Dmytro Polovynka

The Cult of Power: the Russian Paradigm

Explanation of the hypocrisy, lies, cruelty, pride and other features inherent in the Russian culture by the Cult of Power, as the main paradigm of Russia.

Introduction

There are different types of ethics — for example, those based on internal values (for example, Stoicism), others focus on the nature of actions, or on the nature of consequences (for example, the criminal code). There are religious ethics, such as Christian or Islamic, there are secular ones, such as Humanism. The Russians rejected all these ethics and created their own - based on the Cult of Power.

Whoever is strong is right.

Direct examples

There are obvious direct examples of this cult.

It’s not a coincidence that the symbol of Russia is a bear - the strongest predatory animal of the northern forests.

War is an important part of the Cult of Power. Everything related to the army is adored. Russia sacralises the Second World War, and instead of the European “never again”, they “can do it again”. They also call it differently - “Great Fatherland War” and start counting only since 1941, because otherwise they would have to accept Nazi-Soviet collaboration since 1939, which they are not willing to accept. Patriotism in Russia is about being military stronger than any other nation, so that others are afraid of them (“чтоб боялись”).

Characteristic statements and memes:

Russia does not consider it a bad thing to threaten the world with nuclear weapons, while showing off their power. From them you can hear a phrase like:

We have nuclear weapons, you don’t want to provoke a country with nuclear weapons. Or maybe a third world war will begin

A common Russian saying as a wrap up:

You can’t really fight against a crowbar (Против лома нет приема)

Reverse examples

Of course, if Russians love force, there are things they despise. This is the other, reverse side of the Cult of Power.

They feel contempt for democracy. After all, autocracy is better for them, which will be discussed later

They despise liberal values. They call liberals “либерасты” - liberaste, which is a pun on words “liberal” and “pederaste” the latest often used in a derogatory meaning to label sexual minorities

They also dislike intelligence, which is usually associated with the weaker. In Soviet Union according to a doctrine there should have been only two castes: workers and peasants (hence the Hammer and Sickle), intellectuals were considered a mere interlayer. Lev Tolstoy made fun of people who work with their head in his famous Fairy Tale About Fools. Intelligent people were often derogatory called “small shitty intelligent people” интелигентишка сраный or “bespectacled” - очкарик.

As is customary in societies that worship power, Russia also has a special dislike for sexual minorities. For some reason, this issue is so important to them that even Patriarch Kirill in his sermon on March 6, 2022, on Forgiven Sunday, chose the gay parade as the main topic of conversation. “Gay propaganda” is officially forbidden in Russia. Such fanatical homophobia is mistakenly perceived by Russians for love for traditional values.

In addition to direct and reverse examples, there are other manifestations of the Cult of Power. This includes the attitude towards other people or nations, in particular:

These and other topics will be discussed later.

Power Vertical

“Power Vertical” is an often heard slogan of modern Russian politics. This implies a “strong hand” which rules the ones who should obey. Next the relations between the weaker and the stronger are explained.

Servility

Called “раболепие” (rabolepie) in Russian, which combines words Slave and Adorement and might be translated as “Adorement by Slaves”. Combines slave psychology with subservience in relation to authority figures.

The following statements are typical of people infected with servility:

Probably, this behavior is caused by learned helplessness. It arises due to the inability to control one’s life, as well as the relativity of rules.

Autocracy and Tsarism

Directly related to Servility. Autocracy is the basis of the Russian style of government for more than four hundred years, or maybe longer. In 1654 during negotiating the “Eternal Peace” between Ukraine and Russia there was a conflict between Khmelnitsky (Ukrainian leader) and the Russian ambassadors because the Moscow tsar was an autocrat and refused to swear an oath to anyone. Autocracy, or Tsarism - the Russian form of autocracy, means a single person rules the state. In essence, it is a form of absolute monarchy.

It is believed that

tsar-father knows everything (царь-батюшка все знает)

This is how the Russians think:

If tsar wants so, then it must be so. If no logical reasons are visible, then we do not know everything. The king is wise, you have to trust him.

If Putin decided to attack Ukraine, then he is a strategic genius. If he says that Ukraine itself wanted to attack Russia, then it is so. If there is no evidence of this - no problem, Putin definitely has such evidence. Because he knows what is he doing.

Autocracy together with Servility give rise to such phenomena as:

Regarding the last point, there is no initiative even in such things as playing sports. It is intertwined with cynicism and alcoholism. Because “it’s better to drink vodka.”

Due to autocracy, authoritarianism and lack of initiative, the Russian army cannot be decentralized, as the Armed Forces of Ukraine are. And the volunteer movement is impossible in Russia to the same extent, as in Ukraine. The Maidans (collective name for Ukrainian revolutions of 2004 and 2013) are also impossible, therefore Russians believe that the Maidans’ participants in Ukraine were paid for.

Pride

Russians look down on all the weaker ones.

Their pride can be mixed with condescension, as it once was towards Ukrainians. For instance Russians called Ukrainians younger brothers, and considered Ukrainians nice, but a bit stupid.

Or their pride can be mixed with disdain, like towards the Americans. The often repeated quote of a pretty popular stand up comic Zadornov about Americans is

But they are stu-u-upid (да они же тупы-ы-ые)

Anyway, since they have the second army in the world, they can despise all other weaker nations. They still can despise the USA, which has the first army in the world, because of the USA’s love for such “weak” things as liberalism or democracy.

The pride of Russia and Russians is manifested as follows:

Regarding the last point. If we analyze the anthem of Russia, there are no actions that the person can do except for “being proud”, specifically in the chorus:

glory to the country, we are proud of you (славсья страна, мы гордимся тобой)

Compare that to Ukrainian anthem:

…And we too shall rule, brothers, in a free land of our own.
We’ll lay down our souls and bodies to attain our freedom,
And we’ll show that we, brothers, are of the Cossack nation!

Such passivity of the Russian anthem singer is perfectly combined with the already mentioned autocracy and servitude.

All this together leads to imperialism, since all the other nations, in the Russian opinion, are less worthy to have their own state. Hence the dislike for Georgia, the Baltic countries, Ukraine, disdain for the Central Asian republics and the desire to restore the USSR.

Cruelty

Cruelty is a direct result of the cult of strength, pride and contempt for the weak. If the weaker one could not stand up for himself, then, from the point of view of the Cult of Power, he himself is to blame.

Pride and cynicism (discussed later) combine to produce a lack of compassion.

This leads to such phenomena as:

The Russian military admitted that they

We kill civilians for fun (нам по приколу убивать цивильных)

Another example of cruelty is the Russian book “Household” (Домострой) — a book on household management. The man in this book was an absolute autocrat in his house. And the book describes how to beat a woman so that she obeys. This book could be called a relic of the Middle Ages, but nothing has changed in Russia.

Russian sayings about cruelty follow:

Even though the second saying is true, it would not arise in the culture where people want others to like them by using force. This resonates with Russian wish “to be loved or to be feared”.

Cynicism

Stronger should be treated with servility and obedience. Weaker should be treated with cruelty and disdain. What about equal? They are neither stronger nor weaker, and it is not entirely clear how to treat them according to the Power Vertical.

In such relationships, indifference and cynicism prevail among Russians. Russians are cynical not only with other equals, they are cynical with themselves.

In less educated segments of the population, such a cynical attitude towards oneself and the environment develops into alcoholism. After all, in the absence of initiative and other values, except for the Cult of Power, the only thing left is to abuse alcohol.

Among intellectuals, such a cynicism becomes a specifically Russian postmodernism. They reject all values and question everything, but they do it in a sophisticated manner. This is what Russian liberals do. They, for example, want to be above war, perceive it as some kind of misunderstanding, they have nothing to do with it, they are for peace. And in general, according to them, war and politics are a dirty business, it is not yet clear who is right and who is guilty.

Russians treat each other indifferently and cynically, they do not see value in each other. That is why collectivity in Russia can only be forced. All attempts to unite the team are seen as something alien. This leads to a lack of voluntary cooperation. It is organically connected with authoritarianism, centralization and autocracy.

There is a Russian common saying to justify their cynicism:

It’s not that we are bad, it’s just that life is like that (не мы такие, жизнь такая)

Other cynical quotes are:

Women will give birth to more of them (бабы еще нарожают)

…as a refusal to protect the lives of military personnel.

Or check out this Putin’s answer when asked about what happened to Kursk submarine, where about 100 people died:

It drowned (она утонула)

Russian cynicism would be incomplete without a mention of an almost fundamental Russian trait. I’m talking about lying.

Lies, lies, lies

The built into humans reluctance to obey, along with the need to do so, leads to hypocrisy and lies. This is because one cannot openly tell what he thinks in an authoritarian society. Russians are used to tell one thing and think another. Russians are used to behave as they are supposed to, but do it with some inner reluctance. There was a common joke in a USSR:

They pretend that they pay us, and we pretend that we do the work

Lying and pretending is a common trait in Russian culture. Lying to the servants is in line with the Cult of Power. Lying to authorities is predictable. Lying to each other is thus inevitable.

Self-contradiction

This double thinking is so normal to Russians, that they don’t even notice, when they contradict themselves in the same sentence. For instance here are roughly translated quotes from a great article in Russian Enter the darkness and find people there. I give some explanation in square quotes.

Everyone [on the West] is happy that they could make one nation* to fight against itself. They simply wanted Russia to be weak. We had no other choice [than to attack Ukraine].
*some Russians consider Ukrainians and Russians being one nation

I have changed rubles to dollars today. Everything will be fine. Soon we will cut ourselves off the dollar and will live happily.

Young people are being pushed into all this – into fascism and into the belief that the war should not continue.

“We have a normal attitude towards Ukrainians, right?” “But you said that Ukrainians should be punished” “That’s right! They should be punished!”

“Same as USA with its states, let us all be together: Ukraine, Chuvashia, but all together, fraternal peoples, like, roughly speaking, the USSR with the republics.” “Don’t you think that Ukraine is a sovereign state?” “I believe that Donetsk and Lugansk* are a sovereign state. They have expressed their independence - so give them independence. Why don’t you give?!”
*Since 2014 occupied by Russian forces, self-proclaimed DNR and LNR

Russians lies

Russians consider others to be just as cynical, so they don’t think that lying is something bad, because in their opinion everyone lies

For example, there is a whole new word “Ихтамнеты” (Ikhtamnety) - which roughly can be translated as They-aren’t-theres (noun in plural). When Russian soldiers occupied Crimea in 2014 they did it without Russian identification signs. Russian government lied, when asked about Russian soldiers in Crimea: “They are not there”, их там нет in Russian. So Russian soldiers were called Polite People (вежливые люди), Green Humans (зеленые человечки) or They-aren’t-there’s (ихтамнеты).

As for more modern examples, Russians officially say that Bucha massacre is a western fake. But in between themselves they are happy about the massacre and claim that

We will make Bucha from Lviv to Kharkiv (сделаем Бучу от Львова до Харькова)

…with Lviv and Kharkiv being large cities on the West and East of Ukraine.

Modern Russians try to deny the existence of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Or they rarely know about it. Second World War started in 1941 for them, because according to the Pact, there was a cooperation between nazis and commies. And Russian government does not want to admit to that fact.

The goals of “special war operation 2022” have changed several times:

Apparently the goal is to simply destroy Ukraine, but they’d better lie about something than clearly admit that.

By attacking Ukraine, Russians say that they “liberate them” (мы их освобождаем). People in Ukraine react with dark humor on this phrase, like “Russians liberated me from my leg” or “Russians liberated me from my flat”.

As for shelling of Ukrainian cities, Russians say that

Ukrainians bomb themselves, we only shoot at military targets

…which is particularly unconvincing if to remember what happened to Mariupol, heavily shelled by Russian armed forces.

Russians bombed Odesa port the day after the signing of the grain export agreement. This demonstrates how much are the pieces of paper signed by Russia worth.

The most famous paper signed by Russia for Ukrainians is a Budapest Memorandum. For those who don’t know - Ukraine gave all of the atomic weapons to Russia. Russia (together with USA and UK) promised to protect Ukraine from any sovereignty violations.

Russians claim that “Nazis are in power in Ukraine”, although they cannot provide any evidence. Even in the article “What Russia should do with Ukraine”, which describes how the genocide of Ukrainians should proceed, they modestly write that:

The peculiarity of modern nazified Ukraine is in amorphousness and ambivalence, which allow Nazism to be disguised as a desire for “independence” and a “European” (Western, pro-American) path of “development” (in reality, to degradation), to assert that in Ukraine “there is no Nazism , only private individual excesses”. After all, there is no main Nazi party, no Fuhrer, no full-fledged racial laws (only their truncated version in the form of repressions against the Russian language). As a result, there is no opposition and resistance to the regime.

Lavrov (Russian minister of foreign affairs) famously said

“But we didn’t attack Ukraine either”

Their war slogans also appear to be lies:

We don’t leave ours (своих не бросаем) - they proved it wrong many times during the 2022 war

Russia does not start wars, but ends them (Россия войны не начинает, она их заканчивает)

Russians are so predictable in their lying that four stages of denying unpleasant facts can be distinguished:

  1. There were no explosions
  2. There were explosions, but it wasn’t us
  3. It was us, but we hit military facilities
  4. We did not hit the military objects, but “Where were you for eight years while the Donbass was bombed?”

Many times during Russian invasion into Ukraine Russians went through the four above-mentioned stages. For instance Mariupol theatre.

Russia is so soaked in lies that appearance is more important to it than reality. Almost all areas of life are divided into sales and internal.

The whole myth of Great Russian Culture is because they can sell what is cool, but they don’t practice it themselves. How do you think - what percentage of Russians actually like ballet and read Lev Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”?

I will complete this section with typical Russian sayings:

Life is bad without a person to fool (без лоха и жизнь плоха) You don’t fool - you don’t survive (не наебешь - не проживешь) Who’s not caught is not a thief (не пойман - не вор)

My favourite one is “And you prove!” (“а вы докажите!”). It is often used when caught lying, but the evidence is not enough to prove it. This sentence “And you prove!” usually means that some Russians are lurking behind. Related to the saying “Who’s not caught is not a thief”.

Side effects

There are some side effects of the Cult of Power, which are not directly related to the relations between strong and weak. These are: poverty, lawlessness, love for criminal world and the child neglect.

Poverty

Cynicism, lack of initiative, disdain for the weak, defenselessness in front of the strong give rise to the poverty in which Russians live. Poverty in the both material and spiritual meanings:

Since Russians consider themselves very spiritual, they are forced to interpret their poverty as a manifestation of this spirituality. But since people in the West do not live poorly, they are, accordingly, interpreted as soulless (“бездуховный запад”).

Russian poverty is very well described in a popular Russian rock song (ДДТ - Родина):

Homeland, I return to homeland (Родина, еду я на родину)
They say it’s ugly/freak (Говорят уродина)
But we like it (А она нам нравится)
Even though it’s not beautiful (Хоть и не красавица)

“My homeland is a freak, but I like it” is rooted in the Russian patriotism. They know how terrible their country is, but they love it. And no amount of facts like Bucha (where they raped and killed hundreds of innocent people), Mariupol (which they shelled and almost entirely destroyed), or of internal repressions will change that. And they are proud of such patriotism.

Yezhov (Ежов - one of the main conductor of Red Terror in 1930s) is said to have shouted “Glory to Stalin!” when he was shot on Stalin’s orders. A Russian will love his native Russia, even if she mutilates and robs him. And if Russia mutilates and robs others, then this is especially not a problem. She is “freak, but we like her”.

As Russian say themselves:

It is easy to love a mother if she is clean and sober. But true love is when you love her drunk, naked, lying in a ditch.

This is a quote from Surkov (Сурков), one of the prominent Russian politicians, who was responsible for introducing “Russian world” in geopolitics.

It is in each of us. When I was very young, I remember sitting in the yard at school, the men smoke, they talk. And I look at the fence - it leaned to the side. And it never occurs to any of us to approach it and straighten it up. Then I thought - why? Because we’re looking over the fence, we’re always a little out of here. We always look somewhere into the distance, this is a property of the Russian character, farsightedness. We, having not fully settled in some territory, want to take something else. It led us into space at a time when half of the population lived in our barracks and there was no sewage system. This is a property of the Russian character, this is the genotype, it is indestructible. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s just how it is. I’m not saying that fences should not be fixed, of course, but for us this is never the main thing, as for some person in some cozy country in Europe, who just looks at the fence. And he waters his front garden, he lives in it. We are different.

Russians fully understand that their country is despicable, so they try to find excuses, such as:

Nevertheless, Russians even wear T-shirts, or stick stickers with the inscription on their cars with the words:

We are not ashamed (нам не стыдно)

Only a person who understands that she should be ashamed will wear such a T-shirt. If a person is a citizen of a normal state, it would not even occur to him to buy a T-shirt with such wording.

Love of crime

The Cult of Power is characteristic of criminals. It is not surprising that crime is loved in Russia. This is the love of criminal songs and criminal culture. Criminals are romantisized - poems of Yesenin (Есенин), famous Russian poet, are a good example of that. Articles about “thieves gatherings” (воровские сходки) and who was “crowned” (коронован) there are of a frequent occurrence on serious websites, such as lenta.ru.

I will quote an article from Russian opposition news website meduza.io Why is the Russian army committing all these atrocities

Having legalized themselves in the authorities, the former bandits brought their life philosophy with them into the public sphere: cynicism, the Cult of Power, greed, the conviction that everyone around is corrupt, and a readiness for violence.

Outwardly criminal culture has a collectivist character. But at its core, it is very individualistic, because it rejects notions of innate equality and horizontal solidarity. It does not teach empathy and trust (“Don’t believe, don’t be afraid, don’t ask”), and at the grassroots level is permeated with a sense of dependency and powerlessness.

Often the criminal culture opposes itself to the “normative” culture as more real, sincere. Allegedly, it is based on genuine justice, and not on a soulless law and artificial rules.

Lack of interest in the other as different, denial of equality and boundaries of property and personality, understanding of any differences hierarchically (weaker / stronger, poorer / richer, lower status / higher status) - all this in conditions of prolonged lack of freedom and social disunity gives rise to aggression and envy at the level of the entire society In the conditions of degradation of institutions, authorities and values, society loses its moral guidelines and the ability for complex reflection. It begins to perceive cynicism, commercialism and selfishness as the standard.

Such a society paradoxically combines feelings of narcissism and humiliation, indifference to another and a desire to achieve justice and respect for oneself from this other.

Lawlessness

In Russian - беспредел, which is actually translated as “No Limits (to what I am allowed to do)”. It logically follows from the Cult of Power, but it must be mentioned for the completeness of the picture.

Since strong is right, laws have only relative value. Not everyone is equal before the law - this applies not only to Russia, but in Russia it has a systemic nature precisely because of the Cult of Power. Opposing the “powers of this world” can have rather unpleasant consequences. Examples are public condemnations of people in Chechnya who oppose Ramzan Kadyrov (current head of Chechnya).

If the conflict between the Cult of Power and the law becomes too strong, then the laws are changed. In Russia, for example, the law allows only single-person protests (lone pickets - одиночные протесты). More people cannot gather for a protest, so there is no freedom of assembly.

Since the laws are not followed and the right of the strong prevails, the entire attempt to copy the democratic system in Russia can be called a “cargo cult”. Indeed, there are institutions, there are courts and parliament, there are three branches of government. There is a constitution and laws. But in fact, they all work for one autocrat to hold the Power Vertical. However, recently the Russians started to deny the democracy and to declare their own special way believing that the “Collective West” is declining (загнивает). According to Russians one of the reason “The West” is declining is its form of democracy.

An example of arbitrariness at the highest level is the presidency of Putin himself. According to the Russian constitution, a person has no right to be president for more than two terms. Accordingly, Putin did not go for the third term, but he became a prime minister, maintaining control over affairs in the state. After that, he went for a third term, interpreting the constitution in the special way - that one cannot serve more than two terms in a row, and not in general. During his third presidency, the constitution was amended to remove this inconvenient term count problem.

Child neglect

Children are weak and parents are strong. How should parents behave towards kids in the Cult of Power society? You probably have already guessed it.

Children are not really valued in Russia. It is very common to treat them with disrespect. Kids should simply obey. Initiative is punishable (инициатива наказуема). Children should become “small people” (маленькие люди) - be silent, without their own opinion. Because it’s parents who should be “big” in the parent/child relations. But these same parents are “small” in relation to government. Maybe this way they prepare their kids to be “small”.

I don’t live in Russia, so I can’t say that I saw this neglect by my own eyes. But what I see is that soviet culture (which was predominantly Russian in its nature) produced this kind of disrespectful treatment of children, which can be seen even in some soviet fairy tales. And what I also saw was how captured Russian soldiers talked to their mothers by phone. It looked miserable and very in line with what I described. Parents are not too sad that their kids die on war, because they get lots of money for their death, so that they can even buy a white Lada (Russian car). And especially fathers are fine with that because of already mentioned “Women will give birth to more of them (бабы еще нарожают)”.

Conclusions

This is my second attempt to understand Russians. The first was the article “Russian World” (Русский мир), which, however, was more of an appeal to Russians. In my opinion, the Cult of Power very well explains many features of Russian culture and politics, such as:

All these phenomena, nevertheless, are very closely related. It is not yet clear what gave rise to what. For example, it can be considered that the cornerstone of the Cult of Power was precisely the half-thousand-year history of autocracy, and not the other way around, as I described it. But this autocracy in itself does not explain contempt for other nations. Probably, the choice of the Cult of Power as the basis of the Russian paradigm is not entirely ideologically correct. But when I tried to structure all the information about the peculiarities of Russian culture, it was precisely the Cult of Power that was able to explain all the phenomena.