On Being a Conservative Pro-State Intellectual In Russia.
It is hard to be a conservative in Russia; that is, someone who respects Russian ways without comparing them unfavorably to those of the west; who does not bend over backwards in his desire to turn Russia into a thoroughly Western country.
Conservatives, be it Pushkin, Gogol, Tiutchev, Dostoevsky and so on are immediately accused of "serving the autocracy" of promoting ignorance and whip, of selling out and so on.
Paradoxically, the governments, with its westernizing programs of catching up with the west, tend to look at conservatives with great suspicion and keep them at arms' length (Nicholas I harassed Slavophiles and closed their publications while being much more tolerant of Westernizers).
Liberals, on the other hand, seem to have it both ways. For starters, Russian liberals -- at least since Peter the Great -- had one line of reasoning: we are backward, we need to mimic western ways as soon as yesterday. And by western ways, of course, they understood not the colonialism, brutal exploitation of both local and foreign populations, cruelty borderline on criminality and so on. No, western ways, means western ideals.
Consequently, with their beautiful slogans and equally beautiful ignorance of both local and foreign conditions, the liberals were always condoned by the Russian governments, idolized by the public, and admired by the west. For the crimes of Decembrists -- had they occurred in England or Spain --and similar rebellions did occur -- thousands would have been executed. Russia executed five, and exiles a couple of hundred. Yet, it is these Decembrists who became the emblems of liberal martyrs, cementing the myth of suffering and noble Russian liberals, even though one of them shot point blank a famous Napoleon Wars hero, General N. Miloradovich, and others called for violence, murder, regicide, and division of the country.
People who've turned conservative-- and "turning conservative" is important here –these people did so by acquiring profound knowledge and respect for common Russian man and his ways and traditions. Such are Gogol, Pushkin, Dostoevsky or Chekhov. And needless to say, all these authors were constantly harassed, mocked, and dismissed by the liberal consensus. In XX century, some of the dissidents have repeated this trajectory ( while most just went to the west and continue with their “liberal criticism” of Russia.
One great person who’s done that, was Yuli Daniel, of the famous Daniel-Siniavsky affair. Upon his release from Khruschev prison, Siniavsky went to France, where he kept on publishing a journal of mediocre value while teaching at Sorbonne without learning a word of French. Daniel, however, stayed in Russia, lead a modest life and wrote heartfelt honest poetry, including this angry diatribe, which he called “To Liberals,” ( Либералам):
“Shit on silver lining: we, heroes, liberals.
And again we yearn for Russia,
With our pasteurized anguish.
Oh, liberals – parasites feeding
On the festering wound of humanity."
Is this anger justified? Starting from Dostoevsky on, the liberals provoke the most vicious diatribes from seemingly wise, observant, brilliant people. Why? Daniel suggests that instead of love for Russia, liberals simply exploit its suffering, while engaging in cheap virtue signaling: “well trained, well fed, we always strove for the bloodless fight, oh, liberals, you are the favorites of every and each epoch.” Their criticism is only skin-deep and somewhat cynical, as it hides moral and intellectual conformism along with the physical love of comfort.
In the same vein, another seemingly progressive and liberal poet of the sixties and seventies, Yuna Moritz, has turned into an equally harsh critic of Russian liberalism. Moritz adds one more charge against the liberals, again, something already observed by Dostoevsky: intolerance, which borderlines on fascism. Which is always surprising in people who criticize their own government's intolerance and oppression.
Moritz has taken an absolutely human, or at least, a Russian view on Yugoslavia dismemberment and vicious bombing of Serbia. There was no question about it among Russian people. Which was enough for Russian cultural establishment, which is thoroughly liberal, to equate sympathy for Serbs with backwardness, stupidity, and proto-fascist nationalism. For Russian liberals, the west can never be wrong. If Milocevic is bombed he is a monster. If Assad is attacked, he is a devil incarnate. From a darling of the press, Moritz was turned into a pariah, declared demented and silenced. To her credit, Moritz refuses to be silenced; in fact, she seems to double down on her productivity, publishing most of her stuff online. Furthermore, she continues to write highly charged political verses which, --thanks to internet -- express what millions of common Russian people feel about Ukraine and Crimea, about Kiev’s bombing of Donbas civilians, and other matters that common Russians take to heart, and liberal Russians heartily dismiss. Needless to say, she continues to be shunned by the chattering classes. Here is her poetic attack on Russian liberals, and, mind you, she clearly earned the right to all her angry rhetoric: her father was arrested by Stalin; her family --she was born in Kiev to a Russian-Jewish family suffered under Nazis and their sidekicks among Ukrainian collaborators now lionized by new Kiev regime.
View from Above.
Their luxurious limos are not buses for plebs,
Nor trains, where plebs once traveled with their tea.
Why pay for commoners? Can't they just walk,
While the garlanded limos fly like the wind?
Liberal Dictatorship, the tyranny of Liberals,
The commissars of liberal ideals went berserk.
There is something of Belomor-Kanal in their beastliness.
Something of the torture chambers.
[Belomorkanal is of the earliest sites of the slave labor under Stalin –VG]
Liberal Dictatorship, the tyranny of Liberals,
Liberal Gestapo, whoever is not with them, is to be nowhere.
There is something of Gulag thugs in the liberal beastliness,
Of the creative crocodiles, effective in their milieu.
Liberal Dictatorship, the tyranny of Liberals,
Their outrage, their threats of vengeance,
There is something of torture chambers in their beastliness.
The chambers where Russia would be skinned alive.
The liberal Commissars have gone berserk,
These shock-therapists with their
Patches of crocodile skin and black holes of memory.
Their luxurious limos are not the tin cans of buses.
Their luxurious limos are not buses for plebs,
Nor trains, where plebs once traveled with their tea.
Why pay for commoners? Can’t they just walk,
While the garlanded limos fly like the wind?
В И Д С В Е Р Х У
Их роскошные тачанки – не автобусы для швали,
Не вагоны, где в дороге этой швали чай давали.
Кто платил за шваль в дороге?.. Шваль должна идти пешком,
А роскошные тачанки ехать в лентах с ветерком!..
Диктатура либералов, тирания либералов,
Озверели комиссары либеральных идеалов, –
Что-то в зверстве либералов есть от беломор-каналов,
Что-то в зверстве либералов есть от пыточных подвалов.
Диктатура либералов, тирания либералов,
Либеральное гестапо: кто не с ними – тот нигде!..
Что-то в зверстве либералов есть от лагерных амбалов,
Крокодилов креативных, эффективных в той среде.
Диктатура либералов, тирания либералов,
Их кричалки, обещалки растерзательных расправ, –
Что-то в зверстве либералов есть от пыточных подвалов,
Где с Россией разберутся, шкуру заживо содрав.
Озверели комиссары либеральных идеалов,
Эти шокотерапевты, у которых нечто есть
И от кожи крокодилов, и от в памяти провалов…
Их роскошные тачанки – не автобусная жесть!
Их роскошные тачанки – не автобусы для швали,
Не вагоны, где в дороге этой швали чай давали.
Кто платил за шваль в дороге?.. Шваль должна идти пешком,
А роскошные тачанки ехать в лентах с ветерком!
And here is another Moritz poem. On NATO bombing of Serbia:
Particularly civilized fellows
Bomb the Balkans in a civilized way.
Their gang was cooked up
In the especially civilized kitchen.
Particularly civilized countries,
Which are popped out like cakes,
They'll become the veterans
Of the specially civilized war.
They kill in a civilized manner:
Bridges, trains, towns.
Because the uncivilized people don’t know how to behave.
So the brains of the uncivilized
Will be rapidly blown out,
And the people handed a new civilization
Along with new leaders.
And later on, the veterans of this specially civilized war
Will instruct these uncivilized countries
in their particular guilt --
The guilt of fighting back so uncivilly
With all their uncivilized force,
Instead of marching to their graves
In the ever so civilized manner.
Особо культурные парни
Балканы культурно бомбят.
В особо культурной поварне
Состряпали этих ребят.
Особо культурные страны
Их нынче пекут, как блины,
И будут они ветераны
Особо культурной войны.
Они убивают культурно
Мосты, поезда, города,
Поскольку ведет себя дурно
Людей некультурных среда.
Но бомбами вышибут сходу
Мозги некультурных людей
И новую купят народу
Культуру и новых вождей.
И будут потом ветераны
Особо культурной войны
Учить некультурные страны
Особому чувству вины -
За то, что не сразу в могилу
Культурно они улеглись,А
всю некультурную силу
Собрав, некультурно дрались!..
