Hey Vlad: Otto von Bismarck Here

I get it, that Vladimir Putin wants to restore the glory of the Great Russian Rus. But I wonder if he is going about it the right way.

See back in the day, Otto von Bismarck had a similar problem. The German speaking world was all divided up into numerous cities and states and principalities. It was all called the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation,headed by a Holy Roman Emperor, but so what?

Of course, Bismarck had the example of Frederick the Great of Prussia who snitched Silesia from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 1740s. But that didn't create a German nation. It was just the monarchs of Central Europe diddling with border provinces.

Bismark's genius was to understand how to create a nation. You must unite all the parts of the nation by getting them all to fight a war against someone else.

So first, in 1862 Bismarck fought and won a war against the Danes (!). Just to show that he could do it.

Then in 1866 Bismarck defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian war. After the war he created a North German Confederation out of 21 northern German states.

Then in 1870 Bismarck defeated France in the Franco-Prussian war. After the war he created a united Germany by persuading the southern German states that had fought against France to join the Reich.

Of course, after Bismarck came Kaiser Bill, Wilhelm II, and he was a complete fool that threw away all that Bismarck had built up.

Do you see, Vlad, how your attempt to create a united Russia by humiliating and conquering Ukraine is the complete opposite of what Bismarck did?

Do you note, Vlad, how Bismark's war with Austria meant that Austria ended up outside the German Reich that he created in his three wars. So, do you think that, maybe, defeating Ukraine is perhaps not the way to unite a glorious new Russia?

Now, I don't pretend to know how to unite all the states of the former Soviet Union into a new united Russia. And I don't know what country you would invade to unite all the divided Russians into one nation. That's above my pay grade.

I'm just noting that you are not going about Russian reunification the way that Bismarck did. And Bismarck was perhaps the smartest politician of the 19th century.

There is another possibility. Back in the day, you could certainly say that there was a good argument for uniting the German people. Your Russkies and your Frogs -- and even the Swedes -- had been marching all over the German lands for centuries.

But Russia? Why, we know that Rule One is Don't Invade Russia, signed Napoleon and Hitler. So I would say that the various Russian and Russian-related republics could live perfectly happily forever after without having to unify. Because who wants to invade Russia from the north, south, or west? Nobody.

Now, there is an argument that down the road the Chinese might decide that they have an ancient and sacred right to occupy and rule eastern Siberia. In that case, Vlad, you might need some friends from the west. 

Just sayin'.