OPINION:
THE ROAD TO UNFREEDOM: RUSSIA, EUROPE, AMERICA
By Timothy Snyder
Tim Dugan Books, $27, 360 pages
Save for a zest for dictatorial power, is there an ideological motivation for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rise to dominance in Russia?
The startling conclusion in a new book by Yale historian Timothy Snyder: Mr. Putin’s politics are heavily influenced by the works of an obscure Russian who saw strong man rule — i.e., fascism — as a guiding spirit for Russia’s restoration.
Recent events suggest Mr. Putin might be succeeding.
His essentially uncontested victory in April; faux election extends his rule until 2024 — and even longer, if he chooses to change the constitution. He has muzzled any independent press. Many of his detractors have suffered violent deaths.
As The Economist magazine commented, “After 18 years, Mr. Putin is not just the president but the czar.”
The writer said to be influencing Mr. Putin’s actions is Ivan Ilyin, who was born in 1883. Ironically, he opposed the Bolshevik Revolution that seized power in 1917, preferring that a monarch, rather than laws of constitution, should rule.
Expelled from Russia in 1922, he found refuge in Germany, where he wrote favorably of the “reforms” initiated by Hitler.
His thesis, briefly, was that Russia needed a strong man as leader as a means of regaining — and retaining — its position as a world power. An avid Christian, Ilyin claimed to be passing on the wishes of God concerning Russia.
Ilyin insisted that God’s power favored Russia; since He was absent, his champion must emerge from some uncorrupted realm beyond history.
As he wrote, “Power comes all by itself to the strong man We will accept our freedom and our laws from the Russian patriot who leads Russia to Salvation.”
As Mr. Snyder observes, “His view was that Russia would save the world from fascism but with fascism.”
Enter Vladimir Putin, who has cited Ilyin’s works as a guiding inspiration since he came to power.
He cites Ilyin’s works frequently in speeches and radio broadcasts. He had Ilyin’s remains returned to Russia for interment. Ilyin’s papers were retrieved from an archive at Michigan State University, and selected sections were reprinted in a book issued to his political followers.
Ilyin justified rule by the oligarchy, the wealthy few, rather than by the people as a whole. And the Russian nation, by waring about spiritual threats (i.e., the West) is “a creature rendered divine by its submission to an arbitrary leader.”
Some features of Soviet society were to his liking, other not so. As Mr. Snyder writes, “Ilyin shared Stalinist judgments about the contagious perversity of Western culture down to the smallest detail. Western pleasures such as jazz music were a plot against Russia and other non-Western nations.”
(Homosexuality has emerged as a prime villain in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. During anti-Russian demonstrations in Ukraine, Russian television railed against “homodictatorship” and charged that protests were led by “local sexual perverts.”)
But some Ilyin views were unpalatable. For instance, he urged that the Chekist secret police — a forerunner of the KGB and subsequent agencies — “be purged from politics in a power-Soviet Russia.”
Such a thought was unthinkable to former KGB officer Putin, who expunged the sentence when Ilyin’s works were printed.
How will the thoughts of Ilyin affect Russia’s relations with the U.S. and other Western nations?
Foremost perhaps is the notion that since free elections are irrelevant, the populace at large should not be concerned with political truths, only the “facts” that the leadership feels should be disgusted.
Accuracy is of no concern. Mr. Snyder cites extensive examples of how the state-run media, both electronic and print, have inundated Russia with lies. Further, falsehoods played a major role in Moscow’s ongoing struggle with Ukraine.
More dangerously, many Western media sources, both in the U.S. and Great Britain, have picked up Moscow’s propaganda lies and reported them at the truth. The Nation and The Guardian are two outlets (among many) fingered by Mr. Snyder who swallowed Russian propaganda claims without question.
The bottom line: Any attempt to “do business” with the Russian dictator requires extreme caution.
• Joseph Goulden writes frequently on intelligence and military matters.
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