In my view, domestic policy should combine two principles:
- Total intolerance toward treason, Russophobia, liberalism, espionage, foreign agents, proponents of the toxic woke ideology, and corruption;
- Openness to any form of creative exploration, experimentation, freedom of imagination, impartiality, non-dogmatism, and leaps into the unknown.
This means that, on the one hand, we must intensify the scope of repression and pressure against internal enemies, maintaining an unyielding stance akin to SMERSH1 or the Oprichnina.2 On the other hand, we should remove all barriers to the development of unfettered Russian thought, support every creative impulse, nurture organic and spontaneous creative activity among the people, and involve the masses — broad layers of society — in the creative process.
What Putin said about “sovereignty at heart” is particularly important. This is the key. Ensuring sovereignty externally involves the extermination of liberals, separatists, terrorists, corrupt officials, foreign agents, and other enemies of the Russian state and people. Above all, it means achieving victory in Ukraine against the West.
However, this is a negative program aimed at countering threats and challenges.
The positive program lies in the interiorization of sovereignty. This means we must reveal our civilizational identity through creativity, creation, and affirmation. Here, there should be no a priori axioms. Let patriotism be entirely open — let a thousand patriotic flowers bloom. We must nurture all forms of popular patriotic thought while eradicating hostile ideas at their inception. With an iron hand.
During the Soviet era, these two directions became confused, especially in its later stages. While vigilance was exercised against external enemies, a linear, axiomatic approach was also imposed as a positive agenda. This led to stagnation, alienation, decay, and degeneration.
Later, everything was reversed: tolerance was shown towards enemies, and toxic Westernization and liberalism were absorbed, while the positive program remained just as linear and dogmatic. This resulted in the implosion of the Soviet Union and a catastrophe. We must remain uncompromising towards the enemy and his ideas, while actively cultivating Russian freedom, will, and creativity. In other words, we must do the exact opposite of the cursed Perestroika and the degenerate, treacherous 1990s.
There is no need to seek vengeance against liberals, at least not against those who renounce their criminal and treasonous delusions. But liberalism itself must be abolished. After all, liberalism is the culture of cancellation. If we show it leniency, it will repay us with repression and persecution of the Russian idea and traditional values whenever it gets the chance. We have seen this before. Liberalism is a totalitarian ideology that persecutes its opponents. It is an extremist ideology that fractures society. It is a Russophobic ideology because it denies any social ontology, any unity, and rejects the very concept of the Russian people, denying them existence.
It is a toxic delusion.
Even now, liberalism is being dismantled in the United States itself. There, too, it has caused such harm that Americans’ patience has snapped. In Russia, liberals have committed even greater crimes.
A tribunal must be held over liberalism.
It is entirely logical that its main figures have now openly sided with our enemies, with many directly fighting against us alongside Ukrainian Nazis. Others are aiding them in every way possible — through words, actions, and resources. The phenomenon of “relocants” encapsulates the essence of Russian liberalism. It is simply human scum. It always has been, whether in power or siding with the enemy. While individual liberals may be forgiven, as a group, they must be regarded and treated like former Nazi criminals. If they have repented, that is one thing. But if not? In that case, we must act decisively. What we need is a consistent and irreversible ideological de-liberalization of our society. This is as imperative as the de-Nazification of Ukraine.
This is what our sovereign heart tells us. The Empire is knocking at our heart. Its voice is quiet and gentle. The Empire is something within.
(Translated from the Russian)
Alexander Dugin’s books can be purchased here.
Footnotes
Trans. note: SMERSH was a Soviet counterintelligence organization during World War II, tasked with identifying and neutralizing spies, traitors, and internal threats.
The Oprichnina were a secret police and governance system established by Ivan the Terrible to suppress dissent and consolidate autocratic power in 16th-century Russia.
