Parable
Drawing: Vasya Lozhkin
All characters are fictitious, any resemblance to real people and events is purely coincidental.
Lived and was in this world Yuri Venediktovich. From a young age, he labored in the sovereign service, and dragged it to this day. Thank you for this should be a good friend of his father, who took care, where necessary, when Yuri Venediktovich graduated from the institute. The place where Yuri Venediktovich worked was quite warm and located in the capital city. There are, of course, warmer places, but Yuri Venediktovich was a modest and not stupid man and did not try to jump above his head.
I regularly received salaries and bonuses, even had departmental awards. He treated his service with due professionalism and diligence and rightly believed that he was important and useful to his state, considering himself a patriot of his Motherland. He started from the bottom and slowly grew to a good position. I must say that in his state for several decades the basic ideology was liberal democracy.
Yuri Venediktovich liked it very much, because the main idea of such an ideology was to satisfy the needs of a particular person, but serving the Fatherland was in second place. Yuri Venediktovich respected his Fatherland very much, but he also tried not to offend himself, because he was a true liberal democrat, and this is the main thing. In his service, he was not some kind of big boss, but he had a certain influence on some processes, and from time to time quite successfully monetized it. Not at the expense of service, of course.
Yuri Venediktovich loved to visit different countries with his family during his next vacation. One of them was especially sweet to him, with a warm sea and smiling people. This country was friendly, with the same excellent liberal ideology, and there were quite a lot of compatriots vacationing and living in that country. That added comfort and a sense of homeliness.
Yuri Venediktovich decided to buy an apartment in this wonderful country in order to spend most of his well-deserved rest there in his declining years. To their delight, the family was also in solidarity with him. And her beloved daughter went to study in another friendly country, successfully passing the entrance exams. Studying at her university was free for students from friendly countries.
Many acquaintances and some colleagues of Yuri Venediktovich also had real estate, accounts and other assets in countries with flourishing liberal democracies, and did not experience any dissonance with patriotic feelings. The life of Yuri Venediktovich was a success and went on knurled.
And then one day, in a moment, everything collapsed.
The country where Yury Venediktovich worked in the sovereign's service entered into an open confrontation with states that had been friendly for decades and professed the same ideology. So, at least, it seemed to Yuri Venediktovich.
And now they have become "unfriendly." It’s not that Yuri Venediktovich didn’t notice the changes that preceded this, but he couldn’t even imagine that his Motherland, with liberal democratic institutions along the entire vertical of power, would go to war with states like her. So, without announcing a new ideology, a different financial and economic model, or the next technological order. After all, everything remained the same.
Of course, something was done, but no significant results were observed. Yuri Venediktovich knew this well, because he was also a part of this system and continued to be it. And the countries that became “unfriendly” overnight, including those where Yuri Venediktovich had an apartment and his daughter studied, joined this war. They announced sanctions and began to supply weapon enemies of his country.
Very soon, Yuri Venediktovich felt these sanctions on himself. Now he could not visit his apartment, he could not even pay for the communal apartment, which immediately began to threaten with serious problems. And her beloved daughter was not extended her student visa, and she could not go to school. But Yuri Venediktovich was a patriot of his country and continued to fulfill his duties conscientiously.
He even helped with money, which was used to buy equipment and equipment for soldiers at the front. Although, in a good way, this should be done by the state for the collected taxes. Yuri Venediktovich was restless in his soul. He understood that everything that was acquired by overwork, he loses. But he was with his country and with his people.
And then one day, when Yuri Venediktovich was sitting in his favorite cafe, immersed in thoughts, a stranger sat down next to him. The stranger, it turns out, knew the name of Yuri Venediktovich, where he works and everything about his family. The stranger knew about Yuri Venediktovich's apartment in a warm country and about a small bank account in another hot country.
He showed Yuri Venediktovich a piece of paper with the address of this apartment and the cadastral number. He showed another piece of paper with a current balance in a bank account in another warm country. The stranger also told about his student daughter, complaining about the forced suspension of his studies. The stranger spoke in detail about how Yuri Venediktovich managed to earn money for all this.
About the influence of Yuri Venediktovich on certain processes in the state machine, and how he used it to his advantage. Yury Venediktovich understood that he was being recruited. He did not listen to the stranger to the end, but announced to him a categorical refusal. Yuri Venediktovich did not see himself as a traitor to the Motherland in any form. Although it was hard and bitter for him for the lost property.
The stranger did not leave after a sharp refusal, but smiled. And this smile made Yuri Venediktovich feel bad. I deeply respect your position as a patriot of your Motherland, said the stranger. I am not suggesting that you betray her. We have been watching you for a long time (since the moment you bought an apartment in one of our countries) and we sympathize with the fact that your liberal-democratic values, consonant with us, are so cruelly violated.
Democracy in your country is still too young, and many of your people do not understand that a person should stand above the State, and not vice versa. You cannot influence the decisions of the state in any way, regardless of what it brings to your people (the stranger kept silent about the influence of the people on decisions in more mature democracies).
The most important thing is that you are not betraying the country, but the state is betraying you, taking away the liberal-democratic idea and everything that it personally brought you, turning everything upside down. And giving nothing in return.
The state took away your ideology, but offered nothing in return. You need to separate the motherland from the state. If the state loses this war, the Motherland will remain. You will keep your assets abroad and even multiply thanks to us. You don't have to give up your liberal democratic ideology. If you refuse, you will lose everything; if you agree, save and multiply.
We are interested in people like you. With influence and money. With the same ideology as ours. There have been many such people among you over the years. We do not need those who could not achieve this, they will just bear the brunt of the war and defeat. Don't be among them.
The stranger was silent. Yuri Venediktovich had hammers in his temples. He was nauseous, and his limbs became cottony. The stranger stood up and said - we will contact you.
Yuri Venediktovich looked after the departing stranger, experiencing a feeling of deepest horror from the choice that had come over him.
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