Russia: The Insanity of Dictatorship

The Philosophy of Russia:

Russia has never been a free country. Following centuries of Tsarist rule, a peaceful revolution in February 1917 resulted in the usurpation of the absolute monarchy and the instantiation of a democratic, “provisional” government. The government was not popular. Power was violently taken in October of the same year by the Communist Bolsheviks, after which a five-year civil war ensued between Tsarist loyalists (the White Army) and the Communist Red Army. The Communists won and the worst decades of Russian history followed. Genocide, death camps, World War II, poverty, organised famines, police brutality and the general misery of totalitarianism lasted in some degree and combination until the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Officially, Russia was then “free”. But anarchy is not freedom. Private criminals replaced the secret police. Instead of fearing the KGB, one feared the local oligarch. Politicians, police and judges were all complicit in the exploitation of a people who expected to be exploited.

Since 2000, under Putin, state power was gradually reinstated. Criminals went out of business and found positions suited to their skillsets in the FSB (the modern-day KGB). Now they could continue to exploit the people and no longer fear one another – so long as they followed the rules and paid Putin his share.

Modern day Russians, for the most part, romanticise either the Tsarist or Communist period (or both) and despise the significantly freer 90’s. A common essay question in Russian high schools is “Was Stalin an effective manager?” Keep in mind that Stalin was a merciless dictator responsible for more deaths than Hitler.

Westerners wonder how such absurdity is possible. How can a people every bit as intelligent as us (and in several aspects better educated) tolerate such injustice for so long? How can they continue to support a psychopath like Putin after the 90’s, after having caught a fleeting glimpse of freedom? How can anyone support the system which compels unwilling Russian men to die for nothing, their bodies scattered across the wartorn fields of Eastern Ukraine?

My answer, of course, does not hold for all Russians. People are not determined products of their environment. We do have free will. But the more collectivistic the country, the stronger one must be to become and remain independent.

My answer is: Some Russians (openly or otherwise) want a totalitarian state. These include the prominent Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, whose philosophy explicitly combines elements of Bolshevism, fascism and Platonism.

He declares liberalism, capitalism, freedom, individualism, and human rights as evil. He even considers physics and chemistry “demonic”, on the basis that they assert objective truths, which he deems “oppressive”.  

Dugin writes:

“We must strike the individual, abolish him, and cast him into the periphery of political consideration.”

“Russia is everything! All else is nothing!”

Such individuals as Dugin are consciously anti-life. Consider the following recent exchange on a Russian state TV channel:

Host: “Where do the borders of Russia end?”

Guest: “Nowhere.”

A great deal more Russians want the effects of certain ideas without enacting the philosophical causes.

This latter group demand freedom – but reject its full meaning; they demand rights – but cannot explain what rights are; they want progress– but they cling to tradition; they want reason – but they cling to mysticism.

They must acknowledge a (secular) fact of reality expressed in the Book of Genesis:

“Take what you want and pay for it.”

The price of reason is mystical faith. The price of living your life is to give up living for anyone or anything else. Reality does not tolerate contradictions.

My Life and Russia:

I was born in 2001 in Izhevsk, Russia. It is an industrial town positioned east of Moscow and west of the Ural Mountains. Izhevsk is known for its production of military equipment and weapons, most notably the AK47 machine gun. Like all Russian towns, Izhevsk was afflicted by crime, poverty, narcotics, corruption, decaying infrastructure, and pollution. I spent the first five years of my life in this town, noticing absolutely none of these characteristics. I noticed only two things: the beauty of nature, and the descriptions of heroic figures in books on Vikings and Greek mythology.

It was in Russia, of all places, where I discovered my love of life.

Had I remained a few years longer than I did, I would discover the ugliness, mysticism, collectivism, and death-worship of the Russian spirit.

Had I remained until the present day, I would very likely be conscripted along with 300,000 other men, forced to kill – and die – on the Ukrainian countryside.

Dictatorship versus Individualism:

Westerners don’t understand the mentality of Russia because they do not understand dictatorship. When we consider the worst, most oppressive places to live on Earth (North Korea, Iran, etc) we imagine a helpless, suffering population enslaved by a vicious tyrant. But the truth is worse – the truth is that the majority of people support, uphold, and maintain the very system which enslaves them. Why would they do this? Because it relieves them of the requirement to think.

It is often said that acting in one’s own interest is the easiest thing to do, requiring no moral code. I say that it is the hardest. Acting in your interest requires identifying what is genuinely in your interest – not the short-range “interest” of your out-of-context desires, fears, and the pressure to conform. It requires a self-confidence – and a knowledge of the rightness of your convictions – that gives no power whatsoever to any standard but your own. It requires the moral courage to maintain your intellectual integrity against every expression of evil and evasion. It requires accepting reality with eyes wide open, your intransigent mind restless to obliterate any obstacle between you and your happiness. It requires loving your life and your soul so much that you will never sell it to anyone for any price.

Every dictatorship requires the complete renunciation of these ideals in the vast majority of its people.

Dictatorship requires a willingness to live for the sake of the state.

“It's a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own. To imagine a heaven and then not to dream of it, but to demand it.”

-          We the Living.