In society

An illusory empire

June 29, 2011 Mikhail Berg

I would like not to refute a good article by Eleas Carpa about the Russian question , but only to clarify and continue. Yes, Russian nationalism is very often just a screen for sovereign-imperial feelings. They say: we are brave, we are Russians, we do not need no one, but they mean that all our former satellites must obey us. Yes, the Russian imperiality has become an unbearable load on the neck of the Russian people, it does not allow him to swim like an older brother who could not drag the younger ones behind him - they want to swim in the other direction. And this imperial shepherd, perhaps, has long wanted to become just Russian, but culture, cultural traditions imposed on the vertical of power and once with pleasure assumed, do not give.

The Russian Empire has always been a kind of empire. Karp writes that the Russians differed from the British in that, conquering other peoples, they themselves were not free, but at the same time they wanted to impose their non -free will to others. But they were not only not free. At one time, Alexander Etkind rightly showed that the difference between the Russian Empire and the rest was that usually an imperial nation, a metropolis, lives better than the provinces, pumps out all the juices from them and profit from them. In the Russian Empire, everything was the other way around: the Russians lived worse than Poles and Finns, had less freedoms and privileges, and not Poland and Finland were donors for Russia, but Russia was a donor for its colonies. And as a colony, the power exploited precisely their people, squeezing the last juices out of it, then simply fixing it, then driving into the Arakcheev military settlements. In this sense, the main thesis of the article by the Elezal Carpa is to free the Russian people from the imperial function imposed on him, which is actually turning into the work of the donor to maintain lazy colonies - fair.

I want to clarify only the special symbolic type of Russian (Russian) empire. This empire was always illusory, pretended to be an empire, but was an internal empire for its people. Those whom Russia conquered was immediately granted equal, but in fact big rights, which again contradicts the general state of affairs in the canonical empire. In fact, the Russian Empire was a form of implementation of the inferiority complex of the ruling class, the ruling surname, which wanted to be imperial among other emperors, and it was, but at the expense of its people.

Another thing, and the Poal Karp did not say about this, the Russian people liked to be even such an imperial nation that has no dividends from its imperial status except show -off. That is, the nation continued to be a donor for nations, enslaved to it, but at the same time could symbolically consider itself the older imperial brother, and the Russian people still like this game. A symbolic superiority that did not have and has no chance to convert into social advantages, warms the soul because of the same complex of psychological and social inferiority. Like, we do not know how to build a normal society for ourselves, but we are happy to teach others, because we have the right as a nation state -forming.

That is why the Russians have always agreed (and still agree) to the exchange proposed by the authorities: to live badly and not have any real freedoms, but to rise above other nations that let them not love and are afraid, but symbolically are lower. I already had to say that the imperial complex is a genus of hazing. You are humiliated, but if you have the opportunity to transmit your humiliation through the relay to those who are under you, then humiliation is not so scary. And even pleasant.

In fact, we are dealing with psychological and mental illness, which you can’t describe anymore with one complex of psychological and social inferiority. What Russia has encountered for centuries and what it continues to encounter today, other imperial nations have not encountered. Everything was logically justified there. The colonies of England, France, Spain and so on fought for liberation, since political independence had a chance to convert into the social advantages selected by the imperial nation. In the version of the Russian or Soviet empire, everything was different: the entire social camp lived better than the USSR, and the imperial dependence manifested itself only in that pseudo -socialist canon, which the USSR imposed on all its satellites. But at the same time, the gas and oil of the country of socialist community, as, however, other incorrect (as it turned out) friends received at a preferential price. In the same way today. It is clear that the North Caucasian republics are colonies, but they are not donors for Russia, and Russia contains all this Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Northern and South Ossetia, Abkhazia and so on, and all for the sake of show -off, that we are supposedly large, strong, terrible imperialists. And it is precisely these show -offs that are the main drive belt, a secret circular guarantee that connects the power and the people corrupted by it by the name of Russian society.

In this sense, the liberation from imperial disease in some way really looks like turning into a national state, to go to which, in fact, to spit two fingers-you just need to stop paying tribute to our so-called colonies, and they will immediately run in different directions, scattering the news of the freedom that they finally received. No slogans “Russia are for Russians”, you just need to stop making an imperial nation out of yourself and stop paying pseudocolonies to pretend to be kneeling vassals.

For Russians, this is most likely to be unbearable. Too deep in culture, not only a high, but also everyday, the pseudo -imperial idea of ​​an older brother was rooted, too many absolutely unnecessary territories were captured. And the transition from the luxury of the poor to the modesty wealthy is as difficult as the transition from a sweet illusion to disappointing reality. Alas, there is no other and equally common model of behavior for a Russian citizen of the empire.

By the way, Andrei Bitov said well about the seized territories overly the territories. He rightly noted that the land occupied by Russia today belongs to it as if temporarily, it is taken from the world for rent. That is, now it belongs, but to whom it will belong in the future is not so clear. Yes, and not so important. But it is clear that Russia clearly froze today much more land than capable of cultivating. And how exactly it does this land causes one regret. As with a colony, by the way. Natural fossils are mercilessly pumped out of the ground, and most of the territories are in desolation and abandonment. This is the right, as if supranational , a look at things. I rented a piece of territory, you cannot master it, give it to those who can cope with this task better.

It is clear, while Russia will nourish itself with a pseudo -imperial complex, he will live, as the poet said, in Calais and Parche , and to portray himself as an omnipotent gentleman of the suballoon peoples, this problem is also not solved. Anyone who can convince Russia that a modest life without show -offs and means is better than some age in a row to puff and depict himself a cool one , he will be a national savior - de Golle, Mahatma Gandhi and mother Maria in the same bottle. And before that, neither political nor economic freedoms will be. Ponte for the show -off that they are sweeter than bitter reality. Therefore, most likely, Russia will be able to discard imperial snake skin only when this bitter reality comes, as they say, to every house. Then it will no longer be up to show -offs, not to Ichkeria and Georgia, then we will give the world what we could neither chew, nor swallow, and let us release others. But the main thing is yourself.

Photos by RIA Novosti / Alexander Polyakov