Russian politics

I have a Russian friend on Facebook who is fascinated by Russian radical politics much as I am by American radical politics. We exchange a lot of lore. From him, I have learned just how weird the Russian political spectrum is. This is largely because Russian conservatives looks back to a golden age conceived as a kind of mythical version of the 1950s much as American conservatives do … but for them that means Sovietism. So the left-right axis for them is very weird.

So for example, they have a political party movement called the National Bolshevik Front with a flag which looks like this:

Yes, that's a hammer-and-sickle in place of a swastika on a Nazi flag. Holy Jonah Goldberg, the mind boggles. So in that spirit, my Russian correspondent offers this astonishing propaganda painting depicting the left-right political axis.

He explains:

Notice that on the right side, half of things depicted are tools for murder (bogatyrs, T-34 tank, PAK-FA stealth fighter, etc). Hitler on the left side is in his “nice guy” image, implying “cultural imperialism”: Third Reich = United Europe = European Union. Also, note that this picture is a commentary to the Ukraine's recent pact with E.U. (the guy in the middle is Ukrainian). Kremlin wants to keep the Ukraine in its own Eurasian Union. Hence, propaganda wave: European Union = Hitler = “fags”.

Kremlin considers White Nationalists (at least Eastern European ones, yes, including Russian) to be a subset of “Cultural Marxism”, a “radical spearhead” of it. In a “first, Waffen-SS parades, then, gay pride parades” logic.

And Kremlin's alternative is vague “pro-White Orthodox Communism” or something like that. Which is shared by Communist Party of Russia, but in more radical form.

Russian politics turns out not just to be stranger than I imagine, but stranger than I can imagine. My Russian correspondent expands on the point:

Russian politics explained

From Kremlin POV, Marxism as a political force was funded by Wall Street as a tool against old European empires who prevented the emergence of single global market which Wall Street wanted to have. In other words, the Left were the tool of banking capital against industrial capital. When the Left in Russia disconnected itself from its sponsors through the bloody power struggle known as Great Purge, it split in two: Trotskyists in the West and Stalinists in the East (Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, etc). After the fall of USSR, Western Trotskyism evolved into Neo-Con movement, which transformed “permanent revolution” into “democracy promotion”, i.e. bombing the shit out of third world nations and stealing their resources via CIA-sponsored coups (”color revolutions”).

From Kremlin POV, Third Reich was used by the West as an instrument to weaken the Soviet Union, repeating WW1 German fiasco when British promised Germans alliance against Russian Empire, but turned against them when the war actually started. Official justification for it in the West is “Hitler's bad, Stalin's worse”. Modern Western democracies support Neo-Nazi movements in Eastern Europe (Baltics, Poland, Russia, the Ukraine, etc) through network of NGOs, so “Hitler” isn't some temporary aberration.

In the modern world, there are three primary powers: China, Russia and the West. Both China and Russia are post-Stalinist countries, and they are de-facto allied against the post-Trotskyist West. So, “Russian political matrix” is actually “global political matrix”, while American political matrix is a local American/Western thing that stops being relevant the moment it leaves boundaries of the Golden Billion. That being said, modern conflict is not just a product of Cold War, but a continuation of the Great Game: the global competition of Russian Empire and British Empire. It's just now the map also has Americans (modern version of British Empire) and Chinese (who re-emerged as big player after Soviet Union killed itself, and sworn not to repeat USSR's mistake of group suicide).

As for homophobic part of Kremlin propaganda, it has nothing to do with Christianity, but with Russian prison culture, where bottom recipient of anal sex (or anybody who touched him or things he touched) is marked as pariah. Since half of Russian male population go through prisons, and nobody wants to end up at the bottom of the food chain, Russian homophobia is shared by atheists and the Left.

Face of “Ultimate Evil” in Kremlin propaganda:

This is Marat Guelman, and Pussy Riot was his project. “Trotskyist”, “Jew”, “modern art sponsor”, “loves America”, “hates Russia”, “mocks WW2 veterans” (read: “loves Hitler”), “loves orange color” (read: “loves color revolutions”), etc. The books beneath his foot are History of Russia and Dostoyevsky's Demons (which was about people like him). And the best part: THIS GUY IS ON KREMLIN PAYROLL. Kremlin took cues from Orwell's 1984 and maintains its own supply of Emmanuel Goldsteins, recycling them if necessary. Kremlin even uses disempowered Oligarchs (like Berezovsky) in Emmanuel Goldstein role, which is especially effective since their crimes are real and still painfully remembered.

Aside of “Emmanuel Goldsteins”, Kremlin also maintains supply of “useful Jews” like Berel Lazar. When Stephen Fry accused Putin of “new Holocaust”, Berel Lazar accused Stephen Fry of “trivializing Holocaust”. Kremlin's logic: “we can't name you by name, but we can use your own ideology against you”.

As for Chinese Communist Party, it shares Kremlin viewpoint about West being run by “Trotskyist ZOG”, but isn't as vocal about it, because it feels more secure in its position. Russia, on the other hand, always balances on the brink, and this insecurity transforms into pre-emptive geopolitical actions (like in Syria) and psy-ops (think Russia Today). In Russia/China alliance, Russia acts first, China joins second.

My Russian correspondent sharpens the point about Russian antisemitic rhetoric:

Modern Russia isn't anti-semitic.

After Putin disempowered Oligarchs (read: “the Jews”), Russia turned from being ultra-antisemitic to being the least anti-semitic nation in Europe.

Russia, once an extremely anti-Semitic country, has become an “Island of Peace” for Jews since the fall of the Soviet State

So, people who bitch about oligarchs/bankers/illuminati/reptilians/NWO/etc (read: “the Jews”) are viewed as retards. ESPECIALLY among Far Right.

The difference is that Russia is politically incorrect. Both Jews and non-Jews use words like “zhid” (“kike”) ironically or even un-ironically. My Jewish friends had to specifically ask me not to use them in Anglosphere because “us kikes sometimes find it offensive”. Real anti-semitism, like link above shows, is extremely low by European/American standarts. Russians don't feel insecure about “bankers” because Putin took them down. Russians feel insecure about Putin.

Another mind-boggling observation from my Russian correspondent:

Communists = angry old white guys and provincial vatniks (rednecks) longing for “good old days”

[They] are ethnic nationalists, and also Christian conservatives. “For white Russians, Communism and Orthodox Christianity” and against “blacks, fags and kikes”. Stalin is good because he is “true Communist, kicked the kikes out of Politburo, restored Russian Empire, resurrected Church and Tradition”. As for Hitler, Communist think that “Hitler is a good guy, too bad kikes tricked him into attacking Russia”. One problem is that Stalin is Caucasian, i.e. “from Caucasus”, i.e. black. So, Neo-Nazis love to troll Commies in “hey, you call yourself Nationalists, yet you worship black-assed highlander”. Sorry for slurs, but that kinda how they talk. Also, note, that Communists consistently on the Kremlin side, and were even used by (Jewish) Oligarchs like Khodorkovsky to press Kremlin for more de-regulation.

All modern Russians believe that [about Hitler]. They had “Hitler envy”. “It would be so cool if Stalin was actually Aryan National-Socialist”, “it would be so cool if Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact wasn't broken”. Looking at sorry state of affairs Russia is now, despite all the suffering, it's hard to blame them for feeling entitled. And of course, if tomorrow swastika flag raises above the Kremlin, everybody would cheer — Commies, Nationalists, Democrats.

It should also be noted that Russians are natural Germanophiles, and always were, since at least Peter The Great. National Socialism has an added benefit of being “Western” (i.e. “better”) ideology in Russian eyes. In Russian Liberals, it is represented in Reagan-worship. “Cool Aryan capitalist empire, fucking towelheads up — God bless America”.

Skinheads in Russia are basically Western fetish. “It's from Britain, so it's cool”.

“Hitler is a good guy, too bad kikes tricked him into attacking Russia”!?! I have to laugh, else I would have to cry.