City Zero: On the Question of the Essence of Russian Imperialism
On the day of the prosecutor’s office, I remembered the film ‘City Zero’. Actually, not the film itself, but the monologue of the prosecutor from the film, which is undoubtedly extremely relevant today. The film is one thing, but few people remember this excerpt, which, in my opinion, is the essence of the causes of Russian neo-imperialism and the corresponding armed aggression against its neighbours.
Since the Tatar-Mongol invasion, the main idea that unites us all, the idea that generations of our ancestors served, is the idea of Statehood. A powerful, great State is the ideal for which the Russian people are ready to suffer, ready to endure any hardship, ready, finally, to give their lives.
This is an irrational idea. It is not the pragmatic, European desire to extract maximum benefit for oneself personally. It is the idea of the Russian Spirit, which subjugates and dissolves your and my individuality, but in return gives you and me a hundred times more. It is this feeling of belonging to a great organism that gives a sense of spirit, a sense of strength and immortality.
The West has always sought to compromise the idea of our Statehood. But the greatest danger to our idea lies not in the West, but in ourselves. It is we ourselves who cling to these endless fashionable Western ideas, seduced by their obvious practicality and rationality, without realising that this is precisely where their destructive power lies.
But never mind. Our own idea always prevails in the end. Look, all our revolutions ultimately led not to destruction, but to the strengthening and consolidation of the State. And so, it will always be.
