The problem of the "Russian people" is that it does not seem to exist...

Marina Shapovalova, writer

"Why are you so killed (in the meaning "eating your heart out over" - editor's note), you will not be killed this way!"

This was the epigraph. Where it comes from - I'll tell you some other time.

I was told here that the Russian people are worthless. That the problem is in him, not in Putin. And that this amazing news that I hear and read in recent years every day, not always in a censored version, it is time to admit. And everyone who points me to the Russian people as the main culprit of Putinism and other abominations is sincerely convinced that he is opening my eyes.

Thank you for your concern, but I want to inform you that I have written about the same thing since the beginning of the 2000s. He was very much upset at the actively imposed and growing revanchism, which was then still invisible to many. Then she wrote a lot and emotionally in 2014, finding no other way out for her pain and despair. So with this "discovery" - not to me. At first. With claims as to the "representative of the people" - also not to me. This is the second thing.

This could have ended, but it will not end there. The stream of those wishing to tell me "the whole truth" and demand recognition of the "genetic ugliness" of either ethnic Russians, or the entire population of the Russian Federation, will not dry up. Therefore, it is logical (to begin with) to ask the question: what should follow such a recognition? What are you seeking it for?

Well, they admitted: the people are worthless. All Russian, including a hundred ethnic groups? Or just Russian? Okay, we consider the rest of the victims, victims, we recognize only ethnic Russians as unfit. (I don’t know how to distinguish them from non-Russians, but ok, we'll figure it out later.) What's next?

We realized that all the evil in the world is from the Russians. It is impossible to fix them - they are unusable. They will always be a source of evil for everyone, they will always be the basis of murderous regimes. And what to do with them now?

Do you have any other recipes for eliminating evil in the form of a "harmful people", besides the one already proposed in Germany? Or is it just right for you?

Second question: What are your suggestions for implementing this beautiful plan?

I ask because I am interested in finding a way out of that ugly and hopeless state in which we find ourselves. So do you know a way to rid the world of the source of evil you've already found? If not, then do not waste time on eloquence in despair - kill yourself against the wall at once, so as not to prolong your torment with fruitless tantrums! Although I guess you will not be killed. You are just comfortable with the role of an angry denouncer.

And I cannot enjoy anger and negative emotions. Revel in the role of the victim, denouncing the found culprit, too. If you plan to destroy me among the Russians, I am against it. Therefore, I see no reason to endlessly mutter about the "bad people" - this is not followed by any action and no thought.

I will live on, observe the processes in the present, think, analyze the past and look for ways out. Which, I am sure, will appear, even if now the gaps are not visible from any side. And then it will be important to take into account the mistakes of the past. This is the main thing that we can do now: understand what pushed us on the path to a dead end. What contributed to this. Why. Is it possible to avoid repetition. How can you avoid.

In my opinion, the “problem with the people” is that this people does not exist. There is no "people of Russia". And there is no "Russian people" either. Does not exist. There is a country. There is its population. There are different peoples in the country, localized - they are few. There are Russians - as self-determination, not always on the basis of ethnicity. But there is no Russian people. As a community, united by something else besides language and space within state borders. These two signs are not enough for the people as a community.

But it is precisely for this reason that the state, its beneficiaries, interested in maintaining control over the profitable territory, pedal precisely these "bonds": language and borders. They impose "sacredness" on them, forbid doubting it. They need an imaginary "single people" as a factor legitimizing their power. Therefore, they impede the formation of local civil communities, repressing for the slightest of its manifestations - they know what it threatens.

Education of nations. Communities welded together by regional issues, history, economic interests, capable of declaring their subjectivity on these grounds. Even if within the framework of a federation, real federalization threatened their sovereignty over the resources of the entire territory, which is why they got rid of it, crushed it in the bud.

But the story doesn't end today. On the contrary, a very interesting stage has begun. Dangerous, difficult and yet unpredictable. But already definitely breaking the structure of the rusted world order. We will have many more reasons to talk about peoples. Without evaluative definitions and stamps. On their participation and role in the processes of reformatting the political and economic space of the world. In what circumstances and contours these phenomena will manifest themselves - we'll see.

Original is here.