HOW DO YOU SLAY A DRAGON?

The ability to speak the Russian language freely and a knowledge of the basic facts of Russian history and culture should be compulsory in order to receive Russian citizenship. Also, there has to be an awareness of basic economic, political and legal knowledge, as well as a readiness to accept the fundamental legal norms and traditions of Russian society.

These demands in no way infringe upon the dignity and interests of the other peoples of Russia, each of whom will be granted guarantees and conditions for the unhindered development of the language and ethnic culture of their forefathers, as well as their own self-government at the local level.

One of the most important functions of school – and, indeed, the whole system of education – is to teach people how to be citizens. And I mean “citizens”, not simply the obedient subjects of yet another autocrat. The nation state is as far away from the empire with its devotion to a superior ruler who secures his place by stick and carrot, as it is from the Cossack communities of freemen, the so-called “failed state”, where everyone set their own rules. The first task of the nation state is to guarantee order and the safety of the individual at a higher level than is the case in the empire, where behind the façade of legality lies despotism, often motivated by corruption.

In a genuine nation state, the citizen is proud to identify themselves first and foremost with their country, and only after that with their ethnicity, place of birth, home territory and their work.

I spent a month in a prison cell with Colonel Vladimir Kvachkov, a military intelligence officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan, who became known throughout the country after being accused of the attempted assassination of Anatoly Chubais and even of organising a military coup.

We’re people from different worlds and with different opinions; we are, let’s say, fierce opponents (to put it mildly). But when we discussed the question as to why our authorities and our society are afraid of our own special forces – spetsnaz  – while the Americans aren’t afraid of theirs, he summed it up in a way that I still remember 15 years later:

“The American special forces’ soldier sees himself first and foremost as a citizen of the USA, and only then as being in the special forces. This is natural. If something happens to him, then he’ll be protected as an American citizen. The Russian, though, is convinced that the opposite will happen. If something happens to you, don’t expect any help from the state. The best you can hope for is that your friends and fellow soldiers will come to your aid. So our officers are special forces’ soldiers first, and citizens only after that, while for the Americans it’s the other way round.”

The Russia of my dreams will be re-established by citizens who want to organise their lives together. People for whom the national interest is more important than that of their estate, their corporation or their tribe. People who understand that it’s better to be together than being apart.

Chapter 13. The Geopolitical Choice:

To Be a Superpower or To Consider the National Interests?

If you travel beyond the Moscow Ring Road, you quickly find yourself in a different country. If Moscow can rival any modern European capital in terms of its public services, then outside it there lies a different Russia; a Russia where 120 million people live, that looks like a picture from a post-war film about Europe – poverty-stricken and destroyed. It’s difficult to believe that you’re looking at a country that was the victor in the most terrifying and bloody war in the history of mankind.

How did we arrive at this? Why, 30 years after our “victory” over Communism; after 20 years of an unchanged new “elite” running the country, who have “cool heads and clean hands”; after years of an unbroken and completely unimaginable glut of oil, the price of which was three times higher than the average Soviet and early Russian price: why does this country lie in ruins? After all, Germany was defeated in the War, yet despite being occupied by the “frightening” Americans, by 1965 West Germany had a higher standard of living than most of Europe, and its industry had pretty well returned to the position it had had previously. Why did the Russian provinces, that hadn’t been occupied by anyone, not begin to live better?

There are many reasons for this. There’s the inability to manage; theft is everywhere; the ubiquitous monopoly; and as well as all that, there’s been a serious mistake in the choice of political priorities, making the most important of them the messianic plan to re-establish Russia as “a superpower”.