Putin and the Russian Soul

Like, independence, and kindness are all states of the soul and spirit that are not under the state’s purview and cannot be so. —Ivan Ilyin, The Spiritual Interpretation of Philosophy

The path to freedom is also unavoidable, and it won’t be done in a hurry.
—Nicolae Berdyaev, The Beginning and the End

In a earlier article, I had occasion to quote Henry Kissinger‘s note that” The marginalization of Vladimir Putin is never a scheme, it is an argument for the presence of one”. ( hat tip Roger Kimball ). In the same spirit, as rassologist Paul Robinson asserts, the inclination to categorize various thinkers or political figures as fascists or evil is a quick way to dismiss them out of hand, allowing us to reject the political aspects of the Russia-West conflict and to avoid having to address any contributions we might have made to our shared problems, as he claims that The end result is that we fail to gain a deeper knowledge of Putin’s true motivations and the tips that have permeated his world watch in this case. The torrent of raw hatred that Putin is currently eliciting is starting to drag on and be inefficient. &nbsp,

For instance, in the mind of journalist C. A. Skeet,” Putin is an old-school Soviet bigot and an ex-KGB communist who ardently believes…a nation is made stronger by geographical expansion and the enormous domination of smaller neighbors”. So, for Skeet, “it’s amply clear that Putin’s underlying purpose is the resumption of the Russian Empire”. Although the possibility terrifies many in the simpering West for whom it is a certainty, I can’t find any proof of this parabolic say. Yet as Putin doesn’t seem to be interested in such trifling an acquisition, Latvia is shaking in its pants. Everything about his true behavior or policy makings suggests that he wants to start a potentially global conflagration.

Skeet, and those who share his animosity, hate Putin as much as Jonah Goldberg hates Trump, whom Goldberg compares to a murderer. Goldberg bumps as to how Trump’s approach to Ukraine “resembles saying to a murder victim, “I’ll help you cut this assault small if you sign this record letting me seasoning half your income for the rest of your life.” Goldberg demonstrates how a false misunderstanding of Trump can result in a concoction of absurdity laced with indecency, no less than a torrent of virtuous execution launched against Putin without understanding the complicated realities of a geopolitically difficult situation. &nbsp,

The neocon’s claim is that financing Ukraine is worth the investment in the return on investment of a compromised and harmed Russian Federation that rejects our beliefs and way of life. This is hazardous drivel. We may assume that Putin will never hesitate to use the nuclear arsenal if Russia is seriously threatened by the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. According to some experts, Russian Iskanders and Kinzhals are invincible and have destroyed the majority of Ukraine’s business and electrical grid. In the arms is the Oreshnik. As its costly endeavor to create a significant Arctic fleet demonstrates, Russia is not an dying superpower, and even if it were, attacking a wounded bear would not be an attractive choice.

To dismiss Putin as only a rehashed KGB hack with a desire to conquer is to miss the mark quite dramatically. If one wishes to know Putin’s plans and desires, one should observe his historic and intellectual solutions among the Russian scholars, religious thinkers, and intellectual luminaries. Puntin is not stupid, but he is in fact both erudite and enthralled by Mother Russia’s spirit. We shouldn’t undervalue him or insist on mistreating him. &nbsp,

To begin with, the influence of two major Russian philosopher-theologians cannot be discounted. They are Putin’s twin lodestars.

Ivan Ilyin criticized Western liberalism for, according to Paul Robinson, “putting too much faith in elections and disregarding the requirement for a well-developed legal consciousness among the people as well as a strong sense of national community,” words that spoke eloquently to Putin. In an April 2005 State of the Nation Address, Putin quoted Ilyin as saying that” State power has its limits… It cannot regulate scientific, religious, and artistic creation” .&nbsp,

Putin credits Ilyin for the principle that” Whoever loves Russia should desire freedom for it, first of all, freedom for Russia itself… and finally, freedom for the Russian people, freedom for all of us, freedom of religion, the search for justice, creativity, labour, and property…The state must not meddle in moral, family and everyday life”. It is obvious that Putin’s political thinking and behavior are underpinned by a so noble formula, but it must be taken into account. &nbsp,

Influence of the great Russian philosopher and Christian apologist Nikolai Berdyaev, who was born in Kyiv (! ) in 1874, is equally, if not, in the long run, even more important. In his The Russian Idea, he described the idea that Russia was destined to become an empire of faith, a nation that, despite its falling into error and a form of secular diabolism, would eventually learn that” the spell and slavery of collectivism is nothing else than the transference of spiritual communality from subject to object,” a historical no less than religious aberration. He later abandoned that “ideological monstrosity” in favor of Christ. &nbsp,

In February 2021, Putin stated that” Russia has not reached its peak.” We are on the march of development … We have an infinite genetic code”. He is motivated not by the re-conquest of Eastern Europe, as many, tainted by what Berdyaev called” the&nbsp, falsehood and venality of the press” ,&nbsp, fearfully and mistakenly assume, but by the notion of canonical territory, the ecumenical concept that the spiritual territory of the Church exceeds the borders of the Russian Federation. Putin’s goal is not to conquer just for territorial expansion or to restore the Soviet empire. As he said in the 2025 Address,” Our goals in the international arena are extremely clear. These include” security of borders” and the creation of favorable external conditions for resolving Russia’s domestic issues.

The canonical principle, which is embodied in Christopher Coker’s The Rise of the Civilizational State, has absolutely nothing to do with territorial conquest as such as the creation of what has come to be known as the” civilization state,” as explained by some Russian religious and political thinkers who have equated spiritual and physical territory as coterminous. The revival of a traditional ethos, remembered customs, religious unity, and a sense of cultural ancestry are the fundamental components of the centripetal concept that binds the state and people in a shared enterprise. &nbsp,

As Coker writes,” Just at the time Western exceptionalism is losing traction, the civilizational state is encouraging its own citizens to think of their own civilization as exceptional, at times even’ immemorial’ or’ eternal'”. This is because, unlike the staple Western state, “it is deemed to have an essence, or a spirit. A vision of a new world order”, he concludes, “is beginning to emerge, based largely on civilizational values”. The idea of the civilization state pertains mainly to China, India, perhaps neo-Ottoman Turkey, Christian Hungary, and obviously Russia. We are not dealing with a Western progressivism, so we must learn to think outside the neo-liberal, globalist box. &nbsp, &nbsp,

According to Gary&nbsp, Lachman’s &nbsp, The Return of Holy Russia: Apocalyptic History, Mystical Awakening, and the Struggle for the Soul of the World, &nbsp, a fascinating study of, among other things, Putin’s politico-religious thinking, the Russian autocrat was even&nbsp, assigning readings to his audiences on Nikolai Berdyaev’s discussion of” spirit” in such volumes as The Meaning of the Creative Act, The Destiny of Man, and elsewhere in the philosopher’s oeuvre. It behooves us to temper our abhorrence a little and take the time to read Berdyaev for context so that we can understand the Russian President’s legacy before bashing him in a hermeneutic bar brawl. &nbsp,

Putin is preoccupied with the” silver age,” a period in Russian history that envisioned a new” Eurasian” civilization with Russia as its central figure. Some of its leading lights included painter Marc Chagall, composers Alexander Scriabin and Igor Stravinsky, poets Osip Mandelstam and Alexander Mayakovsky, novelist Leo Tolstoy, and celebrated thinkers like Sergei Bulgakov, Semyon Frank, and, of course, Nicolae Berdyaev, who gave the period its name. The Brightest Lights of the Silver Age, a not-uncritical work of art, is a must-read to learn about the era and to assess the breadth and breadth of Putin’s own education.

The silver concept is often linked to the idea of Russkiy Mir ( Russian World ), which affirms a cultural and spiritual unity among Russian speakers globally, a concept that extends” to all Russia”, that is, within the boundaries of&nbsp, the&nbsp, Russian&nbsp, dominion and not beyond. This is the clue to Putin’s canonical thinking. Respected Russian political philosopher, the aforementioned Semyon Frank, &nbsp, famously opposed Russia’s messianic role, whereas a neo-Slavophile like Berdyaev applauded and supported what he regarded as a consecrated project. Beyond the necessity to defend the country’s rights and historical rights, Berdyaev did not think that the emergence of imperial hegemony was the only way to achieve spiritual hegemony. And yet again, we must remember that Berdyaev was one of Putin’s most ingrained influences.

Putin views himself as a patriot who wants Russia to prosper, to regain its standing internationally, to define and safeguard its sphere of influence. I must confess I find him less objectionable than Western leaders like the horrendous Keir Starmer, America-hating Barack Obama and Joe Biden, or my own PM, the feckless, nation-killing, mentally decorticate Justin Trudeau. These villains have a clear intention to wreak havoc on their nations. Puntin is determined to bring his back. And as I have been taking pains to point out, much of his domestic initiatives and power-projection come from his readings in Ilyin for practical wisdom and especially Berdyaev for spiritual guidance. Indeed, it is no accident that Berdyaev is among Putin’s assigned texts.

It is high time to get serious. One need not approve of Putin, but to understand him properly, one must know where he comes from, his roots and influences, his intellectual formation, and his religious and philosophical masters. Only then can we render a balanced and unemotional judgment of the man, his policies, passions, and his position on the contemporary international scene.

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