Hate Russia? Read this.
Without The Czar’s support the Union would have lost to the Confederacy.
There are two historians writing on current events, referring to sources with barely dry ink, on whom I rely for a clear picture of the world we live in. They are Cynthia Chung and Matt Ehret, married and collaborators, who have the gold plated backgrounds and intellectual pedigree that I envy. Of course I could never be them: I come at journalism from an experiential and pragmatic background they are indefatigable researchers with powerful analytical tools.
I do have a few dopey acquaintances who are skeptical of anything that challenges the narratives that formed their thinking, forever prattling about fake news and propaganda. Frankly, I am glad when I can find writers and researchers with integrity and honesty who are fully schooled in the art and science of historical research.
They connect the dots for us when we don’t even know where the dots are. And while on this point, I want to give a shout out to Matt Taibbi whose sources and instincts for human behavior place him in the same indispensable category. All are wordsmiths and original thinkers, which makes reading them compelling in a single pass. They are regulars on the Substack platform.
I am not going to give away the many surprises you will find in the Chung article below. Suffice it to say that you will come away feeling that the U.S. historically has never had a better friend than Russia. The Czar and President Lincoln were in regular communication, coordinating whenever they could. The Czar freed millions of serfs shortly before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. They were kindred spirits. Then how did ii all go wrong?
Read and find out, if you care or dare..