Russian ideology has traveled from being banned by the Russian Constitution to becoming de facto state ideology. The discourse of the early 1990s newspaper 'Pulse of Tushino', sold in the underground passage at Pushkin Square (its editor was later tried for anti-Semitism), has gained oligarchic and state (which are one and the same) respectability over three and a half decades. It has acquired state grants and the powerful stride of solid bearded men, dressed in all things Western, who organize pompous conferences, own media holdings, possess educational and scientific centers named after fascist philosophers of the past, and lecture from university podiums.
The content of the broadcasts is no different from 'Pulse of Tushino', only that intermittent pulse beat from the underground, and now the marginal has become mainstream and even directive. All the pathos, all the inside-out words, all this generously sprinkled gravel of elevated pseudo-Orthodox argot boils down to Soviet-era couplets, only without their ironic tone:
"...They say Hemingway was a Jew by questionnaires, they say that Adzhubey was also a Jew in childhood, Jews are all Jews, everywhere are Jews..."
The main theses of the 'Tsargrad' circle, closely associated with the Kremlin, and similar communities, which in other times would have been doomed to shabby apartment gatherings, are outlined in a famous poem by Boris Slutsky:
"...Jews do not sow bread,
Jews trade in shops,
Jews go bald earlier,
Jews steal more..."
And so on. With beastly seriousness.
Catalog of Imaginary Beings
It is in this logic that lecture series are structured, which the same 'usual suspects' Alexander Dugin, Konstantin Malofeev, and Zakhar Prilepin read almost exclusively at the Faculty of Political Science of Moscow State University.
However, systematic courses from star authors are not yet forthcoming, probably due to some limitation of theses and arguments, as well as the extraordinary busyness of the lecturers. Well, you said a hundred times that the Russian people are on a special path from the taiga to the British seas, being a 'state-civilization' with its kokoshniks and balalaikas, well, you repeated three hundred times that the West, in the face of the ever-present Anglo-Saxons, historically attacked Russia — all these mantras can be taught even to Deputy Lugovoy, and newspapers from the times of the fight against 'rootless cosmopolitans' coped with obscurantist tasks no worse. What's next? But repetition is the mother of learning (although the phrase itself is a typical alien 'Latinism' from the Middle Ages), and the infiltration of imaginary entities into the consciousness of new generations still occurs.
Moreover, new ideologists write articles more for each other — to break through to true knowledge, for example, to the works of Alexander Kharichev and other 'social architects', time and computer skills are needed. Fortunately, sometimes journals like 'State' or Patria are found online, but then another problem arises for the object of state ideology indoctrination — to wade through the quasi-philosophical sociolect in which the articles are written. The effect is dubious.
In this sense, of course, Dugin is convincing, though more for physiognomic reasons — the effect of appearance and passionate pressure. Prilepin is simple and close to the people:
"...A youth with a new anti-Western ideology must grow up. We must stop repeating that 'we are so backward'. We must go and win!..."
This is how lectures should be read to the youth. It doesn't matter who, it doesn't matter how, it doesn't matter why and at what cost — just win and that's it.
Malofeev is not like that, a supporter of technotronic robots in Gzhel — he operates with a broad historical canvas, although still excessively banal. But any banality in the mouth of a recognizable talking head acquires the status of sacred knowledge, moreover, not requiring immersion in the true nuances of history. That is, categorically contradicting normal education, including that which was given at the humanities faculties of the same Moscow State University relatively recently, in Soviet times. Choosing between the course 'Scientific Communism' and Malofeev's 'History of the Empire' (or 'Foundations of Russian Statehood'), a conscientious consumer by the criterion of scientificity would still choose the first option — this discipline has less obscurantism and invented Boschian and Borgesian creatures.
The motive of nurturing the youth is present in Malofeev's speeches no less than in Prilepin's interventions:
"...It's time to pass on the Imperial (so in the text, with a capital letter; there was another regime in history that wrote the word 'Imperial' in this way. — A.K.) meanings to those who will determine the future of our country..."
'World of Profit' and 'Canaan'
The key idea of Malofeev is simple, like the footwrap of a Soviet soldier entering Prague in 1968, and as old as the robe of a medieval monk fighting the penetration of the Latin devil: all history is the confrontation of the Empire, the sacred civilization of the spirit, the 'restrainer' (katechon) of the world from evil, and 'Canaan — the civilization of profit and depravity, where the material completely dominates the spiritual'. It has long been noted that the need for the triumph of the spiritual over the material is asserted by characters who, with the material, not only have everything fine, but exaggeratedly perfect to the point of caricature. The rest are left to be content with spiritual values in accordance with presidential decrees, Medinsky's textbooks, and the articles of the collective Kharichev.
What is important is that behind 'Canaan' — to hell with the details! — stand the Jews, Zionists, Masons. They are no longer present on holy Rus', all marked as 'foreign agents' and 'undesirable', but the battle of the katechon with 'Canaan' is a process that keeps the population in a state of national-imperial hypnosis and obedience, and attracts colossal finances, including taxpayer money. Therefore, this battle, like the arguments justifying it, exists not for decades, but for centuries. The simpler and more implausible the mythology — from the 'Orthodoxy-Autocracy-Nationality' of one Francophile and Germanophile count and the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' to the all-powerful teachings of Malofeev-Dugin-Prilepin — the stronger the indoctrination with archaism, the more from university podiums.
Konstantin Malofeev (center), Alexander Dugin (right)
'The World of Profit' and 'Canaan' revealed their true essence in the face of a man with the characteristic surname Epstein, who successfully built his island backstage world using female goods. This added color to Malofeev's theory. Nastya Rybka and hundreds, more precisely, thousands of her peers, serving the 'elite', but happily avoiding publicity, faded in the face of 'Canaan's' democracy, which flogged itself by publishing Epstein's files. Our Epsteins, Ivanovs, and Petrovs crossed themselves and lit candles in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior: it's good that there is no democracy in Russia, and civil society, as well as political institutions, do not require the disclosure of secret information about those who rule Russia.
The thousand-year rei..., rather, cycle, rather, empire has a rich history, which, from the point of view of the head of 'Tsargrad', for some reason leads to the Akkadian king Sargon. Who, probably, was a typical representative of the future Slavic God-bearing people. This is generally a fragile surface — flying from century to century with such ballet ease, one can make a fool of oneself, and declare various Semitic tribes, to which the Akkadian tribes belonged, as the forerunners of our native 'state-civilization'. That is — the hotbeds of 'Canaan' with 'profit'.
And 'Canaan' itself is shaky ground. After all, the biblical plot mainly describes conflicts of Semites with Semites, and all this is written in biblical Hebrew. What does our native, crude, and homespun Gzhel empire, engaged in a prolonged 'liberation' campaign, have to do with it, is completely unclear. It is clear that our historian finds examples of Eastern despotisms to justify today's despotism, which is simultaneously the heir of Rome, but it would be better if Malofeev chose other terms and did not wander in the three Lebanese cedars of history — it would be enough to limit himself to medieval plots in search of an answer to the old cursed Russian question: 'Why did Russia fall behind?' No one demands scientificity from him, especially at the Faculty of Political Science, this is not a department of classical philology, and 'Foundations of Russian Statehood' is not a textbook on the history of the ancient world by academician Struve. But why beat the Semites with Semitic weapons? People will laugh...
However, with the Middle Ages, there is also some confusion. According to Malofeev, very bad Jewish merchants were engaged in trade with China (now Russian car importers and raw material exporters are engaged in this), and then they engaged in the slave trade. Of course, in the era of great geographical discoveries, the forerunners of the era of modern economic growth, Sephardim, Marranos (baptized Jews), as well as baptized Arabs — Moriscos, could engage in trade. Even Christopher Columbus himself could enter urban folklore in the genre of 'Jews are all Jews, everywhere are Jews'. But fear at least the Canaanite, at least the Christian, at least the sovereign Orthodox God — after all, Ferdinand and Isabella expelled Jews and Arabs from Spain. But the secret liberal Don Juan in Alexei Tolstoy, the forerunner of Epstein and liberal destructive globalism, just...
"...said that Moors and Moriscos
Were useful and hardworking people;
That they should not have been expelled or burned; <...>
That if everyone were equal in rights,
There would be no enmity from anyone..."
A typical liberal Epstein, even though he is Spanish. And what is characteristic, these are words from Leporello's denunciation of his master before the holy inquisition. Does Malofeev take the side of the inquisition in the dispute with the 'Canaanite' liberal Don Juan program? But it is also from Europe, and therefore the 'world of profit'... Somehow everything is complicated, confusing, and contradictory.
History is still more complex than the writings of monk Nilus or Medinsky and the imperial phantom pains of 'Tsargrad'. Nevertheless, the next step could be a course replacing 'History of the CPSU' — 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. Personally, I will not be surprised by anything anymore.
* Andrey Kolesnikov is considered a 'foreign agent' by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
Photo: seminar of the 'Tsargrad Institute' / 05.09.2023. Photo: geopolitika.ru.