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With Robert Kaplan “Revenge of Geography”‘, Kaplan brings in a distinctive IEEE on world politics and the importance of geography, how it can shape every aspect of the world; from geopolitics, to the spread of culture and technology to the advancement of entire civilizations. With these ideas in mind, I will show some of the key actions taken from inside the city itself, and how it was a symbol for an entire world at war. I will also provide a brief history of the state of Russia, and why they became the modern behemoth of the world today.
With the northern Eurasian steppes being extremely flat and easily traversable, Russia blossomed into one of the largest empires the world ha ever seen. Yet the importance and fierce fighting spirit of Russia has been formed by over five centuries of Tsar conquest. Its continual thirst for taking over the Eurasian Heartland has seemed to be the reason for the unification of the Slavic peoples, and it still continues today. The formation of the USSR in 1922 brought a scary force to the modern world; nearly 1 50 million people expanded over nearly 12% of land on earth.
With advancements in recent technology brought nearly instant communication, a factor limiting many major empires from reaching their true potential. As Mackenzie is quoted in Kaplan book “The Revenge of Geography,” he states that “Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland: Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island: Who rules the World-Island commands the World. ” This scheme was the main focal point for the Soviets; if they could rule the Eastern Bloc, democracy and Western ideologies would be pushed back to a safe enough distance for the USSR to have free reign over its satellite nations and extended territories. Berlin was a symptom of Communism, not the disease its self’; (Herbert, “Cold War In Berlin,” 166). ND just like any disease, you must fight it from the inside out. Thanks to the one of the first democratically elected leader of West Germany Ernst Reuters, in 1947 he was the Allies top man for being on the inside of Berlin. Working tirelessly to create a free Berlin from the grasp of Soviet rule, Reuters not only was determined “to give the Kremlin no rest in Germany.. ” (Crankshaft. E, “Berlins Cold War Counter-Offensive,” 8. But also increased the offensive of Western ideologies in the East. He also fought to increase the standard of living of East Berlin, even with it being highly under erasure from Soviet Commandants. It is noted that nearly 400’000 people from East Berlin and East Germany made the trek to post on the City Administration to show their disapproval of of the East German Premier and staunch socialist, Otto Georgetown. Yet amidst all Of Router’s great feats, his most dominant skill was his knowledge of Russia, and its people behind the Iron Curtain.
His ability to see his city’s (and fellow county of West Germany) quarrel was with only the government led by Stalin and not the people of the USSR was extremely beneficial. “Without him, Berlin would have almost retainer fallen. ” In Grayson and Cheek’s novel ‘The Berlin Wall Crisis”. They quote Tony Flairs Foreign Affairs advisor stating that the city slowly became a “symbol of the freedom and dynamism of the West, but an embarrassing portal of escape… And frail Soviet hold over its European satellites. Berlin became a microcosm for the current and future struggles going on around it, the ultimate battle East versus West It also kept the hopes and ideals of an eventual unified Germany. And again in Grayson and Cheek’s novel they note that “as long as the occupation status for the city remained a fact, the ironical of not dividing Germany permanently was kept intact. ” It is arguable to say that for as long as Berlin stood divided, both sides of the city could still believe in an eventual reunification of Germany and the expelling of Soviet forces.
With the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall came the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and its immediate dissolution. As Mackenzie is noted again in Kaplan “The Revenge of Geography’, “the Cold War.. Proved to be merely another phase of Russian history that ended according to the familiar dictates of Russian geography”. As cliche as it is to say that history repeats itself, it is completely legitimate to argue that it has.
With its lack of political infrastructure and having almost 25% of its population being groups of people being repressed by their communist rule, it would be nearly impossible to maintain their empire with the rise of local nationalism. Although it isn’t the sole reason for the ISRC dissolution, “Geography is merely the unchanging backdrop against the battle of ideas plays out. ” Geography never rose up and fought the Soviet Union, but it simply placed arises around it that it simply couldn’t over come.
Some historians argue that Berlin was merely an angry and stagnant city, and had little impact on the outcome of the the Cold War. But with the sheer magnitude of the events occurring and surrounding the city, it is hard to ignore that it was one of the main battle ground of political ideologies and titanic nations alike. With the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1 989, a domino effect was created, and soon its reverberations were to be felt throughout the Soviet Union and the world itself.