Even under Stalin’s terror the Soviet population were treated to regular infusions of ideological indoctrination, Marxist-Leninist philosophy, at some levels mindlessly simplistic to someone from the West. But it did its job, clogging up the arteries of the greater part of the population and turning it into a blind and obediently inert mass. Then we had the openness begun under Gorbachev but extended under Yeltsin, where there was almost too much truth to be taken in during a succession of crises, without inducing complete exhaustion if you were not one of the privileged few.

Now the Russian people face a dictatorship, but in the name of what? The lifetime President?

A personal dictatorship is not enough to hold together a population accustomed to open debate. Russia is no longer a vast estate of ignorant peasants, where crude patriotism is simply not enough. Even from diehard loyalists complaints such as these are now creeping into the press.

In response to news that Putin is calling for “new measures to strengthen the internal security of Russia”, one reader of Vzglyad complained that “In order to strengthen internal security the country needs an ideology. So that the people understand where the country is being driven, in which direction, and for what. And then if you declare war on fascists in Ukraine and then begin crawling about in this direction and that, what kind of trust will there be towards those of you in power?”

Vzglyad ru:

Путин заявил о необходимости новых мер для укрепления внутренней безопасности России

1 апреля 2022, 15:48

Текст: Алексей Дегтярёв