Parallels between the Russian Border with Chechnya and the U.S. Border with Mexico

Mikhail Lermontov is one of my favorite Russian writers.  History of the Russian  border patrol in the Caucasus seems to have many parallels with those of my own experiences in the Border Patrol on the Texas Mexican border.  If fact, my first novel (2004) makes Lermontov a central figure. 

The protagonist, Rodney Capers,  believes that he might be the reincarnation of Lermontov.  He and a group of outcast El Paso patrolmen make their own rules of engagement in the interest of the self-preservation.  While giving a future girlfriend, Sochi, a ride home, he scolds her for trusting him too easily.  She retorts that he is a federal officer and there is no reason she should not trust him.  He is amazed by that statement and said, "Look Sochi, we deal with some of the lowest scum on earth and sometimes we deal with them on their level."  He goes on to say that even thought they are officers, there is no such thing as "noblesse oblige," nor any quarter yielded by either side in the silent war that goes on along the border that most people will never know about.

The Caucasus was a mountainous border with Chechnya, a place of historical violence between Russian and that country.  Some of Russia's best writers of the early 19th Century were exiled to the Caucus to serve in the border patrol,  Czarist Russia seemed to think that, being artists, the Chechens would make short work of them.  When that did not happen, it seemed (to me)  that some professional duelers showed up in the Caucasus and picked duels with the writers.  Pushkin was one victim.  Lermontov was another.

Recently, I noticed some  eerie facts about my first novel, The Border Nightwalkers.  The protagonist's girlfriend was a Mexican American girl named "Sochi."  The correct spelling was Xochitl, an Aztec princess' name (a common name for Mexican girls).  But everyone called the Xochitl in my novel, "Sochi" for short.  The two words are almost the same in pronunciation.

The  protagonist, Rodney Capers, had nightmares about being shot in a gunfight and falling off a cliff, like Lermontov had when killed by a duelist. That story ends with a plan by Capers to do patrolling with a border patrol partner, on Mount Cristo Rey where smugglers and bandits can actually fall off a cliff near the top the mountain and actually fall back to Mexico.  Capers revealed the plan only to a sympathetic El Paso police detective, and friend.  Mount Cristo Rey is where the corners of the Mexican State of Chihuahua touch the corners of Texas and New Mexico.   Before writing the novel, I had recently read the book, "A Hero of Our Time," and the names of many places that are now in the news had long been familiar to me since reading Lermontov. 

This Lermontov story takes place in a small town where smugglers seem to be the only inhabitants.  It is near Kerch in the Crimea where Russia has long had an interest due to its key location between the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean.  In fact, the Strait of Kerch in the Crimea is prime real estate that makes Russia want to make it a part of their country again. 

 Lermontov's stories in "A Hero of Our Time" are based upon the diary of a fictional border guard named Pechorin that Lermontov came across.  Lermontov narrates the stories from Pechorin's diary.  In reality, all these stories are all related to Lermontov's experiences in the Caucasus and the Crimean region.

To keep from cluttering the blog, I am referring the reader to another site to read the tex of Lermontov's short story, "Taman."

http://www.eldritchpress.org/myl/hero.htm#taman

The Weak Presidency and Russian Aggression

According to Vladimir Putin, the invasion of the Crimean Peninsula is all about protecting the lives of Russian citizens in that area. Will Obama swallow that? Probably, because his Democrat liberal apologists and their cörrüpt media allies desperately need a rationale for his püsillanimous acquiescence to the Russian invasion of the Peninsula.

Reality: Most all wars are about economics. To the chagrin of the mainstream media, even Sarah Palin predicted the takeover as early as 2008. Maybe she was not as naïve about international affairs as they projected her to be. 

The Kerch Strait has been a source of conflict between the Ukraine and Russia since the end of the USSR:

“There was a territorial dispute over the ownership of the island between Ukraine and Russia in October 2003. The Russian authorities were claiming it as a spit that is part of the continental Russia and only the continental Crimea peninsula was transferred to Ukraine in 1954.[citation needed]

“The Russian side started to build a dam from the Taman peninsula towards the island to revive the eroded peninsula without any preliminary consultations with the Ukrainian government authorities. After the construction of the dam was suspended at the exact point of Russian-Ukrainian border the distance between the dam and the island now equals some 102 m (335 ft). The construction of the dam led to the increase the intensity of stream in the strait and deterioration of the island. To prevent the deterioration the government of Ukraine funded ground works to deepen the bed of the strait. The reason for those ground works was to stop the Russian ships paying a toll to Ukraine for crossing the strait of Kerch which is considered as territorial waters of Ukraine. Ukraine refuses to recognize the strait as inner watersof both countries.

“On October 21, 2003 the Border Service of Ukraine arrested the Russian tugboat "Truzhenik" that crossed the State Border of Ukraine and conducted photo and videosurveillance of the island. After the incident a respective protocol was created and the ship was handed over to the Russian border authorities. On October 23, 2003 the Supreme Council of Ukraine issued a resolution "To eliminate a threat to the territorial integrity of Ukraine that appeared as a result of dam construction by the Russian Federation in the strait of Kerch". A provisional special parliamentary commission was created to investigate the case more thoroughly.
“On October 30–31, 2003 talks started between Ukraine and Russia which led to suspension of the construction of dam that physically reached the line of Russian-Ukrainian border. Due to the conflict, on December 2, 2003 a border patrol station of Ukraine was installed on the island. On December 5, 2003 the Cabinet of Ukraine issued the order #735p in regards to urgent measures to safe the island. On July 4, 2004 the Cabinet of Ukraine released the order #429p that foresaw the construction of shore reinforcement structures and population transfer from the flooding territories.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuzla_Island (Scroll to the “ the 20003 Conflict”)