop of the millennium that unfolded after Christianity came to the Kyivan Rus. Likewise, the attitude of the American people toward Russia and the Russian people has been and will continue to be influenced by the Cold War and more broadly the seven decades of the Soviet era”.
In other words, that means notably that: “The effects of the events explored here — World War II and the Cold War — are different in Russia than in the United States. The politics of history and the politics of remembrance (not to be confused with nostalgia), rooted in historical memory, are real forces in the Russian polity and cannot be simply dismissed”.
Whether we like it or not, Friot fruitfully reminds us – even if just obliquely – that we cannot cancel history for any given reason or whim; the serious study of the past (success, mistakes, blemishes and all) allows indeed for a better understanding of the present and richer, fuller perspective as well as preparedness for what is to come in the human sphere. In that sense, “historical memory is a value that drives social and political behavior in a meaningful way”.
Looking for a way to get ahead of the week in cyber and tech? Sign up for the Cyber Initiatives Group Sunday newsletter to quickly get up to speed on the biggest cyber and tech headlines and be ready for the week ahead. Sign up today.
In addition, this book is an insightful reading for it considers and explains brilliantly – without underestimation or hyperbole – the Russian point of view on history, culture and international relations, all through the twentieth century, up to our difficult and passionate times.
As Friot puts it: “The fact remains that Russia is, indeed, a unique civilization. It has been so for a long time and will remain so for a long time to come. That will make a difference to Russia’s relations with the West especially as East and West engage — as they eventually must — with the task of finding a new way forward in the wake of the catastrophic war in Ukraine”.
He comes back again to this critical point in the final paragraph of the conclusion: “it will become necessary to resume the search for common ground wherever it may be found. That common ground can and should be found by leaders who understand that the adversarial relationship between the two countries cannot be wished away and, consequently, must be competently managed. What is needed is a pragmatic strategy, founded on firm resolve, informed by a good understanding of history, and implemented by a unified West, all aimed at accommodation when possible and, if you will pardon the expression, containment when and where containment is required”.
Containing History earns a solid three out of four trench coats.
The Cipher Brief participates in the Amazon Affiliate program and may make a small commission from purchases made via links.
Read more expert-driven national security insights, perspective and analysis in The Cipher Brief because National Security is Everyone’s Business