Nationalist day of the calendar

From the editorial office. On November 4, the country once again celebrates the Day of National Unity. As sociological surveys show, most Russians still do not understand what such is celebrated on this day. Many are still confused in his name. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the holiday, which was supposed to translate the values ​​of patriotism in Russian society, was expropriate for domestic nationalists. About the reasons for such an inattentive attitude of Russians to the Day of National Unity, the activity of nationalists on this day and the weakness of liberals on the day of November 4, the liberal journalist Andrei Kolesnikov told the Russian magazine.

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The Day of National Unity, on the one hand, took root in Russia, on the other hand, he still did not take root. He took root, he because an increasing number of people, at least, know his name and even guess about his semantic filling. This is evidenced, in particular, the latest study of the Levada Center, according to which 36% of the country's population already know that it is celebrated on November 4. At the time of creating the holiday, there were only 8%. However, despite such high numbers, many inertia still celebrate the day of consent and reconciliation, and some people are quite stable celebrating the Day of the October Revolution. Someone celebrates the day of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, and so on. Few people say that November 4 is the day of liberation from Polish-Lithuanian interventionists. In other words, in the sense of understandability for the country's population, the Day of National Unity did not take place. The people simply celebrate an extra weekend, about the same as May Day, who also lost his ideological filling and turned from the country's main holiday on an additional day off. In other words, the old reflex of the Soviet and post-Soviet man triggers something to celebrate in November, it doesn’t matter that-popular unity, consent, reconciliation, victory of the revolution or something else.

So the holiday, celebrated on November 4, in general, has become more intelligible, but has not yet turned into a day that is significant for the people, such as the New Year, which, of course, has no ideological filling, but there is intelligible meaning. At the Day of National Unity, the ideology is lame and the holiday does not have a clear meaning, because its reason is extremely distanced from us into the past, and the concept of “Polish-Lithuanian interventions” for 90% of the country's population is absolutely incomprehensible.

However, despite the obvious ideological slurry of the Day of National Unity, this holiday has a political color. This color is extremely intense and give its “Russian marches” , which are much better than the status of a public holiday, determine the meaning of this date. After all, it was no accident that it was the National Patriots, moderate and not very moderate nationalists. The reason for their interest in this date is quite obvious. In fact, the country celebrates the expulsion of the Poles, which means the Day of Antipolian sentiments. Representatives of nationalist movements march through the areas of Moscow and the streets of the cities of Russia, requiring all foreigners and representatives of non -stitellum ethnic groups from the country. And in this sense, the state in an ideological sense loses. The Day of National Unity turns on the day of popular disconnection.

The “Russian marches” themselves are a form of political activity of nationalists. Partly moderate, partially quite radically configured. And nothing more. I would not consider this phenomenon related to the Day of National Unity as a holiday that should translate the values ​​of patriotism. After all, “Russian march” is not patriotism, it is a rough vulgar Russian nationalism.

It is unfortunate that the liberal public for its mass does not mean its attitude to the Day of National Unity. Of course, the ideologized liberal public considers this holiday harmful and wrong. But, its imperialized part, the one that has normal modern brains, not understanding the meaning of November 4, simply uses an additional day off. The same applies to the main part of the country's population. So, according to the same “Levada Center”, 61% of the country's population is not going to celebrate either the Day of National Unity, or the Day of the October Revolution, or anything else. That is, these are people who are free both from the ideology of red and ideology, relatively speaking, white. They just do not celebrate anything. However, there is a kind of grimace of history. So the Day of the October Revolution is going to celebrate 17% of Russians, which is 3% more than those who want to raise a glass for popular unity. There are fewer ideological fighters for November 4 than ideological fighters than on November 7th.

However, the values ​​that should translate the Day of National Unity are extremely important for modern Russian society. First of all, this is the value of patriotism. But, unfortunately, Russian society is now so split that patriotism of different segments of this society means completely different things. One patriotism is the patriotism of national patriots, for which Russia is possible only as a Russian state. It is such an understanding of patriotism that sometimes dominates the public consciousness. But there is another patriotism. It can be conditionally called liberal. He preaches love for his country, the desire to modernize it, the desire to see his country happy, well -fed and free. Free, including from wild nationalist prejudices. I think that the creators of November 4 wanted to instill in the country the second understanding of patriotism. They wanted to educate the people of patriotic values. But they did not manage to educate patriotic values ​​with the help of a new holiday. This is due, including the fact that these values ​​are understood very differently by different layers, different groups, and different strata of our society.

So far, the most obvious expression of “patriotism” is “Russian marches”. The future of this action depends on how Russian history will develop. In the long run, if nationalists come to power, they may have a brilliant future. If in Russia it simply supports the nationalist discourse, as the main and permitted, the “Russian marches” have a good future. If the country develops, as befits a modern, national state, then these marches should be prohibited.