主题：西方，西方媒体，中国，俄国，智者。 -- CaoMeng

休克疗法

Cheering from the Cheap Seats

廉价坐位上的啦啦队

With the wisdom of hindsight, the system was bound to fail – yet all men live in hope, and the late 1990s was a heady time.

有了事后诸葛亮的智慧，可以看到这系统是注定了要失败的 - 但所有的人都生活在希望之中，而90年代末确实是一个令人心醉的时代。

Supporting our naively bullish views, the Western press could hardly have been more enthusiastic.

支持着我们天真乐观的看法，西方媒体热情得不能再热情。

Anglo-Saxon audiences love tales of virtue triumphant – preferably with a simple storyline.

盎格鲁-撒克逊观众们热爱美德最终胜利的故事 - 最好是有一个简单的故事情节。

They are imbued with a profound conviction that their own specific socioeconomic model is the only one conceivable; indeed,

that the success of any political transformation can be measured by how closely it approximated the Chicago model1.

他们被灌注了深刻的信仰，那就是他们的特殊的社会经济模式是唯一可以想象的；的确，任何成功转变都被其有多少和芝加哥模式相似而衡量。1

（草蜢注：芝加哥模式指的是以美国经济学家Milton Friedman为首创建的芝加哥经济学派培养出的门生们在第三世界国家推广的模式， 特别是从智利到芝加哥大学深造的Chicago Boys芝加哥男孩们，他们回国后主办了智利的经济改革）

（作者注：Simply ignoring all inconvenient evidence – e.g. the overwhelming success of first the “Asian Dragons,” then of China, employing political models that were anything but liberal democratic.

很简单地忽视了所有不和谐的证据 - 比如最先“亚洲小龙”，然后中国取得的巨大成功， 运用了绝对不是自由民主的政治模式。）

Thus, the FT and The Economist competed in their praise for the bold steps taken by Yeltsin and his Young Reformers.

这样，金融时报和经济学人竞争着夸奖叶利钦和他的年轻改革者们。

Yes, there were lurid tales of oligarchic excess, and some passing reference to the inconveniences endured by the old and the sick, by disenfranchised factory workers and unpaid teachers – but surely, these short-term inconveniences were a price well worth paying for Russia’s emergence as a fully-fledged member of the modern world.

对，这儿有一些寡头们过分，还有一些一笔带过的关于老弱病残，被剥夺的工厂工人和没有拿到薪水的老师经历的一些不方便 – 但肯定，这些短期的不方便是让俄国成为被现代世界完全接受的一员的合理代价。

Perhaps not coincidentally, these were happy times in Brussels and Washington – so much so that, in one (unintentionally) comical footnote to the era, Francis Fukuyama echoed Hegel’s elevation of Prussia to the pinnacle of history with his “The End of History” thesis, only designating the American model as the true “final synthesis.”

可能不是巧合，这段时期在布鲁塞尔和华盛顿是欢快的时期 - 特别欢快，所以在一个此时代（无意）滑稽的注脚中，法兰西斯.福山用他的“历史的终结”理论响应了黑格尔将普鲁士上升到历史的顶峰的作风，理所当然地将美国模式制定为真正的“最后合成”。

While history has not been kind to his predictions, they fit well with the triumphalist mood of the time (the secular rise of China was then still a couple of decades in the future).

虽然历史对他的预言不是很厚道，他的言论很好地配合了当时的战胜者心态（此时离中国的长期崛起还有二十年）。

Seen from the Russian perspective, matters looked rather different.

从俄国立场来看，事情看起来却很不一样。

The Soviet Union had not been defeated in war, nor had the Communist regime been overthrown by violent revolution.

苏联没有在战争中战败，共产党政权也不是被暴力的革命推翻。

The Soviet Union had voted itself out of existence with barely a struggle, and the successor state – Russia – saw itself not as a defeated power but, at worst, as a repentant one. Poor trusting bears, first Gorbachev, then Yeltsin, accepted assurances of

lasting friendship from their erstwhile rivals of the West at face value.

苏联基本上没有一点斗争地选择了结束自己的存在，它的继承国家 - 俄国 - 并不认为自己是战败国，最多，是一个忏悔的国家。 可怜盲信的熊们，第一戈尔巴乔夫，然后叶利钦，接受了他们昔日的敌人表面上的友谊保证。

While their naveté now seems remarkable, in the context of the times, it was perhaps understandable: given that the Soviet Communism which they had battled was clearly an evil, they could only assume that the opposing force, Western Democracy, must by nature be equitable, beneficent and disinterested.

虽然他们的天真现在看起来异乎寻常，但在当时，却是可以理解的： 如果他们与其斗争的苏联共产主义显然是邪恶的，那他们只能假设对立面，西方民主国家，一定是公平，慈善和无私的。

They were to be bitterly disappointed – like every successful political system, Western democracies are structures designed for the exercise of power in the furtherance of the interests of their stakeholders.

他们将心寒地失望 - 像每一个成功的政治系统，西方民主国家是设计来为他们的利益相关者行使权力而进一步谋利的结构。

The temptation to take advantage of the weakness of an old rival to gain permanent ascendancy proved to be irresistible, and despite Clinton’s assurances that NATO would not extend eastward to fill the vacuum left by the departing Soviet forces, within a few months Yeltsin found himself staring across the border at former satellites now occupied by a potentially hostile military alliance. There was precious little he could do.

充分利用老对手的弱点而让自己获得永久优势的诱惑被证明是不可抗拒的，尽管克林顿保证了北约不会向东扩张去填苏联撤退留下的真空，仅仅几个月以后叶利钦发现自己眼瞪这边境线对面的前卫星国家被潜在敌对的军事联盟占领了。而且他没有办法阻止。

In public, Russia was welcomed as a full partner – even offered a chair at the G-7; her interests were treated with respect, provided only that they coincided with those of the Atlantic Alliance. When NATO began bombing Serbia absent a UN mandate, Russian protests were met with ill-disguised scorn. The public narrative was one of reconciliation – the subtext was a tale of victory and neutralization. History is written by the victors – with the pen wielded by their tame, compliant press.

在公共场合，俄国是被欢迎的全面合作伙伴 - 甚至也被提供了在G-7的一个椅子； 她的利益是被尊重的，只要那些利益是符合北约的利益。当没有联合国授权的北约开始轰炸塞尔维亚，俄国的抗议碰到了不被掩盖的蔑视。公开的故事是和解 - 潜台词却是（西方的）胜利和（俄罗斯的）瓦解。 历史是胜利者写的 - 用他们驯服，温顺的媒体做笔杆子。

草蜢注：未完待续。以上蓝色的部分如作者所说是原被伦敦的编辑剔除部分。 这翻译的活真TMD不是人做的。 中英文原创都随心所欲的蚱蜢差点被这翻译的活折腾死。 尽管俺读英文晓得啥意思，但要俺翻译为恰当的中文词语，俺得用了N遍的狗狗翻译机器！ 这应该是俺最后一次搞翻译了，因为俺相信大家不凡地英语水平让俺粗陋的翻译犹如脱了裤子打屁，当然主要还是太累了。

• 莫斯科大公国的糜烂