Putin’s Invasion

After Russia built up troops, ammunition, and supplies on the shared border with Ukraine starting in March of 2021, my first question was: would Putin invade? I thought it was a Russian ploy to weaken Zelensky and scare the Ukrainians, a muscular shaking of a strong fist. Then the question became: when will he invade, which finally happened in late February of 2022. I wanted somebody to tell me what the heck was going on, so I turned to someone who had been there, someone more than qualified: Marvin Kalb.

Our Man in Russia

Being in the right place at the right time gives depth to any history, and Marvin Kalb was an eyewitness to a lot of history, serving as a translator, journalist and news man throughout his long and varied career.

He enrolled in City College, New York City, in February 1948. He worked part-time for a lawyer he admired, but could not decide on a major. Mr. Kalb came to Russian studies partly at the urging of his older brother, Bernie, who was then a reporter for The New York Times. Bernie suggested to Marvin that, besides pursuing a degree in English literature, he should have something special: that something special turned out to be the Russian language. After graduating from City College, he felt drawn to study at Harvard’s Russian Research Center, considered to be the best in the country. Once there, his adviser stressed the importance of learning the language for understanding Russian society.

In July of 1953 he enlisted in the Army, and in September he did four weeks of basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Following that, he was off to the Army Security Center at Fort Meade, Maryland “…where I found myself in an elite army unit of Russian-speaking soldiers who had studied Soviet communism.” As a military analyst, Mr. Kalb’s focus was on the inhumane treatment of American POWs during the Korean War, and he also delivered lectures about communism to senior officers. His army service ended in June of 1955.

While doing his doctoral work, he was recruited for the State Department in late December of 1955, by Marshall Shulman, associate director of the Russian Research Center. Shulman asked him if he would accept a Moscow assignment as a State Department translator, and be prepared to leave in a week or two. He immediately answered yes. The top-secret clearance he retained from the Army plus his experience qualified him to work for the State Department. He arrived in Moscow in January of 1956. He returned to Harvard in January of 1957.

Published in 2017, his book, “The Year I Was Peter the Great”, goes into what that year was like for him. He kept an unclassified diary from which he was able to draw much of the material. The book is a fascinating and warm account describing his time as a reporter and as a keen observer of all things Russian. Mr. Kalb loved going out and spending time with Russians from many different backgrounds. For a young man in his mid-twenties, every day was intoxicating.

Then Edward R. Murrow called and invited him in for a chat in June of 1957; they talked for three hours. Murrow wanted to know everything Mr. Kalb knew about Russia. At the end of their meet, Murrow put his arm around him, called him “’Professor’” and asked him to come work for CBS.

Mr. Kalb’s 2021 book, “Assignment Russia,” covers his time working for CBS, but he also provides additional insights and background from all of his time in Russia. He describes how Khrushchev wanted to initiate some reforms in 1956, and in fact, denounced Stalin in February, but the conservatives said no to increased reforms. Instead, in November Khrushchev ordered the tank-heavy response to the Hungarian uprising.

Concerning the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Mr. Kalb believes that Khrushchev wanted to solve the Berlin Crisis, which he called a bone in his throat, by frightening the United States. He hoped he could strike a deal which would lead to Russian control over all of Berlin, and that the United States would withdraw from western Berlin. The possibility of nuclear war loomed until a deal was struck: no United States invasion of Cuba, and Russia removed the missiles.

Bhreshnev replaced Khrushchev in 1964, but Russian internal governance stiffened and only modest reforms took place until Gorbachev took over as general secretary, and opened the doors once again to reforms. He was gone by 1991. Yeltsin held power until he abruptly resigned at the end of 1999. His deputy, Vladimir Putin, took the reins until presidential elections were held in March of 2000. Putin got a four-year term and won in the first round of elections.

Since that first win in 2000, we have witnessed Putin gain full control over Russia’s oligarchs, strengthen the power of the secret police, and destroy those who oppose him. Of Putin, Mr. Kalb observes: “Putin and his people are trying to paint the West, and American democracy, as bad stuff, poisonous….we (Russia) are separate, we are great.”

Propaganda and Misinformation

On the topic of propaganda techniques, Kalb stresses that the Russian state has decades of experience and is very good at taking ideas and twisting them, and then putting them out in circulation. “What they are doing now, is using this old technique, pinning it to modern technology and then aiming it at a target…..” Mr. Kalb states that he is astounded today that: “… tens of millions of Americans are prepared to accept a Russian version of reality…”

Mr. Kalb titled an April 16^th, 2018 episode of “The Kalb Report” program “Putin’s Trump Card.” (The show is available on YouTube or see https://www.thekalbreport.org/). One of the panelists, Leon Aron, is Russian and an expert/scholar from the American Enterprise Institute. He talked about the “very peculiar nature of the Putin regime” and said that Putin based his legitimacy on his foreign policy –, i.e. confrontation with the West. His popularity rides on that approach. Then Mr. Kalb asked Mr. Aron if we should be concerned about Putin. Mr. Aron said: “…Putin is there forever…and my greatest concern is his poking on the eastern flank of NATO.” He also warned: “These [(referring to Putin and China’s president,Xi Jinping)] are wartime presidents, presidents for life, and wartime presidents need wars. This is my concern.”

In a PBS interview with Judy Woodruff on May 31^st, 2021, Mr. Kalb said that going to Moscow  (early in his career) was challenging and dangerous and intense and exciting. “I spoke the language, I spoke to the Russian people, I tried to find out what they were thinking.”

This is the key element for me from both books. Mr. Kalb’s curiosity and interest kept him engaged. The majority of Russians had little to no understanding of Americans and what we were like, as a people. Their one approved version of news and information came from the state. During the Stalin years, you kept your head down and your mouth shut. Reading Kalb and watching current events, it’s clear that state control in Russia remains the defining element in Russian lives.

Mr. Kalb, in talking about Putin, once mentioned that Putin admires Stalin in certain ways. “Russian history has always been split between Russians who want to tilt toward the West, and Russians who feel that they represent something unique.” It shouldn’t be surprising that Putin thinks of himself as a modern version of Peter the Great.

Mr. Kalb is a tremendous resource for anyone who wants to understand Russia and its people. His aim has always been to pull out information by talking to others, getting their views on people and events, and presenting it via his books, “The Kalb Report”, and public appearances. Ed Murrow knew what he was doing when he hired Marvin Kalb.

My suggestion is to read “Peter the Great” first, as it covers early parts of Mr. Kalb’s life and initial time in Russia. Reading both books provides an in-depth look at Russia through Mr. Kalb’s experiences and his excellent journalism.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/journalist-marvin-kalb-on-dangers-thrills-of-reporting-from-russia-during-the-cold-war