I’ll immediately say that I use the word “Nazism” not as an insult, as many people do nowadays, but in its exact meaning. Nazism is short for National Socialism, the regime that was in power in Hitler’s Germany and that now rules Russia. The Soviets avoided the word “Nazism,” and even more so its expanded form, National Socialism, because the second word sounded very familiar. They preferred the term “fascism,” which was incorrect for Germany, and spoke of “German fascist invaders,” and Mikhail Romm’s famous film, which exposed the Hitler regime, was called “Ordinary Fascism.” But even in the absence of the word “socialism” in the title, viewers saw in the film a great similarity between the Hitlerite and Stalinist regimes.
To explain this similarity, it is important to clarify the definition of Nazism by introducing the keyword “totalitarian”. Nazism is national totalitarian socialism. Russians are more familiar with international totalitarian socialism, or simply communism, which ruled them for almost 75 years and has not yet completely disappeared. A third form has also emerged – religious totalitarian socialism, which now rules in Iran.
Nationalism, totalitarianism and socialism dominate the Russian political system
The main thing in all these regimes is totalitarianism. The difference in the first qualifier – national, international or religious – is the least important. All these modes are related and usually friendly. This is now clearly visible in the unification of Russia, China and Iran against the democracy they hate. Also, at one time, Hitler and Stalin united against the same common enemy and together started the Second World War against him.
Of the three forms of totalitarianism, the new Putin regime based it on national totalitarian socialism, or simply Nazism. To be convinced of this, it is necessary and sufficient to establish that all three of its main components – nationalism, totalitarianism and socialism – dominate the Russian political system.
As for socialism, Russia inherited it from Soviet communism and never parted with it. Socialism, unlike communism, does not require the complete abolition of private property and a market economy. It is determined by universal healthcare, education, etc. and the very high taxes necessary to provide them. Russia has all this. The presence of millionaires and a market sector there, as in Sweden and other European social democracies, does not in any way contradict the fact that all these countries are socialist.
Under existing socialism, in order to establish Nazism, it is still necessary to ensure its main part – national totalitarianism. Russia returned to totalitarianism along a long and winding path. Over the past 30 years, it has changed seven political and economic systems. Having abandoned communism, she switched to democracy, but not for long. Soon she moved to the third system, Yeltsin’s autocracy. With the weakening of Yeltsin’s power, during the same 90s it moved to the fourth system – an oligarchy, nicknamed in Russia the Seven Boyars. The two thousand years begin with the transition to the fifth system – the KGB junta. Moreover, Putin, despite his post, was initially only one of the members of the group. The junta suppresses the beginnings of Russian freedom, establishing a so-called managed democracy. Gradually, Putin tightens the reins of power and becomes the sole dictator.
Autocracies need the support of the people, which Putin manages to provide through revenue from expensive oil, the growth of an economy liberated from communism, and the order that emerged after the end of lawlessness. Although there was no personal merit in all this, it all went into his piggy bank and supported his power. Gradually, however, the growth of prosperity stalled, democratic processes within the country and especially around it expanded, and Putin’s rating began to fall. He understood that to maintain his power he had to take some measures.
Which ones exactly, were suggested by Crimea. Putin went to seize it not so much for the sake of realizing imperial ambitions, but because he considered it absolutely necessary to slow down the Ukrainian democratic revolution and prevent it from spilling out onto Russian territory. But then he received an unexpected bonus. The Crimean euphoria that followed the annexation of the peninsula sharply increased his popularity. He decided that to maintain power he needed an ideology. With this decision, he put Russia on the path of totalitarianism, because by accepting the ideology, authoritarianism becomes totalitarianism. Having completed a circle, having gone through all the metamorphoses, Russia returned to the broken trough of Soviet totalitarianism, of which only splinters remained. In order to bring them together again, they needed bonds – a new ruling ideology.
Putin did not like ideology, and at the beginning of his reign, he dissociated himself from it in every possible way. He emphasized that he and other KGB men were statesmen, not ideologists, and the Communist Party was only a burden for them. He even changed the face of the entire Soviet history, reclassifying the main communists Stalin and Andropov as managers. However, when matters came to a head, he had to call on ideology again and become an ideologist himself.
But where could one get this ideology, when there was nothing ready? The Bolsheviks came to power under the banner of communism. Hitler also, already with a ready-made Nazi ideology. But there was no ideological banner flying over the Kremlin at that moment. It was necessary either to raise the banner of communism again, or to urgently find something new.
Putin restored some attributes of communist ideology soon after coming to power. The hammer and sickle and the Soviet anthem appeared again. The long-time leader of world communism, Joseph Stalin, was elevated to the shield. But it was not convenient to put communism again at the head of a new totalitarian regime. After all, he was recently rejected by a large part of Russians. A Russian, national ideology was needed.
National ideas in post-Soviet Russia flourished and multiplied. Their range was wide, but various forms of totalitarian nationalism dominated. The typical and most famous creation was the “Russian World”. For the time being, the development of these ideological prototypes took place outside the government and Putin did not really welcome them. But when it came to choosing the necessary ideology, he began to lean not towards outdated communism, but towards national totalitarianism and began to use the main elements of the “Russian World” and other similar developments.
He himself began to make excursions into Russian history and began to glorify Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great. Putin began to rant about some Russian traditions and values and contrast them with some Western ones. He clearly indicated that of all the totalitarian ideologies, from which he is inclined to choose the national one, is the ideology of Nazism.
Putin confirmed his choice of Nazism as a state ideology by choosing Ivan Ilyin, a Russian philosopher known for his closeness to Nazism, as his ideological inspiration. Moreover, it manifested itself not only in his writings but also in his veneration of Hitler and Goebbels. Ilyin directly served in the latter’s Ministry of Propaganda. Putin personally secured the transportation of Ilyin’s ashes from Switzerland and attended his burial in Moscow. He more than once called him his favourite philosopher, often referred to him and ordered his subordinates to do the same.
The ruling ideology is not just symbolism or a propaganda tool. It requires specific actions from the authorities, which it strictly prescribes to them. The demands of totalitarianism are ideological intolerance, aggressiveness and expansionism. The difference between totalitarianism and authoritarianism is that its control extends not only to politics, but to all spheres of life: culture, science, economics, religion and even private life. Finally, to establish totalitarianism, it is important to make the country as closed as possible.
Russia’s transition from authoritarianism to totalitarianism, or from Putin’s fascism to Putin’s Nazism, has been completed
Steps in all these directions have been gradually taken for a long time, but recently all this has been launched to its fullest. The superiority of the Russian nation has been declared. The ideological war with the West is in full colour. The military expansion against Ukraine is in its second year. Total control and repression within the country, its isolation from the outside world are increasing every day. State control over the economy is expanding. All three pillars of Nazism: nationalism, totalitarianism and socialism have been erected. Russia’s transition from authoritarianism to totalitarianism, or from Putin’s fascism to Putin’s Nazism, has been completed. Russia finally established itself as a Nazi state.
Until now, the only implementation of Nazism was Hitlerism. Therefore, some believe that any Nazi regime means the superiority of the Aryan race and Jewish genocide. But Russian Nazism should not be a copy of German, just as Chinese communism should not be an exact copy of Soviet communism. The main thing is that the basic principles of ideology are implemented. Instead of the superiority of the German nation, the superiority of the Russian one may be asserted, and Ukrainians may be chosen instead of Jews as subhumans doomed to slaughter. At the same time, Putin’s Nazism, being secondary in relation to Hitler’s, adopted many specific elements from him, such as pochvennichestvo (Blut und Boden), conquest of hegemony with iron and blood (Blut und Eisen), expansion of living space (Lebensraum), assault troops Z , cult of a strong body,
The establishment of Nazism in Russia is probably Putin’s greatest achievement. After the defeat of the Hitler regime, it would seem that there was no longer a place left for him on Earth. Small groups of neo-Nazis not only had no chance of coming to power but even somehow influencing it. So Putin again managed to bring Nazism to power and in one of the main nuclear powers. In this sense, Russia is unique, and the pride of the Great Russians can be satisfied.
Putin explains the aggression of Russia, the only Nazi state, by the fight against the Nazis in Ukraine
But Putin himself does not boast of his achievement and even shyly hides it. To do this, he uses a hackneyed technique: stop the thief, explaining the aggression of Russia, the only Nazi state, by the fight against the Nazis in Ukraine, who, unlike Russia, are much more difficult to find there. He even held a large anti-Nazi rally at the beginning of the war. But the thief’s hat is on fire. All the actions of the Russian authorities, all its crimes clearly indicate that Russia has become a Nazi state.
After the Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced Nazism to oblivion, the world swore that this would never happen again, but it did not keep its oath. Nazism has been revived, this time in Russia. And he repeats the crimes that Hitler previously committed. The entire democratic world is responsible for allowing this to happen and must correct this fatal mistake. If it is not ready to unite with Ukraine in the fight against Putin’s Nazism, it should at least provide it with everything it needs for its early victory. Our common goal must be the complete destruction of Nazism.
Yuri Yarym-Agaev – American scientist and human rights activist, director of the Center for the Study of Totalitarian Ideologies
