Let’s call things by their name. Russia is the 21st century Nazism. Russians are currently committing a genocide in Ukraine. The responsibility for Russian Nazism lies not merely with one schizophrenic and his gang of chekists pumped up with the fascist ideas of Ivan Ilyin and Hitler. Putin’s regime is merely the mold which always appears in dark, moist spaces.
The main root is in the ordinary Russian person, with his firmware “I’m not into politics” and “nothing depends on me”. His value system can be reduced to one thing: his belly. And then there is also his conscience — the Russian liberal. The one who fought corruption for the last eight years and courageously took selfies in the backs of police vans. At the same time, he closed his eyes to the rising tide of fascism and to Russia’s war crimes abroad. His blindness passed for virtue.
The ordinary Russians travelled to Crimea, legitimizing its occupation, instead of protesting to the European Council against the criminal regime. They arranged “smart voting” campaigns instead of organizing a government-in-exile. They made movies about Putin’s palace instead of the war in Ukraine. They indulged their sense of dignity brandishing toilet brushes rather than Molotov cocktails. They didn’t like Putin, but they admitted his power. They paid taxes, which fed the militarization. And now they can’t influence anything and don’t feel guilty for anything either.
But indifference and self-alienation are the best fuel for Russian rockets and tanks. Inactivity is the bombs which are demolishing civilian buildings. There were also plenty of people in the Reich who were all for peace or whatever. In the end, they lay side-by-side with Nazis in the ruins of Dresden.
A thin layer of the population is crushed between the fascists and the disenfranchised masses. This stratum has been so squeezed out that they no longer really remain Russians — they are an exception. In Russia, human beings are no longer even outcasts but enemies. Killed, in prison or emigrated. Now, the Russians are Putin, and Putin is the Russians.
On the streets there are nothing but queues for cash machines and supermarkets. But today, the Russians have a chance to show their humanity — to stop their Führer. To seize from the Nazis their monopoly over Russianness. Even if not for the lives of their “brotherly nation” or even for their own children sent to die in the cold Ukrainian land, then at least for their beloved Apple and Ikea. Standing aside now means being a participant in evil.
Russia will be saved only by the collapse of the empire. A regime which razes entire cities to the ground cannot be stopped with Gandhi’s methods. But burning tires and flammable liquids give hope.
MNPL
