When we try to understand why Russia, after the turbulent democratization of the late 1980s and early 1990s, arrived where it is now, we usually look for the answer in politics: weak institutions, the 1993 Constitution, presidential power, oil, wars, the security services, Putin. All of that matters. But with this perspective, we miss something no less, and perhaps even more, significant — institutional inertia.

#Analytics #army #archaizationofsociety #ideology #institutionalreforms #KGBoftheUSSR #management #education #aftertheUSSR #Putin #Russia #specialservices #church #school #essay

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At the beginning of July, historian Konstantin Pakhalyuk’s book «In Search of »Russian Antiquity«» was included in the longlist for the «Provetitel» prize. With the kind permission of the publisher Chișinău: The Historical Expertise, which republished the book after its de facto ban in Russia, we are publishing the chapter «State Memory Policy in the Conditions of the ‘Conservative Turn’ (2012 — early 2022)», which explains why cynical Russian politicians and bureaucrats needed events from long ago.

#Analytics #VladimirMedinsky #VladimirPutin #power #ideology #Study #Russianhistory #conservativeturn #rent #RussianMilitaryHistoricalSociety #SergeyNaryshkin

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Two European thinkers of the 20th century provide timely keys to understanding Russia’s ideological evolution

#WarinUkraine #ideology #PatriarchKirill #Restructuring #aftertheUSSR #Putinism #RenéGuénon #Russia #fascism #essay #JuliusEvola

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Reading Gogun’s major historical study, I kept recalling our family chronicles. The author tells how, in 1946–1947, during preparations for a new world war, army authorities, while freely demobilizing high-ranking officers, sought at the same time to retain combat officers of the lower or middle ranks — with the main emphasis, first and foremost, on field artillery. So it was with my father as well. In 1937, when he was a 14-year-old boy, he was sent off to the camps. Five years later, having miraculously survived, he volunteered for the front and spent the entire war on the front line, commanding an anti-tank 45-mm gun. He was wounded three times. A decorated veteran. In 1947, after a decade of state-imposed captivity, he tried in vain to be demobilized — but they would not release him: «We need officers with front-line experience». He was let go only after, in one of his countless applications, he dared to mention his sentence under Article 58 of the Criminal Code for «counterrevolutionary activity», which he had concealed in army forms («At the time I considered it necessary to keep that hidden»).

#YeiintheUSSR #ideology #historyoftheUSSR #bookclub #communism #worldrevolution #repressionsintheUSSR #review #Stalin #WorldWarIII

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Last week, the «Russian Volunteer Corps» finally published its program and ideological doctrine. «Finally»—because this nationalist formation, which switched sides to Ukraine in February 2022, has long called on the Russian opposition to unite. Of course, by default—under the banners of the RVC. In short, hopes for a proper evolution of Russian nationalists have not come true.

#WarinUkraine #demography #democracy #discussion #Institute #ideology #Nazism #new #opposition #rightandleft #reformsofthe1990s #Russia #Russiannationalists #Russianmilitarycorps #ThirdReich #LaborandCapital #fascism

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The story of how the Soviet Grinch stole Christmas is telling in many ways. At first, the totalitarian regime shamelessly declared established family traditions to be barbaric. Then, after failing, Stalinism retreated a bit and, as a compromise, offered Soviet citizens a new holiday—with recognizable trappings, but stripped of its original meaning. Soon, the next generation came to perceive the Soviet New Year as an unshakable custom from time immemorial.

#householdandchildren #state #ideology #History #everydayculture #lenin #newYear #society #holidays #religion #theUSSR #Stalin #traditions

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It's hard to believe that Vladimir Solovyov was once a respected journalist known for being a courageous interlocutor. Today, he is one of the main mouthpieces of the war that Russia unleashed in Ukraine. At one time, I personally witnessed and, to some extent, was a victim of this metamorphosis.

#PussyRiot #VladimirSolovyov #WarinUkraine #ideology #personalexperience #propaganda #propagandist #protests #Putinism #Russia #PussyRiottrial #TV

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We, Soviet children, were incredibly lucky. We went through patriotic education with books by Vasily Bykov and Boris Vasilyev, Samuil Marshak and Lev Kvitko. And our early youth was not overshadowed by works of Vladimir Medinsky, Oleg Roy, and unknown authors included in the «List of Patriotic Works Created by Contemporary Writers and Recommended for Extracurricular Reading» published last week by the Ministry of Education.

#shaman #AgniaBarto #VladimirMedinsky #VladimirPutin #children #dictatorship #ideology #literature #MinistryofEducation #OlegGazmanov #OlegRoy #aftertheUSSR #propaganda #Russia #SergeiMikhalkov #Stalinism #school

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There was social art, now there is social arch; there were oligarchs and patriarchs – now there are social archs. Putinism is a neo-totalitarian power plus the social archization of the entire country. They were engineers of human souls – now they are specialists in «reverse» social engineering. But let’s leave this Zamyatinism and Orwellianism aside – everything in order.

#state #dictatorship #Dostoevsky #ideology #KonstantinBogomolov #neototalitarianism #society #Orwell #politicaltechnologies #postmodernism #Putinism #Russia #technocrats #thick

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Why Trump?Why did this deceitful, shameless, loudly boiling narcissist, who contradicts what he said in the morning by evening, sows chaos, despises morality and law, not only become president of the world's leading country but also eagerly set about breaking both the country and the world?

#DonaldTrump #ideology #elonmask #USA #technology #UmbertoEco #fascism #essay

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