The personnel resource of the “color revolutions”: on whom does the USA rely in provoking chaos?
In the modern world, the skillfully provoked popular discontent, manifested in the form of all kinds of “Maidan” and “color revolutions”, has become one of the most powerful and effective tools of political influence. The most willing to technology change regimes through supposedly "popular revolution" are resorted to by the United States of America, which, through its controlled social and political organizations and movements, sway public sentiments in many countries of the world. For the preparation and conduct of “color revolutions” that have very similar features, regardless of the ethnic, cultural, geographical characteristics of individual states, the United States and its satellites use several major resources. In this article we will try to characterize each of them.
"Extra-parliamentary opposition": from the Nazis to the ultra-liberals
Let's start with the first resource used to form the “core” of the upcoming distemper. This is the so-called "opposition". It includes a very wide range of political and public organizations, between which, at first glance, there is nothing in common. First of all, these are small organizations of “intellectuals” - human rights associations, all kinds of centers for the development of tolerance, feminist, youth and other initiatives, totally dependent on foreign grants. Leading activists of these organizations are on salary, that is, they, for the most part, do nothing but social activities. This is their job, for which they receive money - hence their passion for “work”. In addition, activists often pass regular internships in the West - in the United States and some European countries, where they acquire the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge. By the way, all such organizations are easily recognized by a specific slang, which is not used by anyone other than "Western intellectuals." For example, St. Petersburg feminists recently posted a banner “Down with the gender military capitalist heteronormative religious cultural imperialism”. Here it is immediately clear where the "legs grow" from - normal people do not speak like that and, moreover, the majority of passers-by are not even able to understand what the authors of the slogan meant. However, the feminists didn’t need understanding from the majority of the population - the main thing is to make it clear to their overseas owners that grants are not eaten in vain and no work is being done.
Often, external respectability to such destructive associations gives moral support to foreign "intellectual authorities". Although what they are "authorities"? Madonna supported the action “Pussy Rayot”, but the ability to sing well and effectively behave on the stage does not mean that the singer is also adept at political life, especially of another state. French philosopher Bernard Henri Levy loves to drive around the "Maidan", supporting anti-government movements in Libya and Syria, Serbia and Ukraine. But this is his profession - the propagandist of Western values, the political politician of the new world order. Is this profession can give him credibility in the eyes of normal people?
In the Russian Federation, practically in every city there are various “independent human rights organizations”, “environmentalists”, “fighters for human rights”, “feminists” and other similar groups that rent premises and have a modest but effective material-technical and organizational base. Very often, activists of these groups, who present themselves as non-political and non-ideological, in reality turn out to be politically engaged, participate in demonstrations and rallies of an opposition nature. The task of these organizations is to maximally discredit the state by collecting information about the alleged violation of human rights. It is significant that those same feminists are not interested in the situation of women in Saudi Arabia or Qatar, but they regularly send reports to their Western curators about the "violation of women's rights in the Russian Federation." The situation is similar for advocates of the rights of sexual minorities. An LGBT activist in the modern world is not so much a homosexual as a certain conviction, or, more precisely, a professional oppositionist who simply uses the image of an “offended homosexual” to provoke the population.
The second level of “opposition” is political parties and associations. They can be of a very different political orientation, the main thing is to oppose the current government. The latter is exposed in all mortal sins, is defined only as tyranny, despotism, and bloody regime. The fact that the opposition is acting in the interests of the United States is evidenced by the complete ideological lack of principle in the conclusion of blocs and unions. When parties and movements become allies, between which, by definition, there can be nothing in common, then most often there are “meetings of opposition leaders with the American ambassador” in the history. Simply put - the leaders of opposition organizations are recruited by American diplomats and begin to act in the interests of the United States. A typical example is the situation in Ukraine at the end of 2013.
It would seem that there can be a common thing between liberals - Westerners from the capital's intelligentsia, paramilitary neo-Nazi groups a la “Trident Stepan Bandera”, anarchists, Trotskyists and other ideologically completely diametrically opposed organizations? However, they all merged into a single stream of Maidan. That is, the overthrow of the current government turned out to be their most important goal, for the sake of which the anarchists and the Trotskyists were ready to go in a single column with supporters of wild capitalism, and neo-Nazis-anti-Semites with liberals of Jewish origin. The same picture could be observed precisely in most countries of the Middle East and North Africa, where “color revolutions” occurred, which were included in history as the Arab Spring.
In Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, ultra-radical Islamic fundamentalists, market liberals and leftist groups were in the same team. It should be noted that the “opposition” has no definite common ideology. It operates on the principle of "against the regime", not offering any constructive model in return. Its task is purely tactical - to overthrow the regime of Gaddafi, Mubarak, Assad, Yanukovych, Putin. At the same time, the slogans and ideas put forward by the organizations - the constituent components of the “color revolutions” and “Maidans” - have no meaning. Therefore, one of the most common mistakes of the Russian patriots is the identification of the Kiev "Maidan" and the regime that came to power with Ukrainian nationalism and Bandera. All radical nationalist organizations that participated in the Maidan have long lost their ideological content. They are simply puppets in the hands of American puppeteers and the color of their banners, the contents of printed and electronic publications by and large does not mean anything. It was just that in a given country and at the moment it was convenient to act using nationalists as a screen, in another situation the Americans would act with the hands of leftists — anarchists, religious fundamentalists, or “rebel workers”.
The combat potential of the Internet
The next important resource used by American politicians and special services in the preparation of "color revolutions" is the Internet. The rich capabilities of information and communication technologies ensured the success of a number of “color revolutions” in different parts of the world. In modern society, the Internet is a virtually inexhaustible information resource, characterized not only by the speed and mobility of access to information, but also by the presence of a serious organizational potential. Among all media, only the Internet has the ability to “feedback”, consolidate information consumers. With the help of the Internet, it is much easier to organize mass movements, rather than relying on traditional media - television, radio, newspapers. A model of so-called multi-level communication functions on the Internet, which greatly simplifies the process of assimilating information: an Internet project (event) acts as an incentive for public reaction; the next stage is the public reaction in the mass media and, finally, to attract the attention of the audience to which this information is directed. In modern conditions, the Internet plays the role of a kind of intellectual space where a variety of ideas and opinions are developed, discussed and disseminated.
Returning to the main topic of our article, it should be noted that social networks have the greatest significance for the organization of social protests and revolutionary speeches. It is with the help of social networks in the modern world that people are consolidated to achieve any socially significant goals. Under the conditions of atomization inherent in modern society, social networks are becoming the most effective tool for bringing together thousands of people unfamiliar with each other, belonging to completely different social and professional groups of the population. With the help of social networks, you can organize a prompt notification of the audience about upcoming events, recruit supporters and look for the most active among them, collect money, distribute relevant information.
Facebook, Twitter, and to a lesser extent, the domestic social network Vkontakte have long become a powerful resource not only for propaganda and agitation, but also for organizing social and political movements.
Thanks to social networks, online activity of people begins to gradually transform into real activity, which is no longer limited to the monitor and the virtual space of the created group or forum. By consolidating in social networks, people begin to act in real space. In particular, the importance of social networks is great in those states whose authorities “old-fashioned” focus on the fight against street opposition activity. The same is true in Russia - prohibiting largely innocent street actions, the government practically does not control the vastness of the Internet space in terms of its propaganda capabilities. As a result, pro-Ukrainian, pro-American and anti-Russian portals, communities in social networks are quietly operating on the Internet, Russophobic information is being freely distributed.
Supporters of state-controlled “libertarian” Russian mass media usually refer to the following arguments: the Internet is flooded with negative information, first of all with pornography, often with children’s information; drug use or suicide is promoted on the Internet; The Internet is a hub for countless texts, video and audio recordings of radical and extremist interpretations. At the same time, the brunt of the criticism falls on social networks that have received maximum popularity in Russia. Communication resources such as Vkontakte, Facebook and Twitter face numerous accusations of distributing illegal content. Odnoklassniki.ru is less criticized, and even then primarily because their main audience is middle-aged Russian philistine interested in communicating with former classmates, classmates, and co-workers.
According to VTsIOM, 2012% of the total number of Internet users in the territory of the Russian Federation was registered on social networks in 82. Indeed, social networks currently reach millions of citizens, the majority of whom are young people. A lot of teenagers and even children up to 14 use social networks almost uncontrollably. According to public figures concerned about the moral and ethical condition of the younger generation, the obsession of adolescents in social networking does not bring anything good and can rather be regarded as harmful for their morality and psyche experience.
By the way, the failure of the state educational policy is one of the main risk factors of the “color revolutions”. Most of the Russian intelligentsia, workers of art and culture, still in the “dashing nineties” adopted the mercantilist and selfish values of personal success and well-being, understood, first of all, in the material context - as the achievement of maximum financial and property wealth, the acquisition of branched ties among officials , law enforcement officers, businessmen and representatives of organized crime.
It is safe to say that a significant number of modern Russian families do not perform such an important education function as broadcasting to subsequent generations of spiritual values, including morality, morality, legal values and behavioral attitudes. One of the reasons for this is the loss of moral guidelines by the parents themselves, many of whom were young in the 1990s, accompanied by the devaluation of values and ideological attitudes and the spread of various social deviations. On the other hand, the Russian state, as we can assume, does not sufficiently solve the issues of providing decent living conditions for low-income families, single-parent families, single mothers and single fathers, etc.
In many cases, it is for the first time in a family that a young person learns a disregard for the norms of morality and law, is absorbed by the specific psychology of the “legal nihilist” who is focused on violating the law in the interests of his own advantage and improving his own well-being. It is also impossible not to take into account a significant number of incomplete and “difficult” families in which children and adolescents are left to themselves, none of the parents are engaged in their upbringing, which also entails extremely negative consequences in terms of the legal socialization of the personality of young people brought up in such families . In recent years, the Russian state has begun to pay attention to the issues of material incentives for Russian families, but up to now many problems in the field of family policy have not been resolved. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of their decision also determines the revival of moral and ethical values in Russian families, including in the direction of asserting patriotic values to the younger generations of Russian citizens.
Opponents of the popularization of social networks see in them only negative factors - pornography, profanization of interpersonal communication, permissiveness and irresponsibility in the end. Some people who had to deal with in various forums in the very vast expanses of Runet, advocate a ban on the use of social networks by minors. Not realizing that in the conditions of mass computerization and the internetization of society, such a ban will not only be elementary, it is simply meaningless. Even in such states as China or Iran, social networks can function, although they meet with mixed reactions from conservative-minded politicians and public figures.
However, fighting the Internet only on the basis that its resources can be used by criminals or terrorists is tantamount to attempts to prohibit or restrict the use of telephone wire or mobile communications. Patriotic citizens, if they really don’t want to “criminalize” the virtual space or use it only with anti-Russian multi-colored elements, should not fight the Internet as such, but strive to condense constructive content. Let good, really useful and positively significant information on the Internet becomes more and more and more numerous categories of people get access to it. In the end, the Internet is only a tool, a communication tool, and you need to be able to use it in your own interests.
The specificity of social networks is that it is extremely difficult for the state to control information flows in social networks. While the network administrators close one group with forbidden content, the second, third, fourth time has appeared. Therefore, the relevant authorities need to improve methods of work in social networks, on the other hand, patriotic citizens, political and public organizations of a patriotic orientation should also increase their presence on the Internet. Because to give the Internet information space to the anti-Russian forces means to act extremely short-sighted, ignoring one of the most effective social mobilization resources.
With the help of social networks, the opposition organizes the spread of anti-government sentiment among wide sections of the population. It should be noted that the majority of Internet users are young people and “young adults”. It is people in the age of 16-30 that both in the Arab countries, in Ukraine, and in modern Russia are the main users of the Internet, especially social networks. But the same age and the most "combat-ready" in terms of street performances. Thus, winning the sympathy of the audience of social networks, pro-American opposition movements are preparing a massive support from the young and active population. Even random people who have never been interested in politics before and who have not taken part in the activities of political parties and movements are involved in opposition activities under the influence of propaganda in social networks. Moreover, by no means in all cases they realize the degree of their involvement in the political activity of the opposition, since the latter can control and direct the activities of various communities in social networks.
Creatives and lumpen - ordinary street fighting
Mass support for anti-government protests is provided primarily by several groups of people who are most actively involved in street protests. We list them.
First, it is the urban “advanced” youth, or the so-called “creative class”. This is the main part of Internet users, members of online communities. Educated young people are representatives of the urban middle class, more precisely, of its lower stratum: students, journalists, designers, photographers, managers, small business owners, white-collar workers. As a rule, it is this group of the population that tends to share the so-called “democratic values” expressed in worship of the Western way of life, the cult of individual freedom, considered in a primitive-philistine spirit (through free sexual behavior, the possibility of uncontrolled drug use, and so on). It is the “creative class” that constitutes the “intellectual center” of the anti-government movement - its representatives disseminate relevant information in social networks, participate in rallies and picketing, come up with slogans. Some representatives of the “creative class” make good sacred sacrifices according to the “twenty-year-old botanist student who is brutally beaten up by the police during the dispersal of the demonstration”.
However, the “creative class”, for all its creative activity, is characterized by poor combat capability. Students and designers for the most part are bad warriors and they don’t even do well in riots. Therefore, in all countries where the “color revolutions” took place, sooner or later, an element that was more aggressive and physically adapted to the riots — urban and rural marginal and lumpen-proletarian layers — was involved in street clashes. It is difficult to inspire the latter with the ideology of “democratic values”, but nationalist and fundamentalist religious slogans are just in their hearts. In the Arab countries, the marginal layers that made up the bulk of the street fighters, and then the militants of anti-government armed groups, were motivated by fundamentalist slogans, in Ukraine - by radical Russophobic nationalism.
Marginal youth - "cannon fodder" "color revolutions." The spread of protest moods among it is a common consequence of the legal nihilism characteristic of these segments of the population. The imperfection of the Russian legal system, corruption and abuse in the executive, legislative and judicial authorities, social polarization of society and some other factors contribute to the spread of radical sentiment among the youth, especially among the disadvantaged, unemployed, socially unsatisfied youth. A low level of education and general development also contributes to the radicalization of young people, since in this case citizens may not be aware of the legal consequences of certain actions. In addition, the level of education, as a rule, affects the social status of a person, his position in society, and in many respects predetermines the social environment in which a person rotates. Naturally, poorly educated people who do not have professional qualifications, who are not working and not studying are much more likely to commit unlawful acts, primarily because of their marginal position in society. Considering the general deterioration in the quality of education, the decline in its accessibility for certain categories of the population, the legal illiteracy of the population turns into a serious problem, aggravated by numerous negative phenomena of a different order.
A significant part of the "fighters" is recruited in the countryside, among the unemployed and the impoverished population. Untrained people easily assimilate radical ideas, especially if the latter are reinforced with gratuitous cookies from the American embassy and, even more, with a bottle of vodka or a syringe with a narcotic substance. By themselves, marginals are not able to generate and disseminate ideology, but they become excellent tools in the hands of others. Moreover, they are absolutely not sorry. If representatives of the “creative class” can still cause some pity to the puppeteers in the event of their death, then the marginality of the village and the city, rushing to the barricades is just “meat”. They are thrown to the slaughter, at any point of confrontation, completely without regret in the event of their death. Of course, the formally lost “heroes” may mourn crocodile tears, but in reality the fate of unemployed Ahmed and rooks from deaf Arab or Galician villages does not have much interest. Thus, an analysis of the list of those killed on Euromaidan - the so-called “Heavenly Hundred” - reveals that most of them arrived in the Ukrainian capital from small towns and villages in Western Ukraine. The natives of the towns of Ternopil, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn regions make up the main part of the list of those killed on Euromaidan. However, there are among them foreign citizens, first of all - natives of Georgia. Apparently - these are professional and semi-professional "freedom fighters". Many such foreigners took part in the "color revolutions" in Arab countries.
Betrayal of the elite
Finally, we come to the most important resource of pro-American subversive activity. These are the “fifth” and “sixth” columns in the ruling elite. There are a lot of bureaucrats recruited, purchased or potentially ready for this by national traitors. And in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, and in Ukraine, “color revolutions” would not have been possible without the betrayal of the ruling elite, including the current ministers, deputies, the generals of the army, the police and the special services. No opposition parties, human rights groups, and gatherings of students and marginals could ensure the triumph of the “color revolutions” without complicity on the part of ministers, deputies and generals recruited by US special services. A typical example is Ukraine, where the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych passed with the actual connivance of the majority of uniformed services, primarily the command and management personnel.
The “color revolutions” are distinguished from genuine revolutions, first of all, by the preservation of the dominant positions of a part of the former political elite. So, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in most post-Soviet states, the old party and Komsomol nomenklatura retained its position. Of course, one of the party officials was “overboard” of the new political life, but the majority of functionaries of various levels successfully settled in the changed conditions. In the power structures, regional and local authorities, personnel renewal practically did not occur. Similarly, events developed 2014, and in Ukraine. Most of the officials of the old government remained in their places. Even such odious figures as Gennady Kernes have kept their posts. The political leadership of Ukraine was headed by the same company that was in power under the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko and even Viktor Yanukovych.
It is curious that the leaders of the Russian opposition are more and more from the “power pack”. Alexey Kudrin and Mikhail Kasyanov are now zealously criticizing the existing political system, but relatively recently both of them were in the highest echelons of the “Putin” political elite. Kasyanov, who plays the role of opposition leader, was the whole chairman of the government of the Russian Federation — the second person in the country. Boris Nemtsov, who was recently killed in the center of Moscow in the Yeltsin years, was deputy prime minister, headed one of the most economically significant areas of the country. Thus, the United States, undermining the political systems of unwanted states, relies primarily on individual members of the political elite. It is worth noting that in many respects this situation is also due to the specifics of the political structure of those countries where the “color revolutions” are winning. It is no secret that in the same Ukraine, under the presidency of Yanukovich, there was a very high level of corruption. But a corrupt official is practically a traitor, you can easily buy it or, in extreme cases, blackmail it. The political elite bathing in luxury is also of great interest to the enemy. Especially if capital is kept in Western banks, wives, children and mistresses live there - these are ready agents of influence.
Socio-economic collapse 1990-ies. led to the disorientation of a large part of the population. Values of enrichment in any way, status assertions from the standpoint of power or money began to prevail in the minds of many Russian citizens, in particular, business representatives and government officials who were most closely associated with the process of redistributing property. It is the loss of moral guidelines that led to an increase in the level of corruption, the establishment of non-legal relations as the most desirable decision-making mechanisms. Obtaining money and other privileges for certain actions are considered corrupt officials as confirmation of their own privileged status across the state, region or municipality. On the other hand, among ordinary citizens, thanks to such behavior of state and municipal servants, prejudices are spreading with respect to the entire system of power, which is beginning to be endowed with features of a corrupt and criminal structure.
None of those countries in the world where the “color revolutions” have won has lived better than before. Moreover, the once stable Egypt, which attracted tourists from all over the world, has become almost a “hot spot”. Libya is simply destroyed as a state. Iraq is destroyed as a state. In Syria, where the attempt to "color revolution" choked after President Bashar Al-Assad showed courage and thoroughly "crushed" the opposition, a bloody civil war has been going on for several years. The consequence of “Euromaidan” in Ukraine was by no means the achievement of European well-being, but the beginning of a large-scale and bloody war in the Donbass, in which tens of thousands of people died and continue to die - militias, civilians, and Ukrainian military, most of whom were forcibly mobilized into the current the army.
“Color revolutions” become possible under the condition of the actual absence of the state ideology, the progressive decomposition of the political elite, the affirmation of westernized values among that part of society that must be advanced, avant-garde in its development - among intellectuals, students, and creative youth. In the face of weakening control over the country's political life, a liberal attitude towards anti-state opposition forces, susceptibility to all sorts of negative political tendencies increases, which the interested forces across the ocean will take advantage of. The state needs to act more firmly against potential enemies and disruptive elements, and the society to be more vigilant about the manifestations of its corrosive tendencies.
"Extra-parliamentary opposition": from the Nazis to the ultra-liberals
Let's start with the first resource used to form the “core” of the upcoming distemper. This is the so-called "opposition". It includes a very wide range of political and public organizations, between which, at first glance, there is nothing in common. First of all, these are small organizations of “intellectuals” - human rights associations, all kinds of centers for the development of tolerance, feminist, youth and other initiatives, totally dependent on foreign grants. Leading activists of these organizations are on salary, that is, they, for the most part, do nothing but social activities. This is their job, for which they receive money - hence their passion for “work”. In addition, activists often pass regular internships in the West - in the United States and some European countries, where they acquire the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge. By the way, all such organizations are easily recognized by a specific slang, which is not used by anyone other than "Western intellectuals." For example, St. Petersburg feminists recently posted a banner “Down with the gender military capitalist heteronormative religious cultural imperialism”. Here it is immediately clear where the "legs grow" from - normal people do not speak like that and, moreover, the majority of passers-by are not even able to understand what the authors of the slogan meant. However, the feminists didn’t need understanding from the majority of the population - the main thing is to make it clear to their overseas owners that grants are not eaten in vain and no work is being done.
Often, external respectability to such destructive associations gives moral support to foreign "intellectual authorities". Although what they are "authorities"? Madonna supported the action “Pussy Rayot”, but the ability to sing well and effectively behave on the stage does not mean that the singer is also adept at political life, especially of another state. French philosopher Bernard Henri Levy loves to drive around the "Maidan", supporting anti-government movements in Libya and Syria, Serbia and Ukraine. But this is his profession - the propagandist of Western values, the political politician of the new world order. Is this profession can give him credibility in the eyes of normal people?
In the Russian Federation, practically in every city there are various “independent human rights organizations”, “environmentalists”, “fighters for human rights”, “feminists” and other similar groups that rent premises and have a modest but effective material-technical and organizational base. Very often, activists of these groups, who present themselves as non-political and non-ideological, in reality turn out to be politically engaged, participate in demonstrations and rallies of an opposition nature. The task of these organizations is to maximally discredit the state by collecting information about the alleged violation of human rights. It is significant that those same feminists are not interested in the situation of women in Saudi Arabia or Qatar, but they regularly send reports to their Western curators about the "violation of women's rights in the Russian Federation." The situation is similar for advocates of the rights of sexual minorities. An LGBT activist in the modern world is not so much a homosexual as a certain conviction, or, more precisely, a professional oppositionist who simply uses the image of an “offended homosexual” to provoke the population.
The second level of “opposition” is political parties and associations. They can be of a very different political orientation, the main thing is to oppose the current government. The latter is exposed in all mortal sins, is defined only as tyranny, despotism, and bloody regime. The fact that the opposition is acting in the interests of the United States is evidenced by the complete ideological lack of principle in the conclusion of blocs and unions. When parties and movements become allies, between which, by definition, there can be nothing in common, then most often there are “meetings of opposition leaders with the American ambassador” in the history. Simply put - the leaders of opposition organizations are recruited by American diplomats and begin to act in the interests of the United States. A typical example is the situation in Ukraine at the end of 2013.
It would seem that there can be a common thing between liberals - Westerners from the capital's intelligentsia, paramilitary neo-Nazi groups a la “Trident Stepan Bandera”, anarchists, Trotskyists and other ideologically completely diametrically opposed organizations? However, they all merged into a single stream of Maidan. That is, the overthrow of the current government turned out to be their most important goal, for the sake of which the anarchists and the Trotskyists were ready to go in a single column with supporters of wild capitalism, and neo-Nazis-anti-Semites with liberals of Jewish origin. The same picture could be observed precisely in most countries of the Middle East and North Africa, where “color revolutions” occurred, which were included in history as the Arab Spring.
In Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, ultra-radical Islamic fundamentalists, market liberals and leftist groups were in the same team. It should be noted that the “opposition” has no definite common ideology. It operates on the principle of "against the regime", not offering any constructive model in return. Its task is purely tactical - to overthrow the regime of Gaddafi, Mubarak, Assad, Yanukovych, Putin. At the same time, the slogans and ideas put forward by the organizations - the constituent components of the “color revolutions” and “Maidans” - have no meaning. Therefore, one of the most common mistakes of the Russian patriots is the identification of the Kiev "Maidan" and the regime that came to power with Ukrainian nationalism and Bandera. All radical nationalist organizations that participated in the Maidan have long lost their ideological content. They are simply puppets in the hands of American puppeteers and the color of their banners, the contents of printed and electronic publications by and large does not mean anything. It was just that in a given country and at the moment it was convenient to act using nationalists as a screen, in another situation the Americans would act with the hands of leftists — anarchists, religious fundamentalists, or “rebel workers”.
The combat potential of the Internet
The next important resource used by American politicians and special services in the preparation of "color revolutions" is the Internet. The rich capabilities of information and communication technologies ensured the success of a number of “color revolutions” in different parts of the world. In modern society, the Internet is a virtually inexhaustible information resource, characterized not only by the speed and mobility of access to information, but also by the presence of a serious organizational potential. Among all media, only the Internet has the ability to “feedback”, consolidate information consumers. With the help of the Internet, it is much easier to organize mass movements, rather than relying on traditional media - television, radio, newspapers. A model of so-called multi-level communication functions on the Internet, which greatly simplifies the process of assimilating information: an Internet project (event) acts as an incentive for public reaction; the next stage is the public reaction in the mass media and, finally, to attract the attention of the audience to which this information is directed. In modern conditions, the Internet plays the role of a kind of intellectual space where a variety of ideas and opinions are developed, discussed and disseminated.
Returning to the main topic of our article, it should be noted that social networks have the greatest significance for the organization of social protests and revolutionary speeches. It is with the help of social networks in the modern world that people are consolidated to achieve any socially significant goals. Under the conditions of atomization inherent in modern society, social networks are becoming the most effective tool for bringing together thousands of people unfamiliar with each other, belonging to completely different social and professional groups of the population. With the help of social networks, you can organize a prompt notification of the audience about upcoming events, recruit supporters and look for the most active among them, collect money, distribute relevant information.
Facebook, Twitter, and to a lesser extent, the domestic social network Vkontakte have long become a powerful resource not only for propaganda and agitation, but also for organizing social and political movements.
Thanks to social networks, online activity of people begins to gradually transform into real activity, which is no longer limited to the monitor and the virtual space of the created group or forum. By consolidating in social networks, people begin to act in real space. In particular, the importance of social networks is great in those states whose authorities “old-fashioned” focus on the fight against street opposition activity. The same is true in Russia - prohibiting largely innocent street actions, the government practically does not control the vastness of the Internet space in terms of its propaganda capabilities. As a result, pro-Ukrainian, pro-American and anti-Russian portals, communities in social networks are quietly operating on the Internet, Russophobic information is being freely distributed.
Supporters of state-controlled “libertarian” Russian mass media usually refer to the following arguments: the Internet is flooded with negative information, first of all with pornography, often with children’s information; drug use or suicide is promoted on the Internet; The Internet is a hub for countless texts, video and audio recordings of radical and extremist interpretations. At the same time, the brunt of the criticism falls on social networks that have received maximum popularity in Russia. Communication resources such as Vkontakte, Facebook and Twitter face numerous accusations of distributing illegal content. Odnoklassniki.ru is less criticized, and even then primarily because their main audience is middle-aged Russian philistine interested in communicating with former classmates, classmates, and co-workers.
According to VTsIOM, 2012% of the total number of Internet users in the territory of the Russian Federation was registered on social networks in 82. Indeed, social networks currently reach millions of citizens, the majority of whom are young people. A lot of teenagers and even children up to 14 use social networks almost uncontrollably. According to public figures concerned about the moral and ethical condition of the younger generation, the obsession of adolescents in social networking does not bring anything good and can rather be regarded as harmful for their morality and psyche experience.
By the way, the failure of the state educational policy is one of the main risk factors of the “color revolutions”. Most of the Russian intelligentsia, workers of art and culture, still in the “dashing nineties” adopted the mercantilist and selfish values of personal success and well-being, understood, first of all, in the material context - as the achievement of maximum financial and property wealth, the acquisition of branched ties among officials , law enforcement officers, businessmen and representatives of organized crime.
It is safe to say that a significant number of modern Russian families do not perform such an important education function as broadcasting to subsequent generations of spiritual values, including morality, morality, legal values and behavioral attitudes. One of the reasons for this is the loss of moral guidelines by the parents themselves, many of whom were young in the 1990s, accompanied by the devaluation of values and ideological attitudes and the spread of various social deviations. On the other hand, the Russian state, as we can assume, does not sufficiently solve the issues of providing decent living conditions for low-income families, single-parent families, single mothers and single fathers, etc.
In many cases, it is for the first time in a family that a young person learns a disregard for the norms of morality and law, is absorbed by the specific psychology of the “legal nihilist” who is focused on violating the law in the interests of his own advantage and improving his own well-being. It is also impossible not to take into account a significant number of incomplete and “difficult” families in which children and adolescents are left to themselves, none of the parents are engaged in their upbringing, which also entails extremely negative consequences in terms of the legal socialization of the personality of young people brought up in such families . In recent years, the Russian state has begun to pay attention to the issues of material incentives for Russian families, but up to now many problems in the field of family policy have not been resolved. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of their decision also determines the revival of moral and ethical values in Russian families, including in the direction of asserting patriotic values to the younger generations of Russian citizens.
Opponents of the popularization of social networks see in them only negative factors - pornography, profanization of interpersonal communication, permissiveness and irresponsibility in the end. Some people who had to deal with in various forums in the very vast expanses of Runet, advocate a ban on the use of social networks by minors. Not realizing that in the conditions of mass computerization and the internetization of society, such a ban will not only be elementary, it is simply meaningless. Even in such states as China or Iran, social networks can function, although they meet with mixed reactions from conservative-minded politicians and public figures.
However, fighting the Internet only on the basis that its resources can be used by criminals or terrorists is tantamount to attempts to prohibit or restrict the use of telephone wire or mobile communications. Patriotic citizens, if they really don’t want to “criminalize” the virtual space or use it only with anti-Russian multi-colored elements, should not fight the Internet as such, but strive to condense constructive content. Let good, really useful and positively significant information on the Internet becomes more and more and more numerous categories of people get access to it. In the end, the Internet is only a tool, a communication tool, and you need to be able to use it in your own interests.
The specificity of social networks is that it is extremely difficult for the state to control information flows in social networks. While the network administrators close one group with forbidden content, the second, third, fourth time has appeared. Therefore, the relevant authorities need to improve methods of work in social networks, on the other hand, patriotic citizens, political and public organizations of a patriotic orientation should also increase their presence on the Internet. Because to give the Internet information space to the anti-Russian forces means to act extremely short-sighted, ignoring one of the most effective social mobilization resources.
With the help of social networks, the opposition organizes the spread of anti-government sentiment among wide sections of the population. It should be noted that the majority of Internet users are young people and “young adults”. It is people in the age of 16-30 that both in the Arab countries, in Ukraine, and in modern Russia are the main users of the Internet, especially social networks. But the same age and the most "combat-ready" in terms of street performances. Thus, winning the sympathy of the audience of social networks, pro-American opposition movements are preparing a massive support from the young and active population. Even random people who have never been interested in politics before and who have not taken part in the activities of political parties and movements are involved in opposition activities under the influence of propaganda in social networks. Moreover, by no means in all cases they realize the degree of their involvement in the political activity of the opposition, since the latter can control and direct the activities of various communities in social networks.
Creatives and lumpen - ordinary street fighting
Mass support for anti-government protests is provided primarily by several groups of people who are most actively involved in street protests. We list them.
First, it is the urban “advanced” youth, or the so-called “creative class”. This is the main part of Internet users, members of online communities. Educated young people are representatives of the urban middle class, more precisely, of its lower stratum: students, journalists, designers, photographers, managers, small business owners, white-collar workers. As a rule, it is this group of the population that tends to share the so-called “democratic values” expressed in worship of the Western way of life, the cult of individual freedom, considered in a primitive-philistine spirit (through free sexual behavior, the possibility of uncontrolled drug use, and so on). It is the “creative class” that constitutes the “intellectual center” of the anti-government movement - its representatives disseminate relevant information in social networks, participate in rallies and picketing, come up with slogans. Some representatives of the “creative class” make good sacred sacrifices according to the “twenty-year-old botanist student who is brutally beaten up by the police during the dispersal of the demonstration”.
However, the “creative class”, for all its creative activity, is characterized by poor combat capability. Students and designers for the most part are bad warriors and they don’t even do well in riots. Therefore, in all countries where the “color revolutions” took place, sooner or later, an element that was more aggressive and physically adapted to the riots — urban and rural marginal and lumpen-proletarian layers — was involved in street clashes. It is difficult to inspire the latter with the ideology of “democratic values”, but nationalist and fundamentalist religious slogans are just in their hearts. In the Arab countries, the marginal layers that made up the bulk of the street fighters, and then the militants of anti-government armed groups, were motivated by fundamentalist slogans, in Ukraine - by radical Russophobic nationalism.
Marginal youth - "cannon fodder" "color revolutions." The spread of protest moods among it is a common consequence of the legal nihilism characteristic of these segments of the population. The imperfection of the Russian legal system, corruption and abuse in the executive, legislative and judicial authorities, social polarization of society and some other factors contribute to the spread of radical sentiment among the youth, especially among the disadvantaged, unemployed, socially unsatisfied youth. A low level of education and general development also contributes to the radicalization of young people, since in this case citizens may not be aware of the legal consequences of certain actions. In addition, the level of education, as a rule, affects the social status of a person, his position in society, and in many respects predetermines the social environment in which a person rotates. Naturally, poorly educated people who do not have professional qualifications, who are not working and not studying are much more likely to commit unlawful acts, primarily because of their marginal position in society. Considering the general deterioration in the quality of education, the decline in its accessibility for certain categories of the population, the legal illiteracy of the population turns into a serious problem, aggravated by numerous negative phenomena of a different order.
A significant part of the "fighters" is recruited in the countryside, among the unemployed and the impoverished population. Untrained people easily assimilate radical ideas, especially if the latter are reinforced with gratuitous cookies from the American embassy and, even more, with a bottle of vodka or a syringe with a narcotic substance. By themselves, marginals are not able to generate and disseminate ideology, but they become excellent tools in the hands of others. Moreover, they are absolutely not sorry. If representatives of the “creative class” can still cause some pity to the puppeteers in the event of their death, then the marginality of the village and the city, rushing to the barricades is just “meat”. They are thrown to the slaughter, at any point of confrontation, completely without regret in the event of their death. Of course, the formally lost “heroes” may mourn crocodile tears, but in reality the fate of unemployed Ahmed and rooks from deaf Arab or Galician villages does not have much interest. Thus, an analysis of the list of those killed on Euromaidan - the so-called “Heavenly Hundred” - reveals that most of them arrived in the Ukrainian capital from small towns and villages in Western Ukraine. The natives of the towns of Ternopil, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn regions make up the main part of the list of those killed on Euromaidan. However, there are among them foreign citizens, first of all - natives of Georgia. Apparently - these are professional and semi-professional "freedom fighters". Many such foreigners took part in the "color revolutions" in Arab countries.
Betrayal of the elite
Finally, we come to the most important resource of pro-American subversive activity. These are the “fifth” and “sixth” columns in the ruling elite. There are a lot of bureaucrats recruited, purchased or potentially ready for this by national traitors. And in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, and in Ukraine, “color revolutions” would not have been possible without the betrayal of the ruling elite, including the current ministers, deputies, the generals of the army, the police and the special services. No opposition parties, human rights groups, and gatherings of students and marginals could ensure the triumph of the “color revolutions” without complicity on the part of ministers, deputies and generals recruited by US special services. A typical example is Ukraine, where the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych passed with the actual connivance of the majority of uniformed services, primarily the command and management personnel.
The “color revolutions” are distinguished from genuine revolutions, first of all, by the preservation of the dominant positions of a part of the former political elite. So, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in most post-Soviet states, the old party and Komsomol nomenklatura retained its position. Of course, one of the party officials was “overboard” of the new political life, but the majority of functionaries of various levels successfully settled in the changed conditions. In the power structures, regional and local authorities, personnel renewal practically did not occur. Similarly, events developed 2014, and in Ukraine. Most of the officials of the old government remained in their places. Even such odious figures as Gennady Kernes have kept their posts. The political leadership of Ukraine was headed by the same company that was in power under the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko and even Viktor Yanukovych.
It is curious that the leaders of the Russian opposition are more and more from the “power pack”. Alexey Kudrin and Mikhail Kasyanov are now zealously criticizing the existing political system, but relatively recently both of them were in the highest echelons of the “Putin” political elite. Kasyanov, who plays the role of opposition leader, was the whole chairman of the government of the Russian Federation — the second person in the country. Boris Nemtsov, who was recently killed in the center of Moscow in the Yeltsin years, was deputy prime minister, headed one of the most economically significant areas of the country. Thus, the United States, undermining the political systems of unwanted states, relies primarily on individual members of the political elite. It is worth noting that in many respects this situation is also due to the specifics of the political structure of those countries where the “color revolutions” are winning. It is no secret that in the same Ukraine, under the presidency of Yanukovich, there was a very high level of corruption. But a corrupt official is practically a traitor, you can easily buy it or, in extreme cases, blackmail it. The political elite bathing in luxury is also of great interest to the enemy. Especially if capital is kept in Western banks, wives, children and mistresses live there - these are ready agents of influence.
Socio-economic collapse 1990-ies. led to the disorientation of a large part of the population. Values of enrichment in any way, status assertions from the standpoint of power or money began to prevail in the minds of many Russian citizens, in particular, business representatives and government officials who were most closely associated with the process of redistributing property. It is the loss of moral guidelines that led to an increase in the level of corruption, the establishment of non-legal relations as the most desirable decision-making mechanisms. Obtaining money and other privileges for certain actions are considered corrupt officials as confirmation of their own privileged status across the state, region or municipality. On the other hand, among ordinary citizens, thanks to such behavior of state and municipal servants, prejudices are spreading with respect to the entire system of power, which is beginning to be endowed with features of a corrupt and criminal structure.
None of those countries in the world where the “color revolutions” have won has lived better than before. Moreover, the once stable Egypt, which attracted tourists from all over the world, has become almost a “hot spot”. Libya is simply destroyed as a state. Iraq is destroyed as a state. In Syria, where the attempt to "color revolution" choked after President Bashar Al-Assad showed courage and thoroughly "crushed" the opposition, a bloody civil war has been going on for several years. The consequence of “Euromaidan” in Ukraine was by no means the achievement of European well-being, but the beginning of a large-scale and bloody war in the Donbass, in which tens of thousands of people died and continue to die - militias, civilians, and Ukrainian military, most of whom were forcibly mobilized into the current the army.
“Color revolutions” become possible under the condition of the actual absence of the state ideology, the progressive decomposition of the political elite, the affirmation of westernized values among that part of society that must be advanced, avant-garde in its development - among intellectuals, students, and creative youth. In the face of weakening control over the country's political life, a liberal attitude towards anti-state opposition forces, susceptibility to all sorts of negative political tendencies increases, which the interested forces across the ocean will take advantage of. The state needs to act more firmly against potential enemies and disruptive elements, and the society to be more vigilant about the manifestations of its corrosive tendencies.
Information