Russia and the Kremlin regime continue are getting more and more similar to fascist ideology.
On September 30, 2022, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signed decrees on the annexation of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts into Russia. He gave a half-hour long speech at the Kremlin Palace where he barely raised the Ukrainian territories’ annexation, instead he devoted most of his time to sharing thoughts on Russia’s place in the world and history.
The speech became the Russian ideology quintessence. It involves both Putin’s apparent imperialist ambitions and the entire civilized world hostile ideas which, in the context of the events of recent years, prove Russia’s open transition to fascism.
Fascism is an authoritarian, ultranationalist, political ideology characterized by a dictatorial leader, militarism and strong regimentation of society and the economy Political scientists identify basic tenets that clearly show the fascist regime. All of them are inherent in Putin’s modern Russia.
1. Aggressive imperialism.
Russia’s ambition for territorial expansion, the seizure of the territories of other states and the ‘return of primordial Russian lands’ is one of the key features of fascist ideology.
2. Obsessive patriotism propaganda
Patriotism in Russia has been always toned radically. It was built both on recognizing the greatness and strength of their country, and anti-West narratives.
Russia’ patriotism is mainly based on the victory over Nazism, which is considered to be exclusively Soviets’ achievement, and therefore Russians’ one. At the same time, the key motto of this victory for modern Russians is ‘We can repeat’, instead of the world-known message ‘Never again’.
Fascism in Russia is turned into the past. It is characterized by the rewriting and mythologizing the ‘glorious history of the ancestors’ and ‘historical victories’.
Although Putin’s personality cult is not as total as the cult of Hitler or Stalin, he is one of the symbols of Russia – we mention here the songs, the photo on clothes, the mosaic in the temple of the armed forces. He is irremovable, untouchable, his words are indisputable, and he is the father of the people and the national leader. ‘Russia exists due to Putin – no Putin, no Russia’.
In his speech, Putin speaks of Russia as a ‘great thousand-year-old power, a country-civilization’, he refers to famous historical personalities, military leaders, and describes Russia as a God-chosen country.
Putin forms the ‘great liberation mission of the Russian peoples’ and emphasizes the mobilization need to protect Russian values and the right to continue the existence of Russia, literally, he turns aggressive and militaristic patriotism as a strong need. In some formulations Putin’s speech is identical to Hitler’s speech in the Bundestag in 1939 after the invasion of Poland:
In fact, the symbols of the military invasion of Ukraine are borrowed from the Third Reich.
3. Disregard for commonly-recognized human rights
Russia has not bothered to respect human rights for a long time. The rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, guaranteed by the Russian constitution, are regularly violated. At the same time, even basic rights, which are also called absolute, for example, the right to life, physical integrity, legal and judicial protection, and justice are also not guaranteed on the territory of Russia.
4. Presence of ‘enemy’
The presence of an enemy is a prerequisite for the existence of fascist regimes. Otherwise, there cannot be the key opposition between ‘us’ and ‘them’, the ideology is based on. In his speech, Putin quite clearly defines the enemy of Russia in the face of the United States.
5. Superiority of the armed forces and militarization
Military power for Russia is a part of the myth of its superiority and greatness. Despite a large number of real internal problems, the armed forces are financed disproportionately. Every fourth ruble in the 2023 Russian budget will be classified.
The cult of war, force and violence, the idea of the ‘final battle’, the need for military victories are being implanted in the Russians; they form the attractiveness of military service, make serials and movies about military deeds and heroize the military.
6. Discrimination and xenophobia
Fascism is characterized by total traditionalism, rejection and denial of the modern world, its interpretation as depravity and satanism, discrimination of minorities on national, gender, sex. The Hitler regime, exactly like Russia, persecuted people for their sexual orientation contradicting the state policy standards.
7. Media control
Russian media are strictly controlled by the state, so the authorities have free hands for a large-scale propaganda. Russian propaganda surpassed German propaganda because it managed to form an alternative picture of the world for most of the Russian population. It became possible due to the virtual absence of alternative sources of information. Independent Russian media are referred to foreign agents and extremist organizations, the journalists are persecuted and killed.
8 National security mania
The law enforcement agencies and the national security apparatus of Russia serve as a repressive tool guaranteeing Vladimir Putin’s regime functioning. Fear and terror is one of the methods to suppress anybody who disagrees with the regime. In the modern Russia, citizens are detained not only for protesting, but also for subscribing to opposition groups on social networks, commenting on opposition posts, and even for transferring money to Ukrainian charitable foundations to help refugees. At the same time, there is an obsession with show trials and punishments that are supposed to intimidate dissent. As of 2021, there were 420 political prisoners in Russia, comparable to the late Soviet period.
9. Religion and power intertwined
According to Ivan Ilyin, the first philosopher of Russian National Socialism, who spoke complementarily about fascism even after the Second World War and wrote a work “National Socialism. A New Spirit”, where he analyzes the mistakes of Hitler and Mussolini, it is necessary to unite the ‘national dictatorship’ with religion rather than opposing them.
Patriarch Kirill in Russia is more of a political figure than a religious one. He is involved in the propaganda and support of militarism in Russia.
Putin uses religion as a tool to influence public opinion. He militarized religion. Russia is religiously intolerant, there is only one church actively participated in state politics. 26 churches are recognized as extremist and banned in Russia.
10. Contempt for the intelligentsia and art
The intelligentsia undermines the legitimacy of power. Freedom of thought that contradicts the party line is suppressed and persecuted in Russia. Most of Putin’s political opponents are either exiled or imprisoned.
11. Rampant nepotism and corruption
Phenomenal corruption circles have been formed at all levels of the Russian government. Members of the power elite regularly use their position to pocket national resources. On one hand, Putin-close entrepreneurs benefit from their position to enrich themselves, on the other hand, the regime is abundantly financed by the economic elite. This is a mutually beneficial relationship. With rare exceptions, big business in Russia subordinates to the plans of the leader and his environment and serves the regime.
12. Faudulent election
Since 2012 it is undoubtedly that elections in Russia have become sham. During this very period of time after serving 4 years as the prime minister, Putin was reelected as a president for the third time, bypassing the two-term presidency restrictions. The 2020 constitutional amendments elections that gave him a green light to run for president in 2024 and 2030, were conduct with no independent observers, in the midst of the coronavirus; polling stations were organized on stumps and in the car trunks. Thus, the usurpation of power in Russia is one more undeniable sign of fascism.
13. Newspeak and substitution of notions
One of the hallmarks of Putin’s regime in Russia is newspeak, which has become an element of propaganda and is clearly described in Orwell’s ‘1984’. Newspeak is a propagandistic language designed by party ideology to invert unorthodox meaning of certain words, substitute one word for another and create words for political purposes, for example: war is peace. Nazi Germany also had its own Newspeak.
Propaganda in Russia reaches its illogical extreme. The American philosopher Jason Stanley calls it as ‘schizofascism’.
According to Ilyin, whom Putin quoted at the end of his speech and called as a true patriot of Russia, in order to avoid mistakes of previous generations of fascists, the new fascism should borrow the ideology and political methods of the fascists but skip fascism labels though.
The rhetoric about the fight against Nazism in Putin’s speech virtually disappeared.
The Russian Federation is a state of classical fascism. At the same time, its form of fascism is nationalistically tinted. Coming out into the public Putin was inspired by Ilyin’s ideas about National Socialism in Russia, which, according to Timothy Snyder, contributed to the fascisization of Russia.
Fascism in Russia has matured over the years and has crystallized into something really frightening, insane and directed against civilization as such. The Western policy to appease Russia proved to be ineffective, neither was it in the case of Hitler. Russia has already built concentration camps where to Ukrainians from the temporally occupied territories have been brought. The Kremlin oppresses national minorities, prosecutes Jewish organizations, thereby cultivating anti-Semitism mood. Hitler elevated the genocide against the Jews into the state policy, but Putin has implemented the same genocide policy against the Ukrainians. The world survived the Hitler regime solely because the Reich had no nuclear weapons. However, Putin has a nuclear arsenal and a triad to deliver charges anywhere in the world. It means that the fascist evil in the face of modern Russia must receive a harsh response for the sake of civilization.
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