"Crusade against democracy." Historian about the causes of Russian aggression

Russian aggression in Ukraine brings new sacrifices and destruction. According to the latest data, 52 people died on Friday as a result of a missile strike at the railway station in Kramatorsk on Friday. This was announced by the head of the administration of the Donetsk region Pavel Kirilenko. 38 people died on the spot, the rest died in the hospital. Among the dead are five children. It is reported that 98 people were delivered to hospitals, including 16 children. According to the authorities, not all victims turned to medical help.

The historian of culture, sociologist, professor of the School of Modern Languages of the Technological Institute of Georgia, and in the past, a graduate of the Department of History of the Middle Ages of LSU Dina Khapaeva believes that aggression of Russia in Ukraine, criminal actions of the Russian authorities and the Russian army has a clear ideological background and well -defined geopolitical goals. What they are, Hapaeva told the correspondent of the North. Realiy.

- I want to remind you of the book of Mikhail Yuryev. Mikhail Yuryev is such a gloomy figure, a member of the Eurasia Political Council, he under Yeltsin was at one time as the vice-chairman of the Duma, ”says Dina Khapaeva. - He wrote a book called " The Third Empire: Russia, what it should be." And at one time, in 2014, when Crimea was annexed, journalists very accurately called this book "Putin's favorite book." It spells out a scenario of what is happening now. When you read it now, the feeling that you are reading a tape of Russian news. Yuryev was the extreme nationalist of the pro -fascist sense. In his book, he talked about how this third empire was created, and enthusiastically described how this third empire won the Baltic states, Ukraine, Crimea, Poland, of course, and then everything ends with the triumphal parade of victory on Red Square, when Europe and America were already conquered.

- That is, this is the Russian third empire: the first is the royal, the second is Soviet, and the third ...

- Yuryevskaya. The first emperor Vladimir-Remor restores it. The worst thing in this book is not even that this is a plan for conquering the world, the most terrible thing in this book is that what methods the creation of this empire occurs. And there it is said directly that the Baltic states almost all should be destroyed, Ukraine is erased from the face of the earth, including ancient cities. But the most remarkable is the question of the fact that all these conquering plans carry to Russian citizens. Because the concept of "empire", which came to us from the distant slave -owned past, is actually very closely related to the ideology of the class society, with the idea that the estates must be revived, it is necessary to revive the theocratic monarchy, it is necessary that people personally dependent.

- That is, Yuryev fights with the ideas of democracy?

- The idea of democracy is the main thing that Yuryev and his accomplices are fighting with - first of all, naturally, Alexander Dugin and many others. What seems very important to me in this connection is that the idea of the empire is closely related to the idea of territorial conquests, which in themselves look like an absolute wildness in the 21st century. Well, who needs large territories when everything is decided by financial markets, technologies and so on?! But the most important thing is that the idea of the empire brings with it slavery to the peoples who are trying to create this empire now. In the Yuryevsky book, for example, everything is very clearly spelled out.

Oprichnina should return and should rule Russia. All the others, except for the guardsmen, in his utopia are absolutely disenfranchised, in fact, slaves. They have no right to participate in political life. And the guardsmen rule this country in the same way as the guardsmen of Ivan the Terrible - a bloody terrible terror. I say this all because the idea of the oprichnina was extremely actively and for a long time in circles close to Yuryev. The Izborsk club loves to talk about the oprichnina. The Institute of Dynamic Conservatism constantly speaks of this. It seems to me that such a very powerful alliance has developed, starting from about 2012, which has only intensified until today - monarchists, nationalists, pro -fascist extremists.

-Do you think this alliance plays a role in today's military events?

- These people are clearly striving now in the wake of this terrible special operation (as we conventionally call it) to come to power in Russia, change the social system and make the oprichnina, terror again become the present of our society. In my opinion, these are very terrible projects. If Yuryev were one psychopath that wrote all these nonsense, it would be nothing. But, unfortunately, today the scenario of territorial captures, and what is happening in political life in Russia seems very similar to this scenario of it, and it is supported by a huge number of right, ultra -right, profaneity of the figures, whom the authorities clearly hear today. In any case, apparently, she does not hear anyone else.

- Today, very many people say that the West does not understand that this is not a local regional war, but rather a crusade against democracy, and the world.

- This is absolutely for sure. Many Western intellectuals write and talk about this. Unfortunately, not everyone understands this. Not everyone understands that many statements, in particular an absolutely apocalyptic property, also relate to this. Yes, this is a crusade against democracy. And Putin is actually unambiguously and often spoke out on this subject. But it seems to me that it is still very important to understand - this is the degree of prevalence of such apocalyptic ideas, apocalyptic ideas among those who are close today to the feeder of power in Russia. It seems to me that I also need to talk about this. We remember all these statements by Patriarch Kirill, who once a year, starting in 2017, in my opinion, with a certain frequency suggests that "yes, the end of the world will come." There are people like Alexander Dugin, who simply says that "the apocalypse is excellent! It should be burned in this apocalyptic heat. Only he will not come in itself, so we must actively help him."

Or take, for example, Prokhanov, who loves our glorious atomic weapon and speaks out on this subject. Okhlobystin writes, for example, that "the time of recent preparations" comes "and so on. That is, a lot of people in the Russian establishment, if you can express this about these people, enthusiastically think about the end of the world. And this is very scary, especially in a modern environment. I recall the TASS message that “our atomic weapons were transferred to combat readiness” when Shoigu and Gerasimov were informed about this on February 27. And TASS very concisely commented on this - well, like we put it into combat readiness. "Eat!" - said Shoigu and Gerasimov. And it struck me! It’s not that someone tried to object there, to say that maybe not so sharply. No! Under the visor, that's all!

- What happened to people? Is this a collective madness? I understand that one person can go crazy, but that everything in chorus is strange ...

- It is very strange and very scary at the same time. Remember, there was some point not so long ago when Zhirinovsky said that London and New York would soon cease to exist. I think that in Russia there was an inverted world for too long with a communist ideology that covered the Gulag and slave society with its powerful body, where everything was inside out. Then came a very short moment of the 1990s, for which, of course, something managed to correct something, but with Putin’s advent of Power, all this again began to fly into the abyss. It seems to me that in society there was a complete erosion of ideas about good and evil, value guidelines.

"Was the decision to conduct a military operation correct or wrong?" - On March 5–6, the sociologists of the Public Opinion fund have positively answered this question from 65 to 68% of citizens in different age groups. This decision was considered incorrect from 15 to 17% of citizens. The main goals of Russia in this story, according to people (open question), are to protect its boundaries (62%), to protect the population of the DPR and LPR (59%), to prevent Ukraine’s entry into NATO and the placement of NATO bases on its territory (39%). The fifth of the respondents believes that the goal is to attach the Donbass to Russia. 16% suspect that the Russian authorities were led by the desire to change the political system in Ukraine and lead to power in this country pro -Russian forces, and only 9% - that this is the desire to eliminate Ukrainian statehood and join the territory of Ukraine to Russia. All other options gain only 3% of the vote.

- After all, when in power those who are now standing, all this corruption, it seems to me, this very negatively influenced the consciousness of not only the so -called elite. When the society is controlled by those who have been managing them with us over the past 20 years, people fly off the coils, society loses the idea of good and evil. This is amazing, in fact, when the Russian captive pilot was asked: "You were sent. You bombed the cities. What do you think about this?" And he said: "Well, what?! Yes, bombed. They would send it again, would bomb again." I think that in Russian society there was a loss of ideas about normality, about good and evil, about how society should function normally - because nothing has been functioning normally for a long time.

- And yet the brain resists reality with the current idea of the ruling class as unscrupulous thieves, hedonists, the happy owners of villas and money with money. So they are not preparing for the apocalypse, they are preparing for a rather magnificent life - if you recall all these yachts, Putin's palace. And then the war is. "What if?" - I want to ask.

-I suspect that those who are rejoicing with the cleansing apocalypse and his fire, they think that they will somehow be removed from him. The apocalypse will happen in the West, and we have a "homeland shield", which will protect us all magically from everything.

- That is, they will burn the next eagle, anoint the face with blood and protect themselves?

- Yes, I think the idea is this. In the Yuryev Empire, everything is very clear. They bombed there, and no bombs reached Russia, because we had a shield of homeland. It’s just ... Remember, in 2018, Vladimir Vladimirovich talked about the fact that we have some kind of super-powerful, super-secret weapon, and not a single atomic warhead would fly to us, and nothing threatens us. This was his appeal to the 2018 Federal Assembly.

- I want, like Stanislavsky, to exclaim: "I do not believe!"

- Yes, and despite what is happening now, what is happening with the army, what soldiers receive, when nothing really shoots, everything is falling apart, it is quite possible that he, as they say, simply plunged this "shield of the homeland." As usual. And moreover, the atmosphere of terrible permissiveness, which has developed a very long time, over the past 20 years. In 2007, I wrote my book Gothic Society: The Morphology of the Nightmare. It already seemed to me that something terrible was happening. After all, when the mafia comes to power, there can be no normal outcome.

Because social fabric begins to work according to the laws of the zone, according to the laws of an absolutely mafia community, and this cannot lead to anything except that we are observing today. They wanted a small victorious war. They wanted the second Crimea, after which the rating of our guarantor personally rose by 20 percent, from 60 to 80 percent. That's what they obviously counted on.

According to the All -Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion , on February 28, 68% of Russians supported the so -called "special military operation", 22% did not support. On March 5, the number of supporting war increased to 71%.

- Many say that Putin will not stop in Ukraine ...

- Maybe. My most gloomy scenario lies in the fact that, despite all the horror that occurs in Ukraine, despite the fact that Ukraine heroically resists and will continue to resist, there will be no victorious. What scares me the most is the idea that they can now try to attack someone else, already on NATO, for example, to capture Estonia or attack Poland, which would be important to them. If NATO does not react to this, if NATO does not go to defend his lines, so to speak, he will not go to die for Estonia, then NATO may simply break up. And of course, for Putin this will be a huge geopolitical victory, which can largely cross out what is happening now in Ukraine, this horror, shame and military failure.

- Do you think that such an outcome is possible?

- I really hope that NATO will fulfill its allied obligations and will not allow anything like that - yes, it will go to die for Estonia, but it can count on the opposite. And this, by the way, would again be Yuryev’s script-the idea that the West, unlike Russians ... You see, the problem is that when you have a bomb shelter under the Ural Mountain and you feel it very comfortable there, and everything has been equipped for a long time, for many years, it probably was equipped, well, what a difference, how many bombs will fall into Russian cities. These are Americans, this West thinks about its citizens and will do everything possible to avoid mass victims. Well, do you really think that our precious boss flies at least for a minute if it is necessary to risk the life of his subjects?

- No, it doesn't look like that. But we remember all these standing with candles in the wrong hand when the Orthodox Chekists came, and then after some time all shamanism began. Was there any fracture? Or did we not notice something?

-I think that it is difficult to talk about a breakdown, because what was strong or whole can break down. There could not be any broken here for the reason that they never had any ideology, no religion and no ideas about morality. When they say that this is such a postmodern junta, it is very similar to the truth. For them, there are shamans, that Orthodox priests, this is all one. There is no system of views, a system of representations. And where to get from - no one expects ideology from the mafia. The mafia has one ideology - to reject, steal and be sure to maintain power. I think everything that happens is the desire to maintain power at all costs. By the way, I think that the war in Ukraine is partly caused by the fact that they began to understand that their soil was on their feet. My optimism is partly based on this, because I hope that this mode will fall.

- And what is most afraid of?

- The apocalyptic readiness of our current bosses and to which this readiness is common. Well, the church is okay, they believe that sooner or later everything will burn out on fire. But when writers, officials, Putin’s administration begin to talk about this, I’m not talking about all these madmen like Dugin or Kiselev, who also says that they will burn the West soon ... This is all lasting over the past years, that is, this has begun, of course, from the Crimea. After Crimea, this discourse went very powerfully.

-And yet, where is the syncretism of this ideology where, why does it matter to them who in front of them is a shaman, a priest?

- We are talking about such a collective abnormality that has reigned both in power and among some citizens. I have already talked about a complete loss of landmarks, ideas about good and evil, which has penetrated into society for the past 20 years, the entire period of the mafia-chorest power.

It seems to me that one of the reasons for this misfortune is the fact that secular secular philosophy has never developed in Russia, there has never been a separation, as happened in the West, the divine affairs of human affairs. And it seems to me that this is important if we look at today's gurus of extremist nationalism, which is now becoming our state policy, on all these arcs, Prokhanov and other completely wild savages, for the entire Izborsky club and its environment.

- And what are these people rely on?

- They do not want to work in Western categories, think in terms of Western social sciences or Western philosophical tradition, with the exception of fascism, which is not philosophy. This is such an Orthodox extremism, and for them it is a central moment.

Dugin was always a frank fascist, Yuryev was also inclined to him, so that the fascist ideology became extremely attractive to all this audience, and she almost does not hide it: let's already introduce the oprichnina and finally use the experience of both Stalinism and fascism, which are equally good. And everyone very often refers to the fact that Mussolini had a wonderful positive experience, which should be taken and mastered, and Hitler. Although they bomb Kyiv and they say that this is our 41st year, they believe that the Nazis were also right. Here is such an amazing collage, a frightening mixture of ideas, which, apparently, is now pouring into politics now - this is very scary.

- You are talking about fascism. This is a terrible z - after all, about the same Nazi symbolism began. After all , the Swastika did not immediately reign there, but at first there were two lightning, similar to Z.

- Yes, you are absolutely right. When I read Yuryev, there are amazing parallels with what Putin says. I will quote several places. "Emperor Gabriel categorically refused the Ukrainians (they began to be called small -footing, in archaic manner) and Belarusians in the status of individual peoples; this was always his uncompromising position. ... Attempts to consider them to be separate from Russian, Gabriel considered part of the centuries -old Plan of the West to combat Russia." Remember the article by Putin, in which he explains that Ukraine has never been a state and in general there can be statehood. Although the country of 20 years has existed as an independent state. It seems to me that the roots of these reasoning are in a terrible, absolutely fascist discourse.

- And where is this primordial hatred of Europe, about which you casually said that it lasts decades? This split began significantly with the Slavophiles and Westerners. Is everything coming from there?

- There are researchers who are trying to pull out Eurasianism, Duginskiy neo -Eurasianism directly from Westernism and Slavophilism. I think that this is not entirely correct, because the Slavophiles, in particular, hamsters and many others were much more civilized and cultural people than those we observe. Ivan the Terrible, the hero of our entire conservative public of the Izborsk club, was a monster for them! Они относились к нему так же, как относимся мы все. И для большинства славянофилов идея крепостного права, идея рабства была неприемлема.

Многие из них участвовали в реформах Александра II, помогали отмене крепостного права. Современные оголтелые националисты, в которых от наци больше, чем от чего бы то ни было, думают только об одном. Они мечтают построить сословное общество. Они мечтают, чтобы у них были рабы, чтобы Россия вернулась к состоянию, в котором она при Иване Грозном находилась, чтобы опричнина всем этим правила с помощью сильного террора. Что меня еще очень беспокоит – это возникающая жажда террора, которая у многих этих идеологов абсолютно центральна. Я считаю это исключительно опасным симптомом, потому что когда в обществе появляется социальная ненависть, запрос на террор, это очень страшно.

– И куда это все, по-вашему, вырулит?

– Я, как и все, надеюсь, что все это очень скоро кончится. История однажды подарила нам чудо, мы однажды пережили распад Советского Союза, чего никто не ждал, во что никто не верил. Но чудо случилось! Еще хочется надеяться на то, что, может быть, оно случится снова, – говорит Дина Хапаева.

Опрос россиян об их отношении к российской агрессии в Украине и ее новым символам