The golden facades of Peter the Great’s prized Winter Palace glimmered beside us as the northern-summer sun passed behind the statues of the imperial parapet, hardly on its way to sunset. It was 10 P.M. and the beginning of yet another of St. Petersburg’s famed belye nochi (white nights).
After nearly an hour, a few friends (some from HPR!) and I finally fought our way past crowds into Dvortsovaya Ploshchad, the captivating grand square that fronts the former residence of the Russian imperial family and the location where revolution twice (1905 & 1917) surmounted that same regal pinnacle. As we approached, metal detectors and police-lined fences impinged upon the square—for a state ceremony or a military presentation perhaps?
Nyet. Even better.
We’d come across Sting, in all his post-Police humility and penchant for political prophesy, holding a free concert in the giant square.
Singing on a modest stage alongside a small Russian orchestra (the key names of which he later struggled to pronounce) as part of the International Economic Forum held in St. Petersburg this past weekend, Sting opened the concert with his typically reluctant and half-tempo rendition of “Roxanne.” Yet soon after, my English ears were surprised to hear the onset of a perhaps less amicable song: Sting’s 1985 hit, “Russians.”
As the refrain “believe me when I say to you/ I hope the Russians love their children too” echoed casually over the sound system, I wondered if I were the only one in my immediate surroundings who had comprehended the song’s lyrics. Even more, I questioned Sting’s decision to perform such a song, initially written as a warning against the repercussions of the mutually assured destruction doctrine of the Cold War, in Russia.
Here are a few excerpts:
“In Europe and America, there’s a growing feeling of hysteria
Conditioned to respond to all the threats
In the rhetorical speeches of the Soviets
Mr. Krushchev said we will bury you
I don’t subscribe to this point of view
It would be such an ignorant thing to do
If the Russian love their children too”
———
“What might save us me and you
Is that the Russians love their children too”
Initially, my reaction was pride that the world exists in such a state today that a performance of this song in St. Petersburg hardly incited any misunderstanding or ill-feeling. The fact that a performance of that song simply wouldn’t have happened twenty-five years ago shows that socially, U.S.-Russo relations have come an incredibly long way since 1985.
Yet at the same time, I’ll reluctantly admit that in the international arena, political relations between Russia and the U.S. have not moved far enough; despite even recent attempts made otherwise, U.S.-Russian relations remain heavily mired in the past.
For when it comes to issues that have divided the U.S. and Russia since the Cold War such as NATO expansion, a Russian sphere of influence, and missile defense systems among others, a Cold War mentality, particularly held on the American side, nevertheless prevails—and along with it, the feeling that a successful and sustainable “reset” with Russia is increasingly unlikely in the short term.
As I will discuss in a post later this week about the future of the “reset” with Russia, the U.S. should be wary of failure of the “reset” due to American unwillingness to drop its stance as Cold War victor. This point, as argued by Stephen F. Cohen, author of the soon to be published new edition of Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives, has led America and indeed President Obama’s “reset” of relations “not only to another turning point but possibly to the last chance for a post–cold war relationship.”
Hopefully Sting’s singing about the Cold War in St. Petersburg’s palace square means there’s hope for moving past deep Cold War complexes in all contexts. However, a truly innovative reset of U.S.-Russian relations will require a greater willingness for a critical look at American contributions to that relationship than has been shown under the current “reset.”