The worst thing is when the Russian elite believes in its' historical mission

Dmitry Nekrasov

I've just read Bogomolov's manifesto, and it reminded me of the following episode.

There is such Sergey Kurginyan, whom some consider one of the regime's ideologists (a very educated, but completely crazy person). At one time, I quite often crossed paths with him on the airs of state TV, and at first (until I said something there) he treated me very positively, well, like a lost sheep, like a smart one, but lost the true path. And therefore, more than once in the dressing room or during advertising, he tried to explain something to me in order to deceive me.

And then one day, in all seriousness, he began to explain to me that Russia is an island of modernity, preserved in the sea of postmodernism, and the historical mission of the Russian people is to preserve the real European culture for the Europeans themselves, because postmodernity destroys European culture. Straight almost one-on-one with Bogomolov's theses.

I then (as, indeed, now) with my cynical grin asked him if he really considered justified the direct death of tens of thousands and materially worse, for years shorter than it could have been, the life of many tens of millions of people adequate payment for the salvation of the islet of modern from postmodernism. He did not understand my sarcasm and quite sincerely continued to convince me that such was the historical mission of Russian civilization.

I myself am very critical of many trends in modern Western society and I am ready to subscribe to some of Bogomolov's theses. However, it doesn't matter. The scary thing is that some representatives of the Russian elite believe in some kind of historical mission and quite sincerely believe that the mission justifies the costs (well, or the fact that there is a high demand for ideological self-justification). All of the greatest atrocities in history have been committed in the name of faith in invented abstractions. It becomes scary not when the elite just wants to live well, but when they really believe in something. The most terrible thing is when he believes in his historical mission.

Original is here.