By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY
What practical lessons can we learn from history? There is no simple answer to this question because history is a complex subject. History is not simply a recording of facts and events; and it is not only a logical classification of the collected data in a chronological order.
History is a social process, the development and evolution of mankind from the past through present and to future. History forms a picture of all things that happened to mankind from its origin upon the earth to the present moment.
History is functional in the sense of meeting the need that society has to know itself and to understand its relationship with the past and to other societies and cultures. History explains a pattern of nations’ emergence and growth, intellectualizes facts, and searches for causes of historic events. It is also poetic in the sense that there is inborn in every individual a curiosity and sense of wonder about the past.
So, what is the relevance of the lessons of history for America today? The historic patterns of so-called progressive movements in America today strikingly resemble the utopian socialist and Marxist movements of the 19th century in Europe. This is especially the case for the new popular rhetoric of “white privilege,” “systemic racism,” “Black Lives Matter,” and “critical race theory.”
Utopian socialists of the 19th century, namely Charles Fourier and Claude Saint-Simon of France and Robert Owen of England, believed that it was possible to organize ideal communities of pre-arranged size. These communities would be composed of farmers, industrial workers, artists, and, in some cases, capitalists. According to the utopian Socialists’ hypothesis, these communities would be stable and self-sustaining, insuring all communal members an adequate livelihood—a remarkably naïve utopia of a harmonious and cohesive human society (e.g., CHAZ or CHOP in Seattle in 2020).
The communist who grasped the revolutionary nature of the 19th century was Karl Marx. Rejecting utopian socialism in favor of what he coined “scientific communism,” Marx claimed that changes in the economic structure of society of his time were the result of class conflicts or class struggles between the capitalists (bourgeoisie) and the workers (proletarians).
In his book Manifesto of the Communist Party published in 1848, Marx stated: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.”
In other words, Marx was not seeking natural or moral laws for guidance; he was turning to the lessons of history and revolutionary uprising against ruling class of the time.
Thus, what is a connection and similar patterns between Marxism of the 19th century and so-called neo-Marxism in America today? Evidently, “white privilege” and “critical race” doctrines are an ideological platform and guidance for other neo-Marxist rhetoric of “systemic racism,” “BLM” and today’s “Antifa.” The “white privilege” and “critical race” doctrines claim an existence of a social division in the society that is based on race conflict, race struggle, race warfare and race advantages between naturally born white people and other people of color.
The rhetoric and missions of “systemic racism,” “BLM” and today’s “Antifa” are a logical and direct outgrowth from the “white privilege” and “critical race” doctrines, with the purpose to threaten opposing ideologies, politics and lifestyles. They are the tactics and methods designed to implement “white privilege” and “critical race” doctrines and “systemic racism” notion into our system of governing and to undermine our constitutional freedoms –especially that all races being treated equally.
To promote “white privilege” and “critical race” doctrines and “systemic racism” notion, neo-Marxists advocate for a complete destruction of the system of oppression — Capitalism.
In the summer of 2020, the Juneau Assembly approved Black Lives Matter protesters’ demands to investigate instances of the so-called “systemic racism” in town. The Juneau Assembly’s radical social agenda is a clear example of neo-Marxist ideology that aims to quietly penetrate our political, educational, social and cultural systems. Eventually, unless it’s opposed and reversed, this radical development will cause a complete breakdown of our core cultural and morals values.
George Washington in his farewell address stated: “Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.” In other words, if a society is to remain free, self-government must be referred to individual citizens governing their own behavior. This is the most critical foundation of American exceptionalism from its inception.
As a prominent American sociologist Charles Murray noted in his book Coming Apart: “America will remain exceptional only to the extent that its people embody the same qualities that made it work for the two centuries of its existence. The founding virtues are central to that kind of citizenry.”
It is absolutely shocking to me, as a person who was born, educated and raised in the Socialist country of the former Soviet Union, to witness so many intelligent and educated people in our country being influenced by such dangerous ideological rhetoric as “white privilege” and “critical race” doctrines.
This radical Socialist rhetoric is the main cause of violent unrests and riots in our country today, and it threatens a possible partitioning and division of our great nation in the future. Americans should resist this Socialist progressive movement in our country and unite in preventing a spread of the neo-Marxist pandemic, including “white privilege” and “critical race” doctrines, into our American culture.
Alexander B. Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine, in 1977; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and was enroled in the Ph.D. program in Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also a lecturer in the Russian Center. In the U.S.S.R., he was a social studies teacher for three years, and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukranian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He lived first in Sitka in 1985 and then settled in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education from 1988 to 2006; and has been the Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center (see www.aksrc.homestead.com) from 1990 to present. He has conducted about 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky has been a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, andClipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. He was the Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. He has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology, and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka; Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia; Old Russia in Modern America: Russian Old Believers in Alaska; Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During WWII; Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East; Living Wisdom of the Far North: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska; Pipeline to Russia; The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in WWII; and Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers; Ancient Tales of Chukotka, and Ancient Tales of Kamchatka.
