The USSR collapsed from decrepitude, and it is difficult to assess what role the lack of horizontal connections played in this decrepitude

It is difficult to say what conscious motives moved Joseph Stalin when organizing mass repressions . But one of the important systemic effects of the repressions was the destruction of horizontal connections, communication nodes. The army, the church, scientists, engineers, cultural figures, national minorities, and even the NKVD - in various industries and spheres of activity, people were attacked first and foremost, of course, but with them information chains. Relatives, friends, colleagues, co-religionists - everyone with whom a normal person communicates without the help and control of the authorities.

Whether it is paranoia or a deliberate construction of a society without horizontal connections, such a policy is characteristic of any authoritarian government. Look, for example, at today's mass purges of the opposition and the press in Turkey. This is also characteristic of today's Russia.

In an interview with the Platforma research center ( published by Forbes magazine after Nosik's death), Anton Nosik reconstructs the logic of the authorities in relation to the RuNet: "The main vector is this: "The Internet as such is a hindrance" <...> The solution to the problem is to ban VKontakte, Mail.ru, Odnoklassniki. The ban includes the very fact that people communicate with each other independently. Well, so that it would be like in the Soviet Union <...>". This is not a revelation, but it is true.

It can be assumed that the post-Stalin Soviet reality was in this sense of little danger to the authorities (although the repressions weakened) – people’s behavior was seriously reformatted; the repressions and the war practically eliminated the old horizontal connections and the very idea of them, leaving only very narrow circles of communication. Even the decrepit Soviet leaders (by the way, if we consider Vladimir Putin’s rule to be continuous, this year he should overtake Leonid Brezhnev in terms of the term of leadership of the country) were not threatened by this. But the USSR fell apart from decrepitude, and it is difficult to assess what role the deficit of horizontal connections played in this decrepitude. Philosophers say that dependence is a structure, and independence is the development of a structure.

In the new Russia, horizontal connections have begun to develop again, and the RuNet has become both a consequence and a new tool for this development, a symbol of such connections. And it is logical that after becoming ossified in power (and also after he was explained what the Internet is), Putin began to fear this - the more you want to remain in power despite the rules and decency, the more you fear a coup. And where can a coup come from? From the uncontrolled communication of other people (in the extreme - all others). You also get old, you lose touch with reality. Orange revolutions are frightening, rallies are frightening, ordinary people are frightening. The security forces play a fugue on your paranoia.

Read also: Block yourself

This motive prevails in the policy of strengthening control over the Internet . Although the "weaklings" play a sonata on the fear of falling behind the world (in order not to fall behind, it is necessary to develop the Internet). Today's situation is very different from the Soviet one in its speed. It is more difficult to cope with the management.

Repression of horizontal connections