“If any people can become fashist, then any people can be free.”
This is my point of view.
As we saw in the first article devoted to the study of Putin's results as President, Russia has sunk into an authoritarian regime which tends towards the form of a totalitarian and fascist regime. But here I want to offer a solution to this problem. Of course, this is a program for a post-revolutionary New Russia and not a Revolution project in itself.
But before studying it I would like to put a few things in their place.
I am deeply shocked to see some commentators or people participating in forums claiming that Russians are incapable of being free and that they are by nature susceptible to fascism (supposedly Russian history is only a succession of fascisms under different colours).
I am fundamentally against this kind of interpretation and I will prove it by the simplest reasoning in the world: comparison. Indeed, Russia is not the first fascist state in the world! Italy was fascist! Germany! Romania ! Hungary ! Japan ! etc… Are they all secretly Russian? Otherwise, it's a strange situation to have a fascist people from birth when most countries in the world have gone through phases of totalitarianism, racism, colonialism, etc.
No. Fascism is human. Any country is liable to fall into fascism, regardless of its history. Let me also remind you that Japan was democratic and free before becoming a fascist dictatorship, Germany was also ... Freedom is never acquired forever and any country can always sink into the abyss of nationalist madness ... The Russians (despite what they would like to believe) are not exceptional! Far from it… Moreover, the trap of fascism is always the same: channeling the fears and frustrations of a people to turn them against freedoms considered to be degenerated, invoking a glorious past to be revived, excessively victimizing themselves by believing that someone else is responsible for their problems, glorifying the leader who is bringing the country's greatness back to life through military means... Everyone is susceptible to it, France, the United States, Ukraine...
Believing that the Russians are different from other peoples and that they are fundamentally fascist is in itself a … faschist reaction. It is the denial of Humanity of the Russian people ... while closing our eyes that we ourselves are capable of sinking into the same madness ... If today the Russians commit genocide against the Ukrainian people, does it mean that tomorrow the Ukrainians will have the right to genocide the Russians because the Russian is “fundamentally unfit for freedom and always fascist”? Who will be the fascist in this case? If everyone falls into hatred of the Russian people for what they have just done in Ukraine, doesn't the whole world also become fascist? (Besides what a Victory it would be for Putin… He would have been right all the way… The world would have been Russophobic and deeply fascist, aiming to destroy Greater Russia).
Hate is not the answer to Hate.
I know it's hard to accept. Especially for the Ukrainians who see their cities ravaged, their families massacred, their children dying…
But don't forget, the Ukrainians are fighting for their independence and their democracy. They fight not to sink to our level but to be better than us. The fight against fascism is not just to physically eliminate the fascist enemy, it is also to prevent the fascist from being born in oneself. I admire the Ukrainian people. I have met very few Ukrainians who now hate Russians just because they were born Russians. The overwhelming majority of Ukrainians I know understand that there is a major difference between those who commit the crimes and the people as a whole. Often they prefer to ignore the Russian people altogether. Sometimes they pity the blindness of my compatriots. Very few Ukrainians I know have fallen into dangerous Russophobia. But the danger is there and it begins to take shape as soon as one begins to deny the Humanity of the Russian people and to classify them as being “fundamentally different from respectable humans”.
To believe that the Russian is specially designed to be a fascist is as dangerous as it is to close one's eyes to internal danger. The truth is that Russia is unlucky to be fascist today. But maybe tomorrow, it will be the turn of another State and Russia will be a new example of how to get out of it…. And there is a chance that Russia will never be fascist again. Much like a vaccine or a heavy disease, Russia will develop immunity to fascism for centuries to come. So I call on all citizens of the world not to hate Russians, but to learn from their mistakes. To see what is happening to Russia as another example of why dictatorship, hatred, victimization and easy propaganda should be avoided …
Deputinisation
Now regarding the policy to be employed in order to “cleanse” Russia of any fascist element. We must of course draw inspiration from the past and similar examples (Germany, Japan, etc.). The key has always been information and education. At the time of the fall of the Third Reich, the policy of the new German states (socialist and liberal) was to show the population what was really done in their name. The population discovered with horror the worst reality a State can face:
They had supported a regime that lied to them by telling them that it was liberating the world and was behaving in a humane and loyal manner when its aim was the destruction of so-called “enemy” peoples. Their country was covered in blood and shame for decades to come. They had destroyed the continent and had lost their friends, their fathers, their mothers… for nothing. Their people had been sacrificed for the ambition of a few men who wanted to cover themselves with glory and give free rein to their murderous hatred. Now their country was destroyed, their economy no longer existed. They had paid a high price to obtain only desolation, destruction and eternal shame.
But all was not lost, for now their countries would be free. They were going to learn from their monumental mistake never to walk this path again. For centuries to come, the Germans will always wonder if this or that path proposed to them by politicians would not lead them to the same result as in 1945.
It must be the same for Russia.
The Russians of tomorrow must, each time they perceive a semblance of Putinism offered to them, turn away from it because they must know and remember what it cost them the last time. For this, they must be informed and educated accordingly. It is not a question of “reforming” them or of forcing them to adopt a precise ideology. They will choose for themselves if they want a liberal or socialist or ecological policy for their future. But they must know their past in an objective and unfiltered way. Everyone must know what is hidden behind the ideals of “revanchism”, or hatred of the other or even aggressive victimization aimed to deny their own failures.
The Russian people are not our enemy. And it shouldn't be anyone's enemy. If it is shown compassion and understanding, it can join the international community with dignity. It will have to learn from its mistakes and never go back. It will have to be the example of the people who defeated fascism, outside as well as inside. And for those who will continue to believe in Putin's nefarious ideas, they must become a minority that disappears with their own death (from old age of course). Tomorrow's Russians will simply have to forget and ignore the few crazies who will remain and keep shouting that Putin was right. Just like the Nazis who were judged and driven out, the convinced Putinists will in future be just one more ancestor for whom we will be ashamed but who can no longer harm anyone. Moreover, their children will know the truth and will not make the same mistakes again.
It will nevertheless be necessary to purge the social body. The hunt for fascists will take place in Russia under the aegis of the Revolutionary Government. It will of course be a question of identifying the most harmful among them and punishing them with a just punishment. I am of course targeting the war criminals, the oligarchs who have supported the regime to the end, the propagandists… They will all have to pay. It will of course be necessary to carry out exemplary justice in the matter. The right to defense will be respected and each defendant will have the right to present their arguments. Each conviction must be proportionate to the crime committed and to the mitigating circumstances. Thus, applying game theory and the Nash equilibrium, it will be possible to motivate people to denounce themselves, cooperate with the authorities and take action to help overthrow the regime as soon as possible, to lessen their punishment. There will therefore remain only a small group of thugs who will flee the country and will be hunted down forever.
I also think that it would not be useless to punish the part of the population which supported the regime the most without directly committing crimes against Ukraine or their own citizens. I think they will have to be sent to Ukraine to help rebuild the country. Thus they will have to rebuild with their hands what they have destroyed by their support and will be confronted face to face with the reality on the ground. It will of course be necessary to determine a sufficient quantity of manpower to carry out the work without it being too lacking in the national economy. It doesn't have to be overwhelming either. It would rather be an “internship” of a few weeks per person only. But I think it would be useful for them to see what they helped to happen as well as to show the Ukrainians directly that their civilian enemies are being punished and paid for their mistakes. The question of legality cannot be raised for the simple reason that there is no law in Russia, only a normative legal order built on authoritarian and abusive power. I will write an article on the Russian Constitution soon to explain my reasoning but suffice it to say here that I consider that the only norms which must not be violated in any case are those stemming from human rights. As long as fundamental freedoms are not violated, any punishment is possible.
So after a purge and a re-education, Russia will be “deputinized”.
Russia will be free, exemplary, and above all it will know how to fight and reach out to the future country which will fall into fascism because it will know what it is to be wrong and to feed on costly and disastrous illusions.