Dmytro Polovynka

What values Russia offers to ordinary Russians?

After Russia invaded Ukraine I could not fall asleep for many months, because one single thought occupied my mind “How could they do it? Why ordinary Russians support these atrocities?” You know, after Russians for centuries called Ukrainians a “brotherly nation” or “eternal friends” this whole invasion looked surreal.

After some time I realised that what Russians follow is a Cult of Power and I wrote a dedicated, rather lengthy article about this whole philosophy. It boils down to the idea that “the one who is strong is right”. However one question still remained unanswered, or only partly answered — why do “weak” people in this scheme still choose the Russian side? Why do ordinary Russians who have no money, no power and no freedom still choose to support Russia in this war? What are the benefits for holding this position?

Hint from an interview

And now I feel I found an answer. There was an interview with a liberated Ukrainian Prisoner of War (POW). And he said that Russians persuaded him to switch sides. The exchange was similar to this:

Russian soldier: “Join us!”
Ukrainian POW: “Why should I?”
R: “You will be great together with us”
U: “But Russians live very poorly”
R: “But Russia is a great country”
U: “How come it’s great? Look at your villages and compare them to Ukrainian ones!”
R: “But we are great, don’t you want to feel great?”

This dialog stuck in my head, but I did not make clear conclusions from it. Now I understand. Ukrainians and Russians have different paradigms. We have different mind maps, different glasses we see the world through. Ukrainian glasses are more similar to European ones — have a nice house, have a good job, and, maybe not so European, — let the government leave me alone.

What are the Russian “glasses”? What are the Russian values? I think there are at least three lucrative things in Russian values for Russians:

Illusion of greatness

People in Russia, however poor they might be, might associate themselves with something great. In general being part of something greater is not that bad — this idea is shared, among others, by deeply religious people, by environmental activists and strong patriots, who find unity in God, Nature or Nation.

But Russia provides a perverted illusion of greatness, that people cling to. Russians are proud of their big territory, of their great culture or their great language. One may be very poor, have no future, doomed to drink vodka, never read any books, but still feel that they are better than “stupid Americans”, just because they are Russians. I may argue that Russians “feeling of greatness” is a form of racism (in a broader meaning) because they consider other nations less worthy or less powerful. Moreover many Russians think that “all people around the world envy us”.

Russia can’t provide other values other than greatness of Russia itself. However this is still an illusion. Big territory does not matter. Their “great culture” spans only a single 19th century and the “great” claim should make Chinese or Arabs laugh. And why Russians consider their language “great” — I have no idea. It’s definitely not “greater” than any other Slavic languages.

But Russians love living in the “Great Russia” illusion. Because except for that, what other things Russia can provide? Care for people or human rights are definitely not among them.

Illusion of happiness

As mentioned before, Russians believe that “the whole world envies them”. Russians are fed with propaganda all day long and the other points of view are silenced. They thus get an illusion that they live better than others, similar to how many people in North Korea perceive themselves.

However there is another very important source of happiness. It’s vodka. Russia is the most drinking nation in the whole wide world (followed by Belarus). There is the whole cult of vodka, even though Russians probably don’t realise it from inside. Jokes like “when a person have nothing to be proud of, he is proud that he does not drink and keeps fit” or “where vodka is not present, comes homosexuality and spiritlessness” are common at the Russian social media. I remember a joke from Soviet times

Urgently send vodka to the Siberia, people became sober and furiously ask where the father-tsar disappeared

This does not sound funny now. People find illusion of happiness by drinking vodka. This is true for many people around the world, but in Russia the scale of this phenomenon is extraordinary.

Normalised evil

Wouldn’t it be nice to do bad things and not be persecuted? Many would say “no”, but many people actually find this proposal lucrative.

And here we have Russia — evil is normalised there. The very typical Russian proverb is “not caught — not a villain” (не пойман — не вор). This means that one can do whatever one wants, but until he is not caught, this does not count. Not the best rule to create a moral society.

The main protagonist of so beloved Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” kills two women because he thinks that he would get away with the crime. And he did not feel guilty about the crime. And I may argue this is the second most popular Russian literary work (after the “War and Peace”).

The victim-shaming is extremely popular in Russia. “Guilty by himself” (сам виноват) is a phrase used whenever there was even a slightest chance a victim could evade the whatever crime was executed against him. Was raped? Guilty by herself — shouldn’t have spoken to him. Wallet stolen? Guilty by himself — should have been more careful. Not the villain is guilty, no, the victim is “guilty by himself”.

Fooling people is not something bad for Russians. One should not be so naive — Russians say. The most popular Russian card game is called “Fool” and fooling other people during the game is normal. “Don’t trust, don’t be afraid, don’t ask” is the popular criminal motto. And criminal culture is pretty popular in Russia. More popular than one might expect.

And one could say that the “normalised evil” in Russia is just my imagination. But I wouldn’t have written it if I haven’t seen what Russian soldiers did in Ukraine during the invasion. They raped, killed, tortured all kinds of people — from small kids to elder women. And they are not persecuted by this and intercepted phone calls show that they are even proud of their actions. Russians are happy about what they did in Bucha, even if they publicly deny that they did this — but remember — deception is normal in Russia. “Don’t trust” and if you trusted then you are “guilty by yourself” and shouldn’t have been so naive.

Conclusion

Illusion of greatness, illusion of happiness and normalised evil are things which still make Russians support Russia in their genocidal war. Whether this stems from their typical Russian cynicism and nihilism, or is a reason for it — I don’t know. I don’t live in Russia, so I could get some things wrong. Those who think that all this is an absolute lie about Russians, which are very nice in nature, I’d like to point to the article “Exodus” written by Yuriy Nesterenko — a Russian who emigrated to USA and he wrote himself:

The Russian state succeeded in only one undoubted achievement, over which philosophers and moralists struggled for centuries: it gave the world a simple and clear criterion of Good and Evil. Namely, if Russia sincerely, not for the sake of appearances, approves and supports something, then it is evil. If she strongly opposes something, then it is good.

Yuriy Nesterenko’s article “Exodus” (in Russian): https://yun.complife.info/miscell/exodus.htm

Picture of Raskolnikov taken from here: https://24smi.org/person/1075-rodion-raskolnikov.html