The need to transform Russian society
The formation of modern Russian society took place from the beginning of the 90s against the backdrop of the collapse of the Union, the dominance of the imposed ideology of liberalism and robbery through the privatization of the huge Soviet heritage. All this led to the loss of Soviet ideals and laid the foundation for the formation of a class society.
Natural questions arise: what kind of society was built in Russia and what purpose does it pursue?
Destructive processes of the 90s
In the 90s, instead of the destroyed socialist system, predatory capitalism with a right-wing liberal ideology was formed.
Power was seized by the repainted Soviet nomenklatura, which quickly grew into a comprador big bourgeoisie and contributed to the formation of the petty bourgeoisie in small ways.
Its main task was the destruction of the economic, political and social foundations of socialism, the introduction of private property at all levels and the imposition of liberal values on society with the priority of individualism and an exaggerated incentive for consumerism.
In addition, the task of depriving Russia of sovereignty, surrendering national interests, embedding into Western civilization as a vassal and transferring the powers of government to supranational structures and transnational corporations was solved.
It is well known that no political doctrine can arise and develop in a society if it does not express the interests and aspirations of certain social classes and strata. So in the late USSR, the liberal ideology found serious support in society, since many were seduced by the thrown idea of getting rich quick, and the nomenklatura rapidly converted its power into capital.
The new government, having established control over the information and psychological sphere, took control of the social behavior of people and began to impose perverted values, images and needs on society, and the establishment by the ruling class of control over the economy and law enforcement agencies deprived society of the opportunity to resist the impending catastrophe.
The ideology of the ruling class was bound to become the dominant ideology in the state, and this happened very quickly. The vast majority of the population thoughtlessly rushed to "get rich", destroying the basis of their well-being. The ruling class, in turn, treated the Russian state not as a form of organizing a decent life for people, but as a commercial project aimed at maximizing profits.
“Shock therapy” sobered many, the overwhelming majority simply became impoverished, and those close to power became inexpressibly rich. By the end of the 90s, the society began to see clearly and saw the depravity of the imposed social order.
An attempt by the new government to force everyone to look at the world through the prism of liberal values and forget the Russian civilizational code has failed.
The majority of Russian society did not accept Western liberalism, which was alien to it, rejected the right-wing liberal ideology and was ready to overthrow the hated government.
Political maneuvers of the Russian authorities
Seeing this, the ruling class, in order to avoid losing power, tried to change the paradigm by promoting a new team headed by Putin to the political Olympus, which has already begun to introduce and implement the ideology of liberal conservatism based on defending state national interests, strengthening the role of the state, forming not a comprador, but national bourgeoisie and the revival of state corporations with the possible participation of private and foreign capital.
At the same time, liberal values were not questioned and the compradors were not removed from power, they were simply pushed aside, leaving behind them a financial and economic bloc under pressure from the West.
Such state policy led to a compromise in the 2000s in the Russian political class between two liberal elite groups - pro-Western right-liberal compradors and liberal-conservative "statists".
The statesmen cannot completely get rid of the compradors, this is fraught with an intra-elite conflict that can bring down their power, besides, due to Russia’s serious economic dependence on the West, it cannot allow its proteges to be easily removed from power, who also have some support in society.
In connection with the contradictions in the ruling class, the likelihood of its split and the possibility of conspiracies and coups that can destabilize the situation in the country is growing. It is impossible to reformat the Russian political system without removing from power people who embody the right-liberal social order.
In addition to intra-elite contradictions, contradictions between elites and society are also aggravated, the political system has exhausted itself and has become a brake on the development of the state, it has been frozen and stagnant for more than ten years.
Without reformatting the system and reassessing the fundamental values among the elite and society, the existing contradictions cannot be overcome.
The ruling class does not put forward any new ideas for the development of the state and society, and the country continues to go with the flow under the sails of liberalism despised by the population.
All parliamentary parties enjoy negligible prestige in society and cannot be the locomotive of change. None of them can offer a national idea that unites society, capable of forming a single political, economic and ideological semantic field.
The country today is ruled not by parties, parliament and government, but by deep power in the person of Politburo-2.0, the structure and composition of which have been analyzed in detail by Minchenko Consulting.
Perhaps this is not so bad, at critical moments in the development of the state there should be a single decision-making center, as in republican Rome a dictator was elected for this, and when the situation stabilized, his powers were taken away.
Only this center is absolutely isolated from society today, and how much society influences decision-making and in whose interests they are made can only be assumed.
Necessary basis for the transformation of society
For the successful transformation of Russian society and the reformatting of the political system, it is necessary, first of all, to understand what today's Russian society is like and what is the interest of its constituent classes and estates.
The social structure of society has a complex nature, the classical opposition of classes (according to Marx - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat) today in Russia is not even close, there is no proletariat itself - the social base of the left protest movement.
The monopoly on power and property is the ruling class, represented by the big bourgeoisie in alliance with part of the intellectual aristocracy, the upper middle class, the highest officials and the highest command staff of law enforcement agencies.
The most massive in Russia is the layer of hired workers, the so-called "new proletariat", which includes workers, student youth, the left-wing part of the intelligentsia, the lower and middle parts of the middle class, office workers, law enforcement officers and the petty and middle bourgeoisie adjacent to them.
It should also be noted that a significant part of society has become small proprietors and is imbued with a petty-bourgeois worldview.
Irreconcilable contradictions have developed between the ruling class and the “new proletariat”, which cannot be resolved within the framework of the established political system, since their interests are diametrically opposed.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that in society there is a demand for changes that are artificially hampered, and few people are satisfied with this.
The blatant stratification of the population, the lordly habits of the ruling class, the bureaucracy of state and local officials, the lack of transparency in personnel appointments, corruption and the limited social mobility cause long-accumulating irritation in society, which may one day spill over into mass protests.
Everything will depend on who will be the first to intercept this process by slipping their program and their values on the masses.
Within the framework of such a complex Russian society, the transition from the liberal-conservative model to the “left turn” is a utopia; there is neither a social base nor driving forces for this. The class instinct of the liberals and the big bourgeoisie will never allow this. And it is not just that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is losing authority and influence, it does not have mass support in society, its base is old people and leftists. Without the support of the authorities, it would have gone into oblivion long ago.
From the liberal-conservative model of Russia, the path must go through the national liberation struggle from the economic and ideological influence of the West to the transitional right-wing conservative social model, taking into account the interests of the national bourgeoisie and other sections of society, with an unconditional strengthening of the role of the state, and only then can we talk about a possible left turn .
With the preservation of today's liberal-conservative model, the country will face the class dictatorship of the big bourgeoisie with all its "charms".
Reformatting the system is possible only if there is a critical mass of the population and a political vanguard with the appropriate motivation, interests and values. That is, for this it is necessary: the national idea that has taken possession of the masses, the social base and the driving forces of transformations.
The social base in today's Russian society can only be the most massive and heterogeneous layer of hired workers and their allies in the face of the petty and middle bourgeoisie. Their interests and views diverge quite seriously, and it is not so easy to work out a unifying political platform.
The driving force should be a political movement, which does not exist and has yet to be created.
This path presupposes revolutionary transformations from below with rather vague prospects and results.
Strange as it may seem, a part of the patriotic elite, which decided to lead the national liberation movement from the dictatorship of the West towards the left-conservative model of society, can also become the driving force.
This way of revolutionary transformations from above is more viable, since the state is in the hands of such a powerful instrument of transformations, and its use will be decisive in many respects.
In this regard, the pressure on the patriotic elite should only intensify in order to stimulate the transition processes to more unifying actions.
To implement the transformations according to the first and second options, a coalition of political forces is needed, united by a common goal on the basis of a political platform capable of capturing and expressing the urgent moods in society. These forces will have to intercept the agenda from the authorities and form their own.
The most problematic task is the formation of an image of the future, for the sake of which the elite, employees and part of the national bourgeoisie will be ready to unite.
With all the existing contradictions between them, the task of ensuring a high level and quality of life in society is unlikely to cause serious disagreements. But for a Russian person this is not enough, he has one more indisputable traditional value - sovereignty, characterized by the desire for independence, self-sufficiency and originality, providing the people with life according to their own laws, and not imposed from outside.
A Russian person is by nature passionate and competitive, and he is unlikely to allow himself to be an apprentice to the liberal West, which looks at Russia as its periphery, it is not in its rules.
The idea of protecting the sovereignty of the Fatherland from the encroachments of foreigners has always united Russians, and now, when the West has declared a war of annihilation on us for our disobedience, this will even more stimulate the process of unity of society.
All this suggests that in Russian society there is a social basis for its reformatting, so far there are no driving forces, but on the wave of demand for changes, they will inevitably form. There is no main thing - the idea of a competitive model of society that unites everyone, and the main task of Russian intellectuals is to formulate it and introduce it to the masses.
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