“Anti-Fascist” Russia: No Way Out

by Wolf Stoner
National Vanguard Russian correspondent

ALL THE NEGATIVE tendencies in Russia that I wrote about in my previous articles continue to get worse. The Kremlin gang has made its principle policy the re-establishment of a Stalinist-like system. No criticism of its actions is allowed. Speaking the truth about its war is punished by lengthy jail terms. Its propaganda has become even more virulent and crude. Logic is not applicable anymore in Russia. It is an Alice-in-Wonderland country where absolutely anything is possible — but only in the negative sense.

I can understand the disbelief of many Americans in the negative reports about Russia presented in “Western” media. The controlled media have lost credibility due to their extreme bias on some political issues. But in relation to events in Russia and Ukraine, there is little need for them to lie. I would estimate that 90% of their reportage about the conflict is true. In fact, there is bias on Fox News against Ukraine and in favor of Putin’s Russia. Tucker Carlson (before leaving Fox News) had openly sided with Putin in this conflict.

There is no need to falsely smear Russia. Each day Putin’s regime provides plenty of negative facts against itself. All that any opponent of the Russian regime needs to do is pick up truthful news about Russian life as it really is, and report the facts. That is enough. There is no need to invent anything.

The state of mind of Russian society has deteriorated to such an extent that it resembles ever more a huge open-air insane asylum. The only difference from “Asylum America” is that the Russian madhouse is poorer and even more violent.

Due to active Chinese support, Russia was able to withstand the economic strain of the last two years relatively well. The state currency didn’t collapse, the economy functions, and people earn money. Their income in real terms has slightly decreased due to higher inflation, but not enough to cause high social tension.

But this relative economic stability needs to be put into the right proportion: Yes, people who work in strategically important industries earn more than a thousand dollars a month. But the bulk of workers in Russia make about $500 a month. The majority of Russian retirees have only about $150-200 a month — barely enough to buy cheap food and pay utility bills. That is why Russian seniors are frequently seen rummaging in trash bins behind food stores, hunting for expired products that might still be edible. That has become the ever-present reality of Russian life. The glamorous image of prosperous Russia, raised by Putin from its knees, is a fake — as is almost everything in this country. Almost all of the nation’s supposed achievements of the last 24 years are fakes.

An overwhelming and all-pervasive corruption is the essential characteristic of the Putinist system. The very system itself is the product of corruption. It is well to remember that in the 1990s Putin worked in the Saint Petersburg mayoral office for Sobchak — one of the most corrupt officials of the time, and that’s saying a lot. Biden’s bribes are nothing in comparison with the theft and extortion practiced by today’s Russian officials.

CNN and other Western media sometimes very correctly report on these facts. But here I want to touch on a topic that is hardly mentioned in the media: The greatest achievement of Putin’s system is that it was able to resuscitate the almost-dead myth about “our great victory over fascism.”

The post-World War 2 (WW2) Soviet Union relied on “the Great Patriotic War” mythology to justify its supposed “superior moral stature” in the world. The essence of its ideological message to the world was basically: “We saved the world from the greatest danger that ever afflicted humanity — Nazism — so everyone must respect us and be eternally grateful for this.”

But the more time passed, the less relevant this message became. A new reality displaced the myth. By the 1970s, very few people took it seriously — but almost everyone continued to give lip service to the myth.

The collapse of the USSR in 1991 should have been the final blow to the Soviet WW2 myth. The “greatest socialist country,” the “hope of humanity” and “defender of the workers of the world” fell apart because of its own inconsistencies. No one invaded it or undermined it from inside (as many pro-Soviet “patriots” like to claim). It simply collapsed like a defective building.

In the years that immediately followed, it seemed that all Soviet myths were dead and would never be taken seriously anymore. Yes, the 50th anniversary of “the great victory over the Nazis” was celebrated on Red Square as usual, with the same pompousness and pageantry, but it was perceived by society more like a generic festival than any kind of real or aggressive or militaristic message to the outside world.

In fact, Soviet “WW2 heroism” was the butt of many jokes. It became a constant feature of various comedy shows and movies. The holy status of the “great victory against fascism” was definitely destroyed. There seemed to be no way back to the Soviet version of history.

But that all started to change when the KGB gang took power and placed Putin in the prime minister’s chair in August 1999. The ideological message was changed at once. Using the pretext of the ongoing war in the Caucasus, the KGB gang started to curtail political freedoms and to restore Soviet narratives in all spheres of life.

But in whatever ways the Kremlin tried to restore the WW2 myth to its former status, it was impossible in the circumstances of the early 2000s. The new Russian society simply didn’t care.

The limited war of 2014 substantially changed this situation. The preferred KGB narrative of history started to gain traction. There was again a “fascist threat” in the form of non-conformist Ukraine. But again, this Soviet-style patriotic fever of 2014-15 touched only limited number of people. The bulk of Russian society continued to live and believe as before.

This situation changed abruptly in February 2022. The sheer scale of fighting compelled the whole nation to notice it. There was no way to pretend anymore that nothing significant had happened.

The prevailing hope was that the war would end soon; that mighty Russia would crush any resistance and occupy the whole of Ukraine. But the longer the war lasted, the less grounds there were for such hopes.

The official Kremlin narrative from the very outset was framed strictly in Soviet-style ideological patterns. It was again a “fight against the Nazis” who, somehow, “invaded our country.” The fact that no one had invaded Russia didn’t bother those at the top who had authored the narrative. The “war against Nazism” justified any action. “If we didn’t act, they would strike us first” was one of the frequently used explanations from Russian officials. It was absolutely irrelevant to them that there was no factual confirmation of these claims — no concentration of Ukrainian troops along the border or preparations to transfer the war onto Russian territory. All such claims are obviously false and completely unsubstantiated. They are no more legitimate than the Soviet claims in 1939 that Finland attacked first.

But the longer the war continues, the less important that question becomes. As Nietzsche said: “You say that a good cause will even sanctify war! I tell you, it is the good war that sanctifies every cause!”

The war itself becomes reason enough to justify absolutely anything — any measures, any abuses, and any distortions of reality. Yet again, we have a “holy war” that allows the regime to push any narrative and to silence any reasonable retort.

The dead myth of WW2 was successfully resurrected. The bloody ritual of human sacrifice has raised the Soviet Golem from the dead; the giant monster ready to crush everything and everyone standing in its path. The more blood is spilled, the less need to explain its actions. A bloody insanity has gripped Russian public mind. In such a social environment, public debate is impossible. There is “us” and there is “the enemy.” And that is all. The enemy are, predictably, “Nazis” that miraculously survived and once again are trying to destroy our motherland. Among Russians, no evidence for this is needed — just as among Christians there is no need for any evidence that “Christ was resurrected.” It is a religion; everyone must believe it. Any doubt is an act of treachery.

The war against logic and common sense has become the national vocation of Putin’s Russia. The more incongruous its claims, the more ardently they are believed by Putin’s followers.

The “Great Patriotic War” mythology is at the core of this insanity. The whole society is essentially performing a kind of spiritualist ritual of summoning the spirit of the Second World War. The whole state ideology is built around this myth. Before 2022, this ritual was a kind of play or fantasy to the majority of the population — but now it becomes ever more serious. The more people die, the more real this spirit of WW2 becomes.

What started as a silly play has now become an ugly monster that devours hundreds of thousands — and promises to swallow millions more.

State media propaganda, Duma deputies’ speeches, and ubiquitous advertising banners in all cities throughout the country push this insanity ever deeper into the public mind.

Each bus stop, food store, post office, and administration building are covered with placards calling for men to enroll into the Russian army and “defend the motherland”.

TV sets in commuter trains and buses constantly run Defense Ministry advertising videos glamorizing army service.

Even kindergartens and primary schools have been transformed into mental battlefields where children are inculcated with aggressive neo-Bolshevik ideology. Some of these children can’t even read yet, but they already know that the main purpose of their life is to “kill fascists.” Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate in 1984 has become the everyday reality of Putin’s society. All Russian TV channels have fallen into line with this myth. It is even worse than in North Korea because it is much more hypocritical.

Russian high schools are ever more resembling combination penal colonies and army barracks. Not better than the American inner cities’ public schools in terms of crime, but with the addition of militant propaganda that calls for war against Europe. Almost every school now features portraits of their former students who died “heroically defending Motherland.” School teachers are obliged to inculcate students with the party line. “Patriotism lessons” which explain the reasons for the “Special Military Operation” are obligatory. Any student expressing dissent is subjected to harsh psychological pressure, including threats of criminal prosecution. Yes, even children of 12-16 years of age are threatened with jail for doubting the necessity of the war. A few months ago, some videos emerged showing despicable examples of such psychological abuse of Russian children. Predictably, not one of the teachers was punished.

The Putinist system allows almost any act by those who support its war, but severely punishes any dissent.

Even more important is the fact that ever more Russian citizens experience total dehumanization immediately in the war zone.

If everything else in today’s Russia could be perceived as a grotesque, surreal play, the horrors that men in the army experience are much more real — and they will have long-lasting effects.

Yes, in civil life anyone can give lip service to the Putinist system, attend an obligatory “patriotic” rally for couple of hours and afterwards go home to continue life as usual. But those at the front line have no such option. They must brew in this Hellish cauldron 24/7 for months — with the only ways out being severe injury, captivity, or death — and all this time being subjected to psychological pressure from military authorities, threatening to kill them for the slightest insubordination.

Needless to say, hardly anyone can preserve his sanity after living under such conditions for more than a year.

The war has gained a momentum of its own. It draws an ever greater number of people to their deaths, requiring ever more new sacrifices on its altar. The death cult of “Stalin’s War” is like a reincarnation of ancient bloody cults — the Aztec empire multiplied tenfold.

It is no coincidence that in the last two years the glorification of Stalin has become semi-official policy. Hundreds of new statues, busts, and memorial plates to Stalin have been installed throughout the country. Thousands of Stalinists regularly gather at such places and worship their idol.

The number of those who have been through the cauldron of Putin’s war constantly grows. Even larger grows the number of the relatives whose life is affected, too. Those people whose husbands, fathers, and sons have died don’t want to be alone in this situation. They openly speak about the need for others to be involved. And Putin’s system likes this social dynamic. It helps to perpetuate the war frenzy and to legitimize the system in public eyes.

The people whose lives were affected by the war, instead of blaming the state, tend to demand not the end of the war, but an ever-wider mobilization. They want others to suffer too. This is a typical Soviet/Russian slave mentality. Instead of wanting to gain their freedom, they yearn for other slaves to be flogged, too — a perfect arrangement for the Kremlin.

The number of the military personnel in the war zone is around four hundred thousand. Taking into account troop rotation, this means that more than a million people have been through this war already. Many of these have returned to civil life, or will at some point. And most of them will become willing instruments of Putin’s system and will spread its insanity. In their own minds, they are heroes; they fought and “saved the motherland from fascists,” like their ancestors did. This insane narrative has been firmly hammered into their heads. And it is highly unlikely that any appreciable number of them are going to recover — ever.

This praetorian guard of the Putinist system will become a very reliable force for suppressing any opposition and any dissent in the future. Hardened by war experience and freed from any lingering morality and common sense, these bipedal creatures will be willing to do anything that the system orders them to do. Even when not directly ordered, they will in every way try their best to please their “tsar.”

I do not exaggerate when I say that this factor of “war veterans” is the most important one in today’s Russia. It outweighs everything else.

For most non-veterans, the state’s superficial propaganda could be easily replaced with any new narrative, and hardly anyone would oppose the change. But it is very different with those who fought.

The human mind tends to ascribe supreme value to anything for the sake of which a man has suffered most. There will be very few willing to truly reconsider their past or acknowledge themselves as having been on the wrong side. The majority of veterans will do their utmost to strengthen the narrative for which they fought. Add to those veterans their family members and many of those whose relatives have died, and you will understand the scale of the problem. Not fewer than 5 million people have thus been sucked in some fashion into this Hellish cauldron. And most of them now have a vested interest in continuing this narrative. This is the problem now, and will be for decades to come.

This fact is the main victory for the Kremlin. Neither the captured territory, nor the number of killed Ukrainians, not the destroyed “Leopards” and “Bradleys” define the Kremlin’s victory. None of those factors matters much. What matters is the successful perpetuation of the “victory over fascism” myth in the public mind.

For many years it was only a theatrical play, and hardly anyone took it seriously. But now it is the deep reality of Russian life. You can now easily be killed on the street for even slightly doubting this myth. There are hundreds of thousands of half-insane maniacs who would be happy to kill anyone who dares to doubt their “heroic” status. Now these new veterans are the new “saviors of the motherland,” the new saints whom everyone must worship and to which they must pay obeisance. They are ready to fight tooth, nail, and claw to preserve this fantasy world of Putinist virtual reality. And any virtual reality becomes the only reality when there are enough people willing to enforce it.

This is the abysmal state of Russian society. There are very few, if any, positive signs in the overall social dynamic. If left alone and allowed to live as it likes, Putinist Russia could continue for many decades in this fashion, sliding ever deeper into insanity.

But there is yet another dynamic: the dynamic of external events which, most probably, will sweep aside and break to bits this whole neo-Bolshevik madhouse together with its kleptocratic “elite” and willing accomplices.

When Russia ceases to exist as a unified state, the whole “victory against fascism” narrative will evaporate like morning mist in the noonday sun. Yes, some people even in such a situation will still clutch to their old delusions — but there will be no possibility of enforcing or continuing those myths anymore. When most of the country is occupied by China, when our southern regions are ethnically cleansed of Russians, and when millions die in a multitude of ethnic wars, there will be no place for delusions any longer. Only those who can operate according to logic and biological reality will survive. Belief in false narratives and insane myths will become a death sentence.

But as long as Russian society continues in its present form, there is no hope for improvement. My country will become progressively more insane, chaotic, criminal, corrupt, and multinational. There is no way out under the given socio-political framework. Superficial changes would not rectify the situation. Even if a 1990s-style “liberal” government were installed, it would not change the dominant social atmosphere. Russian society, after a full century of insane social experiments, has been transformed into something monstrous. There is no way out; there are only ways down.

Opportunities for positive change will only emerge after this Hellish neo-Bolshevik structure collapses, burying under its debris all those willing collaborators, snitches, stooges, and Stalin-worshippers.

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