What are Putin and his inner circle doing with the awareness and soul of an ordinary Russian? It is obvious that cynicism of the “national leader” of Russia that “is rising from its knees” is boundless. There is endless evidence of this: the monument to Ukrainian Prince Volodymyr the Baptist by the Kremlin’s walls; the monument to Ivan the Terrible in Oryol (they also plan to erect a monument to this tormentor in Aleksandrov, Vladimir oblast, where the blood-thirsty tsar announced his “wrath” about “traitor boyars” and, at the same time, said that “I bear no malice against the common people” – a very characteristic moment indeed!); a memorial plaque to NKVD prison guards and “heroes” “as a sign of respect for and gratitude to the first builders and personnel of the prison camp Vodorazdellag-Mikunskaya” (1937!); schizophrenic statements at Solovyov’s and Kiselyov’s talk shows, such as “We have always defeated this rotten Europe in all wars and will also do so now, even if it is a nuclear war,” etc.
But what does this mean? What does this total “nationalization,” or even outright Stalinization, of Russian brains indicate? What is this being done for? Why is a certain view on the story of the notorious Count Aleksandr Benkendorf, head of the “3rd Department of His Imperial Majesty Nicholas I,” being forcibly imposed on Russian citizens? Here is a quote: “Russia’s past is amazing, her present is more than magnificent, and her future is more exalted than the most fervid imagination can suggest” (said in 1833). Clearly, some total “ideological mobilization” is underway, but what is its goal?
This interpretation of Russia is aimed at blessing aggression against the neighboring countries (Which ones? Putin knows it), for “Russia’s enemies are not asleep,” we are a “besieged fortress” and, what is more, “the last stronghold of spirituality and Christianity in a world of gays and ungodly Europeans” (there are hundreds of such statements which have already become in fact the Kremlin’s official view. Although the rhetoric of Peskov and Solovyov is slightly different, this does not change the crux of the matter). Propagating the national superiority or even exclusiveness of “spiritual” Russians is a soil on which Russia’s preparation for war is sprouting very well. There are some “hawks” in the Kremlin, who are ready to fight not only in Ukraine and Syria, but also against the whole world. The question is to what extent Putin supports them.
But one thing is important: this policy will be senseless unless a new hyperimperial military-mobilization concept of the “glorious history” of Russia (which, of course, has never attacked anybody – it has pebbly been defending itself from enemies!) is formulated. And a concept like this is already being framed very fast. According to Moscow’s publication Kommersant, some anonymous “experts at the Scientific Board of Russia’s Security Council have discussed a preparation for the 100th anniversary of the 1917 revolution [what exactly – the February revolution or the October counterrevolution? – Author], “noting that it is necessary to resist the attempts to deliberately distort this and other most important periods of Russian history.” In the “experts’” view, “historical memory is becoming the object of purposeful destructive actions on the part of foreign governmental bodies and international organizations that are pursuing geopolitical interests by means of an anti-Russian policy.” So it is necessary “to draw up some forms of preventive work [does this wording remind you of anything? – Author] and rapid reaction to the attempts to falsify history.”
In this context, “Security Council experts” have singled out the five most important events and periods which “are subjected to the most malicious falsifications”: 1) interethnic policy of the Russian Empire [obviously, fair and the best! – Author]; 2) interethnic policy of the USSR [the same. – Author]; 3) the role of the USSR in the victory over Nazism [even the faintest doubts of Russians are high treason. – Author]; 4) the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact [it was right and timely in spite of all the insinuations of enemies. – Author]; and 5) the USSR and political crises in East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and other former socialist countries [does it mean that these states are implicitly declared the Kremlin’s “sphere of influence”? E.g., Kiselyov said the 1956 Hungarian revolution was provoked by the West, after which Hungary’s foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador for explanations. – Author].
Let us sum it up, reader. It is about very serious things. It is about the model of history that has been foisted on Russian society for 16 years by means of force, bombings, manipulations, and the unforgettable recipe of Dr. Goebbels (truth + half-truth + cynical lies in a required proportion). This model has been devised for war and aggression, for a bitter confrontation with all that is not part of the “Russian world.” We must speak of this honestly and frankly and say that we and the rest of the world can resist it.
