Glory vs Degradation: How Russia Runs Wild and Why Ukraine Opposes The Obsolete World
The unprecedented humanitarian shock that the whole civilized world is in today due to the war in Ukraine prevents realizing the causes and prerequisites that have driven Russia towards falling in a tailspin. Many wonder how it is even possible that a nuclear power chooses a fairly barbaric way of refusing all accomplishments of civilization in the 21st century.
Nonetheless, explanations for such insane behavior of Russia can be found when addressing the situation from the angle of post-soviet mentality. Western analysts are incapable of doing it per se: insights from the very gut are needed. Let’s investigate the issue with the experience of metaphysical Ukraine that is appearing from the ruins of the bombed-out cities where descendants of free Cossacks keep grinding Russian orcs into ash.
USSR 2.0: self-deception of selfless millions
The concept of USSR 2.0 can be a surprise for both common citizens and highbrow intellectuals beyond the post-soviet terrains. The concept was created by disparate groups of elderly Russian intellectuals to represent a glorified myth about the Soviet empire to the young people. The modern Russian youth takes the myth for granted since they have neither intellectual power nor civil courage to make unbiased fact-checking.
The attempt to restore the USSR lies in the background of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. You may argue that Ukrainians also belong to the pot-soviet mentality and, therefore, have to share the USSR 2.0 concept. This is the very mistake that Putin and Co. have made when thinking that way. Such wishful thinking becomes graspable if social images of modern Russians and Ukrainians are compared.
1. Russians
In general, the two unequal groups constitute Russians younger than 40: the so-called “creacls” (creative class) and all the rest. The “creacls” are those who have appeared able to embed themselves in the western-style market relations even while living in Russia: IT specs, bloggers, students, merchants, progressive journalists, etc. In short, those who share the values of the Western civilization. They have been visiting Europe and America to see the difference between the western lifestyle and what modern Russia offers to common people. The “creacls” are the sheer minority, unfortunately. And they are immune to such retrograde ideas as the USSR 2.0
Another social strata (all the rest) is the very silent majority that is suppressed by the grim reality of Russian routines: endemic alcoholism due to the total absence of social mobility along with poor living standards, clock-around brainwashing via federal TV with tons of fake narratives about military achievements and greatness of Russia, and permanent sense of their own worthlessness in the light of numerous broadcasted images of oligarchs and celebrities.
They are nurtured in bipolar disorder: servile subordination to extremely corrupt powers-that-be (beginning from a cop in the street and up to Putin) on the one hand, and pride in the great historical deeds accomplished by their forefathers, on the other hand. Such a split personality is always sick. It strips young Russians of their will for critical thinking. They have to believe their parents who repeatedly deliver nostalgic tales about happy life in the USSR while being unable to explain why the Soviet Union has collapsed.
Those people with unhappy consciences have to accept an inverted worldview just to harmonize their personalities with the surrounding reality. They have to recognize Putin as a reincarnation of Josef Stalin (not a bloody tyrant, but a successful manager) instead of seeing him as a meta-oligarch with a bruised ego who is cosplaying Hitler in every little thing.
They subconsciously realize that Russia can never reach the Western life standards, not to mention surpassing Europe or USA, since the vast majority of the Russian population think and behave like slaves. They are incapable of building anything significant. And such a sense of lameness makes them open to the mythical USSR 2.0 where they can become great again. What grants greatness? Equality does. They seek equality even if it means spending the rest of their lives in absolute poverty.
But the USSR 2.0 cannot be built, it can be conquered only. Independent countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and other former USSR republics must be either forcibly annexed (like Crimea officially and Belarus factually) or destroyed. Victims don’t matter when it comes to a wet dream. Nobody from the “cowardly West” can oppose the “most powerful army”. Besides, all those Ukrainians, Georgians, Moldovans would certainly love to see themselves in the “family of fraternal nations” again. Hence, it is not a big deal to “free” Kyiv in 72 hours, right?
2. Ukrainians
There are several rational reasons why Ukrainians do not accept the USSR 2.0 concept. Ukrainians also seek equality in terms of social justice. They hate local oligarchs who have grabbed the lion’s share of the national wealth. But in contrast to the Russian population, Ukrainians see the western order of life with their own eyes. Even when economic deprivation and unemployment force them to leave Ukraine for Poland and other European countries as guest workers.
Another distinctive quality of Ukrainians is the entrepreneurial spirit that allows them to stay quite independent from the state government. They simply ignore the total corruption of state machinery when building their small enterprises wherever possible. Common Ukrainians never hesitate to corrupt state bureaucrats themselves if it helps them run their businesses. They take the rules of the game having no hope for changing the current oligarchic order. They are self-sustained while setting up their life without waiting for a “good king” who can come and shower common people with social benefits.
However, Ukrainians make revolutions when the chutzpah of the central government breaks the limits of people’s tolerance. They remain politically alert. In contrast to Russians with their immovable Putinism, Ukrainians have changed five (!) presidents since 1998. This is a special anti-tsar mentality inherent in Ukrainians historically. The genes of free Cossacks are still alive in Ukrainian blood. And this is what boggles the mind of Russians whose blood still contains a sheer fraction of the serfs’ genome, figuratively speaking. Hence, nothing can encourage Ukrainians to go back to the USSR.
3. The bluff of USSR 2.0
The concept of USSR 2.0 is based on false premises. Modern Russia can never replicate the Soviet Union from a structural perspective. Isolationism does not necessarily mean a reversion to Soviet-style governing. The very backbone of the USSR was a communist doctrine that determined all social and economic relationships. The planned economy along with formal social equality were the pillars of the Soviet regime.
Since 1922, the Soviet government has been building an isolated self-sufficient economy that fits a besieged fortress. Millions of victims, total poverty, and decades of the East-West confrontation were the price paid for the communist empire. But everything was over in 1991. A quasi-capitalist oligarchy has emerged since then. The question is whether Russians are really ready to pay such a price again. Highly unlikely. Even if so, how can that powerless silent majority make oligarchs share their stolen loot?
Decades of the so-called collectivization and industrialization are needed to transform the existing Russian economy into a soviet one. Dozens of millions of peasants and workers were building the USSR under the command of selfless communists.
Hardly we can find either millions of peasants or communistic good-doers in modern Russia. The virus of laxity has long affected the entire Russian society. And an absolutely authoritarian president sitting on the throne for a couple of decades is the best illustration of this.
The USSR 2.0 concept is a pure bluff that has been deliberately introduced to the half-drunk reckless population of Russia by the Kremlin court philosophers such as Alexandr Dougin, for example, who live in a parallel universe of their nostalgic pipe dreams and mental masturbation. Only sturdy vagabonds can create and glorify such miserable anachronism as the USSR 2.0. And it’s no surprise that the concept has crashed into the civilizational sobriety of Ukrainians.
Army-as-menagerie: Z-ombies, V-ampires, and other cardboard orcs
The actual state of a particular society becomes clear when we see how a society treats its army. Despite a widely broadcasted myth about the “invincible Russian army” real warfare demonstrates that Russian troops have deep internal troubles. The first signals that something wrong was happening with the Russian army appeared during the Crimea annexation in 2014.
The so-called “little green humans” without State military symbols invaded Crimea back then. Those were Russian soldiers whose presence in both Crimea and Donbas was rejected by Russian officials.
The same situation is observed during the current invasion: instead of Russian troops, we see unidentified military units marked with weird symbols. Hardly anyone can explain what those symbols really mean: Z (zombies?), V (vampires?), O (orcs?), etc. Russia is trying to represent its army as a sort of menagerie. The lives of those soldiers mean nothing for Putin and Co. Since the war has not been officially declared, no international rules on POWs can be applied to those Z-ombies and V-ampires.
There is no greater humiliation of the army than this. As if Putin says: we don’t care how much Russian cannon fodder can be killed to fertilize rich Ukrainian soil. The current situation at the Ukrainian front proves such an attitude: thousands of killed Russian soldiers are left unburied in Ukrainian fields.
Moreover, the Russian defense ministry was refusing to accept battle casualties at all until recently. Meanwhile, approximate military casualties reach 1000 soldiers per day. After about two weeks of the invasion, the Russian army lost as many people as the Soviet army lost during 10 years of war in Afghanistan (1979–1989).
Not just NATO management but the whole world was astonished to see such a wretched state of Russian military hardware not to mention soldiers’ appearance. Tanks from the 1970s and unwashed urchins with field rations expired in 2015. Is that a notorious highly modernized Russian army? Unbelievable. How is it possible at all after years and years of Russian military propaganda?
The answer is clear for the post-soviet people who know how things are done in oligarchy states: all the army investments were simply stolen by officers and soldiers at each level of the military hierarchy. The system is overly corrupt. Russian “warriors” have drunk everything away. Vodka and “easy money” are the values that outweigh any patriotic pathos.
The deep reason for it is the low socio-cultural status of the Russian people and the unlimited greed of Russian bureaucrats including military officers. Deciliters of vodka drunk by soldiers and luxury villas of Russian generals have absorbed all the budget of Russian army modernization. Everyone knows about such a situation but hardly anyone cares: the master-servant relationships do not imply any statist mindset in autocracy.
Some may suppose that only totally rotten Russian elites treat the population and army in such a horrible manner. Naive assumption. Common Russians act the same. One of the typical YouTube videos of these days demonstrates a young Russian POW who talks to his mother asking to take him away from Ukraine (this is the official condition for all captured Russian soldiers to leave Ukraine: only their mothers personally may come and take them). But his mother answers that nothing is in it for her: “It wasn’t me who sent you to Ukraine”. The video is called “The Russian mother of the year”.
Human attitude towards sons is different. Even animals treat their cubs with greater love. Nothing similar could be imagined in Hitler’s Germany: the army was beloved by both the fascist elites and common Germans.
Moral degradation of Russian society is unprecedented. There is nothing human left in Russians if they are equally indifferent to both killed Ukrainian civilians and Russian soldiers. It looks like elder orcs are coldly watching how younger orcs are going to hell for nothing. The “army-as-menagerie” attitude reveals a lot about the regime that Russians would like to establish in Ukraine if they win. But they won’t.
Fake antiglobalization of fake Putin
Various conspiracy theories tell that Putin has several doppelgängers. This is a common practice for authoritarian leaders actually. But some theorists claim that real Putin has been killed long ago and we see his doppelgängers only. Numerous arguments in favor of this theory are available.
The most convincing ones are not about Putin’s appearance that has changed dramatically, by the way. They are about different behavioral patterns that cannot be changed. For example, if you have learned how to ride a bike, you can never undo this anytime later.
Just look at how Putin rides a horse on this video made a couple of years ago. This person is not a horseman at all, he knows nothing about riding, he cannot even get onto the horse properly. Compare this video with the series of photos that were taken much earlier: you can see another Putin, who is obviously a more or less experienced rider. You cannot forget how to ride a horse once you have learned it, right? Hence, the question is: which of those two Putins is real? It wouldn’t be too weird if the right answer is “none”.
The 20-meter long table, at which Putin talks to his generals, hints at some special measures that have been made to keep everyone far enough from Putin. Why? Probably to prevent people who are familiar with real Putin from noticing those little details in which the devil is, as we know.
Anyhow, it is wiser to consider Putin as a project, not as a person. The project of fake antiglobalization that was created by Schwab, Biden, and other ultra globalists. The so-called Putin was ordered to continuously deliver antiglobalization rhetoric to form a specific image of an evil anti-globalist autocrat who was opposing “good” democratic globalists. Such a contrast was aimed at convincing the global population that globalist approaches such as COVID-induced violation of civil rights, total rejection of privacy, and governmental oppression were favorable to people.
Putin was successfully completing his task while establishing the true COVID terror inside Russia. The final goal of such a globalist plan implied depriving people all over the world of their last will to resist. And a fast victorious invasion of Ukraine should be the final straw in turning the global population into a submissive and abject mass. Klaus Schwab was the one who pushed Putin towards the war. But something went wrong.
Now we can say with total confidence that the Schwab-Biden-Putin mission failed. Ukraine is showing unprecedented heroism and courage that has made the entire population of Europe and America reconsider their existential status. Europeans and Americans see how to behave otherwise, how to oppose the cruelest tyrant with an army of orcs. This is why both Biden and Schwab were kept silent for three days after the invasion started. And COVID has disappeared from the global agenda not for nothing, therefore.
Today, Biden and Schwab are pretending intensively that they have nothing in common with both Putin and the recent COVID tyranny. The situation has changed and they follow the famous principle “can’t beat them, join them”. Their task is to put all the blame on Putin. But they hardly understand what to do with globalization when fake Putin is over. And there isn’t long to wait now.
Metaphysical Ukraine against the old world
It is still tough to say what will be the last nail in the coffin of Putin no matter if he is a person or a project. The unprecedentedly severe economic sanctions won’t lead to a popular uprising against Putinism in Russia. The spirit of Russians is exhausted to resist millions of inhumane cops who never hesitate to kick women in the belly. Besides, the majority of Russians used to live in poverty, which is hardly a sufficient reason to overthrow the “great Putin”.
In contrast, the inner circle of state officials and oligarchs may have a strong desire to finish Fuhrer while watching how their looted billions are turning into thin air. But desire does not necessarily imply an ability to act: all of them are too cowardly to risk.
The only chance to ruin Putinism is to support Ukrainians in their unequal battle with Russian orcs. Ukraine has already obtained its metaphysical status of the eternal hero. The true spirit of freedom exempts Ukraine from physical limitations. Even if Russian orcs invade the whole territory of Ukraine, the resistance will never be destroyed. A guerilla war will go on until the last Ukrainian standing. Moreover, this is the war for generations: infant Ukrainians will be growing with hate in heart against Russia and everything that reflects the Russian way of life.
“Carthago delenda est” has now become the ultimate raison d’être for millions of Ukrainians who understand it as “Russia must be destroyed”. In such a context, “Russia” means not just the Russian Federation but the old rotten world order that still remains tolerant to dehumanizing ideologies and genocidal political practices. The most illustrative representatives of the obsolete world are NATO and the UN: the first is too irresolute to close the sky above Ukraine, the latter is practically useless to do anything except express concerns while Ukrainian children are dying from Russian bombs.
Hence, metaphysical Ukraine is standing against the whole world, like it or leave it. Ukrainians have no other civilizational choice since all other countries passively tolerate the empire of orcs. What a great mission to oppose the entire world order, what a glory!
