The fascists left, but the police remained: why is oprichnina so popular in Russia

Philosopher Dmitry Luchikhin continues to study the phenomenon of Russian life in his blog. This time he turned to a very burning question: why is the purely propagandistic idea of "serving the Motherland" so popular in society:

“Of course I have already written, and not even once. But it might be worth repeating as a comic.

That Russia “for which” and “for whose sake”, the one that will be named as Motherland, the one in the act of serving which only one can show “spirituality, honor and dignity” - can easily be visualized in a simple thought experiment.

Imagine a village or small town that fell under the occupation in 1941. It is clear that in order to control the population, the Germans habitually recruit local law enforcement agencies. Politsaev. In turn, the main task of these units is to eradicate sedition, partisanism, and simply attempts to ignore the demands of the new government.

And then, we begin a thought experiment, the war ended, the Germans left, but the policemen remained. And they remained not as new masters, a new power freed from the fetters of service, but in the same role of monitoring the observance of the established order, and the elimination of sedition in their relation.

This, in fact, is Russia in its, so to speak, unique peculiarity and alternativeness.

Another thing is that, if even before the revolution, the percentage of loyal guardsmen who suppress any attempts to deviate from the rules and principles once and for all established by the self-liquidated occupier for a long time, and who are proud of their unreasoning loyalty, was still a relatively small part of the entire population - then after the perturbations of the 20th century, 9 out of 10 inhabitants of this territory share the psychology of the oprichnina.

And even most of the opposition-minded fellow citizens do not oppose the idea of service and loyalty to something incomprehensible, but only present, for service and loyalty, an alternative image of an occupier with a “human face”.

What a familiar rhetoric, isn't it?"