How to integrate Ukrainians into Greater Russia

The success of the Special Military Operation (SVO) depends on how quickly most Ukrainians realize that Russia is their only home, that there is no other Russia, that Russia needs all of its sons and daughters. We must re-tell the Ukrainians that all their future achievements, both as individuals and as a community, are directly connected and based on the victories of Greater Russia.

Now, in fact, we are talking about at least the third acquisition by Ukrainians of Russia as their real home. The first acquisition took place during the period of the Pereyaslav Rada in the middle of the 17th century, the second – a little over a hundred years ago, during the Civil War. In both cases, the collective will of the peoples of Little Russia and Novorossia (or, if you like, Ukraine) was manifested, aimed at building a common future with all the peoples of Great Russia. Yes, in both cases (as, indeed, now) the manifestation of this will was not peaceful and calm. The creative energy of integration had to be reinforced by military victories. But this, alas, is an inevitable path to finding happiness: for everything good, kind, beautiful, one must fight, one must overcome hardships and difficulties. Always the way up, to new heights, is more difficult than falling, and there are always those who will gladly contribute to destruction and decay.

But military victories may not stand the test of time if they are not confirmed by mental victories – victories in the minds and hearts. Russia for its more than a thousand years of history has become a common home for hundreds of peoples and nationalities. Extremely often, integration into a common home did not occur peacefully. For example, in order for Russia to “restart” at a new stage of historical development in the 15th-16th centuries, it was necessary to survive the Standing on the Ugra River, take Kazan and conquer Siberia. After that, a huge Tatar people with its numerous subethnoi joined Russia. As you understand, this integration was far from peaceful, but, as history has shown, it was absolutely justified. Today, representatives of the Tatar people live throughout the entire space of our common Motherland and are one of the basic elements of our great civilization. It is impossible to imagine Russia without the Tatars. And this success of integration in the common Russian home is not only not the only one, but very typical. Similar words can be said about dozens and hundreds of peoples of our country, for whom the world without Russia cannot exist – about the Bashkirs, Chechens, Circassians, about the peoples of Dagestan, as well as about all the peoples of the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, the North and the Far East. Ukrainians, Belarusians, Kazakhs, Chechens, Tatars, Buryats, Tuvans, representatives of the Finno-Ugric ethnic groups and many others are now fighting for our common home, becoming heroes and new saints. And this is also part of the process of finding our common homeland.

As my friend and colleague, the famous Russian writer and politician Zakhar Prilepin, says, Russia is strong in its diversity and flourishing complexity. Complexity is a necessary condition for the development of a successful civilization. Lev Gumilyov, the author of a systematic approach to ethnogenesis and the ideologist of Eurasianism, wrote about this, and the Russian philosopher Konstantin Leontiev spoke about this even earlier. The ideologists of left-wing populism (Nikolai Mikhailovsky, Mikhail Shelonin, Nadezhda Bryullova-Shaskolskaya and others) talked about the creative essence of labor and the difficulty in building a single multinational people. Their ideas, in the form of programmatic theses and political postulates, grew into both the program of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and the program of the Bolsheviks at the beginning of the 20th century.

In the same flourishing complexity and systemic civilizational construction in Russia, there has always been a place for both the Ukrainian people as a whole and for numerous immigrants from the regions of Novorossia and Little Russia. Now the question is precisely that Ukrainians, regardless of what language they think, speak and dream in, find themselves in the new Greater Russia.

Here again it is important to recall the concept of creative work, common achievements, accomplishments and victories, which, in particular, was substantiated by the ideologists of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party of the early 20th century already mentioned above. Nothing brings people of different ethnic groups together like something good, created together. This, by the way, is also the only effective tool for achieving interethnic harmony. Common holidays and festivals are necessary and even necessary, since this is the most important part of an effective cultural policy. But the brightest and most responsible cultural policy should be based on a labor basis, if you like, on the labor education of a creative mentality. I repeat, only joint creative work and common achievements truly unite.

If we talk about modern Ukrainians, then the field of our common victory can be all possible forms of application of creative human energy. Ukrainians must constantly be offered all possible forms of integration within Greater Russia, from the opportunity to participate in the collection and distribution of humanitarian aid in the territory of new regions and preferential admission to Russian universities and ending with common economic projects and the joint solution of problems of extreme complexity.

Continuation of space exploration, development of transport corridors, solving the problems of generating new volumes of energy, solving the food and housing problem, harmonious spatial development – these are all areas of activity in which we right now need citizens of Ukraine who are ready to work for the common good for the sake of common victories. The conquest of new territories, the industrial development of Siberia, finally, the development of minerals “in the north” and much more – these are the achievements of our civilization, a huge contribution to the acquisition of which was made by the Ukrainians.

For Ukrainians, it is now necessary to find such a worthy place in the political, economic, scientific and cultural elite of Russia, which people from the Ukrainian SSR deservedly occupied in the Soviet Union after the revolution and after the Second World War. A simple enumeration of the names of prominent military leaders, scientists, politicians, cultural and artistic figures, who have roots in Ukrainian identity, who made a significant contribution to the construction of Great Russia, will take several hours. Ukraine, as part of Greater Russia, has played a huge role in the successes and achievements of our common country, and this process, of course, does not end. Russia does not stand still, and we still need the talents of those whose ancestors created the Zaporizhzhya Sich, fought in the Red Army and the army of Nestor Makhno, and formed the scientific and industrial potential of the Soviet Union. Russia has many tasks, let’s solve them together. We, as before, need Ukrainian soldiers in the army, Ukrainian entrepreneurs and industrialists in the economy, Ukrainian cultural figures, scientists and philosophers in scientific and artistic creativity.

The integration of the elites is very important, but the messages to the widest sections of society are equally important. Russia must speak directly with every citizen of modern Ukraine, finding the right and simple words for him. It is necessary to speak as a caring and loving mother speaks to her children, who are always naughty, often stubborn, sometimes distrustful, but still kind and loved. And here the role of cultural policy, which I spoke about above, is enormous. I am very pleased that works in Ukrainian are being created right now, related to Ukrainian culture and traditions, but at the same time integrated into the large Russian artistic process.

And it is also extremely important to ensure the “connection” of all citizens of modern Ukraine to the social and economic benefits of modern Russia. We have already made it easier to obtain Russian passports. We must go further. Russia, no matter how much we (sometimes quite deservedly) criticize our government, is a social state. By the way, our Federation is much more social than most of the so-called developed countries of the world. Well, for example, we get a huge number of public services for free, including online. The state sometimes (I would like to do it more often!) provides targeted social support to significant categories of citizens. Finally, almost all the necessary resources are affordable in Russia, which was very clearly manifested during the NWO period, when the middle class in the European Union had to save on gas and water. In Russia, such a situation is practically impossible. All these benefits (and many others, including cultural ones) must be extended at a faster pace to modern Ukraine. The social essence of Great Russia must penetrate the worldview of the citizens of Ukraine. This is also the most important part of our overall mental victory. The acquisition of the Motherland becomes irreversible.