OPINIONSrnThe Rise of the Red-Brownsrnby Wayne Allensworthrn”Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.”rn—^William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicusrn.<-, —rn–ijrnThe Last Drive to the Southrnby Vladimir ZhirinovskyrnMoscow: Pisatel; J 43 pp.rnIn his 1990 pamphlet “How to RevitalizernRussia,” Aleksandr Solzhenitsynrnwrote, “When our fathers and grandfathersrnthrew down their weapons duringrna deadly war [World War I], desertingrnthe front in order to plunder their neighborrnat home, they in effect made a choicern[his italics] for us, with consequencesrnfor one century so far, but who knows,rnWayne Allensworth is an informationrnofficer at the Foreign Broadcast InformationrnService in Washington, D.C.rnThe views expressed are his alone.rnmaybe for two.” Thus the chaos thatrnmade the Bolshevik coup possible wasrnset in motion by the decision of Russianrnpeasant-soldiers to abandon the frontrnand seize the land of their more prosperousrncountrymen. The great writerphilosopherrncalls on Russia to seek herrnnational revival first through personalrnrepentance, for, in his view, Russia’srntravails are not the result of blind historicalrnforces, nor are they wholly caused byrnthe machinations of internal and externalrnenemies, but are chiefly the fruit ofrnthe decisions and actions of individualrnRussians.rnSolzhenitsyn is a Russian nationalist.rnHe sees his country reborn within thernframework of her own history and traditions,rnbut he is also a practicing Christianrnwho recognizes that the sin of Adamrnis also the sin of Russians. To nationalistsrnof Solzhenitsyn’s persuasion, the Russianrnnation is an extended family, connectedrnby blood, common experience,rnand history. The nation is not an ideology,rnseparate from the people themselves,rnand these nationalists do not indulgernin what Conor Cruise O’Brien hasrncalled the “deification” of the nation, arnsingularly modern phenomenon. Russiarnis not a savior or messiah for the worldrn(though she may play a special role in it),rnbecause, for these nationalists, Christrnwill suffice.rnBut for others, Russian nationalismrnreplaces religious faith. Russia, reducedrnto an abstraction, is their god and, as therngreatest and most virtuous force in humanrnhistory, will play the messianic rolernof the world’s savior, leading mankind torn28/CHRONICLESrnrnrn