The War in Ukraine – Putin and the Doomsday Idea

The war in Ukraine It makes sense to think that Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing Russian roulette with destiny. But from a second perspective, this war is also reminiscent of Russian arrogance – overconfidence – with clear religious connotations. A willingness to poorly invest everything in one — for all intents and purposes — bears little resemblance to the way Russia has experienced itself throughout history. Kmsani with a message of salvation to the world. Where the idea of ​​the end of the world – doomsday – appears as a reality. In a world full of ideas where the idea that life itself is a game of Russian roulette is completely natural.

traditional The wisdom of why everything on the Russian side failed in Putin’s war against Ukraine is that the tyranny in the Kremlin has reached such heights that no one dares to come to the ruler to tell us the truth. The Kremlin is riven by a culture of fear that prevents “negative” news and critical assessments from reaching the ruler. Thus, the decision to start a war without a head depended on the poor knowledge of the ruler.

About everything from the condition To own the equipment, a shortage due to corruption, because officers sold everything from rubber tires to diesel on the black market. To motivate soldiers who are not at all intent on “liberating” their Ukrainian brothers and sisters from Nazism. At least not when they are faced with a formidable hostility, and they see the unity of the Ukrainians. And the desire of Ukrainians to resist and the ability to defend their homeland. So the Russian campaign is based on some very basic lies. which has now been revealed.

He talks about the early days of the war

It’s all instant Understandable, because it appeals to our rationality. But there is also something else. It also seems that the Russian campaign is based on something unfathomable Russian. And if Putin can seem suicidal in his approach to this war, because he finds himself in a situation where he gets insane or inadequate information, the Russian history of ideas and spirituality is full of horrific currents that can understandably make suicide. . Without it, of course, the situation would be neither easier nor more trustworthy. exactly the contrary.

So. Putin came to power nearly 23 years ago in a Russia characterized by a valuable void that must be filled. It was patriotism and the Orthodox Church that filled this void.

At the back In Russian history, the idea is that Russia has a special messianic mission. Moscow became the site of the only true Christianity after the Church split between East and West in 1054, and the Muslims conquered Constantinople in 1453, and this entailed a special responsibility to save the world, a responsibility the powerful religious author Fyodor Dostoevsky discusses in their books.

who thought It is a separate Russian messianism which corresponds to the apocalypse in Russian Orthodoxy and in the Russian spiritual life. When Tsar Peter the Great introduced reforms to his church from the end of the 17th century, many believers protested. For example, they will not intertwine themselves with three fingers, as new ordinances imposed on them, but with two fingers, as they have always done. They did not fight church reforms with arms, but many chose to get out of this valley of mourning by setting fire to their churches, in which they themselves were imprisoned, and dying. Or by moving to the icy waters of the Arctic or the vast forests of Siberia, out of this world. Suffering as a path to salvation is again Dostoevsky’s recognizable story in Russian spiritual history.

The brutal violence of war against nature

Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948), one of Russia’s leading historians of ideas wrote:

But behind all these currents lies our common Russian Orthodox religiosity, the religiosity of the form of the Russian man, with his dissatisfaction with this world, his spiritual meekness, his aversion to the power that is in this world, with his yearning for another world, toward the end, toward the kingdom of God.

That is, against the end of the world. It’s not that Putin – although he loves it and often presents himself as a deeply religious man – necessarily believes in this in the literal sense of the word. But there is every reason to believe that he is distinguished by the spiritual life that was created and kept alive in such performances. In the centuries-old spiritual struggle between East and West in Russia, Putin is clearly a slave, a Russian nationalist who cultivates the Russian language, a skeptic of the West.

This, in turn, helped him start the war against Ukraine.