Towards harsh

The search for Russian spiritual security forces by the expeditionary building of the presidential speakers is increasingly reminiscent of the search for stationery scattered under the table. It is not entirely clear who scattered them there, and in general there are many dark and dusty corners. For example, they found Sevastopol, quickly dragged them to them. It seems to be what is needed, the city of Russian glory, you can do it.

But most of its history, Russia somehow did without it, and the take-off of glory fell on one of the most shameful military defeats in the history of the empire. At the same time, as others, then you have a forum, then the acropolis. Apparently, you need to dig deeper. And where to dig - not in Kyiv? At home, an hour is an hour, then you will stumble upon the Finns, then on the Tatars. And even in the sweet heart of Novorossia, some Yuzovka at once, and she is generally named in honor of the foreign imperialist.

We decided to search in the same place, and still found Korsun. True, it is not very clear what it is, although in appearance both sacred, and in what grammatical gender to bow it. Because although the dictionaries are advised in the female, the author of the “words” (the only one who clearly understood what he writes about) is inclined in the male: “ ... tells you to listen to the earth, he is unknown, and pomoria, and I will harsh, and the Korsun, and the Tybi, the Tramutorokan Blvan ”.

After all, the city was actually called Chersonesos, there was nothing Russian in it, Prince Vladimir took it once to bargain the princess in Constantinople, but he had to pay the entire baptism of the subjects for this. One can recall that Alexander I at one time took Paris, the French city, which its inhabitants call the "bet", but because we renamed it, it did not become a sacred cross, even if we transferred it into a female family. In a word, again they found it not quite that, it’s just right to equip an expedition for the Smutorokan boob.

Behind this tragicomic bustle lies a real, albeit helpless, idea, an attempt to inspire the population of the empire that has fallen into astheny that it is a nation. The nation, if anyone is not in the know, is not just a historically established linguistic and ethnic community - ask at least Serbs and Croats. This is a state education, which has managed to inspire its citizens, regardless of their ethnic origin, the consciousness of the community of history and fate, hence the search for the grade.

The nation does not become a nation when he is announced about this, but when he himself knows about it

The Kremlin speaker can only sympathize, because the empire and the nation are very different things, actually mutually exclusive, like hierarchy and equality. In particular, it is not very clear how it is possible to force millions of Russian Muslims to be proud of the exploits of Ivan the Terrible, Yermak Timofeevich or General Ermolov. Classical examples of nations, like France and Great Britain, were spontaneously, and the process was quite long: it is difficult to indicate exactly the moment when the Burgundians and Provencalists, who considered each other strangers who lived in separate states and spoke different languages, felt themselves French. But attempts to make a nation by order from above, in a matter of months, usually ended sadly - here Yugoslavia, Iraq and some former African colonies immediately come to mind. Türkiye is worth a dignly, but for this it was necessary for Kemal Ataturk, and the Kurds still have serious doubts in their Turkishness.

The nation does not become a nation when he is announced about this, but when he himself knows about it. In this theoretical list of luck and failures, the United States stand apart. Of course, it was easier for them in a sense, because the majority of the population initially scattered colonies in one way or another used a single language, and although no one declared it state, even the Germans, who made up a significant part of the original migrants, took possession of English, and after them Italians and many others. But if other peoples have a cement that was soldering them together and at first a story difficult to distinguish from it, then the constitution has become a constitution for the United States, and even in today's very polarized political situation, the main law remains the last instance, to which adherents of different ideologies are appealed, no one feels the needs of other scrapers.

The only thing that undertakes to defend the American president, making an oath when taking office is a constitution. The Constitution, among other ones, is also mentioned by the Russian president, but in his case it is just a rhetorical figure of speech.

There is no doubt that in national mythology the leading place is occupied by wars, although there is nothing good in this either. The civil war in the United States was in this sense a turning point, and before that, the French revolution with its own wars, which, having moved from defense to the Napoleonic conquests, in turn, stimulated national self -awareness in the hitherto scattered European peoples - hence Garibaldi and Kavur in Italy, as well as the war of united Germany with Austria and France. It is for this reason that the Russian leaders are instinctively, although awkwardly, they are trying to galvanize the cult of the "Great Patriotic War", when the inhabitants of the Soviet Empire felt unity for at least several years.

Of course, the worst way of restoring this unity is to monopolize the victory in favor of the Russians, as they do it all the time today. In this war, Ukrainians and Russians, Tatars and Jews fought side by side and the same. It makes no sense to glue a polyetonic society into a nation, when even taxi parking in Moscow flaunts the Slavic origin of their drivers. In New York, whose population has grown markedly in recent years, and housing prices have been going through, I have never heard the words "come." Where did they come from - not from Korsun for an hour?

No artificial convulsions of nationalist triumphism are able to disguise the language of Victimism, the image of the victim, and this inevitable unit, which is inevitable through them, does not predict. Not yet Yugoslavia, not Iraq and not Afghanistan, but someone clearly and maliciously turned the road signs in the opposite direction.

Alexey Tsvetkov-New York Political Commentator, Poet and Publicist

Opinions expressed under the heading "Law" may not reflect the point of view of the editorial office