The nation "Russians" is absurd

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The concept of a "unique Russian nation", which was approved by Vladimir Putin, is absurd and will lead to new conflicts on ethnic grounds. As the leader of the “Russians” Association Dmitry Demushkin said in an interview with the “New Region” agency, the new official national doctrine is very reminiscent of the Soviet one and is doomed to failure. According to him, a Russian will always remain Russian, a German - a German, and a Frenchman - a French, despite the absence or presence of a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation or another state.

"New Region": Yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a new doctrine of national policy and declared the need to create a "unique Russian nation" … How do you assess this step of the leadership of our country?

Dmitry Demushkin: I am very surprised and amazed by this story … But I would like to start with the background of this situation. If you know, we also wrote the doctrine of national development, and Putin then signed Abdulatipov's program. Now the Kremlin seems to have heard a lot of left-wing figures a la Kurginyan, Prokhanov and the brothers from the Izborsk club, and took literally literally all that nonsense that was circulated about a certain super-Russian nation … The problem is that what was taken as a basis now in this official concept, in the whole history there was only one time. Remember, we had a so-called Soviet community …

Now it turns out that any inhabitant of the planet Earth who has received citizenship and a passport of the Russian Federation automatically acquires a new nation for himself, and, having renounced citizenship, one can automatically lose belonging to the “unique Russian nation”.

From the point of view of the scientific definition of "nation" - this is absurd. The nation is given to us from God and has, among other things, a biological component, and not just a common language and citizenship. For example, having learned English, I do not automatically become an Englishman, just like you, having learned, for example, German, do not become a German. The same can be said for citizenship. A Turk or Russian who has received a passport of a German citizen does not become a German, he will remain a Turk or a Russian. There is more to the concept of "nation". Before United Russia, only the Bolsheviks managed to enroll everyone in a certain Soviet community, but, as time has shown, as we were Russians, Chuvash, Tatars, Chechens, Ingush and so on, we remained so. There is nothing shameful in this - it is given to us from God. Therefore, all artificial attempts to create a new artificial nation are doomed to failure.

The nation of "Russians" contradicts the historical, spiritual, cultural values and traditions of the Russian people and Russia as a whole. The nation of "Russians" contradicts Orthodox teaching. Faith teaches us that the Lord created different nations, endowed them with his land according to his providence. By God's providence, Russia was also created, where other original peoples flocked under the protection of the Russian people voluntarily (or involuntarily, but this is another question) in full preservation of their identity and originality. Accordingly, a Russian should remain Russian, a Tatar a Tatar, a Chechen a Chechen, and so on.

The concept of a political nation does not exist anywhere. It is only "United Russia" who are trying to invent it after the Bolsheviks. Yesterday I specially re-read all the dictionaries. For example, take the Oxford Dictionary, which also defines "nation." I quote: a nation is a collection of people united by a common origin, history, culture and language, inhabiting a particular state or land. As you can see, unification by origin is a biological concept. If we take other English-language dictionaries, which are taken as a basis in Europe and give a broader definition, we get the following: a nation is a community of people united by origin, common culture, tradition, history (and, as a rule, language), living scattered or within borders one country. For example, Great Britain, where the British, Irish, Scots and Welsh live. The term nation defines a group of people, and the state is a political entity. In other words, all alternative ideas about what a nation is are marginal, or hypotheses within a certain ideology. The authors of the "Russian nation" are trying to quote Gumilyov in support of their idea, but this is very controversial. On the political plane, everyone who receives a passport does become citizens, but a nation with a passport has never been anywhere. If a Russian leaves for Germany, gets a passport there, he will still remain Russian just like an Azerbaijani, having received a Russian passport, will still remain an Azerbaijani. The same can be said about representatives of any other nation.

"New Region": The stated goal of the new national doctrine is to smooth over national conflicts … Can this be achieved?

Dmitry Demushkin: The goal is really noble. I'll tell you what will happen next. They specifically announced the distant date of November 4, 2017, and now they will want to conduct a study, and then they will stigmatize everyone who is against it - nationalists, marginalists and separatists who allegedly want to destroy Russia. Then, depending on the situation, how positive or negative the reaction will be, Putin will come out and say - indeed, it is necessary to correct it.

But from a scientific standpoint, the authors of the "Russian nation" will definitely lose, because they have nothing to rely on. Who can be united by a Russian passport and citizenship? This is bullshit. Why should a Russian or a Tatar become a Russian? He is a resident of Russia, a citizen of Russia, but at the same time Russian or Tatar by origin.

If we follow the path of unification in order to unite a certain state, then we will have to come up with one religion for one nation, for example, somehow unite Orthodoxy, Buddhism, Judaism and Islam. Then you have to make some new communist religion, or build a church of Satan …

The state-forming role of the Russian people is obvious to all. From this it was necessary to start from the very beginning, and not follow the path of small concessions to small peoples, they say, they would not offend anyone. You will not offend anyone if you are strong. If the Russian people are strong and have their own national concept, on the contrary, it will unite everyone. If the Russian people are weak, there will be separatism. No matter how much money is used to extinguish the republican budgets, this cannot be done indefinitely. And, accordingly, seperatism will develop.

We must start with strengthening the Russians, and build the whole concept around the Russian people, the state-forming nation. Russia can live without any people, but not without a Russian. Without anyone else, he can. But at the same time, we need to do to preserve the integrity of the country so that centrifugal forces do not tear Russia apart. The creation of a single "Russian nation" will spur the national elites to resist. Believe me, the Tatar and other nationalists are now becoming more active, and they received tacit support from the elite, because they would not want to make something averaged out of their people in the form of the Russian nation. The Tatars have their own rich culture, they have their own religion, they have their own traditions, culture, and they have cultivated and revived all this in recent years …

Each nation has its own culture, language, identity, history … Why should we try to build the Soviet Union again !?

"New Region": Apparently, it was no coincidence that Soviet rhetoric has now returned … It turns out that we are moving back into the past, and not forward into the future?

Dmitry Demushkin: We, the nationalists, are also partly to blame, because we did not offer a broad, meaningful platform. Putin has a team of managers who are excellent at “cutting the loot”, but ideologically they turned out to be completely incapable, incapable of coming up with anything in the new liberal concept. Comrades a la Kurginyan, Prokhanov, Dugin came to Putin and said: everything is falling apart, we must follow this path of strengthening the system and a constant reminder of the great Soviet past.

I see how many employees of the presidential administration are ideologically unfit for professionalism: they understand how to make money, they are strong in the undercover struggle, but no one was engaged in ideological research - everything was let loose, extinguished periodically exploding fires. But there is no concept, it was not invented.

"New Region": One way or another, the head of state voiced the idea of new history textbooks. His words will clearly be perceived as a signal for action. The new generation can grow up exactly "as a unique Russian nation" …

Dmitry Demushkin: All dictators who came to power have always rewritten history. This has been the case at all times. Both Peter the Great and the Bolsheviks were accused of this, who believed that the whole history began with them. This, apparently, wants to be remembered and Putin …

The very goal - the integrity of Russia - is good. But with what methods they are trying to do it, every time it causes great grief. For my part, I will study this issue, gather a group of experts. I realized that even if they don't listen to us, we will still make our own concept and the authors of the “unique Russian nation” will poke their noses at their mistakes.

It's time to bring Russian nationalism into the sphere of subjectivity, when, relying on historical experience, scientific works, to show what we want to achieve and why our approach should work. Unfortunately, in the past everything was reduced to violence … Now we have to go the other way, demand a dialogue, publicly defend our positions. We have a very strong position, if we take the classics of nationalism, today's works - we have that base, and there are those people who are able to draw up a concept of Russia's national development.