What does it mean to me to be Russian? What does it mean to be Russian? What is our national lullaby?

Unhealthy Lifestyle

As sad as it may be, the inhabitants of the country... Favorite phrase of Russians: “It will go away on its own!” It is not customary for us to trust doctors, but it is customary to use traditional medicine recipes. Some even treat cancer with herbs and magic devices.

This happens because for such a long period of the country’s existence, we have not focused on health. We are not educated in this area and misunderstand the meaning of the saying: “What does not kill us makes us stronger.” Love for an idle lifestyle leads Russian people to.

Fortunately, today the younger generation is beginning to take an interest in their health, are interested in sports, and go to the gym to gain a beautiful figure. But this is only the beginning of a long journey after the realization that Russia was sliding down.

Life "by connections"

Another established distinctive feature of the Russian people is bribery. 200 years ago in Russia it was customary to give officials a fee for services, but even when this right was abolished, the habit remained.

The officials had settled into such comfortable conditions that they never wanted to lose financial contributions from the people. Therefore, issues are still being resolved not according to the law, but “through pull.”

It is impossible to eradicate this trait at this historical stage in Russia, since there are other global problems, but the struggle has already begun and is bringing success.

Endurance

Historical events such as uprisings, wars, blockades and constant changes of rulers led to troubles for the Russian people. This made it possible to cultivate endurance, patience and the ability to withstand adversity in people.

Russian people are only recently getting used to comfort. Previously, we spent a lot of time in the fields to feed our family; there were often lean years, so we had to work without sleep or rest.

Weather conditions also influenced the formation of the Russian mentality. Foreigners are terribly afraid of the cold. For them, 0 degrees is already a reason to wear a sheepskin coat. The Russian people are accustomed to such temperatures and tolerate them well. One has only to remember the tradition of diving into an ice hole at Christmas. Some Russians actually practice winter swimming all winter.

Today Russia is emerging from the crisis, and the people are facing new challenges. Therefore, the mentality is gradually changing, acquiring new features. But some of them will forever remain in Russian souls and will help them remain invincible and undaunted in the face of dangerous enemies.

More than 20 years ago, when Russian “peace-loving” policies reached my native Tajikistan and brought people together, armed them, and watched a five-year civil war, I began to seriously think about what “Russian” is.

The war in Tajikistan was brutal - about 150 thousand people died in five years, more than a million became refugees, tens of thousands of children were orphaned. Now Tajikistan is a close friend of Russia, sending guest workers and in return receiving 700-800 coffins annually - killed, dead, rejected. As a tribute to friendship, which both in Moscow and Dushanbe are called “eternal” and “indestructible.”

In those years, I decided to write a book and even came up with a title - “Compatriot”, with a dedication to Rogozin, Zatulin and Dugin. The same people who have been pitting Russians against non-Russians for the last 20 years are convincing them of the greatness of Russia and the need to restore, if not the USSR, then a semblance of the Russian Empire. Or at least some territorial formation that would give them a foothold in their eternal moaning about the “Russian spirit”, “Russian dream”, “Russian missionary”. They talked about it so much and often and say that you begin to look around in search of at least someone who is not Russian.

I felt comfortable in Tajikistan, but they did not. When I called them colonialists, they were offended and in response called me a Russophobe. The strangest thing is that they continued to call me that in Russia, where I tried to understand my “historical homeland.” I wanted to see that same promoted good nature, but I saw something completely different. The most common ones are “churka”, “khachik”, “narrow-eyed” and of course the most favorite is “black man”. I deliberately walked around Moscow in an Afghan cap - a pakula, and the police officers I met looked at me warily, suspecting me of being a terrorist. I was comfortable and warm, and the policeman was afraid of just a cap.

The nationalism of modern Russia is not a modern disease, it is very old - imperial. Beginning in the 15th century, Russia seized land and assimilated the occupied population. The conquered were called natives, as the official designation of the inhabitants of the “acquired” territories, then she tried to expel her own, native, from them, condescendingly opening Russian-native schools, prohibiting native languages, but continuing to artificially separate them from the Russians themselves. Even in politics there was a deep divide - this is for the Russians, this is for the non-Russians, the natives. There was a Muslim faction in the State Duma of the Russian Empire, and from 1764 the Governing Senate granted the right to non-Russian peoples to retain their noble origins.

In the Russian Empire there was a peculiar form of attitude towards the conquered peoples, which is now commonly called fascism. It is enough to read the reports and memoirs of the generals who “gathered the Russian lands” of Central Asia and the Caucasus, in which definitions are often found - “semi-savage population of the outskirts”, “Caucasian natives”, “savages”. It was in the order of things, as a matter of course. Cossacks and Russians moved to the outskirts of the empire - “lines” were built, reliable defenders of the new territories. Therefore, if you look for the origins of Russian fascism, then it is there - during the occupation.

Russian publicist Ivan Solonevich then explained the essence of the policy as follows: “The Russian empire, since the time of the “initial chronicle,” was built along national lines. However, unlike the national states of the rest of the world, the Russian national idea always outgrew the tribal framework and became a supranational idea, just as Russian statehood has always been a supranational statehood - however, on the condition that it was the Russian idea of ​​statehood, nation and culture that was and is now, the defining idea of ​​the entire national state building of Russia.” Events show that nothing has changed in the understanding of “Russian statehood”.

Centuries later, Putin fell ill with the idea of ​​a state. Before him there was a long period of Soviet power, which brought its “charms” to national politics. Soviet internationalism and friendship of peoples were officially proclaimed. But in fact, there was a clear gradation that divided people into titular and non-titular nations. A special political invention was the word “national” - national minority. There were quotas for national men entering universities and institutes; when entering the Komsomol and the party, the CPSU carefully ensured that talent was determined not by knowledge or skill, but by nationality.

Among my acquaintances and neighbors there were descendants of settlers in the 19th century, and there were also those who came to Tajikistan already under the communists. I didn’t see any difference - maybe the imperial old-timers knew 20-30 Tajik words more. But the Russian great power is the same, with the same degree of majesty and contempt for the natives, who actually lived on their land, and the natives were Russians. As their exceptionalism, the Russians said that they taught the Tajiks to pee standing up, and at the time of perestroika they began to feel like strangers, but as an argument they insisted on their exceptionalism, saying, “without us they will die.”

Everyday nationalism flourished in parallel with communist propaganda about the “brotherly family of nations,” absolutely not obeying, but most likely finding support from the KGB. The CPSU itself suffered from nationalism, sending exclusively Russians as second secretaries to the union republics.

All these years I continued to collect material for the planned book, trying to find an explanation for Russian nationalism. For example, why the noun “rus”, “ross”, “rusich”, “rusak” turned into the adjective “Russian”. The word itself became an ethnonym only from the 18th century, from the very time when the “acquisition of Russian lands” became a large-scale occupation of neighboring countries. In 1827, General Paskevich, having conquered part of the territory from Persia, called it Russian Armenia without hesitation. How then the Central Asian territories became Russian Turkestan. By the way, as it is now - Russian Donbass. In libraries you can find books with the titles “Russian China”, “Georgia - Mountainous Russia” and other works that fit into the understanding of the boundlessness of modern Russian geopolitical madness.

In search of the reasons for the worldwide love for their global significance, I tried to collect data on the number of Russians, known from historical sources. More or less, historians have collected statistics starting from the 15th century. In the Moscow Principality of the 15th century, the population was 2 million people, in the 16th century - 5.8 - 6.5 million, in the 17th century - 10.5-11 million, at the beginning of the 18th century - 13-15 million. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the population of the Russian Empire grew incredibly quickly: the increase in 1719 was 57%, in 1795 - 82%, in 1843 - 80%, in 1896 - about 55%. The number of Russians grows with the “acquisition of Russian lands,” which also means the acquisition of a population called Russian. It was then that a new ethnic group appeared - Russians, which is not necessarily Russians, Russians or Russians. Some of them conquered their ancestors in the 16th century, others in the 17th or later. A community of people speaking the same language has formed. The surnames Aksakov, Yusupov speak about their real origin. Karamzin, Fonvizin, Dal, Lermontov, Kutuzov, Saltykov, Przhevalsky, Bortnyansky, Razumovsky, Kantemir, Bagration. But they are all Russian, aren’t they?

Is this not the answer to the strange behavior of many “Russians” who treat other nationalities with contempt, with the hatred that is inherent in many neophytes? On the Internet you can find an academic description of the anthropology of Russian people, in which, among the terms “substrate” and “autosomal markers”, the secret of population growth of 80-82 percent is actually hidden. This could only happen in two cases - either the Russians invented and then lost a drug that was many times more effective than Viagra, or the conquered peoples began to be forced to call themselves Russians. More precisely, the same adjective “Russian”, which military leaders and politicians used to like to use before and now, and which has finally turned into a strange noun that breaks the rules of Russian grammar.

My search for an explanation is needed more by me than by most of those who call themselves Russians. I want to understand with whom to identify myself and what to do next - be offended by accusations of Russophobia or not pay attention. Every nation has a historical memory and qualities that are part of their mentality, and among them are the traits inherent in modern peoples, regardless of race or religion, responsibility for the past and anticipation of the future. Previously in Tajikistan, and now in Georgia, I like to listen to friends’ stories about their ancestors up to the fifth and even seventh generation. This is historical memory, which helps descendants evaluate themselves, their actions and misdeeds, and foresee their future. How many Russians can tell about their great-grandfathers?

Despite some discoveries that help to understand the behavior of the “Russians,” the main question that has long worried me remains: why do the “Russians” have such a strange attitude towards freedom? It’s not about the freedom to punch someone in the face or swear, but about the freedom that helps a person regulate his life and desire freedom for his neighbor. Where did the rejection of other people's freedom, the passion for any suppression of the love of freedom come from? Where does the hostility towards people who speak other languages ​​and the reluctance to accept speakers of another culture come from? Where does this poorly hidden envy of other people's success come from? Why such aggression?

I, a Russian, still have many questions that I have been trying to answer most of my life. Especially now, when Russian politicians again hide behind the adjective “Russian” and commit crimes.

I, a Russian, feel ashamed and offended. It doesn’t occur to me to quarrel with my Ukrainian friends just because they want to be free, but more than 80 percent of Russians don’t want to. I once compared the texts of the anthems of Russia and Georgia: in Georgian the word tavisupleba - freedom is mentioned several times, but in Russian - only once and again as an adjective.

I didn’t want to write a pathetic text and question the emptiness. In the end, everyone must be responsible for their actions, regardless of nationality and political views. I was lucky, I lived in different countries, with different cultures and languages, I felt comfortable because it was interesting. Over the years I've realized that I don't want to be a faceless adjective, I rather like being a noun.

Oleg Panfilov, professor at Ilia State University (Georgia)

1. Why do you consider yourself Russian? By purity of blood, by language, something else?

Our liberals, as soon as the question arises about who the Russians are, immediately begin to count leukocytes and impurities in the blood with such skill and dexterity that in Germany in 1938 they would have been taken to the commission on racial hygiene, even without prior interviews.

Moreover, for leadership positions. It is curious that when determining Jewish, Tatar or Swedish nationality, liberals take their interlocutor’s word for it, without stooping to find out who he is, a Mischlingen or a Quateronese? So take my word for it, unless you are Nazis, of course. I am Russian.

2. Do you enjoy being Russian?

No, I don't. Awareness is a constant and cannot cause emotions.

3. What's good about Russians? What are the positive and unique features of national character?

Take a globe or geographical map. Look at the location and size of Russia and get answers to all your questions.

4. What does the Russian landscape look like? Will you kiss the Kamchatka sand in patriotic delight? And the wet Taimyr tundra? Where are the boundaries of the native? Kunashir, Shikotan – native land?

I, with a torn meniscus and with great delight, walked through the Taimyr tundra for about a hundred kilometers - I just walked and couldn’t stop. This place was called Middendorf Bay, who was undoubtedly a Russian man, since the Russian lands were named after him and in honor of him.

Moreover, for this honor - to expand the borders of the Russian world, the great traveler gave his life. Moreover, in terrible torment, stretched out over many months. Maybe Middendorf didn’t want to be Russian - in those years, people serving Russia were rarely asked such stupid questions.

But the Russian world is contagious with its centripetalism. You can be a Georgian prince all your life and remain a great Russian commander for centuries. This paradox infuriates representatives of self-contained ethnic groups and nations who are unfriendly to Russia.

Therefore, the “borders of the native” depend only on a specific historical period. It is no coincidence that just the other day, Japan decided to reformat its self-defense police forces into a full-fledged army. What is it for?

5. What is our historical tragedy?

We have already experienced our historical tragedy - this is the rejection of national identity in favor of false and crafty truths brought from outside. The story is old, with a logical ending - the Russians will remake everything for themselves, in the way that suits them. One can recall Byzantine Christianity. vk.com/anti_maydan The same thing awaits Western liberalism, as a non-national, godless aggressive concept that protects individualism and vices. He will stay in our hut, but you won’t recognize him.

6. When was our Golden Age?

Russia never had a golden age. The Golden Age is an ethnos in a phase of obscuration, after which decay, death, and dissolution sets in. Russia is still far from retirement.

7. Who is our main character? Oslyabya? Pozharsky? Suvorov? Zhukov?

Our main character is the Unknown Soldier, who lies near the Kremlin wall. Avatar or symbol of everyone who gave their lives for our country.

8. Who is our main prophet?

Tyutchev: “You can’t understand Russia with your mind.” Moreover, the Slavophile Tyutchev meant the rational Western mind, which does not work in our civilization.

9. What is our national lullaby?

- “Tired toys sleep,” and try to prove that this is not so.

10. What is our national dance? The Irish dance the jig, the Caucasians dance the lezginka, the Jews dance the freylekhs, but what about us?

And we don’t need to assert ourselves with the help of a certain set of rhythmic body movements. We dance what we want. We don’t worry about this at all. You see, we already have a slightly different, not archaic, system of values.

Not a tribal community with complexes of rituals. We have a Church for rituals and ceremonies, but dancing is prohibited there, and those who did not understand this were explained clearly.

11. What is our national game?

Hide and seek, “Cossack robbers”, “war game”. Here we are in the lead in the adult competition. Chess, checkers, dominoes. Recently, backgammon has become another national game.

12. What is our national dress? How would you dress for a Russian-style party?

A quilted jacket, a St. George ribbon in the buttonhole, kirzachi and a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

13. What is our national dish?

What is one national dish for a country that lies on one-sixth of the continent's landmass? And Russians live everywhere. Specify the time zone, region, climate zone.

14. What kind of death is considered worthy?

For my friends, for the land, for my faith.

15. Which nations are our brothers?

Those humanoid races of our solar system who are ready to accept our love and take on brotherly obligations in return. Russians easily accept new brothers, but very harshly write them back. This is what we are seeing now in the ruins of the once fraternal republic.

My published books and my father’s books can be bought at half the price of bookstores on my website www.zadornovknigi.ru

New, unpublished books can be downloaded on my website http://zadornov.net/?post_type=product

On my website you can download the magazine “Oxymoron”, issue No. 13 http://zadornov.net/?product=magazine-oxymoron-issue-No.13

Fundraising continues for a documentary film about Oleg the Prophet: https://boomstarter.ru/projects/zadornovmn/dokumentalnyy_film_o_veschem_olege

Today, the word “Russian” in relation to a person is generally accepted as an ethnonym indicating belonging to the Russian nation, and in visual terms it is generally understood as any resident of Russia of Slavic appearance. However, anyone who has a sufficient command of the Russian language can see that the word “Russian” is an adjective and indicates only a certain affiliation with Rus', but not a specific nation. At the same time, it has long been noted more than once that there is no longer a single ethnic group in the world whose name would be an adjective.

Until the 1920s, the following names were used in relation to the Slavic peoples of the Russian Empire: Belarusians, Little Russians and Great Russians, in a word - Rus. This is the original historical name of our people.

The adjective “Russians” in some cases generalized all three indigenous peoples of Rus', by analogy with today’s “Russians”. In others, they meant all foreigners who spoke Russian, converted to Orthodoxy and disappeared into Russian civilization: Russian Tatars, Russian Bashkirs, Russian Chuvashs, etc. but at the dawn of the new communist ideology and the construction of the country of the Soviets, it was necessary to create a new people, and under this idea was finally dissolved by the borders between many fraternal peoples of Russia, uniting them under one name - “Russians”.

What does it mean to be “Russian” today?

A Russian is a person who belongs to the Russian community, Russian thought, Russian soul and Russian land, who is part of Russian civilization. Russian is not a nationality, but affiliation with the corresponding ideology and worldview, but Rus is affiliation with the corresponding blood and nation. A German, a Tatar, or an Uzbek, who was born in Russia and absorbed the culture and soul of Rus', can be Russian, but one can only be Russian by blood.

However, strange as it may seem, being Russian and Russian can be mutually exclusive. Today, in Russia, a whole layer of “Russians by blood” has grown up, poisoned by the ideas of liberalism and Western values, who have openly renounced their roots and often harbor hatred and disgust for their native fatherland; for whom the very awareness of themselves as Russians is sometimes disgusting. Is it appropriate to call such people Russian?.. By all rights - no.

And in contrast to this, today we see “Russian” Tatars, Tajiks, Jews who consider themselves Russian patriots. They can only express respect. But do they become fully “Russian” because of their beliefs? Also no. With all due respect to the latter, they remain Tatars, Tajiks and Jews, only Russian in spirit, but nothing more.

So what are the criteria for “Russianness” in an exhaustive sense? It is obvious that to be Russian in full consciousness of the image means to combine both national and ideological factors. It is precisely such people among the Russian people that the Fatherland needs today.

I remember the words of the classic: “It’s not enough to be born Russian, you still need to become Russian!”

We sincerely believe that the pages of this book will open up new horizons for someone in their native culture and history and will increase interest in the roots and fate of the Russian people, whose name is borne by the largest country in the world - Russia.

“Those who do not have love for their native country are crippled and poor at heart” (Taras Shevchenko).

Material from the magazine “Oxymoron”, you can download the magazine in its entirety here: