bear unwanted children is too great tornl)ear.rnWhen we hear of violent erimes inrnthe inner eit, it is commonh said thatrnsociet is responsible. Without agreeingrnthat societv is responsible, and certainlyrnwithout den ing the responsibility of thernperpetrators of erimes, we might noterntliat the same logic applies in this case:rnthat if a callous society is responsible forrnerimes in the ghetto, then a society thatrnprotects and rewards those who kill arnchild emerging from a womb must sharernrcsponsibilit for the crimes of anguishedrnabortion protesters such as Mr. Salvi. Ifrnthe whole society is in any sense guilty ofrnthe one, it is sureh not altogether innocentrnof the other.rn—Harold O.j. BrownrnB ORIS YELTSIN’S recent electoralrntriumph over his Comnrunist riyal wasrnhailed throughout the West as a ietoryrnfor democracy and reassuring eyidencernthat Russia will continue on the pathrnof progress and peace. In Washington,rn1 .ondon, Paris, Bonn, the leaders of thernUnited Nations of the Free W’orldrnbreathed a sigh of relief. Absent fronrrnthe congratulations were the by now traditionalrnwarnings against the upsurge inrnRussian nationalism represented by suchrnsinister figures as Gennad Zyuganov,rnVladimir Zhirino’sk-, and GeneralrnAlexandr Lebed. Of course, now thatrnLebed lias joined Yeltsin’s team, evenrnthe nationalist bear has been stuffedrnback into his cage. Or has he?rnAmerican news commentators, in thernsecond stage of the Russian presidentialrncampaign, began to grow uneasy withrnI.cbed’s denunciations of foreign cultsrn(including Mormonism) but grudginglyrndecided to set down these gaffes to campaignrnrhetoric. But if xenophobia winsrnotes in Russia, then serious or not,rnI .cbed may be preparing some surprisesrnfor tire Free World. When I met Lebedrnback in )anuar’ (along with the directorsrnof the Lord Byron Foundation), he gavernno indication of either xenophobia orrnpolitical cynicism. In fact, despite hisrnobious sense of humor, Alexandr Lebedrnis a deadh serious man who believes thatrnthe I’nited States and Germany, alongrnw ith their puppet regimes in Britain andrnFVance, are busily encircling the remnantrnof the Russian empire the’ ha’e alreadyrnsucceeded in dismembering. The objectrnis to reduce Russia from a second-raternpower to an inconsequential piece of geographyrnthat can be exploited at will byrnGerman and American businessmenrnand their governments.rnLebcd’s suspicions, shared by a greatrnmany serious-minded Russians, are thernsigns not of paranoia but of political realism.rnIn the Balkans and in the MiddlernEast, the United States has already usedrnits militai) muscle to crush Russian alliesrnand diminish Russian influence. On thernwestern flank, the Germans are oncernagain nraking noises about the Sudetenland,rnand German business interestsrnare taking over the former Europeanrnprovinces of the Russian empire. A childrncould see what we are up to, and GeneralrnLebed is no child: he may turn out tornbe, along with Chancellor Kohl, thernmost hardhcaded statesman of thisrndecade, and the sick and aging BorisrnYeltsin is no match for him, either in willrnor intellect.rnViewed in the abstract, Yeltsin’s decisionrnto make Lebed his deputy looks likernpolitical suicide. Here is an alcoholicrnheart patient, almost uni’ersall’ despisedrnby his own people, with only tworncards to play—his incumbency andrnthe fear of communism—and he givesrnsweeping power over the military and thernpolice to a vigorous tee-totaller. who isrnloved by the soldiers and grudgingly respectedrnby people who object to his politicalrnviews. But eltsin is no politicalrnnovice, and he did not survive either inrnthe old system or in the new by misjudgingrnthe character of his rivals. He knowsrnthe risks far better than yve do, and if hernis willing to take them, he has a good reason.rnSome time before the elections, hernannounced that he had already pickedrnhis successor. Anridst the usual speculation,rnAlexandr Lebed declared thatrnYeltsin could only have meant him. Atrnthe time it seemed like a joke, but nornlonger.rnIf Lebed is Yeltsin’s handpieked successor,rnthen he need have no fear thatrnthe general will murder his boss on thernway to the top. It also means that Yeltsinrnhas finally made up his mind to do whatrnI have been predicting he would do sincernthe da” he came to power: play to thernright, turn away from the West, and reassertrnRussian military and political influence.rnBoris Yeltsin’s political ‘ietoryrnmay well turn out to be a turning-point,rnbut not in the sense in which it is beingrngreeted in the provinces of the Americanrnempire. It may just signif’ that the longrnRussian retreat has begun to slow to arnhalt and that we may see the reemergeneernof a Russia that can look after itsrnown interest without the kindly assistancernof the United States. It may alsornspell the end of the American powerrnmonopoly in Europe.rnIn the long run, a multipolar Europe,rnin which Germany, Russia, and the UnitedrnStates are competing for influence,rnwill prove to be a far healthier situation,rnnot just for Russia or Europe as a whole,rnbut for the United States, which has neitherrnthe national will nor the competentrnleadership required for the managementrnof global empire. Unlike Mikhail Gorbachevrnand Boris Yeltsin, AlexandrrnLebed is no friend (that is, client) of thernUnited States. As a Russian patriot, hernhas his own people’s interest at heart,rnand even if a resurgent Russia should gornback to rattling sabres and threateningrnour satrapies, his rise to power, if we canrnlearn to mind our own business, shouldrnrepresent no threat to the United States.rn—Thomas FlemingrnOBITER DICTA: Frederick Turner,rnwhom Paul Lake in these pages hasrncalled “a poet and thinker of remarkablernintelligence and originality,” has contributedrnthree new poems to this issue.rnFounders Professor of Arts and Humanitiesrnat the University of Texas at Dallas,rnTurner has works of fiction and manyrnarticles and poems to his credit.rnThe Second Annual Conference of thernSouthern League took place June 7-9 inrnMontgomery, Alabama, the historicalrnbirthplace of secession. Among thernmany distinguished speakers at thernmeeting were Southern League PresidentrnMichael Hill, board membersrnClyde Wilson and Thomas Fleming,rnJohn Remington Graham (a lawyer associatedrnwith the Parti Quebegois), andrnCharley Reese, a nationally syndicatedrncolumnist. The 300-strong audiencernwas largely composed of scholars, actirnists, and professionals, groups which—rnas the Village Voice observed in its Junern11 story on the Southern League—haverncome to define the vanguard of Southernrnnationalism. The organization, inrnless than two years, has swelled from 24rnto 3,000 dues-paving members.rnDetails about this ear’s John RandolphrnClub meeting can be found in the adrninside the back cover.rnSEPTEMBER 1996/7rnrnrn