In essence, we are changing our ideology for the third time in 35 years. Until the early 1990s, society was under the dictatorship of Marxism-Leninism. This was obligatory, and (even if formally) everything was built upon it — politics, economics, science, education, and law. Everything, really.
In the early 1990s, an ideological coup took place. Liberals and Westernizers (reformers) seized power. A liberal ideological dictatorship was established. Everything — politics, economics, science, education, and law — was now being reshaped according to Western liberal standards. Liberalism was henceforth considered the only true doctrine.
When Putin came to power, he did not immediately abolish the ideological dictatorship of the liberals. Instead, he demanded that the sovereignty of the (liberal, Western) state be respected. We remained within the liberal paradigm, but with an emphasis on sovereignty. Surkov called this “sovereign democracy.” The ideological dictate of liberalism persisted.
Pure liberals reacted to Putin’s course towards sovereignty in two ways: some, directly funded by the liberal West and instigated by Western intelligence agencies, began to protest (the fifth column), while others did not dare openly challenge Putin. They camouflaged themselves, bided their time, and quietly but persistently sabotaged the course towards sovereignty (the sixth column, the systemic liberals).
With the onset of the Special Military Operation (SMO), the fifth column was finally dispersed, and the purging of the sixth began. Some systemic liberals (like Chubais, etc.) panicked and fled to Israel and London. The more cunning ones burrowed deeper.
However, the real ideological shift is only happening now. It became clear that Crimea is ours forever, just like the reclaimed Old Lands, and that the war will continue until victory. The SMO is not a technical glitch in relations with the liberal West, as one might have thought earlier, but an irreversible rupture. The dictatorship of the liberal ideology has ended.
It was easy to transition from communism to liberalism since manuals, instructions, and textbooks could be sourced from the West. Not only for free, but with extra funding — thanks to the CIA, the State Department, and Soros.
Transitioning from liberalism to a Russian ideology is difficult. There can be no return to communism (which, by the way, no one is advocating), nor to Orthodox monarchy (which, while subtly promoted, everyone has forgotten what it even means). Volunteers are great, but they are not an ideology.
There are no manuals, instructions, or textbooks for this third Russian ideology. One thing is clear — it is neither communism nor liberalism. But it is not fascism either — after all, we are fighting fascism in Ukraine.
Thus, we must revive something pre-Western, something rooted in the core of Russian identity, while projecting it creatively and innovatively into the future. A kind of Russian patriotic imperial futurism.
The most crucial support here are traditional values, historical education, the course towards a multipolar world, and the thesis of Russia as a state-civilization. This is definitely not communism, liberalism, or fascism. It is the Fourth Political Theory. This is the ideological transformation that is unfolding now: radical de-liberalization, the dismantling of the liberal dictatorship. But without falling into the traps of communism or nationalism (fascism). After all, those are also Western political doctrines from the era of European modernity. They are neither Russian in form nor meaning. What we need is something Russian. Now, we only need something Russian.
This turn is inevitable and does not depend on the whims of the authorities or any ideological groups. Sovereign Russia must have a sovereign ideology. This is not up for debate; it is asserted as firmly as the Bolsheviks’ first decrees or the privatizations of the 1990s.
(Translated from the Russian)
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