Late in the history of the civilized world and having a double disadvantage: an Asian heritage (transmitted through the chain of subordination to the khans of the Golden Horde) and a huge but inhospitable territory, Russia has always maintained a disappointment in the developed West, which was both envied and reviled at the same time.

I do not mean a diplomatic proposal that the Russian state could make today to pave the way for peace in Ukraine, but I mean the Russia of all times: the Russia of the Tsars, the Russia of the Communists, and the Russia of Vladimir Putin. Embrace à la Russian, whose overflowing passion takes no account of the one to whom it is addressed, but is the pure expression of the (momentary) enthusiasm of the one who does it. The Russian is literally in ecstasy, he throws himself out, he breaks out, he rushes in all directions (overturning everything), and this is in the name of authenticity, lived to the fullest. When we read these things in literature or when we see them in films, they have a certain charm, given that they take us out of the mechanical state of everyday life and put us – through art – in front of a limit that we would otherwise rarely try. But, despite this momentary temptation, how many of us would be willing to live permanently on the edge, as innocents (condemned) who have resigned themselves to their fate and for whom the only possible salvation remains the delusion of agony?

Although we have many shortcomings, here in Eastern Europe we are used to a way of thinking that was formed (during the Middle Ages and especially in modern times) in the Western world, and which is based on the principle of causality: “if – then”. everything, this logic governs a predictable and contractual existence, that is, one in which everyone can think about tomorrow under the sign of (relative) certainty. The way that rationality reduces arbitrariness in the scale of social life is decanted in the form of human rights. In a world that accepts JUSTIFICATION – ”la chose du monde la mieux partagee” – as a criterion of humanity, a natural conclusion is the equality of rights of citizens (as intelligent beings). In the same way, causality made it possible to model natural processes in scientific thought. In turn, this has been objectified in technology, which is nothing more than a force multiplier based on the algorithmic development of some temporal “if-then” processes. Obviously, we can deny both the politics of modern European man and technology that it has created a simplification of the complexity of life, a mechanical reductionism and, finally, one or another form of alienation, which is expressed, invariably, in recent centuries. On the other hand, the “miracles” of technology and freedom based on human rights are what have made possible the world we live in, a world in which everyone (regardless of their condition) can afford to think of the best. themselves and others, close ones.

On the other hand, in “Mother” Russia, we have a reporting deadline will. The will is absolute, because there is nothing outside of it. Whose will? God, in general, but since between the Resurrection and the Second Coming God does not manifest Himself personally in history, His will is embodied by His chosen ones. And, first of all, the king. “Emperor of All Russia” is “God’s anointed” and “his representative on earth.” His will is law; moreover, it is the only law known to his subjects. Thus, one can understand the reason why the largest country in the world did not have a parliament and a constitution until the beginning of the 20th century. Because what is a parliament, if not empty chatter, and the Constitution, if not a piece of paper, on which someone, subject to the times and their own indecisiveness, wrote something?! In Russia, not the people, but God rules with a royal hand. And if the king is cruel or crazy, it means that God chose him to punish people for unbelief. The Russian reacts to the pathology of “the one who rules the world” with a paroxysmal assumption of suffering caused by tyranny. The arbitrary will that generates horror and the radical suffering in which it is fulfilled are connected in a kind of “dialogue” that takes place “over” the flesh and its wounds. Paradoxically or not, this violence binds the tsar to his subjects in a way that an outsider in Russia can neither imagine nor understand.

Not in the “logic” of the will consistency this rule but syncope. If for a European, understanding occurs through reasoning (and, in extreme cases, through calculation), then for a Russian it is based on leaps. And still jumps into the abyss. The tsar’s subject is imposed not on the continuity of thoughts, actions and their consequences, but on a radical break: death and then resurrection. For the Russian, there are no real problems – and as such, no mechanism has been launched to solve them – because at any moment of crisis, he resorts to the magic of regeneration. Therefore, the Russian world is marked by falls and conversions (repeated, with an increasingly dense rhythm) on an individual scale and totalitarianisms and revolutions on a social scale. Just like children or pre-modern cultures, Russians are convinced that they always have the opportunity to bridge the gap that separates them from the West in one leap and become its leader. It is not surprising for a nation that pathetically declares its Christianity, what characterizes the inhabitants of the empire of the tsars is rather a cyclical vision of time. Disasters can be remedied by spectacular conversions, just as their failure eventually brings with it an absolute fall, which in turn requires a new “resurrection.”

Late in the history of the civilized world and having a double disadvantage: an Asian heritage (transmitted through the chain of subordination to the khans of the Golden Horde) and a huge but inhospitable territory, Russia has always maintained a disappointment in the developed West, which was both envied and reviled at the same time. He envied him, often emulating him to the level of an ape, and scolded him when he realized his failures to modernize. Despite what it seems, Russia as we know it is not the creation of thousands of peasant workers (men) of various empires who perpetuated its scale, but the hand of a handful of intellectuals from its big cities. They invariably had a double guilty conscience: on the one hand, they felt that (due to their education and contacts with the West) they were different from other compatriots (especially from the “commoners”, whom they painted in mythological colors), on the other hand, that (despite their languages ​​spoken in perfection, and a standard of living that sometimes surpasses that of the wealthy locals) cannot assimilate to the West they aspire to. This “no – no” is characteristic of a Russian cultured person neither at home, in his world, idyllic only under the guise of literature, nor in the West, whose logic – no matter how hard he tries – he cannot understand. .

Unlike a European, who feels himself the owner and responsible for the land on which he stands, a Russian (a cultural Russian) lives in his country as if in exile (which is often occupied by the whim of the tsar or general secretary to form concrete). Perhaps that is why in all Russian literature and filmography there is a temptation to imagine a paradise “beyond the earth” available to those who have reached the last limit of suffering. Moreover, the possibility of such a sphere, which can be entered only on the basis of the conversion of the whole being, became, in a certain way, the ideology that was most offered for export by “mother” Russia. as large crops in the eras of “thaw” and “coexistence”, or in the form of war in the “troubled times” of conflicts of all kinds. What Russia hopes will appeal to those outside its borders is one of a kind messianism which combines Christianity and romanticism (largely pagan), suffering and happiness (related to the leap that involves the transition from one to the other), as well as absolute submission, in which the freedom allowed to an ordinary mortal is performed before the King . Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro