Dina Khapaeva - Putin’s Medieval Romanticism and Russia’s Lurch Right
As much of the world
makes amends for social and political injustices of the past, Russia is
lionizing its despots, raising statues to the worst of them. Behind this
phenomenon is an ultra-nationalist brand of conservatism that seeks to take
Russian politics back to the Middle Ages. While much
of the world is busy dismantling monuments to oppressors, Russians are moving
in the opposite direction, erecting statues to medieval warlords who were famous
for their despotism. Understanding this revival can shed light on the direction
of Russia’s politics.
In October 2016, with
the endorsement of Russia’s culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky, the country’s
first-ever monument to Ivan the Terrible was unveiled
in the city of Orel. A month later, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the
leader of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, called for
Lenin Avenue in Moscow to be renamed Ivan the Terrible Highway.
And in July of this year, President Vladimir Putin christened Moscow’s own
tribute to the tyrant, declaring,
erroneously, that “most likely, Ivan the Terrible never killed anyone, not
even his son.”
Most historians agree
that Ivan lived up to his name; not only did he kill his son and other
relatives, he also ordered the oprichnina, the state-led purges
that terrorized Russia from 1565 to 1572. He also presided over Russia’s defeat
in the Livonian War, and his misrule contributed to the Time of Troubles and
the state’s devastating depopulation.
Joseph Stalin
initiated the modern cult of Ivan the Terrible. But, since the mid-2000s,
Russia’s Eurasia Party – a political movement led by the pro-fascist mystic
Alexander Dugin – has moved to position Ivan as the best incarnation of an “authentic”
Russian tradition: authoritarian monarchy.
Dugin’s brand of
“Eurasianism” advocates the embrace of a “new Middle Ages,” where what little
remains of Russian democracy is replaced by an absolute autocrat. In Dugin’s
ideal future, a medieval social order would return, the empire would be
restored, and the Orthodox church would assume control over culture and
education.
Eurasianism, which was
marginal in the 1990s, has gained considerable popularity in recent years by
contributing to the formation of the so-called Izborsky
Club, which unites the Russian far right. On several occasions, Putin has
referred to Eurasianism as an important part of Russian ideology; he has even
invoked it as a founding principle of the “Eurasian
Economic Union,” a burgeoning trade area of former Soviet states.
https://www.juancole.com/2018/01/medieval-romanticism-russias.html
Articles on ideology in East Europe
