By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY
History does not repeat. Yesterday will never be today or tomorrow, but historic patterns do repeat. History shows a pattern of the nations’ emergence, growth and decline. It provides facts and allows us to search for underlying causes of historic events.
Elected government officials, policy makers, educators and the society at large must clearly understand that ignorance, irresponsible government mandates and disregard of historic patterns may create irreversible socio–economic consequences.
In this essay I will briefly outline the causes of decline of the major world empires — Rome, Russia, Great Britain –- and point these causes to today’s decline of the socio-economic environment in the United States.
The fall of the Roman Empire was caused by many factors, including economic problems, government corruption, military overspending, never-ending wars and invasions by ferocious nomads and horsemen from the East.
— Economic causes: The government’s corruption and financial mismanagement led to inflation and debased currency; the empire’s economic troubles were made worse by its heavy overreliance on slave labor.
— Military causes: The Roman Empire over-expanded and spent too much on its military; the empire’s military became a drain on its resources, leaving little money for other socio-economic needs.
— Government corruption: Government corruption led to political instability, which weakened the empire; as Rome grew, rulers became more concerned with protecting themselves rather than serving the Empire.
— Invasions: Barbarian tribes invaded the empire, contributing to its decline; the arrival of the Huns in around 370 AD, and the migration of other barbarian tribes contributed to the Empire’s decline.
— Decline in morals: The Roman Empire’s final years were marked by declining morals, including violence, promiscuity, and lavish parties and celebrations.
The Romans established many cities and settlements along the Black Sea coast (today’s Ukraine and part of southern Russia), including Histria and Pompeipolis. The remains of Roman-era settlements along the Black Sea coast have survived centuries of rebuilding and inhabitation.
The Russian Empire declined due to a combination of poor leadership, economic and social unrest, and military defeats in World War I (1914-1918).
— Leadership: Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918) was a poor leader who repeatedly dissolved the Russian parliament; the government was corrupt and inefficient; the military was mismanaged, with shortages of munitions and wounded soldiers left untended.
— Economy: The Russian economy was backward and suffered from food shortages; WWI substantially impacted Russia’s economy and decline of the prestige as a European power.
— Social unrest: Peasants, workers, professionals and soldiers became increasingly dissatisfied with the central Tsarist government; ethnic minorities in Russia (Jews, Poles, Latvians, Estonians) wanted to escape Russian domination; the military occupations and martial law crippled the civilian functions of the state.
— Military defeats: Russia suffered a series of defeats in the Crimean War (1861-65); Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905); and World War I (1914-1918). The military defeats undermined authority at the local and metropolitan levels. The Russian Socialist Revolution of October 1917 resulted from these causes. The Bolsheviks eventually overthrew the Russian Provisional Government in 1918 and later established the Soviet Union in 1922.
The British Empire declined due to a combination of factors, including devastating economic impacts of World War II (1939-1945), economic strain, and pressure for independence from its colonies.
— World War II: Britain’s defeats in Europe and Asia destroyed its economic and financial independence; Japan’s occupation of British colonies in Southeast and East Asia damaged Britain’s prestige.
— Economic strain: Britain was left with hundreds of billions of dollars in debt after World War II; the cost of maintaining its colonies became an expensive liability.
— Pressure for independence: The British Crown’s heavy-handedness and political missteps fueled nationalist movements; Britain’s colonies increasingly saw themselves as separate peoples.
— Other factors: The British Empire was transformed into the Commonwealth 56 sovereign countries, an association of independent states that still share a British monarch. By the 1970s, little of the British Empire remained.
Clearly, the decline of the major world empires and states, at the different historical eras, have many common causes and characteristics, such as: never-ending wars, social unrest, economic strains, invasion by outsiders (like today’s illegal immigration in the U.S.), military defeats, decline in moral values and traditions, a remarkable government corruption in all socio-economic levels, and spread of the destructive far-left neo-Marxist ideology worldwide.
When I arrived in the United States on February of 1978 as a political refugee from a socialist country, I never thought America would attempt to destroy itself from within with the radical neo-Marxist ideology—critical race theory, white privilege doctrine, systemic racism, Black Lives Matter and Pro-Palestinian antisemitic movement around the world.
Historically, the main reason leftism is radicalized in America today, and accelerating among our youth, is because young people of the post–Vietnam war generation had never experienced economic hardship or oppression by a totalitarian regime; they have been intensely subjected to political correctness, wants, and irrational and wasteful handouts instead of hand–ups.
Today, many radical educators believe themselves to be teaching the “truthful” history of the world, including American history. They aggressively and unwisely inject divisive concepts of “gender identity,” “Project 1619,” “white privilege doctrine,” “critical race theory” and violent and antisemitic pro-Palestinian movement into their teaching curriculums.
This neo-Marxism will only accomplish two main far-left objectives: (1) racial segregation and indoctrination among our youth, and (2) hatred of the historic past of our nation. It is imperative to acknowledge and understand, in contrast, that world events must be interpreted and understood in the historic context of their time, relying on factual truth rather than on subjective “truth” wrapped into neo-Marxist ideology.
In fact, far–left progressives are not as they think of themselves—liberal or open minded. In fact, they are illiberal and intolerant deflationists—i.e., I am going to serve you a bowl of soup once a month at your place, if you don’t crash into my ocean-front home to ask for more.
Far-left progressivism is now a religion for some groups; and they possess the typical zeal and emotional attachment to a far-left dogma—socialism and neo-Marxism—which blinds them to having a rational and open mind. Indeed, they are hypocritical fools, who are literally the main cause for the ideological and economic decline of America.
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 1976; 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, and Clipper 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.
Excellent narrative – essay here.
Great Job!
The far-left’s plans to takeover the United States has been derailed by Trump, at least for now. This generations-long effort began with the radicalization of college campuses in the 1960s – taking advantage of the Viet Nam war fiasco – to lay the foundation for an infestation of all major institutions by radical ideologues. The first domino to fall was the educators – starting with the universities and colleges that taught all of the future educators. Their students eventually became the teachers, and their students carried the woke virus into the entertainment, government bureaucracy and business worlds, and even into the military. In time, these enlightened implants became the managers and supervisors (and generals and colonels), and eventually the senior board members, where they began to mandate their woke ideology.
But for Trump.
This ideology is so deeply imbedded in our society that we are now sitting on a knife edge. Barely a handful of votes in the other direction in November 2024 would have probably sealed our fate.
Outstanding article! Hit the nail on the head!
Thank you again for very truthful and well written article. Keep bringing them on because I read and appreciate the view you present.
Alex,
I would argue the British Empire was fatally wounded due to their primary (amongst the several competing great powers role in causing WWI. If it were not for the late US involvement, Germany would have completed the destruction of France and exhausted British forces.
As late as 1871, it was the Franco-Prussian War (there was not yet a unified Germany) that proved France was already a shell of a “great” power. A short 44 years later, a recently unified Germany almost destroyed both France and Britain.
Referring to Britain as a “democracy” has never had a truthful basis. Since the Norman invasion it has always been a parasitic, hyper aggressive Imperialist state, relying on the subjection of distant lands and people’s to enrich their royal and inbred class. The manner they have always treated their lower classes is abysmal.
The most classic example is their use of slave labor in India to produce opium and force China, by force of arms, to sacrifice its’ society to profiting the drug dealing East India Company. Literally a narco cartel using a host nation’s maritime and military to destroy another country for profit.
By 1939 Britain was already in a free fall, relying completely on the US for any possibility to survive the Third Reich in Europe and Imperial Japan in the east.
Today Britain is a pathetic joke of a failed society, lack of free speech or any meaningful say of their citizens in governance. Their mighty navy is reduced to a joke, and they are unable to field a full brigade, at about 3,000 personnel. In 2 days it would be wiped out in the Donbass region if they are stupid enough to deploy it against a real modern and motivated fighting combined arms force.
We are faced with the identical and insolvable problem that the costs of maintaining an Empire are unsustainable. The result is to destabilize and impoverish the society in general for profits for the elite/decadent and governing class.
We took over world dominance from the smoking ruins of 1945 Britain and have already failed in 80 years. Abandoning the unique principles of a federal Republic ruled by its’ sovereign citizens in favor of a decadent European style kleptocracy was always doomed to ultimate failure.
Let’s hope our 2nd revolution in process is successful, for our grandchildrens’ sake. The American kleptocrats allied with their bureaucratic minions are as vicious, corrupt and ignorant as any in history.
Brian, insightful remarks, as usual; and good addition to the article.
Also, it would be appropriate to mention Greek-city states in this context.
The Greek city-states began to decline in the late 5th century BC after the Peloponnesian War— a conflict between the ancient Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta that lasted from 431 to 404 BC or 27 years. The city-states were further weakened by internal conflicts and foreign invasions, eventually falling under Roman control in 146 BC.
The decline of the Greek city-states was primarily caused by their fragmented political structure, constant warfare between themselves, particularly the Peloponnesian War, which weakened their military and economic power, ultimately making them vulnerable to external threats like the rising power of Macedon under Philip II and Alexander the Great (336–323 BC), who conquered the Greek city-states and brought an end to their independence. Other contributing factors included internal political instability, economic decline, and the lack of a unified leadership across the different city-states.
Greek city states on the Black Sea included Odysseus, Olvia, Panticapaeum, Sinope, Selymbria, Nesebar, Histria, Argame, Apollonia, Tyritake, and Chersonesus. In the early 1970s, during my college years in the former Soviet Union, I excavated ancient Greek settlements in the Berezan Island in the Black Sea (7th century BC to 4 century AD) and Olvia city-state (6th century BC to 4th century AD) in the Upper Delta of the Dnieper River.
The Greek experience illustrates the fragility of “democracy” in a world of leveraging power by ambitious and greedy leadership personalities.
I never considered the fact that the Macedonians were a kingdom, in contrast to the Greeks in self ruled city states. The Persians (Iranians) overwhelmed the Greeks in their eastern regions. The incredible feats of the Macedonian back water kingdom through Alexander (I thought of as Greek) in annihilating the Persian Empire, by far the greatest power at that time, overshadowed the Greek city state history for me. And loss of the ancient concept of democracy for subsequent centuries.
Concerning the northern Black Sea Coast and Dnepr Delta, the ethnic history is both ancient and complex. I’m more familiar with the elementary and modern age of Tartar occupation to the present.
My own experiences indicate Tartars are generally assimilated, heavily interbred with Slaviks and loyal Russian citizens.
There was recently a popular round of western propaganda claiming the presence of N. Korean soldiers in the Kursk Region. The few photos/telegram videos of “evidence” were clearly all Russian nationals, Yakuts and Tuvans (Turkic dialect speaking western Mongolians). Due to the infantile level of ignorance in the west, projecting Russian Natives as “Koreans” was treated as reality. This type of propaganda is comic, like watching 1950 vintage Soviet propaganda, and tragic that so many today are so clueless as to believe it.
In an unbelievably inpersonable modern stand off war using missiles, FABs and drones, there is a fascinating viral video of a Russian Yakut Native who kills a European Ukranian invader in a hand to hand knife combat.
He has become a hero, surviving multiple offensive operations and the humanity he displayed to his opponent in his extremely painful dying minutes, even giving him a handgrenade to end it. Despite the fact that this foreigner with his fascist insignia (an anthema to Russians) and his army have invaded the homeland and inflicted thousands of atrocities on the civilian population.
My wife and I often discuss our grandchildren are indistinguishable from these people’s children and their home regions look so familiar to ours.
Let me introduce DJT and all the deplorable’s
The facts expressed here are just that. Plain facts. However, Marxist ideology is that of feelings and fantasy; the denial of the true nature of the world and mankind. Its adherents simply refuse to accept the world as it truly is. Their stubbornness is the bane of any gainful culture. It is the duty of any clear thinking, rational, being to call them out at every turn. Stay diligent in this duty for the sake God and country.
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