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The Kremlin’s Post-Soviet State Ideology
The Great Russian Restoration VII
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Many pundits and analysts have pointed out that Russia doesn’t seem to have a visible political/economic/state ideology and they are correct to do so. That being said, the Kremlin civic platform has always been quite basic and straightforward. The Kremlin’s official civic platform is based on three pillars: sport, Orthodoxy and World War II. As a result of this formula, Russia committed state resources in the form of manpower, money and propaganda to these three areas. The West understood this, accepted the terms of battle and committed itself to undermining these three pillars of support. This isn’t all that different from the the policy of the USSR, or any other country’s civic platform really. If we just swap Orthodoxy for Communism, then we have the USSR platform and if we swap Orthodoxy for Laïcité, then we have the French platform. The point I’m making here is simple: all states have civic political platforms in one form or another and Russia’s isn’t particularly special.

In this context, the rationale for Russia’s systematic banning from all international sporting competitions becomes clearer. One could be forgiven for thinking that this was simply petty bear-baiting from a Russophobic predominantly Jewish ruling caste in the West, but, in actual fact, there was a strategic political goal behind this unsportsmanlike behavior. Russian athletes—and all athletes in fact—train for these international competitions where they win cash prizes, promotion deals, partnerships, gain international exposure, and so on. With the bannings, many of these athletes careers got nuke’d and so did the Kremlin promotion campaign based on these role-models and the soft power prestige that their performances brought to Russia. It’s hard to deny that the West has been rather successful in undermining the Kremlin’s plan on this front.

Now, Orthodoxy seems rather self-explanatory, but it’s still worth a few words of contextualization here. Hundreds of new churches are built in Russia every single year with state financing, to the point that the church struggles to staff them all with priests. The vast majority of the post-Soviet population, however, does not attend these churches religiously. That being said, most people are generally pro-Orthodox in the sense that they do not practice any kind of militant atheism or hold hostile views of the church. Most people simply aren’t in the habit of going to church and don’t really believe that they need to go to church to consider themselves Christians. The church, of course, begs to disagree and wants to boost its share of devoted, regular church-goers from the 10–15% of the population that the number hovers at now to something closer to a majority of the population. I had some modest suggestions to share with the Patriarch on how better to accomplish this, but he hasn’t returned my calls as of yet. Nonetheless, I will keep spamming his inbox and keep you guys posted about any developments that might occur on that front.

As for World War II, there’s some history here that few people in the West know. The USSR, in the first decades after the war, did not talk much about the Great Patriotic War. Sure, they had a parade after the victory in Moscow which has been continued ever since, but it wasn’t until the late 60s and 70s when the Kremlin began to lean into Victory Day and began treating it more seriously. I can only speculate on what may have been the reason for this reticence to incorporate that great victory into the Kremlin’s political platform. The simplest and obvious explanation is that they no doubt felt embarrassed by the war at the time and tried to move past it as quickly as they could. As we all know, the Soviet Union suffered humiliating losses in the first weeks and months of the war due to the sheer incompetence of the Bolshevik leadership, and the war had such a catastrophic effect on the lives of Soviet citizens that it was no doubt difficult to spin a narrative around glory and victory so soon after the mass-suffering and destruction. Furthermore, many war heroes had risen up through the ranks who could become potential political rivals of the Bolshevik party elite and the last thing that they wanted was another “Bonaparte” rising up to sweep them aside and become the new Emperor of the Red Empire. It is for this reason that many war heroes and officers spent their veteran years worried that they might be arrested and sent to the Gulags. In my family, my great-grandfather, for example, hid his medals and his uniform and rarely spoke about the war with his family until far later in his life. Many Russian historians believe that the great Red Army general Georgiy Zhukov was assassinated because the Bolsheviks were terrified of his near demigod-like popularity. Zhukov, remember, was rotting in a Siberian gulag at the start of the war and had to be pulled out by the desperate Reds who had successfully lost their entire forward army in Europe in a few short months of fighting against the Germans. Few in the West understand that the latter USSR was far less repressive and extreme as the earlier USSR was, mostly because many Jews fled the USSR following Stalin’s purges and the gradual “Russification” of the state security structures. The “old-timers” who vote for the Communists out of nostalgia mostly remember and grew up during this relatively normal period and don’t associate the Communists with mass murder, mass arrests, and terror because most of that happened before their time. Incidentally, I promised to talk about the Communist opposition and still plan to do so in the future.

Regardless, it’s hardly a secret that the Kremlin talks a lot and I mean A LOT about World War II. This is also why they are so prickly about historical revisionism aimed at reexamining the causes of the war. As a part of its civic platform, the Kremlin has thrown its weight and support behind the May 9th Victory Parades and the Immortal Brigade marches in particular. This only really took off following the annexation of Crimea when literally hundreds of thousands of Russians used the Victory Day parade as a proxy venue for expressing their latent Russian patriotism in an acceptable civic manifestation. Despite their attempts to disguise and justify their pro-Russia patriotism behind the morally unassailable status of World War II and the defeat of Nazism, the liberal media was particularly vicious in its attacks on people who began to attend these Victory Day parades, labeling them paid agents of the Kremlin and, naturally, Fascists hiding behind the black and orange victory banner. Bizarrely, the Orthodox Church also expressed anti-Victory Day sentiment, alleging that it was not Orthodox to march with banners of slain family members and that it verged on shamanism or animism or ancestor worship, which the Christian faith does not allow. This is easily explained by the fact that the Orthodox clergy doesn’t want a civic religion to emerge and split the loyalty of the Russian population, which they believe rightfully belongs to them. Unsurprisingly, they’ve had to tone down this rhetoric in recent years.

In any case, the Western media has, in recent years, taken to pointing out historically inconvenient facts about, for example, Stalin’s pact with Hitler over the partition of Poland. Or that the Soviet Union trained German pilots and provided Germany with fuel and grain and other raw materials as part of their alliance right up into the start of the invasion. The point of this isn’t to rehabilitate Hitler or because of a new-found commitment to WWII objectivism on the part of the Western media. It’s an attack on the Kremlin’s platform by arguing that Stalin and the USSR were just as evil as Hitler and that Russia is a continuation of the USSR and seeks to take back Poland and invade Europe—as in Biden’s speech yesterday in Warsaw, linking present day Russian actions in Ukraine to “Hungary, 1956. Poland, 1956, and then again, 1981. Czechoslovakia,1968. Soviet tanks crushed democratic uprisings.” Many nationalists in the West know that there is far more to WWII than the standard narrative, be it Western or Eastern, that is allowed to be mentioned in the public sphere and polite society. They should perhaps ask themselves why the Western media is allowing historical revisionism back into the public sphere in the run-up to a conflict with Russia when it was an absolute taboo topic for so many years.

Now, none of these “pillars” are ideological per se although they are promoted and defended as stolidly as any political or religious creed. This is because Russia is a post-Ideological nation and Putin has often stressed his commitment to this course of development. In other words, when Putin talks about Russia being a “normal country” in his video addresses to the West, he means a country that isn’t committed to one messianic political/economic theory or another like, say, the U.S., which is committed to crusading for its religion of Liberal Human Rights Democracy Freedom around the world. “Normal” just means a country that acts in the interests of itself and its people first and foremost and tries to get along with other countries as well. One could even call this “nationalism” if one were so inclined, but Russian civil society has an aversion to this word, preferring to brand their enemies with it instead. Again, the preferred term is “normal” and that means that you will often hear phrases like “Russia is not a nationalistic country, Russia is a normal country” because that’s the official state line. Me, personally, I like the term ‘nationalism’ and have no qualms about using it. Consider: are the Russian soldiers fighting to save the Russians in Donbass and to defend Russia’s interests not literally “Russian Nationalists”? At the risk of sounding like some French deconstructionist philosopher, I’d like to point out that terms do not seem to have any inherent meaning to them (although they should) separate from the meaning that we choose to ascribe to them. I guess I don’t really mind calling myself a “normalist” going forward, but I think it lacks a certain artistic je ne said quoi, don’t you?

As I’ve written about before, Russia has been accelerating its process of internal “normalization” with the shutdown of the Liberals and their beloved ideological institutions. “Ukraine is rightful Russian land with Russians living on it,” is a statement that was considered extreme a few weeks ago, but is now rather mainstream and one that the average Russian can hear from the pundit class on the state channels. These same pundits then turn around and condemn “nationalism.” A head-scratcher, for sure. But most people’s heads go unscratched because they’re agreeing with every word that is being said, even the parts that seem to contradict one another. I suppose results speak louder than any words or tweets or at least the Russian government seems to think so. This would no doubt explain why there are so few videos coming out from the Russian side and the pro-Russian propaganda channels rely on official statements from the Ministry of Defense or Kadyrov’s Chechen brigades, who seem to be flouting any rules regarding social media posting and instead seem to relish the social media propaganda game. All of this begs the question: is the Kremlin’s inability to produce quality propaganda for its side part of a clever plan to not release important military details or a catastrophic oversight by its Boomer tech-luddite leadership? I really wish I could answer this question, but I’m afraid I’ll have to cop out and just say “we will see” and “the results will speak for themselves” in time.

But does Russia even need a state ideology? Should Russia recommit herself and her resources to making the world safe for Communism/Orthodoxy/Borsht or something of the kind? I share the same opinion as the Kremlin and think that allowing oneself to slide into one ideology or another is a dangerous gambit that more often than not leads a country or even the individual that adopts it to making catastrophic mistakes because of their commitment to a separate, higher Truth that often runs contrary to the actual truth and the reality that we find ourselves in. Ideology can indeed unite and motivate people to great heights of fanaticism that can be harnessed by the state or a group of clever people to achieve world-changing goals. But ideology is a double-edged sword that cuts the hand that wields it the moment that its holder begins to actually commit himself to uncritically believing in it. Putin clearly doesn’t want a new messianic world-changing ideology for Russia because Putin probably saw what happened with the USSR and sees what is happening to the USSA right now and has drawn some conclusions. He will, however, have to come up with a new civic platform for the Kremlin to promote eventually. Interest in World War II is virtually nonexistent among the youth, Orthodoxy will take a while to “take” again, and the sanctions on Russian athletes won’t end anytime soon. The current wave of enthusiasm for the military operation in Ukraine is enough for now, but eventually, a new popular platform will be needed .

President Putin, my man, you know where to reach me. Let’s boil some coffee, order some takeout and start throwing some ideas up on the whiteboard. We can discuss my fee at a later date, but I promise to be reasonable about it. The ball is in your court, big guy.

(Republished from The Occidental Observer by permission of author or representative)
 
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  1. Ron Unz says:

    Many Russian historians believe that the great Red Army general Georgiy Zhukov was assassinated because the Bolsheviks were terrified of his near demigod-like popularity. Zhukov, remember, was rotting in a Siberian gulag at the start of the war and had to be pulled out by the desperate Reds who had successfully lost their entire forward army in Europe in a few short months of fighting against the Germans.

    Actually, I don’t think this is correct. Zhukov died in 1974 of natural causes at age 77 under Brezhnev and he’d been one of the top Soviet military commanders when the war broke out. You might be confusing him with Konstantin Rokossovsky, who was indeed imprisoned in the Gulag and treated brutally, though later released in 1940 and returned to a top military command, eventually also dying of natural causes in 1968 at the age of 71.

    • Agree: Arthur MacBride
    • Thanks: Rahan
  2. Anonymous[158] • Disclaimer says:
    @Ron Unz

    “Zhukov, remember, was rotting in a Siberian gulag at the start of the war and had to be pulled out by the desperate Reds who had successfully lost their entire forward army in Europe in a few short months of fighting against the Germans” Totally untrue, such a basic mistake makesx the validity of the rest of your piece very doubtful

    • Replies: @barnabus
    , @Marcali
    , @Pindos
  3. Cook_ie says:

    Russian manpower with American weapons supplied under Lend Lease won WW2.

    But the world has changed and Russia is playing a splendid game now moving the Rouble to gold.

    So the European Union has huge pressure on it, stay with the U.S and a promise of energy supplies or start distancing itself from U.S and deal with a country that has the infrastructure and energy already in place?

    There is a clear line, the world is dividing into economic blocks.

    • Replies: @Barr
  4. To take up on one particular point in this challenging article: “…historically inconvenient facts about…. Stalin’s pact with Hitler over the partition of Poland. ”

    History is clear: states unite with their enemies because it serves their interest – power.
    https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/

  5. barnabus says:
    @Anonymous

    It was Slavskiy, not Unz who confused Rokossovsky with Zhukov. Rokossovsky was a model patriot who refused to sign a false and self-incriminating statement under torture 1937/1938. That saved his life. After the disastrous pursuit of the Winter War against Finland, Rokossovsky was rehabilitated. However, too many top Soviet military commanders perished inbetween.

    • Replies: @Michael Meo
    , @profnasty
  6. anastasia says:

    There’s only one “big guy” and you have to cough up 50 percent.

  7. Wokechoke says:
    @Ron Unz

    Zhukov came to prominence at Khalkin Gol. He tended to stay in good favour his entire career.

  8. Wokechoke says:

    You know the allies lost 4,000 tanks in operation Overlord. The Germans only lost 2,000~…
    The allies also lost 4,000 aircraft. The Germans only 2,000~. Gives some of the readers some perspective on the intensity of real war. We have been spoiled by Iraq and Afghanistan even Vietnam.

  9. @barnabus

    Disclaimer is however correct that such a basic mistake — confusing Georgy Zhukov with Konstantin Rokossovsky — “makes the validity of the rest of the piece very doubtful”.

    • Agree: Wielgus
    • Replies: @Verymuchalive
  10. @Michael Meo

    I’m certainly in agreement with that.
    Slavskiy rarely uses references, as here. Some of his articles are very loose indeed, as here.
    It’s like listening to a guy in a bar who’s had rather too many and is rambling on self-indulgently.

  11. @Ron Unz

    You’re right, the author here was just making up stuff. As the Anonymous poster said in another reply, “such a basic mistake makes the validity of the rest of your piece very doubtful.”

    In any case, the Western media has, in recent years, taken to pointing out historically inconvenient facts about, for example, Stalin’s pact with Hitler over the partition of Poland. Or that the Soviet Union trained German pilots and provided Germany with fuel and grain and other raw materials as part of their alliance right up into the start of the invasion.

    If “Western media” includes textbooks, these facts have been widely known since the end of WW2.

    Note to the author: Good References can be your friend, both before starting these essays, and for the education of the readers.

  12. Before addressing some of the primary elements of Slavskiy’s essay, as a recovering journalist I have one bit of advice for him: Paragraphs. Perhaps he can engage the brief services of a competent copy editor, or simply teach himself how to break up his copy into readable bits.

    Any good journo with some experience behind him will agree with this point of view. Long, run-on paragraphs are fine for a first draft. Once the essay is satisfactorily complete, then it’s time to break it up into fully readable segments.

    Yes, I understand that ideally a paragraph should be coherent and based on a uniform thought sequence and pattern. However, as an ideal, it can only rarely be achieved as a reader-friendly presentation.

    Sometimes, starting out, it may be wise to let the copy sit, as is, for an hour or so and then go through it with the proverbial fine-tooth comb. Over time, relative brevity of paragraph architecture will become a new and generally welcomed habit.

  13. One of Slaviskiy’s primary contentions relates to the concept of a national ideology. For some years now, I’ve come to understand that as “idiotology”. Yes, it’s nice to have unifying themes that the population can adopt and gather around in general support. Ultimately, though, ideology is one of those 19th Century memes that has taken a long time a dying.

    Ideology is nothing other than groupthink, a herd mentality. It is bereft of critical thought and devolves a population into a mentally sterile monad. Not good. Ideologies and “isms” are a bane for creative thought and individual excellence.

    Under such a mode, innate and inherent qualities of leadership are stifled and even strangled into a mass of administrative bureaucracies…or bureau-crazies.

    America, under Babylonian Talmudist rule by the Sanhedrin and their incorporated moneymongers has devolved, generation after generation into a military madness mindset of “U$A!!!, U$A!!!, U$A” ,unheeding and consciously unaware, taken-for granted idiotology and ism.

    Not good. Herd mentality is ultimately devolutionary.

    • Agree: Bro43rd, Joe Levantine
    • Replies: @Thulean Friend
    , @Exile
  14. Ed Case says:
    @Ron Unz

    There was at least one Marshal of the Soviet Union who was sent to the Gulag post war.
    Solzhenitsyn wrote of seeing Urkas play cards for his fur lined boots.

  15. Two remarks:

    – replacing Orthodoxy with Laïcité isn’t enough to define French civic platform; the WWII history the French elites peddle isn’t aimed at glorifying the French resistance, it is aimed at shaming the French people for collaboration and aiding and abetting the “Holocaust”. Actually, all history taught to the French is aimed at instilling guilt and shame in them. The supreme irony is that almost all the shameful policies in France’s past, from the excesses of colonialism to the collaboration with the nazis, have been enacted by the the very same Left that is today shamemongering the French. It is a proven historical fact that the socialists collaborated with the nazis while the French nationalist right resisted.

    – with regards to the PR war over Ukraine, who cares what the West says, the important thing is to win the war on the ground. I’m not saying that exposing Ukrainian crimes is not important because it is just as the biolabs story is important but I know from experience back in the 1990s and the wars in the former Yugoslavia that trying to push truths into Western media is an effort in vain, so holding back punches in the hope that Russia will be given a different treatment in the media is a losing strategy. The only thing that works with Western degenerates is to scare the sh*t out of them. It’s something that was obviously way above the Serbs’ pay grade but it isn’t above the Russians’ so they should show no mercy. And forget about the kr@p that Ukrainians are brothers, they are no more brothers to Russians than Croats are to Serbs, they are disgusting retarded savage mofers just like Croats are disgusting retarded savage mofers.

    • LOL: InnerCynic
  16. “Ukraine is rightful Russian land with Russians living on it,” is a statement that was considered extreme a few weeks ago, but is now rather mainstream and one that the average Russian can hear from the pundit class on the state channels. These same pundits then turn around and condemn “nationalism.”

    The term for this phenomenon, of simultaneously holding two points of view that directly contradict each other, is Doublethink. It was coined by George Orwell in his 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Since the rationale for waging a war of aggression against Ukraine is objectively inexplicable, the propagandists had no choice but to resort to heavy doses of Doublethink indoctrination and thereby must have suddenly transformed Russia’s masses into an Orwellian society. This would explain why so many intellectuals and others who were financially well-off decided to flee Russia in the past few weeks.

    An analogous phenomenon is currently apparent at this web site, where some of the most shameless and nonsensical war propaganda is repeatedly being spread by such authors as Mike Whitney and Andrew Anglin, and, rather astonishingly, it is being well-received and amplified by numerous commentators. Cumulatively, a smorgasbord of fake narratives has been presented to try to justify this war, with many of them inconsistent not just with facts but also common sense. Rather conspicuously (to me), the actual motivations for this war remained unmentioned.

    What I have noticed is that, with regard to its attitudinal premises, the current Russian propaganda campaign mirrors what has been on display for decades in the case of the Israeli Zionist narrative to support aggression toward its immediate neighbors. The common elements are a mixture of chauvinism, paranoia, lawlessness, and militarism. It has been both disturbing and amusing to witness so many commentators here condemning these attributes in one case while staunchly approving them in the other, as they project their blatant sense of hypocrisy.

    • Disagree: DNA999
    • Replies: @Dumbo
  17. If Russia adds a fourth pillar to her trilateral one of Orthodoxy, sports and WWII, namely international cooperation as opposed to international competition, then the Russian ideology might start garnering far more track.

    International cooperation means first and foremost what the Treaty of Westphalia stipulated as how to solve conflicts among nations by always looking at issues from the perspective of the other before making a definite choice based on what is good for me, and should also mean the respect for other people’s traditions no matter how they would seem at odds with your culture, such as no more feminism imposed on Muslim societies, or anal sex and same sex marriage, or political correctness, or open society or you name it from the plethora of Western ideologies that purport to support freedom overtly but which aims at a new stealthy colonialism covertly.

    And BTW, a gold backed Russian Rouble would do wonders at stopping the shenanigans of the Western financial charade.

  18. First I want to praise you as a palatable writer with interesting information, sharings and a natural good will (if not passion) for his native country. In appreciation I make this effort to respond:
    RS: “I’d like to point out that terms do not seem to have any inherent meaning to them.”
    Please try to study “Etymology” on the sidelines from time to time? Time and again it can be a real eye opener…(?)
    Examples relating to your series about your Russia:
    Normal – norm – norm giver – norm commitees – normed – e.g. DIN Deutsche Industrie Norm or „the Kremlin“ (has to set common norms for a large variety of peoples within its boundaries or “départements naturels” of normal spheres, because natural spheres?)
    Natural – native – Nation – natal – origin – original – ori – gina – vagina – e.g. Mother Russia (?)
    Interpretation of “national”: Nationalism is natal, is natural – God is nature, nature is Go(o)d. Hence God is “racist” per se. The creator of races is naturally “racist”; racism is go(o)d; a.s.o.a.s.f.
    Sport, Orthodoxy and World War 2 are three society pillars…
    I assume that “the military” and/or “services” are contained in all three pillars.
    At least from the outside it seems that Russia is doing enviably well and is on the verge of a remarkable lift of the overall wealth and wellbeing of its people. I hope for the dethroning of the oligarchy besides – because the Go(o)d contraires to money gods (Jewish thieves) and their normal greed (their bent norms in their unnatural complaisance).
    (My opinion: Russia must reintegrate the whole of the Ukraina into its sphere. That so called West has no business there, apart from its nasty, evil businesses. Russia is naturally the business of natural Russians (not the chameleons with variable passports). “The West” is also missing natural rights in Europe all together. “The West” should go back to its Jewnighted States of Israhell and never come out again).

  19. Sarah says:
    @Ron Unz

    and also @Rolo Slavskiy

    Replace Georgiy Zhukov by Konstantin Rokossovsky in Rolo Slavskiy’s article.

  20. Obviously, I was wrong in a previous comment about Russia’s unreadiness to let go foreign instructors embedded with the Azov regiment in Mariupol. A corridor has been opened to let them go. I don’t know the Russian rationale behind it but I think that whatever they expect in return, they won’t get it and I do believe that those foreigners are more valuable dead than alive to Russia. Letting them go won’t make anybody alter their stance and letting the Anglo-Saxon go unpunished is a big, big mistake. Whenever you get your hands on one, you eliminate him to rid Earth of a pest.

    • Agree: dimples, gT
    • Replies: @Joe Paluka
  21. Mr Anatta says:

    I’ve worked out why Russia build phallus shaped buildings,like in the image above.

    It’s because it’s a Kamchatka versus Florida thing and the Russian elites are goading the yanqui elites about their penis envy.

    • Replies: @Haha
  22. Barr says:
    @Cook_ie

    Rouble cant hold the fort too long unless it can force changes in international trade or Rouble is pegged to another reserve or widely accepted currency or gold.

    Moscow is artificially propping up the rouble. Nothing wrong with that. USA has done that in 1970s.

    The role of official measures in the recovery is massive ,unsustaunable ,and unnatural.

    Russia jacked up the interests rates to 15 per cent, restricted local firms’ access to foreign currency cash, barred citizens from withdrawing more than $20,000 in foreign currency for 12 months, and stopped banks from selling hard currency in cash.

    Foreign investors have been banned from exiting securities, limiting the dumping of dollars. ( Malaysia did in 1997 and UK did not in 1990s)

    Market forces cannot drive the rouble in the way they can the euro or dollar. Thanks to the western monopoly of the superior mechanism of rigging the entire world currency market .

    Russian demand for foreign exchange has been falling. Speculators cant bet . Soros is mad but hasnt been heard yet .

    Ruble can maintain the sustainability as long as the balance of payment position improves. Otherwise it needs gold and foreign currencies.( Poor and sustained negative balance of payment of USA has not pushed the dollars down – thanks to the rigging )

    • Replies: @Old Brown Fool
  23. Dumbo says:
    @Been_there_done_that

    Those “nationalists” were bombing women and children in the Donbass, which wanted to separate from the Ukraine. In that sense, the Ukrainians are not nationalists, but imperialists wanting to rule over other people. Russia is liberating the Donbass from the Ukraine.

    The eastern part of the Ukraine is mostly populated by Russian-speaking people which are not ethnically different than Russians. Any “nationalist” would certainly see the point of splitting the country in half.

    The situation is analogue to the breakup of Yugoslavia, or of Czechoslovakia.

    And speaking of hypocrisy, somehow, it was right for NATO to bomb Serbia in order to create the fake country of Kosovo (which was just a historical region of Serbia populated by recent Albanian immigrants), but, Putin saving the Donbass, which had its civilians being bombed for EIGHT YEARS, is wrong.

    Screw the Ukraine. Yes, it’s a fake country. What’s insane, is morons like you wanting world economic crisis and nuclear war to keep their shady deals with corrupt politicians there (including Biden’s son business), but painting it as “muh Ukrainian independence” or “muh poor Ukrainian civilians”. Hypocrisy, thy name is Been there done fuck.

    • Thanks: DNA999
    • Replies: @Been_there_done_that
  24. You don’t need to keep dancing around, Rollo, with blather about French deconstructionalists. Nationalist IS normal.
    When you make laws to promote your own people’s welfare, as you naturally will do, then you have National Socialism, THE superior form of governance.

    Russian leadership needs to make it clear that there is a blue-water break between the Russia of today and the horrors of judeo-bolshevism.
    Russia would do well to publicly proclaim in detail those horrors, and to name the names of those responsible. And I mean their real names, like Levi Davidovitch Bronstein and not the alias Trotsky for just one example of very many.

    You will not prosper, Russia, while remaining in half-truths abt “Great Patriotic War”, when many Russians joined the Axis in their righteous assault on bolshevism. You are simply giving your enemies a stick to beat you with.

    • Agree: Towey
  25. anonymous[139] • Disclaimer says:

    pointed out that Russia doesn’t seem to have a visible political/economic/state ideology

    Sure they do. It’s ‘We’re Russian’. Does more need to be said?

    committed to one messianic political/economic theory or another like, say, the U.S., which is committed to crusading for its religion of Liberal Human Rights Democracy

    That’s all some incoherent grab-bag which purpose is to act as a cover for it’s power and wealth grab. It’s a cultural thing, Americans like an evangelical sermon justifying them bombing and robbing others. What’s China’s ideology? Communism? A country with a billionaire class and that does huge business with the biggest capitalist country in the world, supposedly an enemy to be shown the exit door of history? Like Mussolini’s definition of fascism, action creates ideology in its wake. When the actions change so does the ideology, creating the justifications for it.

    • Replies: @Anon
  26. Sepp says:

    As we all know, the Soviet Union suffered humiliating losses in the first weeks and months of the war due to the sheer incompetence of the Bolshevik leadership, and the war had such a catastrophic effect on the lives of Soviet citizens that it was no doubt difficult to spin a narrative around glory and victory so soon after the mass-suffering and destruction

    After December 7, 1941, when Japan finally swallowed the jewish bait and finally took action against an undeclared US war against her, Lend Lease started shipping millions of tons of food stuffs to the USSR. Americans were deprived of butter so that Russians wouldn’t be. Spam, meat, grain and all kinds of food stuffs were sent to Russians so that the USSR would not collapse before the genocide of Germany was completed. It was this shot in the arm of physical wealth that Russians fondly look back upon far more than the purge of Jews within the ruling Communist elites.

    It’s an attack on the Kremlin’s platform by arguing that Stalin and the USSR were just as evil as Hitler and that Russia is a continuation of the USSR and seeks to take back Poland and invade Europe

    Putin and the entire Russian media complex has been blathering on about Nazi, Nazi, Nazi. The joke here is that Putin far more of a Nazi than the Azov Battalion or Right Sector. National Socialism IS the “Ideology” that Rolo Slavsiky claims Putin is missing. Putin can’t utter those words because that is the cognitive dissonance that apparently is as rampant in Russia as it is in the west.

    Jews are desperate to keep their fake Nazi holofraud narrative alive. They are bludgeoning Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Germans and in effect every white person across the planet with it.

    Germany: 93-year-old Holocaust denier sent back to jail

    [MORE]

    The so-called “Nazi Grandma,” Ursula Haverbeck has been handed another prison sentence. The notorious Holocaust denier will serve a one-year sentence.

    The notorious neo-Nazi Ursula Haverbeck was sentenced to a 12-month prison sentence in Berlin on Friday for denying the murder of over a million Jews at the Auschwitz death camp.

    The court rejected an appeal by the 93-year-old for convictions in 2017 and 2020 handed to her for repeated instances of Holocaust denial.

    “You’re not a Holocaust researcher, you’re a Holocaust denier,” the presiding judge said in the courtroom, adding “it’s not knowledge you’re spreading, it’s poison.”

    Serial Holocaust denier
    Haverbeck was sentenced to six months in prison in 2017 after repeatedly denying the historic facts of the Holocaust during an event in Berlin.

    She then received a further 12-month-long prison sentence in 2020 for publishing an interview online in which she again made statements that denied the Holocaust.

    The judge said Haverbeck’s actions came from her own beliefs and that the decision to jail the 93-year-old had been necessary as there was no alternative.

    “There’s nothing that will stop you,” the judge told Haverbeck. “We won’t have any impact on you with words.”

    From Gab:
    People get less time for manslaughter. Wall Street billionaires get less time for ripping people off for billions of dollars. The Jews are really afraid of anybody taking them on on this topic and that’s why they’re being so strong with this sentencing. They are trying to send a strong message out but the message is just saying we are the bad guys.

    • Agree: Towey
  27. profnasty says:
    @barnabus

    Slavsky aaayy?
    This article seems written by someone who’s first language is english.
    The grammar, vocabulary, and syntax do not sound ‘slavic ‘ to me.
    This may be a professional, cia, implant.
    This article seems simplistic in content. It is a social political overview without firm commitment. Why would Putin the Great care about Rolo’s lack of opinion?

  28. Russia is now a revivalist Christian nation.

    This simple fact goes either unreported.

    Or it’s edited out by misinformed editors.

  29. I don’t know about the Russian ideology but having observed for some time the UkroZioNazis, the Batic Nazis, the Poles, Czechs and the rest of the NATO ZioNazis I have come to the conclusion that they are lunatic fanatics of the worst kind, worse than Al Qaida and ISIS, on a par with some primitive Godless pagan tribes from the darkest corners of history and are impossible to reason with. I fear that Avangard may have to fly and I’m sorry for any reasonable rational people, whether a minority or a majority in those countries, but they don’t have any influence on the decision making and will be wiped out as “collateral”. Perhaps a limited strike on some targets in Europe may knock some sense into those politicians, especially in the US, as after all they are the real masters of the EU and NATO, to come to some kind of agreement with Russia after such a demonstration of destructive power. Maybe the Russians have pulled out of Kiev so their troops will be safe when the big one lands on that nest of vile fanatics.

    • Thanks: GMC
  30. Marcali says:
    @Anonymous

    Please quote your source for Zhukov’s rotting.
    Otherwise Zhukov was not rotting in Siberia, he is rotting now in Hell.

    • Disagree: JR Foley
    • Replies: @annamaria
  31. GMC says:

    Replace the WWII ideology in Russia with its Cultura, Historia and Traditions and you will be right. This is even in the speech that you must memorize before you recieve their passport.
    And their old fashion way of life and straight society, set them further away from comparing them to Americans. More like living with my immigrant grandparents that were much stricter and protective, since the modern trends were not fully understood or trusted. But of course I m looking at this from an older man s perspective.

  32. Even if just 10-15% of Russians go to Orthodox liturgy and communion, they’re still way ahead of the pozzed churches in Europe and the US.

    https://thomashuxley.substack.com/p/where-is-god-in-all-these-pozzed?s=w

    • Replies: @profnasty
  33. Anon[156] • Disclaimer says:
    @anonymous

    The inner core of fascism is an active man capable of forging itself . To act and not to be acted upon, to impose form on the chaos of nature like the sculptor who carves his own idealized image agaisnt the resistance of the inert matter or to impose order and a guiding principle on the spiritual world. Resist the force that wants to rob us of our humanity and crush everything in us that strives for a unique expression and reduce us to NOTHINGNESS .

    THE ACTION AS A PURE SELF EXPRESION THAT MODEL THE WORLD thats fascism

  34. Last night, I was watching Chekhov’s Platonov starring the great Rex Harrison and what stayed with me the most was that money lending Jew, who has got it him visceral hatred of Mikhail and wants him killed (he won’t get his own hands dirty) using the village boor, Ossip, because the protagonist is on to him and wants all of them thrown out of his beloved motherland.

    After endless bloodsucking as well as bloodletting during the two hundred years together (Solzhenitsyn), the Jew is still Russophobic because his bloodlust has no end to it as he inflicts pain on his victims while crying out in pain (e.g. Madeline “I didn’t know I was Jewish” Albright).

    But unable carry out evil acts by his pusillanimous self, he seeks out a puissant power in gullible America (not because it’s a nation of useful idiots but its leadership is corrupt to the core) to inflict pain and suffering across the world. When would the mano nero be chopped off?

    There will be no peace and prosperity until the Devil’s spawn is destroyed!

  35. Anon[156] • Disclaimer says:
    @Sepp

    Another jewish vermin spotted

  36. @Commentator Mike

    Please let’s not go overboard, letting the big birds fly. NEVER use nukes unless the situation is absolutely existential peril.

    On the other hand, the use of non-nuclear hypersonic and even thermobaric weaponry against the Rottenchild Bank in City of London and either a major bank or the Stock Exchange on Wall $treet would send a message that would reverberate throughout the entire coverted command and control infrastructure.

    • Replies: @Commentator Mike
  37. Haha says:
    @Mr Anatta

    All traditional places of worship, as also university buildings, have had pillars, minarets, etc. If every straight line reminds you of the male organ and every hole of the female, then you may have a serious problem with your head. The orthodox churches have beautiful cupolas often described as onion-shaped. No one in his right mind sees anything phallic about them

    • Replies: @Mr Anatta
    , @Mr Anatta
  38. Haha says:
    @Commentator Mike

    Fortunately these baltic and other creatures have no future. They will keep digging deeper and deeper shit holes for themselves. And then may safely be simply ignored

  39. “Zhukov, remember, was rotting in a Siberian gulag at the start of the war and had to be pulled out by the desperate Reds who had successfully lost their entire forward army in Europe in a few short months of fighting against the Germans.”
    Multilayered BS pie.
    It is difficult even to read this sort of garbage. Like some street junkie decided suddenly to write about theory of relativity.
    Zhukov never waking Gulag. It was probably about Rokossovsky, but speaks volume about who writes in this mental facility called unz review. The rest is garbage as well.

  40. @emerging majority

    Ideologies and “isms” are a bane for creative thought and individual excellence.

    That’s exactly why they are important for a large population. Most people are herd followers and always will be. For any society to function, that has to be the case.

    Ideologies are constraining for the 5% of the population that is truly both intellectually and politically active (except the true believers among them), but what’s good for them isn’t the same as what’s good for the larger mass of people.

    So practical people must decide which ideology is the most beneficial for the long-term prosperity of the people. To put it crudely: most people can’t truly think for themselves and its the role of the intellectual class to do it for them. The problem in the West is that this class despises their own population, which explains so much of the pathologies present in these societies.

    • Agree: Miro23
    • Replies: @emerging majority
  41. Mr. Hack says:

    Should Russia recommit herself and her resources to making the world safe for Communism/Orthodoxy/Borsht

    Russians should stick to making shchiy, and not try to muff up Ukraine’s national dish, borshch (no”t” at the end please!) Ukrainians use beets to reden their borshch, not Ukrainian blood like Russians do.

  42. @Commentator Mike

    Why a limited strike in Europe?
    “Europe” is none of your fucking business!
    Get out of Germany!
    Why not a limited strike in JewYolk or TelAthief and/or Washington?
    Nah, what the heck, nuke Jewmerica, Israhell & Vatican all together into the ocean “and the world will be a better place”.

    • Thanks: nokangaroos
  43. Sepp says:
    @Commentator Mike

    Please define the meaning of “Nazi”.

    • Replies: @Commentator Mike
  44. I found this article confusing. Ideology, as originally and accurately defined by Karl Marx, is an ideation (or propaganda) that serves to cover economic interests. Neither banning international sports competition, state support for Christian orthodoxy or promoting the history of WWII would seem to meet the criterion of serving economic interests; albeit it may do the opposite.

    A current example of ideology would be Israel’s pursuit of provoking war with Russia through Ukraine to cover its economic interest in blocking Russian natural gas sales to Europe while trying to piece together a route for a future gas pipeline from Israel’s Leviathan gas field to Europe to replace the loss of Russian natural gas.

    What Slaviskiy seems to be describing might better be called nationalist religion, not civic ideology or civil religion. Religion addresses what people consider sacred. International sports competition might reach the apogee of being considered a sacred part of Russian life, but banning it would not serve an economic interest. Christian Orthodoxy is self-explanatory as sacred. Venerating the victory of WWII might be held as sacred, to the point of covering up massive war crimes, such as the rape of thousands of German women. This is why America considers it evil to address its own war crimes during WWII, by holding that any criticism of the Holocaust as a crime.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
  45. @Thulean Friend

    Generally in agreement with your essentially sensible observation. The intellectual class, as you describe it is a bit circumscribed, however. When intellectuals are also creative artists and original thinkers, that is when there is some yeast in the batter.

    One intellectual of my acquaintance was a materialist, Marxist, Cartesian, Benthamite and similar examples of left-brain overload, with very little development of his right-hemisphere which would allow for original thought and creative and aesthetic levels of comprehension.

    You cite “true believers”. Yes, my friend certainly was one of those. He was also obdurately closed-minded on several levels and suffered from an acute case of cognitive-dissonance. I find that the majority of left-intellectuals are of a basically similar mindset and disposition. Thus, your five percent needs to be pared down rather a bit.

    Fortunately, there are in rural America a growing number of practical, common-sense, down to earth folks who may be lacking in various letters appended behind their surnames; but who make up for those perceived deficiencies by a well-grounded sense of self and of community coherence.

    Having lived in a series of large cities in my twenties prior to age 30; I long ago reverted to my rural roots and energetically became somewhat of an outside insider within the local folk culture. If there is any hope in this ruptured republic, it absolutely does not exist within the terminally deluded and comfortably numb sub-urbanites; rather within “flyover country”.

  46. @Mr. Hack

    Hack away at the branches all you want. You are totally ignorant about the roots.

  47. Wokechoke says:
    @Wayne Lusvardi

    Ww2 myths serve the AngloAmerican empire, and in a different way they serve the Russian empire. Without the storybook aspect of these conflicts neither state would have legitimacy.

    • Agree: Exile
  48. A righteous dot-man.

    INDIAN REPORTER LAYS INTO US NEOCON OVER UKRAINE CRISIS



    Video Link

  49. Exile says:
    @emerging majority

    Ideology isn’t a substitute for a racial, ethnic and national identity but anti-ideological attitudes can be taken too far.

    The kind of incoherent, my-country-right-or-wrong patriotism you’re criticizing in Americans isn’t ideological. The supposedly ideological elements (capitalism, constitutionalism, representative democracy, human rights, etc…) are often contradictory and almost entirely advanced in name only. Ask an Iraqi or Afghan about America’s respect for human rights.

    Ideology has its place – not at the center of politics but as an important aspect. You can understand and employ ideology without being a slave to it.

    Libertarianism is no more desirable than a herd mentality. Again it’s a matter of balance. Russians can afford to be a little more “herdish” when their country is being managed more in their interests. America is unfortunately run by (((hostile elites))) who hate the majority White population.

    The Western idea of the political citizen isn’t realistic – 90% of people will never maintain the level of awareness, knowledge and motivation necessary to be de Tocqueville’s ideal town hall citizen.

    There will always be an elite more engaged with political leadership and ideology – the issue is selecting one that doesn’t hate the masses.

    • Replies: @emerging majority
  50. @Sepp

    The actions of a true statesman are not taken for personal, ideological or sectarian reasons, but are responses to challenges of “realpolitik” to a greater Russia with varying peoples including 5 mio Jews. That Russia (“Putin”) seems very aware of the implications of its decisions and the weight they can have in the global context – has it ever been more obvious?
    The hydrocarbonruble is replacing the petrodollar.
    https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-03-24-the-dollar-will-die-and-the-ruble-will-dominate-commodities-based-currencies.html#
    Is this very friendly to the Jew business, the 5 oily sisters?
    Putin’s relationship with Israel represents an incredibly complicated matter; anyone expecting a simple explanation is bound to be disappointed. The truth is, the relationship between Putin’s Russia and Israel, and long before that, between Jews and Russians, requires an entire book to better understand. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was a personal friend of Putin, wrote such a book (“200 Years Together”), but due to the steely grip of the Jewish lobby on the Anglo media, it does not seem to have been translated into English and published to this day? The work of a world-famous book author and Nobel Prize winner for literature cannot be published in the Anglo world because the content would destroy the official version of the Russian-Jewish relationship. Can there be any more powerful proof of the subjugation of the former British Empire to Jewish interests but not Russia?
    Without going into the unfortunate emancipation of the Jew in Germany and their historical rabbinical leadership in the shtetl to the administrative floors of the largest corporations, it can be said about Russian Jews that their emancipation process proceeded in a little more violent and manner than elsewhere. The second major difference between West Jews and Russian Jews is that between 1917 and 1939 the Bolshevik Jews exercised total control over Russia. During this period, the Bolshevik Jews persecuted Russians – especially Orthodox Russian Christians – with an unprecedented genocidal hatred. These are historical facts and Russians seem to be aware of them. That is probably why the needed the biggest Holofraud temple worldwide in Moscow. This knowledge is in the EUSSR as criminal thinking about Jews viciously punished. Putin knows all this, and he also has the courage to say so openly to Jews and the Jews are very edgy. Never underestimate the power of the Jews. (cit. Adenauer). Right now the Jew is contemplating killing Putin. So much for your Putin as Jewish collaborateur.

    Ukrainian group “Maniacs Cult of Murder” active in Russia
    https://www.voltairenet.org/article216346.html

    CIA preparing targeted assissinations in Ukraine
    https://www.voltairenet.org/article216301.html

    https://tass.ru/obschestvo/14266717
    Christ and Russian saints unite Russia

    https://tass.ru/interviews/14237219
    re. kultura

    • Thanks: Towey
  51. @Dumbo

    What’s insane, is morons like you wanting world economic crisis and nuclear war to keep their shady deals with corrupt politicians there (including Biden’s son business)…

    Your comments are completely irrational. You have projected fantastical desires and opinions onto me that I do not share and have never expressed. You seem to be incapable of thinking clearly and are a representative example of the numerous useful idiots and deluded cultists that post messages here – another insane person accusing others of insanity. At least you chose an appropriate handle for yourself.

    • Replies: @Dumbo
  52. @Sepp

    Slowly but surely it is getting stranger, that you insist on truth from Russia, but no truth for Russia and most of all no truth needed from America?
    In my sums the American crimes against Europe and Germany in particular prevail up till today over the Bolshois’. Italy too is very, very badly done by.

    • Replies: @Sepp
  53. Dumbo says:
    @Been_there_done_that

    Whatever. You’re now in my ignored list. Goodbye.

  54. @Barr

    May be after the middle east once again seeks the Russian “protection”, ruble will be linked to petroleum and gas – a petro-ruble in effect.

  55. Agent76 says:

    April 1, 2022 Ukraine and the “Politics of Anti-Semitism”: Contemporary Neo-Nazi Threat against Ukraine’s Jewish Community. The Complicity of US-NATO-EU.

    This article first published by GR on February 26, 2014 focusses on the complicity of US-NATO-EU in turning “a blind eye” to the ongoing actions of neo-Nazi groups directed against Ukraine’s Jewish community.

    Neo-Nazis Honoring Stepan Bandera.

    https://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-and-the-politics-of-anti-semitism-west-upholds-neo-nazi-repression-of-ukraines-jewish-community/5370790

  56. Sepp says:
    @Kurt Knispel

    I am not certain what your point is, Kurt. Churchill famously said that “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”. I don’t agree with that statement, now, or during a war. Besides, Churchill was not only one of the planets biggest war criminals and traitor to his own people, he was also an all around douchebag and likely a little boy buggerer.

    Italy is toast, so is France. Only extreme pain will wake those people up, and then it will be too late. Of course Germany is little better off. In fact every member of Nato are not only screwed, they deserve the ass raping that is heading their way.

    • Agree: DNA999
    • Replies: @Kurt Knispel
  57. @Sepp

    America (a name given by a German) was and is our downfall; not Russia.
    America back stabbs, murders and plunders Germany for 108 years now.
    Russia is part of Europe. America should have no business in Europe or anywhere for that matter, since it could be completely self sufficient.
    You are on Russia’s back and blind to the far greater crimes of America.
    I do not know if you are a paid or a volunteer agitator like that snake MotGod, who started out talking to me about God. Today the devil let his pants down. Simply disgusting.
    If you want to be taken serious, start talking about the crimes of America and the Holofraud business of America. Tell us about the American share in the 17 million rapes ongoing till 1954 and beyond. Tell us about the over 1 million surrendered, disarmed German POWs the glorious US-Army killed before their great “liberation” of Germany and the over one mio POWs the glorious US-Army killed after the 8th of May. Tell us about the legally protected lies of the US-Army in Germany and their continous day to day exploitation of Germany and Europe in general. Tell us about the German gold, about anything.
    America is one hell of a sucker, sucker, sucker, sucker, cheat, liar, murderer, murderer, murderer and what negativity not?!

    • Thanks: DNA999
  58. On April 3, 2022, in the 4th Week of Great Lent, the Feast Day of St. John of the Ladder, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated The Liturgy of St. John the Baptist. St. Basil the Great inThe Patriarchal Cathedral in honor of the Resurrection of Christ — the main church of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. At the end of the Liturgy, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed the faithful with his Primatial address.

    In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

    [MORE]

    Today’s Sunday in the language of the church Charter is called the week in which we remember the remarkable exploits of the Sinai fathers, and among them-St. John of the Ladder, who lived from 17 to 70 years in the monastery on Mount Sinai. He lived in seclusion, remaining in prayer, in fasting, but at the same time carefully observed himself, his spiritual state, but also the state of those people with whom he had to meet. The result of these observations, the result of prayers and fasting, was a wonderful book that St. John wrote. He called it “Ladder” or, in Slavic, “Ladder”.

    Where does this staircase lead? Stairs always lead up or down, i.e. vertically. It is impossible to move horizontally on the stairs — this is a tool that helps you either go up or down. And so St. John writes about how to ascend the ladder of life, what you need to do so that a person becomes better, cleaner, smarter, more perspicacious with each step, how to acquire everything that gives a person true strength.

    We sometimes think that money gives us strength. Indeed, money can sometimes give power, and when the money runs out, the power runs out. And sometimes money runs out under tragic circumstances, and the person suffers more than he is happy as a result. You can not rely on money and wealth in the hope that they will help you climb the ladder up. If we create wealth within ourselves, if we create a rich inner world that is not subject to external influences, then you can remain poor, but be rich inside. And how many such wonderful examples are known! Many of the materially poor but internally rich people have become, for example, great scientists. Let us recall that the remarkable scientist Lomonosov came from the Pomors, lived in the north in his youth, was a very poor man, but what heights he reached when he became the first Russian academician, the founder of the Russian academic school!

    The internal force of a person, even under constrained external circumstances, pushes him up like hydrogen, which lifts objects above the ground, overcoming the Earth’s gravity. Because hydrogen is a light gas, and if you fill a certain volume with it, then this volume will rush up; and if the volume is very large,then it will take the cargo with it. Here it is very important that a person during his life fills himself with such inner content that constantly lifts a person up, gives him strength — the strength of the spirit, the strength of the mind, the strength of the will, the strength of the senses.

    Maybe someone will say: and what does it have to do with feelings? And feelings occupy a very important place in human life. The greatest and holiest feeling that God has bestowed on man is the feeling of love. And we know what miracles this feeling, this inner strength, creates. The sacrificial love of a mother for a child is such that a mother can give her life without hesitation for her child. And a wonderful example of the union of a man and a woman, a husband and wife, who create a strong family and keep love for decades, overcoming temptations — because the power of feelings is great! And if we talk today about spiritual feats, including remembering the ascetics of Sinai-John of the Ladder and others-then they achieved through their exploits, through their self-restraint, through fasting, through prayer that they became very strong, wise, and gained very strong feelings. They loved the world around them, loved people so much that their hearts were open to everyone. If this were not the case, no one would go to Sinai to touch the holy place. After all, no one comes to an empty well for water, and if the feeling of love does not flow out, then who will go to a person who talks about love, but in fact does not love at all?

    The Holy Fathers of Sinai, including St. John of the Ladder, teach us how to acquire great spiritual riches, including faith, hope, and the greatest wealth — love. Reflecting on how a person’s life path develops, St. John wrote his wonderful book, calling it “The Ladder”: what and how a person should do in order to ascend up, and not fall down, so that in the end, on the highest steps of this ladder, to find faith, hope and true love.

    Where does St. John suggest we start? It’s amazing: from the very beginning, he talks about the hustle and bustle. Vanity — each of us knows what it is. Vanity is a ruined time. Vanity consumes our attention, our mind, will, feelings, and at the exit, as engineers say, there is no signal. Time has passed in vain-it means that they have made a fuss, they have not done anything. It only seems to us that they did, and they did something that has nothing to do with the ascent of man. And it is no coincidence that the “Ladder” begins precisely with the fact that St. John protects us with his words from vanity, from empty pastime. After all, time is the greatest value. When we talk about a lifetime’s worth of time, we say, “Life is a value.” But life is first and foremost time, and life can be absolutely devoid of value if you destroy the time of life, if you do not do the main thing that you should have done, if this time passes in vanity, emptiness, worthlessness.

    St. John also helps us to understand today: in order to ascend spiritually, intellectually, and in all other respects, the first thing that you need to eliminate from your life is vanity, an empty pastime. This does not mean that you need, as they now say, to work hard all the time. Not at all! A person cannot live without rest. There is no doubt that we must work, because we are all called to work; but there must also be a time of rest, and it must be devoted, first of all, to ourselves. We must rest in such a way that our physical, spiritual and intellectual strength is strengthened as a result of rest. If this does not happen, then there was no rest, but there was a fuss. And victory over the hustle and bustle makes it possible to build the correct coordinate system, where there is always a vertical dimension. And in order to measure our ability to move vertically, to go up, we must carefully observe ourselves, our thoughts, our actions. And if we see that what is happening to us has nothing to do with our ascent, then this is the same vanity that the great Sinai elder warned us about.

    John of the Ladder is truly etched in the memory of the entire Church as a great seer. Someone who has helped so many people correctly build their life trajectory, which should certainly lead upwards — to the sky, to the stars, to God, without Whom nothing can be right and fussy at all.

    I am very happy that today I had the opportunity to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in this beautiful church, in the presence of our servicemen. Today our Fatherland is going through a difficult time. Today, once again, the name “military man” is associated with being not only in a peaceful state, but also being on the battlefield. Fortunately, our Fatherland does not often face the battlefield, but the arrival of young people in the Armed Forces who strive to become officers, who strive to devote their lives to defending the Fatherland, does not stop. And if in peacetime this can be explained by some privileges or material considerations, then in wartime service in the Armed Forces is a real feat, and this is exactly the time we are currently experiencing. The service requires the readiness of everyone who has taken the oath to defend their Homeland without sparing their lives, and therefore today our special prayer is for the Armed Forces, for our soldiers, with whom we hope for security, for freedom, for the true independence of our country.

    Today, the word “independence” is often applied to almost all countries of the world. But this is wrong, because most countries of the world are now under the colossal influence of one force, which today, unfortunately, opposes the power of our people. And if this is so, if there is a lot of power there, then we must also be very strong. When I say “we”, I mean, first of all, the Armed Forces — but not only. All our people should wake up today, wake up, understand that this is a special time, on which the historical fate of our people may depend.

    That is why I celebrated the Divine Liturgy here today, in this church, to meet first of all with representatives of our Armed Forces, to address them, and through them — to our entire army, to the navy, to all the defenders of the Fatherland, so that they would realize the historical importance of this moment. I want to say again and again: we are a peace-loving country and a very peaceful, long-suffering people who have suffered from wars in a way that few European nations have. We have no desire to go to war or to do anything that might harm others. But we are so brought up by our entire history that we love our Fatherland and will be ready to defend it as only Russians can defend their country.

    When I say these words, I’m not saying any empty compliments. I start from the history of our people, from the history of our Armed Forces. After all, we broke the back of fascism, which would undoubtedly have won the world if not for Russia, if not for the feat of our people. May the Lord help us today, so that we, being peaceful, peaceful and humble people, are at the same time ready — always and under any circumstances — to protect our native home.

    Of course, when I say all this, I do not stop feeling anxious for all the people who live in those places where military clashes are taking place today. After all, all these are the people and peoples of Holy Russia, all of them are our brothers and sisters. But just as in the Middle Ages, wanting to weaken Russia, different forces pushed the brothers against each other, plunging them into internecine warfare, so it happens today. Therefore, we must do everything we can to stop the bloodshed and avoid the danger of internecine warfare with all its consequences. But at the same time, we must be faithful — when I say “we”, I mean, first of all, the military personnel — to our oath and readiness to “lay down our lives for our friends,” as the word of God testifies to this.

    In memory of my visit to this church today, I would like to present an image of Saint Theophan, the Recluse of Vyshensk, with his relics. I will say a few words about this man. Saint Theophan lived relatively recently, in the 19th century. He was a highly educated man, an excellent writer, he lived in the desert, in solitude, but people turned to him for good advice, for prayer. and many of those who came in contact with St. Theophan received miraculous help. And I thought that it would be good to place his image in this church, because this saint of God is separated from us by a very short time, on a historical scale. May St. Theophan protect both our people and our Church by his prayers before the face of God.

    All of you, my dear Bishops, fathers, brothers, sisters, military personnel, military leaders, our youth, I once again cordially welcome and congratulate you on this Sunday, and I wish all of us to preserve the strength of the spirit, the ability to pray for the Fatherland and for ourselves, and the ability to always maintain inner strength which can be translated into different life situations, including multiplying the power of our Armed Forces. May the Lord preserve our land, our Fatherland for many and good summers! Amen.

    http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/5914188.html

    • Thanks: DNA999
  59. Most people simply aren’t in the habit of going to church and don’t really believe that they need to go to church to consider themselves Christians.

    Most so-called Christians in Russia are not religious at all. Most of them have never read the Bible. And those who have stopped considering themselves Christians, because it’s hard for a Russian person to comprehend; the strange idea of God sending his son to be used as a scapegoat in Jerusalem is alien to the Russian culture. People don’t need these churches.

    I had some modest suggestions to share with the Patriarch on how better to accomplish this, but he hasn’t returned my calls as of yet.

    The Patriarch is a boring and ungifted man. He can’t pronounce a sentence without stumbling. His speeches are a torture to listen to, and his appointed clerics are corrupt. There is insider information that of 360 Russian bishops at least 50 are homosexual. Since nothing is being done about that it is logical to assume that the Patriarch himself must be one of them.

    https://www.digitalicons.org/issue14/between-homophobia-and-gay-lobby-the-russian-orthodox-church-and-its-relationship-to-homosexuality-in-online-discussions/

    One could even call this “nationalism” if one were so inclined, but Russian civil society has an aversion to this word, preferring to brand their enemies with it instead.

    The Russians are the same kind of sheeple as the rest of the people in our degenerating world. Their opinions are implanted into their minds through frequent repetition. Just imagine this: the national minorities in Russia have their own republics with their own laws, official languages and their own names. But the Russians themselves don’t have one. And it is a taboo to speak about it. Nationalism!

    All of this begs the question: is the Kremlin’s inability to produce quality propaganda for its side part of a clever plan… or a catastrophic oversight by its tech-luddite leadership?

    A complete lack of understanding. There is a bunch of old fools in Kremlin, running the show. Talented people are not allowed to speak on the media. Even the RT doesn’t operate in Russian. The Putin’s talking heads are singing the same song like a choir, no one else is permitted to offer an opinion, different from theirs. People like Aleksander Dugin got fired and banned from the TV for doing that.

    President Putin, my man, you know where to reach me. Let’s boil some coffee, order some takeout and start throwing some ideas up on the whiteboard.

    No, this is not going to happen, because the man has no time. He is on a tight schedule. Morning: eating a lobster, swimming in a pool, getting a facial, choosing a suit to wear. Afternoon: pretending to work, thinking about lunch, eating the lunch, chilling on the couch. Evening: eating foie gras, taking a bubble bath, getting a cock massage, going to bed. He has no time for ideas.

    • Agree: peterAUS, Agent76
    • Replies: @emerging majority
  60. @Sepp

    I’m using Nazi, for want of a better word although fascist can also do, in the sense of irrational unreasonable fanatics of the European variety regardless of whatever ideology, or no ideology, they may proclaim to adhere to. People who want to ban everyone and everything they disagree with and are not open to debate, discussion, looking at things from another person’s viewpoint, and still live in some past time where they think they’re superior to whoever else. Like the current West which I don’t think can even be called a civilisation any more and is devoid of culture at the present time. Whatever passes for civilisation, culture, or values there is now just some ugly lunatic monstrosity. I am not implying National Socialist in an economic or societal sense.

  61. @emerging majority

    OK, maybe I was too hasty as after all Russia can drop those nukes whenever she wants. After Russia does whatever it does in the Ukraine it should pull a curtain of steel towards the West and establish closer ties with the rest of the World. It should also carry on with a most severe economic war against the Westby refusing to trade anything with it while drawing the rest of the world closer and away from trade with the West. The economic hardships in the West, especially in Europe, will result in plant closures, unemployment, inflation, poverty, etc … see where this is leading to … fertile ground for the rise of European fascism, which we are already seeing but so far it is only being directed against Russia and in support of Ukrainian Nazis. Since directing this fascism against Russia will be pointless as it is a nuclear superpower behind a new curtain of steel then it will have to direct itself at some other, more accessible targets in Western society, especially among the disgruntled public as just blaming Russians for all their misfortunes will wear out eventually and new scapegoats will have to be found to blame for the suffering of the common Western man and to satiate his restless anger, fury, rage and hatred as the economic and social crisis deepens. See where I’m getting to? Do I really object to such a situation developing, at least for a period of time, so that certain elements in society can be cleaned out and contradictions resolved? Do I?

    The UK has left the EU and together with the US is pushing Europe into confrontation with Russia and is funding and arming the UkroNazis. So they are contributing to this rising hateful Russophobia while observing from a distance what goes on in Europe. Doesn’t this remind you of another time of similar circumstance? Later … we will see.

    Step back and look at the big picture and the long view. And you probably do unlike some short sighted short timers emoting here in the commentaries.

  62. annamaria says:
    @Marcali

    This is about your ilk: #34:

    After endless bloodsucking as well as bloodletting during the two hundred years together (Solzhenitsyn), the Jew is still Russophobic because his bloodlust has no end to it as he inflicts pain on his victims while crying out in pain (e.g. Madeline “I didn’t know I was Jewish” Albright). But unable to carry out evil acts by his pusillanimous self, he seeks out a puissant power in gullible America (not because it’s a nation of useful idiots but its leadership is corrupt to the core) to inflict pain and suffering across the world.

    • Replies: @Marcali
  63. annamaria says:
    @Mr. Hack

    Too much into your matzo, Haim “Hack?

    Zionists and Banderites have become one people. Hilarious.

    Russians, Poles, and Ukrainians are bad for Banderites, hence the history of mass killing of unarmed Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian civilians by Banderites.
    As for Zionists? – Oh, they are good, very good! for Banderites.

  64. annamaria says:
    @Mr. Hack

    The Anti-Defamation League of Jewish thugs has recognized Ukrainian Nazis as their dearest brethren. This is a well-deserved company for Banderites.

    Judea declared war on Russia, and Banderites moved eagerly under the Ziocon bunner.

    Banderites have been serving with distinctions (war crimes) to Nuland-Kagan, Kolomojsky, Carl Gerschman, Blinken, Pyatt, Sullivan, Mr. Ze, and others of the same kind.
    Mr. Ze. has been of course nicely enumerated or his services. The so-called White Fuhrers (Semite-led Untermenschen) have doubtlessly received generous “gift$$$” as well, though their pay grade was different than Mr. Ze’s.

    For years, Banderites were cared about by the zionized US to become converted into a battering ram and cannon fodder in a war against Russia. ‘The Jewish communities of Canada and the US have allowed Canadian Banderites to celebrate Nazism unmolested, for decades. A progeny of a prominent Nazi collaborator Christya Freeland, a darling of US Ziocons, has become a Deputy of Justin Trudeau.”

    The anti-Christ Christya Freeland enjoys a friendship with the Zionist star Nuland-Kagan while being a prominent activist in the neo-Nazi Canadian community: https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/the-canadian-bandera-network?s=r

    The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army Volodymyr Zelensky is dancing in heels.


    Video Link

    • LOL: Herald, Agent76
  65. Pindos says:
    @Anonymous

    “basic mistake makesx.” Well, if you can’t spell “makes” then such a basic mistake makes the validity of the rest of your comment very doubtful

  66. Dead coming to life. Zombies.

  67. @Exile

    Unfortunately, in the equation between the elites and the masses; as an elder I do recall when there were a certain proportion of the Cream which actually rose to the top. Nowadays, it is only Scum which receives the escalator clause.

    Those who represent the cream are outside the narrative, prevented by suchlike as “fact checkers” from getting a word in edgewise to the Great Overwashed. (one must update Mencken’s term as there are a fair number of Murrikkkans who shower no less than three times daily—they are also guilty of extreme levels of consumerism AND they are inevitably “comfortably numb”.

  68. @Priss Factor

    They are inventing and staging all these fake Russian war crimes and promoting them in the msm to distract from their own and Ukrainian crimes the worst of all being their WMD biowarfare labs and the evil plans uncovered in them.

    • Replies: @JR Foley
  69. @Priss Factor

    Unfortunately your video is not convincing.

    There is another, and much worse, explanation.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/04/the-moa-week-in-review-ot-2022-40.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02942fa26a23200c#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02942fa26a23200c
    In case the MOA site gets taken down, here is the text:

    The message: “Collaborators will be shot!”

    I have had a quick look at the Bucha massacre. This does not look like a hoax, people were really killed.

    There is a simple and obvious explanation to the events. Ukrainians considered all civilians that had stayed behind to be collaborators. The first Ukrainians that entered the area searched every house for “​​saboteurs and accomplices of Russian troops.” If they spoke Russian or did not immediately shout Slava Ukraini! in Ukrainian, they were shot on the spot. This would explain the somewhat even distribution of bodies on the road.

    In some cases people were simply shot for being on the road. There are two cases of cyclist dying on bicycles. A fast moving Ukrainian patrol shot at incoming traffic. This would be similar to the Rozsypne Road of Death massacre in Donbass in 2014.

    Russia claims they left Bucha on March 30th. Ukranians officially only entered on April 2nd. This would give the CIA death squads 72 hours or at least two whole days to operate.

    The massacre is a serious step in the escalation towards World War 3. The Western public believes the Ukrainian narrative, that “Russians did it”. The real audience of the massacre may however be Ukrainians. The message could not be clearer: “All collaborators will be shot!”

    Posted by: Petri Krohn | Apr 3 2022 19:24 utc | 82

    And from the Saker site, another one which may be blocked soon:

    Bucha Massacre
    https://thesaker.is/sitrep-operation-z-4/

    This could turn out to be a VERY big deal, even the start of the Final War, for if NATO decides to enter the conflict on account of a false flag horror, all bets are off.

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
  70. @Here Be Dragon

    It’s obvious that you are an anti-Putin troll. Who cuts your paycheck? This struggle is for the minds and souls of humanity. The Sanhedrin, the Khazarian Mafiya and Yankee elites are hell-bent on total world supremacy. Who’s side are you on?

  71. profnasty says:
    @aleksander

    Christianity, in all of it’s iterations is head and shoulders above any other world view. Including Judyism, https://youtu.be/grr0CtmxbO0.

    Video Link
    What we have here is a failure to communicate.
    Christianity, and legacy tradition are the o ly way to go.

  72. As you state “Many pundits and analysts have pointed out that Russia doesn’t seem to have a visible political/economic/state ideology.” Why to they need an ideology when they have “de-nazification”. World Wide “de-nazification” is their mission (suggested by Andrei R. – The Saker). Start with “denazifying” the Azov types then move to eliminate Nazi’s-with-the-rainbow-antifa-BLM flag (Biden & crew) and especially the troublesome Zionist Nazis. If Putin and Xi want to be “normal guys” with “normal countries” then Russia and China together would do the World a great service and dismantle “The Great Reset”, the Population Reduction/Vaccine Cartel, the Social Media Censorship cartel and any other Nazi (or Bolshevik) oligarchic power centers. I trust most people in the world (excluding the Nazi and Bolshevik-types) would support a world wide oligarch reduction. Looks to me like a plan critical to humanity’s survival.

    • Agree: annamaria
  73. There was a pro-Russian motorcade in Berlin, or rather an anti-Russophobia demo.

    https://eueditorial.com/motorcade-with-russia-flags-drives-through-berlin/

    Maybe more should be staged in Western capitals.

    • Replies: @emerging majority
  74. @Passing By

    They should all be quietly liquidated by the Russians.

    • Agree: Passing By
  75. @Mr. Hack

    Beet soup is as much a southern Russian thing as it is Ukrainian.
    Much like salo.

  76. @Zachary Smith

    The video is blurred, because it was slowed down, but it shows a dead man in the rear view mirror, who is rising up. Here is the original.

    https://t.me/boris_rozhin/39211?embed=1&tme_mode=1

    But there are also photographs of people who were murdered for real. Those people all had white stripes on their left hand. The Russian troops wear white stripes, and those who collaborate need to wear them too, in order to be able to approach a block post, and to be recognized.

    Ukrainian forces entered the town and executed them. Putin, a brilliant strategist, ordered the troops to get out of there at night, and in the morning the Ukrainian special operations units came in and “liberated” the town. Then the footage was made and passed to the PSYOPS people.

  77. @Commentator Mike

    Where’s the Truckers when we REALLY need em?

  78. Why democracy must go.

    Ideally, nationalists should come to power in every nation and expel all traitors or throw them into gulag. I’m serious. Why?

    It used to be democracy was about domestic policy. Both or more sides agreed on the nation, culture, and pride of history. For most of US history, both parties were race-ist and nationalist. They just disagreed on certain issues. It was not a vote between national preservation and national erasure.

    But that’s what democracy has come to be in West and the modern world. One side is totally committed to national erasure. In Ireland, the eracists have won. They don’t do what is good for Ireland but how to erase Ireland with diversity.

    Same in Poland. It’s not about left-nationalism vs right-nationalism but national erasure vs national preservation. Same in Hungary. While Orban wants to preserve Hungary, many on the other side wants Hungary to become Londonized. They really do.

    Democracy, both left and right, used to be nationalist and race-ist. So, while they disagreed on tax rates and such stuff, both sides were agreed on national preservation. French communists were once French patriots. But no more.

    A democracy where one side can actually elect a government to carry out national erasure has no legitimacy. It must be crushed, even if it means end of democracy and rise of national autocratic sovereignty.

    If things are bad in Poland, it’s downright crazy in places like UK and Canada where both sides call for national erasure, just in different ways. For Boris Johnson, Brexit means blocking Europeans but letting in tons of Hindus, Muslims, and Africans.
    In Canada, what goes by ‘conservatism’ is out-virtue-signaling the ‘left’ on globo-homo nuttery.

    Israel is more like traditional national democracy. Left or Right, both are agreed on Israel as Jewish state that needs to ensure self-preservation uber alles.

    But what Jews maintain for Israel isn’t allowed in any goy democracy where Jews cheer on the eracists over the nationalists.

    Democracy is over and must be shut down when it becomes contest between national survival and national suicide. No political order should allow the latter choice. Freedom to destroy one’s people, culture, heritage, and culture should never be part of national discourse. But in the West, the moral advantage is with those who vote for national erasure. How messed up is that?

    • Agree: RadicalCenter
  79. JR Foley says:
    @Ron Unz

    Zhukov was the only person to slam the telephone down on Stalin’s ear and lived to tell the story. Zhukov wanted more divisions and Joe said No! S L A M The others in room were horrified —silence–then the phone rings ( this is our execution notice) Zhukov answers phone —listens and then “Thanks Joseph Stalin–we will succeed -thank you !” and all in the room —were relieved ….
    meet Adolf at Kursk and now about that chess move——-

  80. JR Foley says:
    @Commentator Mike

    The ministry further noted that the images of the bodies on the streets emerged four days after the Russian troops left the city and immediately after the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the Ukrainian media arrived at the scene. The bodies which have been videoed and photographed show no signs of rigor mortis or lividity, and the blood on the wounds is fresh.

  81. Abbybwood says:
    @Priss Factor

    This is the tweet I saw:

  82. Pirates of the World! Cool!!!

    AMERICA Becomes a PIRATE STATE (Again) After 210 Years


    Video Link

  83. Mr Anatta says:
    @Haha

    My comment was meant tongue in cheek and as a joke actually but if you don’t get it,then by your response the jokes on you.

    Try and imagine Florida and Kamchatka as jutting out (peni)nsulars and Kamchatka being much bigger than Florida and the penny may drop for you….or may not as the case may be!.

    Always a laugh a minute with some unzians.

  84. “Glory to God in the highest. Russia has finished a new Cathedral dedicated to warrior saints and to the military. The Christian faith is not a wimpy, effeminate, sissified, pacifist one.”


    Video Link

  85. Marcali says:
    @annamaria

    As to Zhukov’s modus operandi, Marshal Rokossovsky wrote:[4]
    “Zhukov much preferred to give orders than to lead his men. At difficult moments no subordinate could expect any support from his side – the support of a comrade, leader, or an encouraging word of friendly counsel.”
    [4]
    Voyenno-istoricheskiy zhurnal, no. 2, 1990, p. 50.

  86. Unlike Russia, the main problem for America seems to be the inability of the ruling elite to act independently in the national interest, at least, since 1965.

    I’d say that Rome fell for the same reason.

    • Replies: @Kurt Knispel
  87. @kerdasi amaq

    Unfortunately Rome did not fall.
    Its so called Roman Law is (on the foundation of the Moses religions) the curse of mankind.

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