04.01.2023, Aleksandrovskoye.
Western-centrism, i.e. orientation to the West, persists in Russia in spite of the hostile attitude of the West, said philosopher, political scientist and the leader of the Essence of Time movement Sergey Kurginyan on December 30 in a new issue of the Destiny program published on the movement’s YouTube channel.
The entire Russian political elite is full of Western-centrism, because this is how this elite was built, Kurginyan said. He explained the process of elite genesis in Russia after 1991.
“The salt of the earth are rich people, businessmen, who spend part of their time with their families abroad, who quite strongly identify themselves in the Western manner, and whose children identify themselves likewise,” the analyst told.
This kind of an approach to the formation of the elite came from the same intention to integrate into the West because of which Russia reduced its army and industry very much after 1991, the philosopher noted. In his opinion, Russia now has neither professors capable of development nor motivated people from the lower classes, so it will have to revise its attitude to the Soviet experience in order to survive in a major conflict with the West.
In this dangerous confrontation with the West Russia will have to rely solely on its own abilities, because no Asian countries are eager to support Russia, the political scientist added. “They are waiting to see what happens. They see that we are on the edge of this confrontation, they welcome this confrontation, they feel support to us deep inside, they do not want to completely take the West’s side, but they want to have their cake and eat it, too. And they will do so,” the expert explained.
Now we have a confrontation of a country with small population, low-populated territories, and thirty years of reduction of its defense potential, the analyst stressed. “…We will have to fundamentally confront this West. To this end, is not the Soviet experience what we should use?” he wondered.
Russia paid a high price for the thirty years of waiting at the door to the Western world. It had to change its society and to create numerous institutions and an elite necessary to integrate into the West. Russia joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and other institutions, the political scientist reminded.
“This elite was formed based on what is called anti-Soviet consensus. This includes liberals who say that Sovietism is bad because it is a totalitarianism without freedom of expression etc. This includes centrists who say that ‘communism is a beautiful but harmful fairy tale.’ This includes some nationalists and far-rightists,” Kurginyan explained.
He added that during the confrontation with the West the most pro-Western part of the elite quits the stage, while centrists and the rest look around for a way where to turn. Within the previous Western-centrist logic, it is more advantageous for the elite to criticize Lenin and to use anti-Soviet rhetoric “rather than discuss the only actual ideological, worldview, moral etc. explanation of what happened,” the philosopher concluded.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
