A Union of Civilizations*

*Editor’s Note: On March 4, Russia enacted a law that criminalizes public opposition to, or independent news reporting about, the war in Ukraine. The law makes it a crime to call the war a “war” rather than a “special military operation” on social media or in a news article or broadcast. The law is understood to penalize any language that “discredits” Russia’s use of its military in Ukraine, calls for sanctions or protests Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It punishes anyone found to spread “false information” about the invasion with up to 15 years in prison.

By now it is obvious to everyone that the basic tenets of a political program formulated by American financiers, the Democratic Party and the White House have given rise to a new consolidated pan-Western ideology. Those tenets are then broadcast by hundreds of thousands of dependent entities, ranging from popular bloggers who can be bought for a song to the likes of Greenpeace and the Red Cross.

This ideology permeates every stratum and every capillary of Western self-consciousness. It trumps any conflicting considerations of economic profit, national survival or preservation of cultural identity. This collection of tenets has been dubbed “values.” They are, in fact, fairly simple and extremely primitive. Here are the basics:

First: The absolute primacy of all aspects of the Western model — economic, military, scientific, cultural, etc. — over every other way of organizing life. Any private citizen, business enterprise, organization, party or nation that refuses to accept this balance of power, for whatever reason, is declared hostile and must be isolated, weakened to the fullest extent possible and, ideally, defeated, dismembered and subjugated.

Second: militant anti-traditionalism, which is necessarily anti-Christian, anti-Muslim and anti-Buddhist. As strange as it may seem to some, anti-communism also has its origins in anti-traditionalism. That is because the two main world experiments in communism (in the Soviet Union and China) were not the brainchild of leftist globalists, but of homegrown communists.

Anti-traditionalism is also responsible for the dominance of various deviant forms of mass culture, identity and sexuality. The notorious political correctness also has its roots here.

Third: a media monopoly on the coverage of major world events. The American oligarchy does not tolerate any alternative interpretations of phenomena it regards as socially significant. There can be only one globally broadcast point of view and it is formulated in Washington or its vicinity. Any departure from this established order is immediately quashed.

Fourth: The United States is the economic center of the world, and the dollar is its sole reserve currency. Norms of international commercial interaction and world trade generally are now regulated not by law, and certainly not by the market, but by a set of so-called rules. Any departure from these rules is immediately punished. In a recent example unrelated to Russia, France was deprived of a multibillion-dollar contract with Australia for the construction of nuclear submarines. This was accomplished in violation of all norms of international commercial law, strictly in the interests of the American military-industrial complex.

Fifth: Russia and China pose the greatest threat to the Western world. Compromise with either is impermissible, and all possible means of restraining them are embraced: embargo, seizure of bank accounts and property, sabotage, terrorism, disinformation and outright deceit. Only open warfare — at least for now — is eschewed. The West is not ready for such a step, and it is not clear that it will ever be. Above all else, the West aims to undermine its competitors’ economies and political regimes and bring pro-Western elites to power.

The upshot is that Russia is confronted with an alliance that is united by a single plan of action, a set of shared principles and a strong internal hierarchy. Technologically, that alliance is somewhat superior to Russia, but not critically. With respect to resources, Russia has a qualitative advantage over the West, thanks to its massive Soviet foundation.

Let us now consider the state of ideology in Russia.

True ideology is a core concept related to the formation of personality in early childhood. Ideological values should not be confused with their outward manifestations. These are two completely different things. Often an outward manifestation does not indicate the presence of a value, and the value may be present without manifesting itself at all.

Ideological values are instilled in the home and in the first years of school. A person is already completely formed ideologically by the age of 10 to 12 years. By that point, basic patterns of perceiving the world have been established, and all that remains is for those patterns to be revealed, tweaked, supplemented by current agendas and additional information and examined in light of real-life events. Therefore, it is the formative period that determines each person’s ideological map.

The manifestation of that ideological map is triggered by what happens in the world around us.

The latest polls show that the vast majority of schoolchildren see themselves as an integral part of Russia by the time they reach the age of 18. Seventy-seven percent of young people say they regard themselves as patriots, and 91% of today’s youth are proud of Russia’s history and culture.

These facts demonstrate that the vast majority of Russian families have preserved the essence of a national ideology that goes back to the Soviet era, successfully transferring it from one generation to the next.

This begs the question: What should Russia strive to be, where is it going and what can it offer the world?

Our ideology must espouse a unified society in which the state limits the opportunity and aspirations of one social group to benefit at the expense of other social strata. Each person is, first and foremost, a full-fledged citizen of Russia, and only then an entrepreneur, a government official or an employee for hire. Solidarity must once again replace division, repression and exploitation.

Legislation, including laws that govern the final distribution of resources, must be restructured so that all Russian citizens feel like protected participants in a just social system. We must reexamine anything that fails to live up to the principle of justice.

What is more, the new ideology should proclaim Russia as a full-fledged union of Eurasian peoples, freely united around the nation-forming Russian people. This historical union of nationalities regards each nation — each ethnic identity — as invaluable, and multinational Russia is ready to fight for the singularity of each one of them.

In this unique union of equal and mutually respecting nations, there is also room for other peoples, including those who now openly wage war against Russia, whether they do so under duress or out of ignorance, blinded by Western-inspired Russophobic propaganda. We do not strive to make everyone the same, let alone identical. And this is the fundamental difference between our ideology and the “values” of the North American metropolis and its European colonies.

Social and ethnic justice are the main attributes of Russia’s ideology. Throughout history, whether the Russian banner was raised in the name of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union or the Russian Federation, justice was always emblazoned upon it, with greater or lesser clarity. Now justice must become the predominant and most appealing feature of our ideology.

In addition, the new ideology should be used to build a society prepared for both hard work and combat, ready to defend all of its natural rights and freedoms — historical, geopolitical and social — against any nation or group of nations. It is imperative, therefore, to enshrine in the nation’s Constitution not only a new ideology, but also a new system of education capable of forming a working man, a citizen who adheres to certain morals and principles. It is essential that education and science take priority over all other branches of economic, social and cultural activity. We must completely abandon the current “secondary” status of education and science in the development of both the individual and the state. Our ideology should place particular emphasis on the study of history — that is, the study of the natural progression of Russian history — starting in the first years of elementary school and continuing into the highest levels of post-secondary education.

It should be noted that Russia itself is a union of civilizations. It is a unique union of various ethnic groups, religious convictions and disparate ways of living — an almost unparalleled example for the rest of the world. Where Russian civilization has taken hold, nobody has vanished. On the contrary, ethnic groups have acquired a written language, developed an intellectual elite and even enjoyed internal autonomy. When the West arrives, particularly the Anglo-Saxons, the nations of entire continents have disappeared, their history and culture liquidated. Russia offers the world a union of civilizations with equal rights for all.