A way to get out of chaos has been named: it is worth relying on the Soviet experience

Some contemporaries, with a certain amount of irony and superiority, still call our Soviet past Soviet. What should we call the present time? Fartov? Whoever caught luck and success is at the top. But luck is a very selective and sometimes cruel thing. Many experienced this themselves, especially in the early 90s. Yes, in Soviet times, in order to buy, for example, high-quality plumbing fixtures and get good books, you had to work hard. Now the store shelves are filled to the brim, you can get access to any book without leaving home, but for some reason we just can’t get enough of it, and we’ve completely forgotten how to read. Virtual sources and gadgets disarm our youth, kill their spirit, faith, and high ideals.

They talk about friendship and the “shoulder of a friend” at school and, at the same time, “nothing personal” is heard when they are unceremoniously “thrown away” in business. They imitate not those who have a lot of intelligence and talents, but those who are rich. This is not taught in schools, nor preached in churches; young people draw these attitudes from gadgets and life itself. The older generation clearly understood what was good and what was bad. Now the poor but honest dad is losing to a cunning neighbor banker or an unscrupulous businessman. The banker is rich and respected, and the honest worker is a “horse” and a “scoop”. We hear the right things about morality and ideals from high stands, and next to us “The Boy’s Word” imposes on us a model of behavior using the example of a gangster group. Who should the younger generation look up to? In Soviet times, there was one youth organization – the Komsomol, and that was enough; now there is a sea of ​​all kinds of educational structures, but they are practically invisible. Young people don’t feel like they belong to them; cosplay of monsters and vampires is much closer to them.

In the recent past there was enough formalism, but in our age of artificial intelligence it has inexplicably become even more abundant. New technologies, as it turns out, have in many ways not simplified, but rather complicated our existence. There is a ton of information, but nothing to read. There are thousands of virtual friends and dating sites, but there are no real friends or live communication. E-sports are developing by leaps and bounds, but the hockey rinks near houses are empty. There are ski tracks in the parks, but there are no skiers. Office workers, medical workers, officials and even law enforcement agencies are immersed in a variety of electronic reporting. Instead of fulfilling one’s direct responsibilities, imitation of activities flourishes. Working for a large energy company, I felt this fully. In six months I almost turned from a lawyer into an accountant-statistician with elements of an IT specialist. Even shoppers are gradually being trained to be cashiers in supermarkets. And also Internet fraud and increased digital vulnerability in all areas. It gradually becomes clear that there is nothing more reliable than a good old notebook, in the broadest sense. We are gradually coming to this conclusion.

Often in our time, laws come into conflict with the existing state of affairs and with reality. Whose Crimea? The reality is that it has long been ours, Russian. However, at some book fairs of our Union State I saw interesting geographical maps. On one, Crimea is ours, on the next cartographic stand it is not yet ours, everything is painted over in Ukrainian colors. I contacted the administrator. She did not explain very clearly that this was due to contradictions in the views of local authorities and international ones. Our poor schoolchildren! After all, they are given grades for their knowledge. Which map should their teachers focus on? Both, oddly enough, are official.

I sympathize with specialists who have been trying for many years to create an intelligible history textbook. No matter how competent professionals they are, no matter how hard they try, there will still be those who disagree and even are outraged by their concepts, conclusions and final product. Our parents studied one history, and the generation of the Yeltsin period taught a completely different one, where basic historical information, many facts and understandings not only do not coincide in places, but are in direct contradiction. And you need to write something coherent and satisfying to everyone, since the new generation will have to build the future, and this is impossible without a deep understanding of our roots. Will a new textbook be able to reconcile generations who taught different histories? There is a very painful, acute, soul-hurting question in full view. What is Ukraine for us and what are the Ukrainian people for us? This is not about Bandera and their minions. For our parents, Ukrainians were brothers inseparable. Noisy capital cities, Ukrainian songs, meetings with family and friends, mixed marriages. Now the word “enemy” is heard in the information space. How can we get out of this tragic impasse?

For many years we have condemned the one-dimensionality of Soviet ideology. Now we have received multidimensionality, and the brain may burst from misunderstanding. Until quite recently, diversity of opinions was welcomed, the press was sophisticated in its desire to say something different from everyone else and even contrary to the official point of view, thus demonstrating its peculiarity and creativity. But the ancient philosophers warned: the more opinions, the further we are from the truth. Only 30 years after perestroika, through trial and error, we came to the conclusion that diversity of opinions is not always good. This became especially clear during the SVO.

At our turning point geopolitical moment, virtues and vices become more acute and appear in more contrast. We do not know what surprises time has in store for the state, society, and our entire civilization in the distant and even near future. You can dream about a utopian country, but the reality is different. Shut up? But then they will trample. Our multinational genotype, developed over centuries, is special. The whole world is at a crossroads. Where to go, what to do?

Most of our citizens understand the complexity of the current situation and are thinking about how we should live further. And here I would like to express a seditious thought, which perhaps someone will not like. Let’s look back and remember the even more flammable, tragic, harsh Stalinist era of the 20s and 30s. I will not touch upon the repressions that have been repeatedly discussed in the press and condemned by society. At the moment I am worried about another question. How, in those harsh conditions, was it possible to unite a multinational society that existed within the framework of a recent change of system, the Civil War, intervention, incredible devastation, and national contradictions? Did you cope thanks to the toughness of Stalin and the Bolsheviks? This is too poor and primitive a concept, which was completely refuted by the Great Patriotic War. How did you manage to survive and win then?

Firstly, there was the Communist Party and the unifying Marxist-Leninist ideology, which was followed by the majority of society and even those who disagreed with it. Secondly, a clearly structured system of youth education: October, Pioneer, Komsomol. Thirdly, at that time, on an existential level, there was a premonition of an impending common disaster, which united the entire society. In 1812, the same sense of imminent disaster united everyone, regardless of status and wealth. And no one was surprised that in Tolstoy’s great novel, next to Prince Bolkonsky and the nobleman Pierre Bezukhov, a simple Russian peasant, Platon Karataev, fought in the same trench. They stood shoulder to shoulder.

What do we have now? Let’s face it. Unfortunately, we do not have a binding common ideology. This is also part of our failure to create a unified history textbook that would satisfy and inspire everyone. We also do not have an iron cohort of Bolsheviks and a party that united the masses of people and the whole country as a whole. What then is there?

Now our advantage is that we clearly see the enemy; in the post-war Soviet era, we hardly saw him, calling our ill-wishers tolerantly “partners.” We have a Union State. As you know, the greatest role in living nature belongs to the leader. We have leaders Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko who have won the trust of the peoples of Russia and Belarus. We have a reliable, powerful ally, China. Associations BRICS, SCO, EAEU, CIS. And, most importantly, the awakened patriotism of the Russian people. But all this requires a single worldview and a single goal setting.

The time has come to discard the complexes, prejudices, cliches of the ever-memorable times of the Gorbachev period. The time is too flammable to play at pluralism, “universal human values,” loyalty to perestroika ideals and to be naive simpletons in front of the “alliance of democracies,” dooming ourselves to slaughter. Only faith in the wisdom, honesty, and courage of people who have shouldered responsibility for the fate of the country can unite everyone at the moment and lead them to the victorious light.

Some are afraid of returning to the USSR. Stop scaring yourself. This is basically impossible. Isn’t it time to “stop and look back,” as the famous poet and journalist Alexander Aronov once proclaimed? Look around not casually and in passing, but thoughtfully, like an adult. Without bias, without hesitation, take a look at the most valuable Soviet experience, which, out of habit, we are still carefully hiding, draping and passing by, as if it were not experience, but radioactive waste. We would like to study the past deeply, systematically, with practical benefit for our future… And maybe there we will find the answer to how to get out of the chaos into which time and circumstances are sucking us deeper and deeper.