Mar 30, 2022
Recently, I read that some of Vladimir Putin’s sycophants leaked that the pint-sized megalomaniac saw himself as a modern-day Napoleon Bonaparte. The latter’s dream was to place all of Europe under his enlightened despotic control. It is said that Putin’s goal is to restore, and perhaps enlarge upon, the Russia of Joe Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev. If this characterization is true, there is no reason that Vlad the Mad will stop at the Polish border-especially if the reactions of NATO and our modern-day Chamberlain, Joe Biden, continue to be so cautionary. (Note: Neville Chamberlain was the British Prime Minister who acquiesced to Hitler’s taking of the Sudetenland and Austria, believing the Fuhrer’s promise of not going any further. His appeasement only served to give Adolph a green light to go a lot further-World War II.)
I have news for Mr. Putin. You ain’t no Napoleon Bonaparte! First, a few words about the “Little Corporal.” Most people remember the Corsican-born military genius for the following: he was a little guy (5-foot-6 wasn’t small during that time period); a womanizer (Josephine being the most mentioned of his conquests); met his Waterloo at Moscow in 1812 (note: truth told the early Russian winter made his retreat from that city a monumental disaster-thousands of his troops perished from starvation and disease, not from Russian cannons); sold us the Louisiana Territory doubling the size of our country; and was banished to the remote island of St. Helena where he died (a.51) in May of 1821.
What most people don’t remember is the profound impact the enlightened (use power to improve the quality of life for all people) despot had upon both France and the continent. To cite a few examples:
¯ The Napoleonic Code: a legal system which not only became the foundation of France’s present system of civil law but influenced legal reforms throughout Europe.
¯ Instituted the Bank of France and reorganized the nation’s financial system, including the issuing of paper money backed by large reserves of gold.
¯ Simplified the archaic tax laws to the benefit of the masses and introduced agricultural reforms predicated on modern methods of farming.
¯ Established the foundation of France’s contemporary educational system by instituting state-financed secondary schools (lycees)benefiting all French children and the University of France (17 branches throughout the country) with its emphasis on the liberal arts.
¯ His Concordat of 1801 with Pope Pius VII increased the power of the state in areas formerly the sole dominion of the Catholic Church (e.g. Napoleon selected the bishops and supervised Church finances). This act was a harbinger of the separation of church-state policies.
¯ Released Jews from the ghettoes and poured millions of francs into the development of the arts and establishment of museums the country over.
¯ Established a “Meritocracy” whereby governmental and military offices were given to individuals based on what, not who, they knew.
So, Putin’s delusion of Napoleonic grandeur certainly is not based on implementing reforms to improve the lives of the Russian people-check out what he has done for the latter compared to what Bonaparte did. Rather, his reincarnation of Napoleon derives from the latter’s incredible military successes between 1804 and 1812 when he conquered most of Europe. As stated earlier, the demented Russian (truth told, Putin’s more akin to Ivan the Terrible than Bonaparte) hopes to restore, even expand upon, the Russian empire of days gone by.
Given the recalcitrance of Biden and NATO to take more decisive action as the number of dead Ukrainian women and children continues to mount, there’s reason to believe that if Vlad the Mad outlasts the resistance he’ll continue on. Sadly and ironically, Russia’s best customer, the European Union, continues to buy its oil and gas at increased prices ($19 billion since February 24) giving Putin the money he needs to pay for his war, today and tomorrow. Bonaparte’s Achilles heel was himself — he was his own worst enemy.
Drunk on the power for which he had an unquenchable thirst and with nothing to stand in his way, he made the politically fatal decision to invade Russia. Let’s hope that the Russian despot is his own worst enemy and like his protege suffers a similar fate.
The Russian winter proved to be too formidable a foe for Napoleon. Perhaps the Ukrainian freedom fighters will prove to be the same for Putin. Personal note: I’m grateful that our former President, the Putin wannabe (“I think he’s a genius”), isn’t in power. What chance would the Ukrainians have had against Russian and American forces?
Ray Lenarcic is professor emeritus of history at Herkimer College and a 1965 State University of New York at Fredonia.
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