Ideology Driving Putin No Less Well-Developed than that of Hitler but Much Less Public, Gubin Says

 Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 27 – Many people have dismissed the very idea that Vladimir Putin is a fascist because they insist that he does not have the kind of well-developed ideology Hitler had, Dmitry Gubin says; but they are wrong: Putin has such an ideology but being Soviet, it is only for him and the elite, not for the masses.

            The Russian television commentator says that he used to be among those who denied Putin had an ideology and insisted that he couldn’t be a fascist for that reason if not other. But now he has changed his mind and believes it is essential for others to change theirs as well (graniru.org/opinion/m.284785.html).

            “The ideology driving Putin is no less developed than the National Socialist one,” he continues. “It’s just that with Putin, it is not public but elitist, ‘for official use only’ as it were, for his own people,” a reflection of the fact that Putin “is a very Soviet person and in the Soviet understanding, only that which is secret and restricted has any ‘real’ value.”

            Putin’s political system has two spheres, an outer one consisting of the masses he is confident he can buy off, intimidate or otherwise break, and an inner one consisting of his “new aristocracy” which he has created and which is dependent on him for its well being and the well being of its children.

            The latter have everything of their own, so “why not have an elite ideology as well?” Gubin asks. For the masses, talking about Ukrainian fascists and drug addicts may be enough, but for Putin and his elite, there is something else: an ideology calling for a new world order, “a new and great Slavic empire” he and his people can rule.

            According to the commentator, “this is not limited to the restoration of the USSR. That is for fools who call out for social justice. Rather, it is precisely the idea of an empire” with rulers, a core people and others who view those above them either with envy or more often with fear. Those now opposed can be subordinate as the Chechens were and the Ukrainians must be.

            This “imperial ideology,” Gubin says, was developed by Surkov and Dugin; but they were problems because for those who want an ideology “a living thinker like a living saint is always a bad thing.” But there are plenty of living members of the Putin elite who are ready to march for an imperial ideology and a place for themselves in the world it seeks to create.

            They believe in empire as such and also believe that Europe which has rejected that form of political organization can be forced to recognize the power of the Russian will to recreate it. In this, they are like dinosaurs who strive to create a new Jurassic Park so that they can remain while as other animals have emerged to replace them.

            Or perhaps more accurately, it reflects the conviction of Leonid Brezhnev and his colleagues that communism was a real possibility when every thinking person in Russia was laughing at that notion, recognizing just how impossible and self-destructive its pursuit would be for themselves and the world.

            But just like the Brezhnev elite, the Putin elite doesn’t care how destructive their goal is for others; they only care how well it takes care of their needs and aspirations.