Vladimir Gerasimov

It's been majorly interesting to listen to the opinions, life stories, and views of one of my work colleagues, an Armenia-born Belarusian citizen, Vladimir Gerasimov.

Vladimir was been born in Armenia and lost all his family to the 1988 eartquake, while he studied military technology in Ukraine. After that, his mother and himself, the only survivors, moved to Belarus, obtaining Belarusian citizenship, since back then, citizens of the USSR could choose any nationality of the USSR states. Vladimir said Belarus was a logical choice as the country had one of the best economies back then. Vladimir also has a university degree in law.

Living with his wife and two boys in the Czech Republic, he's a man who tried many occupations, including a salesman of women underwear. He's currently working as an Area Sales Manager CEE at the SiC (silicon carbide) area, not the easiest business to be in if you ask me.

One of these sad office mornings, we got into a deeper discussion about Russia, Communism, and totalitarianism. When I mentioned "...that was during the occupation...", referring to the pre-1989 era, Vladimir leaned back at his chair and repeated in a deep-thinking manner "...occupation...". Naturally, that made me curious so I asked what's so strange about the word and he started explaining.

It is interesting, he said, to observe how school history lessons change with politics. All children are tought in schools these days is how Russia occupied the Czech Republic and how America freed Czechoslovakia in 1945, he said.

According to the facts though, 144,000 thousand Russian soldiers died in Czechoslovakia when fighting the Nazis, versus only 2 (!!!) U.S. soldiers. It is very hurtful for him to hear his 7-year old son come back from school, asking him "Daddy, why did we occupy this country?"

Vladimir has also provided me with another point of view. He said that in Russia, people really believed throughout the entire occupation that Czechoslovakia was under threat and that it is the best thing to have happened to the Czech and Slovak people to be annexed to Russia.

He has also pointed my attention to the army around General Vlasov, who have defended Prague during the Prague Spring. If it weren't for these rebels, god knows how many people would have died in Prague, he said.

He also has pointed my attention to backgrounds of the Ukrainian rightest politician Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko and Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili. Their obvious ties with America almost make it seem as if the US have planted these politicians in the former USSR countries in order to weaken today's Russia and help spread the US influence "in name of democracy".

He backed his point by pointing at Iraq and saying that some nations just don't know how to live in democracy and that not all the cultures and peoples really want democracy either. Interestingly, the monarchy in Saudi Arabia is not a problem for the US, since the country is among the US allies.

All these musings make me ask one question - can we really say what the US global strategy is? What lies behind the spreading of democracy, capitalism, etc. that the US is a strong advocate of? Can Vladimir be right when he says all the US wants is to strip Russia of its land so that only Moscow and Moscow surroundings remain? That the aim of the Western superpower is to create United States of the World?

Then, he directs me to this man - Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski, who is famous for his saying that he is behind the crash of the USSR, that he's worked on the strategy for the crash for over 20 years when he worked for the US government...

When asked about his home country, Vladimir wears an expression on his face which is a mixture of everything - sadness, love, betrayal, confusion, talks about the history of Armenia and the Turkish invasion in which a bigger part of the country has been taken over.

He also directed me to a great book to take more inspiration from - The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, which I placed high on my list on to-read-books.