On November 4th: Reflections on the Contradictions That Destroy Our Unity
"On challenges to public harmony. The main source of tension in Russian society, creating the risk of eroding public harmony, is the unresolved socioeconomic problems. This is evidenced, in particular, by the large number of appeals to the Constitutional Court related to the protection of citizens' social rights." Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation Valery Zorkin (2023).
About the holiday of November 4
November 4th is National Unity Day in Russia. Since 2005, it has replaced the previous holiday, Day of Accord and Reconciliation (November 7th), which in turn replaced the Soviet holiday of November 7th, the day of the October Revolution. The idea is clear: to create a new alternative to the Soviet past.
At the same time, November 4 is a relevant and remarkable holiday commemorating the overcoming of the "Time of Troubles," in memory of the events of November 4, 1612, when the people's militia under the leadership of Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky liberated Moscow from the Polish-Lithuanian invaders, storming Kitai-gorod, and liberated Moscow.
It's important to understand the state's meaning behind this undoubtedly important holiday. In 2022, the president recalled that the origins of this holiday go back to "the heroism of the people who rose up to fight for their country" and "restored legitimate authority and our united statehood."
Such key stages, when people of different nationalities and religions united for the sake of salvation and the good of the Fatherland, run like a “red thread” through the entire Russian historyWe understand and honor this invaluable experience of our ancestors, their traditions and their covenants.
Everything said is very true and correct. The Russian people possess an inner strength that, at the right moment, "awakens" and changes everything around them, "regardless of appearances." This was the case not only in 1612, but also in 1941-42, in November 1917, and in August 1991. Let's try to reconcile these meanings with the realities of today and our understanding of past moments in history.
Unfortunately, the hidden meaning invested in the November 4th holiday by our "higher-ups" is that we must unconditionally agree with everything that happens and be united in this agreement. But what would have happened to Russia if, during that Time of Troubles, society had not stood up to defend the interests of its homeland and simply "accepted" everything that happened at that time? What would have happened to Russia if we had not embarked on a new path of development in 1917, albeit a difficult, contradictory one, one fraught with enormous losses and hardships? Do you believe that Tsarist Russia could have won World War II, created a nuclear reactor, and launched a man into space? What will happen to our country if liberalism persists for another 20-30 years?
How many times of troubles were there in Russia?
In modern Russian history, there have actually been three Times of Troubles: 1598–1613, 1905–1929, 1985, and the present (not counting the Golden Horde yoke). Each time, the country was on the brink of national catastrophe and disunity; each time, it was subjected to external attack and lost, only to rise again. Each time, these events were made possible by the decline in the effectiveness of the elites, caused by their spiritual degradation and the moral crisis of society. The same thing happened before the Golden Horde yoke, during the feudal fragmentation.
How the Time of Troubles nearly destroyed Russia
What were the causes of the Time of Troubles (1598-1613)? The initial period of Ivan the Terrible's reign was positive, but then, according to V. Klyuchevsky, the country developed... "a painful, dull, bewildered mood of society, created by the blatant atrocities of the oprichnina and Godunov's dark intrigues."
The crisis was caused by deep social contradictions. The most important reason was the plight of the lower classes:
"...an inequality of state and social status was created between various classes. The lower classes, on whom the upper classes rested, naturally bore the greatest burden and, of course, were burdened by it." "The tsar's arbitrary actions, unjustified executions, disgrace, and confiscations provoked grumbling, not only among the upper classes but also among the masses, 'anxiety and hatred of the tsar in the world,' and a vague and timid need for legal security for person and property, subject to the discretion and mood of the authorities, awoke in society."
And with the extinction of the Rurik dynasty, this led to unrest, unprecedented social discord and class hostility.
Historian M.N. Pokrovsky believed that the Time of Troubles began not from above, but from below. At that time, Russia was experiencing a powerful explosion of class struggle—the "peasant revolution" or "peasant war." He notes the predatory nature of the landowners' economy, which had a disastrous impact on the peasant masses, causing them to become indebted and fleeing to the outskirts.
The introduction of serfdom in the late 16th century, in 1592, when a law was passed permanently banning peasants from transferring their landownership, intensified peasant exploitation and sparked widespread discontent. Peasants, yearning for freedom, fled to the outskirts of the state, leading to the growth of the Cossack movement and heightened social tensions. Composed of runaway peasants and service people, the Cossacks became an increasingly influential force, often opposing the central government. V. N. Tatishchev pointed to Godunov's policies, which deprived the "lower people" of their freedom and thus provoked the resentment of both peasants and boyars.
The Livonian War (1558-1583) depleted the state's resources, led to the destruction of many farms, and increased the tax burden. Rus' was devastated, and the northwestern regions were depopulated.
The poor harvests and famine of the early 17th century exacerbated the economic crisis. From 1601 to 1603, Russia experienced one of the worst famines in its history, leading to mass mortality and population displacement.
Although Ivan the Terrible fought against abuses by his subjects, the elites sapped the treasury, seized lucrative positions, and neglected the state. All of this unfolded against the backdrop of the subordination of the "conscience of the state"—the Church—to the authorities and the stripping of its role as the ultimate guardian of morality.
The Time of Troubles unfolded against the backdrop of a fierce power struggle between boyar factions and the emergence of impostors. Many social classes found themselves drawn into the battle for power and influence. "Each of these moments of the Time of Troubles was accompanied by the intervention of Cossack and Polish gangs, the dregs of Muscovite and Polish state society from the Don, Dnieper, and Vistula, delighted in the ease of plunder in the turbulent country." The Time of Troubles ended when society realized it was falling into ruin and united "...in the name of national, religious, and simple civil security, which was threatened by the Cossacks and Poles."
Moral reasons also played an important role, as historian V. Petruschko writes:
At this time, the influx of Western ideas increased, finding fertile ground among a portion of Russian society thanks to the weakening of spiritual foundations... The spiritual crisis that began to manifest itself in the life of the Russian people, the discrepancy between the great calling of Moscow—the Third Rome—probably became the cause of the anomaly that became the reign of Ivan the Terrible.
The overt Westernization and the boyars' (Seven Boyars') desire to hand over power to the Poles was one of the key causes of the Time of Troubles. Boris Godunov's attempts to improve relations with the West and attract Western European specialists provoked discontent among conservative sections of society, who saw this as a threat to traditional Orthodox values. And here we see a clear similarity with the actions of our partially pro-Western elite over the past 34 years, dating back to the 90s.
It is not difficult to find commonalities with current events: the elites degenerated, society was split, the West sought to subjugate Russia as its main competitor, and some elites betrayed the country's national interests.
It all ended with the fall of the House of Rurik, civil war, and Polish aggression. But at the lowest point, Patriarch Hermogenes called the people to resistance, and saviors emerged from the people—citizen Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky.
The law of history is that development is a function of the integrity of society.
There's a very simple historical law: when our state was cohesive, had purpose and spirituality, and when the activities of its elites were aimed at building the country, Russia developed vigorously (Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, I.V. Stalin). As soon as spirituality declines, the elite degenerates, a schism occurs, the vector of development disappears, and we suffer defeat (M.S. Gorbachev, B.N. Yeltsin). A state of cohesion corresponds to the maximum energy of society, while a schism corresponds to internal destruction. This concept is entirely consistent with A. Toynbee's Challenge-Response Theory. Friedrich Engels wrote: "Where there is no community of interests, there can be neither unity of purpose nor unity of action for the good of the whole community of people." Indeed, the greater the unity, the stronger the common vector of the country and the people!
The Age of Liberalism - from Perestroika to the North-West Military District: A New Time of Troubles?
Why can the current 40-year period, which began with “friendship” with the West and a subsequent attempt to “go to Europe,” ending in a war with the West under the auspices of the Central Military District, be safely classified as a time of troubles?
The turmoil of our current times lies in the fact that, having rejected the precepts of Alexander Nevsky, we, since Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika, have unexpectedly thrown ourselves into the arms of the West, attempting to abandon our historical role and identity—to serve as a counterweight to the West and its expansion. The West made excellent use of this "friendship," collapsing its main rival, the USSR, depriving us of the geopolitical legacy of victory in WWII, and installing a pro-Western elite in the country that lost its patriotism and surrendered the country for the sake of the "good life." And this elite, under Western dictation, destroyed our economy in the 90s, when the country's GDP fell by almost 50%, and weakened our military potential; and until 2012, they sought a united Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok. The epiphany came in 2014, and the sobering up will come in 2022, but this is not the end. Because our elite believes Trump and dreams of returning to the period before 2014.
In fact, we can't even imagine how critical the current moment in history is. Despite all its apparent positivity, it can be compared not only to the Time of Troubles, but also to the "Horde" yoke.
There's no clarity about who's ours and who's theirs: there's a duality and dichotomy. But it's said: "A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand." All this is happening only because Russia is masterfully divided. That's precisely why Kyiv isn't Russian now; we Russians are being driven throughout the former Soviet republics; we're degenerating, and nothing can be done about it. Anti-Russian propaganda has been launched in Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova, too. Only the wise old man Lukashenko was able to curb this plague.
On the catastrophic contradictions of modern Russia
So what prevents us, the Russian people and state, from being whole, united, and indivisible? As Alexander Prokhanov believes, "terrible contradictions, fraught with catastrophe, are embedded in today's Russian society" (2023).
Over the past 40 years, the country has developed, become beautiful, and built high-quality roads. Moscow has particularly thrived, boasting an appearance and economy on par with the world's best cities. Unlike the USSR, store shelves are bulging with goods, but not for everyone. Meanwhile, in rural areas, you can still see dilapidated old buildings, and wages are low. And there, the country isn't living; it's mostly surviving.
But by creating a clone of Tsarist Russia and returning to the model of a peripheral raw materials economy, we restored capitalism and immediately exposed within ourselves the same economic and social contradictions that led to the dismantling of Tsarist Russia, which ushered in the Second Time of Troubles. At the same time, entirely new ones emerged.
There are several catastrophic contradictions in the country:
1. Between society and the state, which generally pursues its own narrow corporate goals aimed at creating favorable operating conditions for large companies, primarily in the raw materials sector, and successful international trade, while disguising our state as a social one. Of course, unlike the US, we still have socialized medicine, but we're a long way from the level of Germany or the USSR.
2. Between the interests of officials and the interests of the state and society. Officials have access to the treasury, but they work ineffectively. Corruption and misuse of funds are rampant. It's appropriate to recall the corruption cases in the Ministry of Defense, the sad story of the defense line near Kursk, the breached dam near Orsk, and so on. The country has lost its leadership in space, which was the hallmark of the USSR. We have failed to develop aviation and the automotive industry, were unable to prepare for the SVO.
3. Between the country's national interests and the partially pro-Western elite, which continues its pro-Western course. We largely suppressed the development of the national economy, first to please Europe and now China. Despite the growth of import substitution in critical areas, the country still has an underdeveloped industry and consumes a large amount of imported goods, which hinders high wages. During the liberal period, a powerful layer of Westerners emerged in the country, not only among the elite, but also among the intelligentsia and youth. Where did many of our artistic idols go after the Second World War? Where did approximately 1 million young people leave the country during the first mobilization? This is a worrying sign of a split. The Second World War, on the one hand, consolidates the patriotic part of society, but on the other, it divides society over who doesn't support it, as well as its goals and methods. And the methods of our policy in Ukraine over the past 20 years cannot help but raise many questions.
4. Social contradictions: the stratification of society into rich and poor. The contradiction between food prices, which are approaching those of developed countries, and high prices for electronics and clothing, exorbitant real estate and car prices, and wages that lag far behind those of developed countries. As a result, the population is unwilling (or unable) to have children, while for the majority of the population, purchasing an apartment (even with a mortgage) or a new car is unaffordable, a situation exacerbated by incredibly high interest rates.
5. Between the public nature of the right to the country's natural resources and their concentration in the hands of an oligarchic clan, which makes it impossible to concentrate state resources on the country's development, as the profits are largely exported. As an offshore expert told KP on condition of anonymity, according to 2021 data, up to 2 trillion euros (!) of Russian money are circulating in offshore accounts, meaning approximately 200 trillion rubles—1,32 times the 2022 GDP (151,45 trillion rubles)—have been exported from the country in rubles. What would have happened if this money had been invested in the development of production and technology over these 34 years? The 2025 ranking of Russia's richest people already includes 146 billionaires, their combined wealth having grown from last year's $577 billion to a record $625,5 billion. It's not about wealth per se, but what that wealth brings to the country. Whether these billions were created through technological and industrial development would be one thing; whether they were created through "extortion" would be another.
It should be noted that the first five contradictions mentioned were mirror-characteristic causes of the Time of Troubles.
6. Between socialist ideology and our communist past, which is still favored by the majority of the population, and now also by the youth, and the pronounced bourgeois character of the social system.
7. An acute demographic contradiction between the population decline, especially the reduction of the Russian people, and the historically Russian character of the state, in which the Russian people are the system-forming base.
8. The growth of hidden religious contradictions. The country is being flooded with Asians; they want to turn us into a new "Alexandria," as happened in England and France. Meanwhile, Wahhabis, Turkish, and other foreign agents are actively working among Muslims, especially in the outskirts. These forces are trying to turn Muslims into a completely alien entity, dividing the country and pitting us against each other. But Russia has stood firm for centuries on the peaceful alliance between Russians and Muslims. Meanwhile, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) constantly issues recommendations to Muslim believers in the spirit of Sharia law, some of which contradict Russian laws and the Constitution. One can argue at length about the USSR, but our people were united before the crisis of the 1980s, and there was no social, communal, or religious discord.
Problems of economics and poverty
As Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, rightly notes this problem in his 2023 paper dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Federation:
On challenges to social harmony. The main source of tension in Russian society, creating the risk of eroding social harmony, is the unresolved socioeconomic problems. This is evidenced, in particular, by the large number of appeals to the Constitutional Court related to the protection of citizens' social rights. Sociologists also confirm that expectations and even demands for social justice are becoming more prominent among the population, and that injustice in various areas of life is perceived by people with extreme sensitivity.
Unfortunately, the concepts of “a decent life” and “free human development,” which are key to constitutional legal understanding and enshrined in this norm-principle, have not yet received in our country not only proper practical implementation, but also theoretical understanding that is adequate to their significance.
Unfortunately, the concepts of “a decent life” and “free human development,” which are key to constitutional legal understanding and enshrined in this norm-principle, have not yet received in our country not only proper practical implementation, but also theoretical understanding that is adequate to their significance.
What's the reason for this? The main problem is the slow pace of Russian economic growth over the past 34 years. Although it picked up after the Second World War, it has now fallen again. After the 90s, the country's industry was destroyed, forcing us to rely on imports to please our "partners." But wealth is created only in industry; the export of raw materials and even grain is a drain on natural capital.
Valentin Rasputin: "...there's nowhere left for a person to lay their hands. Absolutely nowhere, even if they were chopped off. The entire merry-go-round of life has been built on the huckstering of other people's goods, and has become dependent on bandits and bandit-like laws."
Russia's average economic growth rate from 1992 to 2023 was only 0,89%. Over the same period, China, whose GDP in 1980 was only (!) 39% of Russia's, is already catching up with the United States. Meanwhile, the average economic growth rate of the RSFSR, part of the USSR, from 1950 to 1990 was 6,6% (!). The average global economic growth rate for a sample of 250 countries for the period 2013-2021 was 2,5%.
Russia's share in global GDP is continuously declining: if in 1992 our contribution was 4,854%, then in 2022 it was -2.918%, the share of degradation over 32 years was 39%.
A. Prokhanov (2023):
The immeasurable wealth of some, few in number, unscrupulous, and cruel. And the abject poverty of others, living in abject misery. In this unjust possession of Russian forests, gas, oil, mineral resources, Russian land, water, and heaven, lies a threat.
Speaking about the problem of the concentration of resources in the hands of a small circle, Valery Zorkin adds:
Today's Russian society is already quite aware of the connection between the socioeconomic problems facing a significant portion of our citizens and the injustice of the privatization of large-scale property carried out in the country in the 90s. This not only calls into question the legitimacy of the existing property system, with all the ensuing consequences and risks, but also undermines public trust in the social order as a whole. If justice is perceived as violated, then social and, above all, political and legal institutions cannot function effectively. Therefore, the question of the relationship between justice and legal democracy in the current situation is particularly relevant.
Demographic challenge and replacement of indigenous populations
The population of the RSFSR (part of the USSR) in the penultimate decades before the "reforms" increased at a rate of approximately 8,79 million people every 10 years! The Russian population also grew.
Now, the opposite is true. According to the 2002 and 2010 censuses, the number of ethnic Russians in Russia decreased by 4,9 million, while the number of people of other nationalities increased by 2,6 million. According to the 2021 census, 105,58 million people identified themselves as Russian (compared to 112,51 million in 2010), a decrease of almost 7 million people: and this despite the annexation of Crimea. According to various estimates, if current trends continue, the Russian population will number no more than 90 million in 2040, and by 2055–2060, the share of Russians could fall to 50%.
According to the NAFI Analytical Center (2020), almost half of young and middle-aged Russians (18 to 45 years old – 46% of respondents) do not want to have children, citing an unstable financial situation or a lack of desire.
A. Prokhanov:
The Russian people are declining by a million a year. And this drying up of the Russian ocean will lead to a great drought, during which all state institutions, all good undertakings, will wither and fade, and the state itself will disappear.
And who will fill our churches: "Russified" Asians? Patriarch Kirill:
If we replace a significant portion of Russia's multinational population with other peoples who don't accept our identity, our country will become different. Very different. Little like Russia.
Today, we face challenges that require an immediate response. Mass immigration poses serious threats to the traditional identity of Russian society. The influx of people who differ from us in culture, lifestyle, and habits inevitably impacts the social environment. A new problem has also emerged with potentially far-reaching consequences: the formation of closed ethnic communities that harbor hostility toward Russia's indigenous population.
Today, we face challenges that require an immediate response. Mass immigration poses serious threats to the traditional identity of Russian society. The influx of people who differ from us in culture, lifestyle, and habits inevitably impacts the social environment. A new problem has also emerged with potentially far-reaching consequences: the formation of closed ethnic communities that harbor hostility toward Russia's indigenous population.
On the contradictions between the Soviet and bourgeois mentalities
Soviet and Russian film director Karen Shakhnazarov summed up this problem very well in 2022:
After 91, we had two ideologies: we have the ideology of the upper class—the bourgeoisie—while the people still have Soviet ideology. This is the contradiction we still can't overcome... This contradiction is fundamental. And that's where the mess comes from. And yet, our people are Soviet!
The people have become largely disillusioned with the American-style free market. Stalin's approval ratings are rising, including among young people, and in 2017, he topped the list of the greatest modern people. According to opinion polls (September 2022), almost two-thirds of Russians (62%) favor socialism, the highest percentage in the history of polling. According to VTsIOM data as of the end of 2022, almost 50% of Russians want the restoration of the USSR, while 58% regret its collapse. Despite the Church's well-known stance on the USSR, Soviet films are shown on church-affiliated channels. This is also a sign.
Society dreams of a leftist trend, but why are we governed by the right? Why have we been governed by the same party for 34 years? Why have neither the socialists nor the communists ever held power?
Liberals, like those in the West, fear most of all the "phantom" of the USSR and everything associated with it. There's a constant "whitewashing" of Tsarist Russia and the denigration of communism (except for the events of the Great Patriotic War), and this is a crucial element of brainwashing. Repressions, sharashkas, galoshes, the works of Solzhenitsyn. But the USSR remains the greatest country, the pinnacle of our and world civilization, and it will remain so. So: if everyone is so "left," why do the right rule us?
State in the state
Doctor of Economics Evgeny Gontmakher, who is also considered a liberal, stated the following in 2013:
First of all, I'd like to put forward this thesis: there is no state in Russia. However, there is some structure employing millions of people who call themselves officials... Instead of a state as an institution implementing a course for the country's development, we have a gigantic and uncontrolled private structure that successfully extracts profits for its own benefit. Inside this "state," everything is fine: high salaries, high-quality healthcare, discounted travel vouchers. The rest (and this is the overwhelming majority of the population) are losers, whose place, at best, is in the service or at an increasingly meager trough.
And, in his opinion, the main task of society is to return the state to Russia!
The elite doesn't want to develop the country, even though they can. They fear that the development of industry and technology will relegate the raw materials lobby to the sidelines of history, as happened in England during the Industrial Revolution, in the United States after the Civil War, during the collapse of Tsarist Russia into the USSR, and elsewhere.
Our economy, despite some progress in import substitution, has high business costs. VAT has been increased. It's a snake that's eating its own tail. High bank interest rates, expensive real estate, high monopoly tariffs and their constant rise, high taxes (except for simplified taxation and for the self-employed), and overwhelming bureaucracy. In contrast, in China, the entire system is geared toward production and growth.
One of the most significant problems is embezzlement. In 2010, while serving as presidential aide, A. Dvorkovich estimated the average kickback: "When we plan the budget, we assume in advance that 30% will disappear somewhere."
A manager must serve the state and the people in accordance with the Gospel and Christian laws.
“No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24-25]. Can the riches we can obtain really be worth the treasures of Eternity, the respect and love of the people? “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).
Can the activities of a public embezzler be blessed from above with creative success? "...The way of the wicked will perish" (Psalm 1:6). Compare Soviet engineers, who worked for great ideas for wages and special rations, outstripping their American colleagues, with today's "effective managers" siphoning off cash from the "cornucopia." Moscow is bulging with expensive cars, and the suburbs with luxurious cottages, but no one is better off for it. Do we see any desire among the elites to revive their country and acknowledge their mistakes?
A. Prokhanov:
Corruption has devoured power, swallowing the ruling class. It has given rise to lawlessness and impunity, which plague all segments of the population. Official corruption leads to military failures, to betrayal of state interests, hinders the flow of commands from the top down, and breeds a disease known as impassability.
Rising from our knees, the SVO, and patriotic propaganda obscure the main point: our raw materials elite remains largely pro-Western, and government policy has remained broadly the same since Yeltsin's time; the price of oil has simply changed. Yes, the West doesn't write our constitution like it did in the 90s, but we still strictly adhere to the dictates of the IMF (i.e., the world government), and our Central Bank governor and finance minister are still IMF employees. For example, Russia officially cooperates with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which acts on behalf of the UN, and which has adopted programs to resettle citizens of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Russia with the goal of reducing poverty in Central Asian countries. Joining the IOM was done in accordance with the Russian President's directive of August 16, 2020, No. Pr-1311. This renders our sovereignty incomplete.
Political life as a performance
Valentin Rasputin: “They seized the richest country, they seized the most powerful weapon influence on the masses. It is clear that they will use this weapon until the last hour to retain power."
It's a mistake to think that the elite governing Russia lacks purpose and ideology, that the country's development problems are due to incompetence, mistakes, and so on. A quote from the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If something happens, it was meant to happen."
There is a goal and an ideology, but it hasn't been publicly articulated. The country is governed with precision and urgency, the system is strong and won't change easily, officials and the elite live in a "different state" brimming with incredible prosperity, there's mutual support everywhere and in everything, and restructuring it through conventional means is practically impossible.
We're told one thing, but in reality, the opposite often happens. The government constantly holds meetings to discuss issues, the most important of which have remained unresolved for over 20 years. Ministers who "hook" us to imports are given import substitution orders. Is it right to let a goat guard the cabbage? It's like in Krylov's fable, "The Swan, the Crayfish, and the Pike." The point of setting these unrealistic goals is to sell the public the illusion of progress and vigorous activity. But time marches on, even though for us it has stood still.
The goals of increasing public well-being, raising the birth rate, and creating new jobs are being set. Achieving all of these goals in a raw materials economy, which is based not on production but on imports, is absolutely impossible. Not now, not in 10, not in 50, or even in 100 years. To become consumers, citizens must be producers. And although sanctions are forcing us to restore some production, this is not the mainstream.
Political life has been transformed into a theater, creating the illusion of competition. The authorities' main goal is to prevent voters from voting for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. This is the most terrifying outcome for both the West and our elites. There is still ample evidence that Zyuganov effectively won the 1996 elections. Clones of left-wing parties are being created: the entire left-wing electorate is cleverly spread across the board. But all this is playing on a level playing field with the ruling party. If the left had come to power, we would have implemented the necessary reforms long ago.
Moral crisis
Paradoxically, despite the Church's active development, society is sliding into a moral crisis of a very special kind. As A. Yurevich, Deputy Director of the Institute of Psychology, and D. Ushakov, Doctor of Psychology, write, a "moral degradation of modern Russian society, or 'the evaporation of morality,'" is currently taking place. Soviet public figure Karen Brutents expressed a similar opinion: "Russians, with almost no protest or moral rejection, survive in a climate of total corruption, pervasive bribery that accompanies almost every step, and rampant crime."
Capitalism has a pernicious effect on public morality, inevitably corrupting it, since the market only seeks consumers without great intellect. Similar tendencies were present in Tsarist Russia since the reforms of Alexander II.
Where do microfinance organizations, credit card and loan slavery, shady realtors, scammers, deceitful developers, promisers of high interest rates, and so on, come from in our Orthodox country? Who is racing to suck up all the people's money?
What are our youth learning from watching music videos, sometimes reminiscent of orgies, on music TV? Who's pushing adult channels onto digital TV when they should require a separate subscription?
Morality determines the nature of our actions and deeds, including those of our elites: what is moral is beneficial, what is immoral is deadly. "Official" morality is becoming multifaceted: on the international stage, we bring peace and truth; domestically, we turn a blind eye to the permissiveness of the elites, and when it comes to the people, we are indifferent to their problems and poverty.
Consequences of a moral crisis: 1) blurring of the concepts of good and evil, lack of criteria for assessing the real situation; 2) tolerance of what is happening; 3) social apathy; 4) the impossibility of change either from above or below – the evolutionary degradation of society, what the English historian A. Toynbee described as a civilizational breakdown.
Epilogue: How can we overcome the crisis of civilization?
The "March to Europe" has led the world's once most powerful nation and economy into a pronounced civilizational crisis. Divide and conquer? Create illusions and rule? But who will unite the country against the New Time of Troubles, so that we will have no "outsiders," no parasites, and no devourers? Who will unite the Slavs against the West—Russians, Belarusians, crests, Serbs, Hungarians, and Czechs—so that we can stand together as before? What can be the answer to these unprecedented historical challenges?
No system can exist forever. The law of increasing entropy is universal: without change, errors accumulate, and the "dark energy" in society begins to grow.
Valentin Rasputin:
…Eighty percent of current activity is dragging us down, corrupting both bosses and subordinates, impoverishing the country and the people, creating an atmosphere of general deception and lawlessness… This enormous “Ferris wheel,” flaying Russia with its gigantic blades from beginning to end, spins ceaselessly with an ever-increasing appetite.
Elections are one thing, kitchen table conversations are another. Society is constantly reassessing its attitude toward the system, and at some point, a qualitative leap (as during crystallization processes) may occur, which could cost the system its legitimacy. And here, the SVO could become a bifurcation point.
Russia currently finds itself in a unique position: with its experience of both socialist and market economies, it is capable of offering the world an entirely new model of social structure and economy, one that combines the advantages and eliminates the shortcomings of these systems, harmonizing both private and public ownership, with the latter taking precedence. This model could provide us with a powerful competitive advantage, capable of leading us to global leadership in the near future.
In 1917, we set out to correct the mistakes of capitalism; in 1991, to correct the excesses of 1917, but in the end, we returned. All that remains is to take the final step and close the circle of history.
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