‘Russia Not a Country but a Religion,’ Luchikhin Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 17 – One of the biggest mistakes anyone can make about Russia past, present, or future is to assume that it is a country “like Italy, Germany or even Honduras,” Dmitry Luchikhin says. In fact, it is a religion, albeit a pagan one in contrast to a European pool of nations based on Christianity.

            Put most simply, the Russian philosopher says, “Russia is an association of ethnic groups stuck in a pagan-type culture in which Russia itself is the dominant and generalizing myth” and one which subjugates others in its neighborhood to that myth on the basis of a claim to be the unifier of all cultures at that stage of development (newizv.ru/comment/dmitriy-luchihin/17-10-2022/rossiya-eto-ne-strana-eto-religiya)..

            Because that is the case, Luchikhin continues, “one cannot talk about the disintegration or transformation of Russia, either in support or opposition to that. Instead, one can speak only about the preservation of the system of this religious power over the peoples within that sphere of influence or about their liberation from this power” of a myth.”

            And because that is the case, he argues, “no matter what forms of social and political organization the life of the population on this territory takes, either they will have nothing to do with Russia at all either collectively or individually or they will remain exactly the Russia that we know so well,” a religion rather than a country in anything like the modern sense.

            Luchikhin in philosophical language thus raises a question that many want to avoid: can Russia as such given that it is a religion rather than a state formation exist in any form, however much reduced in size, without remaining a threat to its neighbors who may be attempting to escape from its influence?

            If as he implies the answer is no, then the analogy with Carthage is clear; and any moves to a more positive future must be based on the principle that “Muscovia must be destroyed” not as a country but as a religion, a far larger challenge than almost anyone is today prepared to recognize and then confront.