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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nImagine the following: You\u2019ve grown up in a country that has recently lost massive territory and its position as a premier world power, your country\u2019s capital was sold off for next to nothing to a select group of Western-leaning oligarchs, you\u2019ve had to deal with bouts of inflation and currency crises, and your education was informed by literary greats who spoke of the \u201cgreat Russian soul\u201d, the West\u2019s lost ethical compass, and pitied the \u201cLittle Russians\u201d and their backward ways. Most of your teachers, parents and politicians have never questioned the official historical record or criticized the actions of the state, so why should you? Especially when doing so could leave you jobless, persecuted or arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, you have been conditioned to conform to social norms and mainstream political narratives. You want to blame someone for everything that has happened to you and your country, but considering the national government is off-limits, you look outside your borders for a villain. You want to believe you are the victim and that the world is out to end you. Fyodor Dostoevsky puts it clearly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe most basic, most rudimentary spiritual need for the Russian people is the need for suffering, ever-present and unquenchable, everywhere and in everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea of victimhood has been so prominent in Russian narratives that it makes false state-media versions easy to justify and internalize as truth. It portrays the government not as a vehicle for action or social change, but as a parental figure responsible first and foremost with protecting the nation\u2019s innocence from corrupt and immoral outside forces. This, in turn, promotes absolute submission to national authorities and their various agendas, justified by the belief that the government knows best and will always keep the people\u2019s best interests in mind. Therefore, any information that tries to frame the national government as anything other than innocent is subconsciously understood to be false or fake, because it contradicts one of the basic building blocks of a person\u2019s world view. The accepted linear historical narrative of ever-changing societal currents is replaced by an eternal unyielding hyper-reality of one nation\u2019s greatness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Putin has learned to weaponize this way of thinking. He, along with the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, has helped stoke a particular brand of nationalism that relies on these ideas to create an exclusionist world view, which justifies Russian aggression abroad. He has made no secret of the fact that his end goal is reforging the Russian empire, not just in political terms, but territorial ones as well. He believes and promotes the idea that Russia has a sacred right to its \u201cnear-abroad,\u201d and portrays Ukraine and Belarus in particular as \u201cRussian\u201d lands with no history of independence or true nationhood. Unfortunately, large parts of the Russian population agree with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is not to say that opposition is nonexistent. Conformism and submission to authority are not a given, and some brave individuals have tried to speak out against the war. Others only seemingly started to care after the mobilization order, and were previously uninterested and unaffected by Putin\u2019s invasion. The more liberal-minded intelligentsia has mostly left in wake of the invasion of Ukraine, taking with them some of the strongest voices of opposition and non-conformism. If they do not return, the burden of creating a political movement willing to stand up to Putin\u2019s regime and fighting against these long-held ideals will have to fall to someone else, lest social change be forfeit to Putin\u2019s authoritarianism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ana Davis is a senior majoring in Diplomacy and Global Politics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Ana Davis An unyielding belief in eternal Russian innocence and a predetermined submission to authority is fueling Putin\u2019s war and causing the death of thousands of Ukrainians. \u201cWe have never invaded anyone; we have only ever defended our borders!\u201d … Continue reading