In his novel “Kaputt,” Curzio Malaparte identifies fear as a motive for Nazi atrocities during World War II. According to Malaparte (who was half-German on his father's side), Germans are poisoned by fear; Fear of the other, fear of the weak, of the deformed, fear of those who speak a language other than their own, and the same fear leads them to violence against those who fear them. Who knows whether this idea is also applicable Wladimir Putin. In his case, too, fear is likely to be a strong motive for many of the shameful acts of recent years.
What should Putin be afraid of? All political writings are not enough to fully understand the character. To understand Putin, one must read Dostoyevsky, especially The Diary of a Writer. In this work, the great Russian reveals his disillusioned vision of non-Russian Europe, describing it as an abyss of decadence and emptiness of values. A world in decay, a prison for people without a leader. A continent falling victim to nihilism, the same phenomenon that Dostoyevsky depicted many times in his greatest novels.
Even in Russia, nihilism had actually taken hold by the end of the 19th century, in the form of a rebellion against imperial authority and a rejection of traditional Russian values, especially Christianity. A self-destructive and dramatic impulse. From this same void of values would arise the great revolution that changed the face of Russia forever. Perhaps Putin fears this. He fears that the nihilistic tendency that characterizes the West could also contaminate “his” Russia, rob it of its soul and plunge it into the void of values that represents the beginning of chaos.
A bit like what happened after the collapse of the USSR, when Moscow was a poverty-ravaged city and citizens went around armed in fear of criminals. Fear of the Internet and his fascinating but empty images. He fears that what remains of the Russian soul (a unique mix of tradition and impulse toward modernity) may finally disintegrate, undermining the foundations on which his power, and thus the order in Russia, is based. As a connoisseur of Dostoyevsky, Putin increasingly sees the West as a virus ready to contaminate his homeland and to bring you the decadence of values he so desperately tries to contain.
Just look at how much deference Vladimir Vladimirovic shows religious celebrations and how important religious leaders are in today's Russia. He wants to prevent young Russians from becoming like Stavrogin, the terrible protagonist of “Demons,” a young nihilist who is committed to every kind of depravity and believes in nothing, or like Pyotr Verkhovensky, whose nihilism features traits of terrorism state accepts. Or that the same young Russians like Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment are discovering the commitment to freedom, and in a violent way.
The recent brutal actions of which he was the protagonist may be due to a great fear that grips him also thanks to the inexorable passage of time. If it is true that sooner or later all autocracies will be destroyed, perhaps Putin senses that this moment is comingand from this fear comes a violent, sometimes desperate reaction to keep the “demons” as far away from Russia as possible and to keep power in his hands.
To understand this tragic protagonist of our history, we must look not at rhetoric, but at literature. Putin knows itby the great demonologist Dostoyevsky, than nihilism (Figure of today's West) it can represent the beginning of chaos, as it once was, in a vast and dramatic country like Russia. Perhaps it is this fear that moves him and that, like the Nazis, will take on more and more dramatic forms over time.
Francesco Teodori, February 24, 2024
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