Russia has Not Just a Fascist Regime but a Fascist Society, Zaidman Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 7 – Many commentators are now prepared to label the Putin regime as fascist, but they need to go further and recognize that in Russia today, it is not just the powers that be who are fascist but large swaths of the Russian population, according to Vadim Zaidman, a Russian commentator now living in Germany.

            It is certainly true many who don’t approve of Putin’s war in Ukraine aren’t protesting because they fear the personal consequences of such action, he continues; but no one can claim that Russians don’t know the truth about him or do not know that if a million of them went into the streets of Moscow, that regime would fall (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=6390E1F41B5B3).

            And discussions about why there are so few Russians protesting the war ignore the important reality that a large share of the population openly, even enthusiastically backs what Putin is doing, at least until it impinges on their own lives, and that while such support may be less than the Kremlin claims, it is certainly higher than the opposition thinks.

            However appropriate it is to treat “with sympathy and understanding” those opposed to the war but fear protesting, Zaidman says, it is not appropriate to forget that most Russians certainly in the spring and summer “before the start of mobilization” were entirely sincere in supporting Putin and his war.

            According to the commentator, “people who back killing people in another country are not just immoral; they are fascists.” And they certainly know exactly what they are supporting. Those who say otherwise ignore the reality that Russians today have far less credibility than did Germans after Hitler to say they didn’t know what was and is going on.

            In the Internet age, Zaidman says, “it is impossible” to accept the claim that someone doesn’t know this or that fact. Of course, “not wanting to know” and choosing to ignore reality are “quite another matter.” Such “voluntary madness,” he continues, “testified to the fascistization of society and its complete dehumanization.”

            And that fascist essence of Russian society has not been changed at all, the commentator says, by the fact that some Russians have stopped supporting the war after they feared as a result of mobilization that their sons, husbands or other relatives might be taken from them. They are defending only themselves by so doing, not opposing Putin’s war as such.