Fruit from the cursed fig tree

Damn August is over. For Russia, August has always been either fatal or disappointing. And in this one can clearly see either the finger of God, or at least a malicious hint of Providence. August appeared on the calendar due to the end of the “Yeltsin” period in Ancient Rome – the consular republic of Julius Caesar, who did not abuse his enormous power, tolerated the Senate and did not deprive the Romans of their rights and freedoms. In his place came the princeps (by the way, the heir) Octavian Augustus, who shut up Rome's mouth and did not tolerate criticism, and then pure tyranny went from Tiberius to Nero.

August is "the month of Caesar", according to Mandelstam, the month of imperial despotism and autocracy, the month of reaction. It is not surprising that Russia, having chosen the path of Caesarism and despotism, suffered failures and catastrophes precisely in August.

August 1914 was a disaster for the whole world, and Russia emerged from the First World War to overthrow the system, the normal order of things and the Bolshevik coup. Pride and fanaticism have always been our main troubles, and it was Nicholas II who announced the first mobilization because of the next Slavic fantasies, straits, claims for "interests" in the Balkans, in a word, imperial delirium at the cost of tens of millions of lives. This war and October had a bitter fruit.

After 1945, History also punished and humbled the Germans for their passion for Alsace, Lorraine and "living space". But we didn’t understand anything, we didn’t draw conclusions, so the black barrel of Augustus still lies in wait for us.

In August, N. Gumilyov, the great Russian poet, was shot. He was shot because of the obsession of the Bolsheviks with dogma, because Tagantsev's tea parties could not interfere with them in any way. Already after 1945, destroying the hopes of the intelligentsia for liberalization, Zoshchenko and Akhmatova were defamed and the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad were destroyed.

Even a decade ago, the default occurred due to the cowardice of the people and the cowardice of the authorities. Yeltsin did not dare to show the real picture of the economy. And the people did not want to know the real state of affairs and lived on Soviet illusions.

Our only holiday for many decades, August 1991, turned out to be overshadowed by the incompleteness and inferiority of this revolution. After all, the putsch happened because of the cowardice of Gorbachev, who stopped reforms and raised his hand to democracy and freedom of choice of Russian colonies: in April 1989 - Tbilisi, in January 1990 - Baku, in January 1991 - Vilnius. It was here that the gekachepists decided that it was time, that Gorbachev, who had renounced the democrats, was an easy prey. The Stalinists once did the same with Khrushchev, who stepped back. And it worked. But the Democrats and Yeltsin did not fall into the trap and put an end to the plans of the State Emergency Committee.

The August victory was overshadowed by the indecisiveness of Yeltsin, the Democrats, and the vast indifferent majority of the Soviets, who did not mandate painful but necessary market reforms. Yeltsin did not dare to bury Lenin, remove the stars from the Kremlin, dissolve the KGB, apply lustration, let Chechnya go, cover Gaidar and Chubais to the end. Yeltsin did an enormous amount, and thanks to him for this, but the roots of Evil remained in our land, and Evil grew and stifled the sprouts of Good.

But the most terrible troubles befell Russia in August 1968 and August 2008. Here we broke other people's fates, the fates of Czechoslovakia and Georgia, crawling out of our lair so that others would not live in the light of day either.

Jesus in the Gospel had an encounter with a barren fig tree that did not bear fruit. He cursed her and she dried up. August is harvest time, and Russia does not bear fruit for itself or for others. Does not the fate of this fig tree await us?

September 1, 2008