‘Chauvinism in a Half-Collapsed Empire is like a Match in a Powder Keg,’ Pastukhov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 22 – Nationalism includes a broad spectrum of views; but when a regime turns to chauvinism as Putin is increasingly doing in the Russian Federation, that kind of nationalism threatens the survival not only of his own rule but the territorial integrity of his country, Vladimir Pastukhov says.

            “Chauvinism,” the London-based Russian analyst says, “in a half-collapsed empire [like Russia] is like a match in a powder keg.” And “it is easier to cross a grass snake with a hedgehog than to get some Bashkir youth form to sing ‘I am a Russian’” (t.me/v_pastukhov/1575 reposted at echofm.online/opinions/ne-bylo-by-bolshoj-bedy-esli-by-rezhim-byl-naczionalisticheskim).

            The longer and more intensively Putin follows a chauvinist course, Pastukhov continues, the worse things will get. It would be well for Putin to remember that a century ago, Lenin focused on the national liberation movements – “the fight against ‘Russia as the prison house of nations’” – to come to power.

            The Bolshevik leader considered chauvinism as “a universal fuse for empires” and he used it with success. Putin should remember that, the Russian analyst says; and he should remember as well that “dynamite in the form of leftist ideas is always to be found in abundance in Russia.”