Two largest countries in Europe — Ukraine and Russia — are now divided by the frontline instead of state borders.
And on both sides of it, there are two different worlds.
he Ukrainian world has become black and white.
It’s all quite simple there.
You have your country and then you have your enemy who attacked you.
Unlike peaceful times, the question of “friend or foe” has been simplified to the extreme.
To them, it is all clear: “here’s good, and here’s bad”.
We, citizens of the Russian Federation, on the other hand,
have gotten ourselves into 50 shades of gray, in the worst sense of it.
We both love our country and, at the same time, hate what it’s doing.
These two opposing feelings are ripping our society from within.
Today we will talk about what we, Russian citizens, can do about it and
whether or not the “Passport of a Good Russian” that was suggested recently can help us here.
What can be more painful than losing a close person?
To see them accused of some horrendous crime, and accused justly.
God forbid anyone to live through something like that.
But this is what we feel now regarding our country.
Many times we talked about how a country is its people, its citizens, first and foremost.
So Russia is Russians, it’s you and I.
Does this mean that all Russians can be now presumed guilty?
Can it be that each of us must be proving their innocence now?
The answer would be different on the frontline and outside the war zone.
Let’s see this small fragment from a classic movie and then talk about this.
Correct, but why?
Because he is a soldier in the enemy army.
He is an armed combatant.
So his guilt is obvious, right?
Isn’t a bandit armed?
He may actually come to the meeting unarmed.
So what?
So he doesn’t have a marking in his passport saying that he’s a bandit,
on the contrary, it says that he is a citizen, lives somewhere on Krivokolenny st. 5, has a registration.
So good luck taking him.
I am a Russian politician.
And since I took the job, it is my duty to talk to my compatriots.
As much as I like having the attention of the Ukrainian audience,
I don't talk to them directly and certainly not trying to give them any advice.
It would be foolish and preposterous of me to be telling the citizens of Ukraine,
who are defending their country, that not all Russians are alike. This is not needed.
To Russians who are concerned about Ukrainian attitudes now,
let me remind you about attitudes of Soviet citizens towards Germans.
In the Summer of 1942, writer Ilya Erenburg published his famous article “Kill Him” in Krasnaya Zvezda.
Germans aren’t humans, the article says, and the verb “kill” is repeated 17 times in the short text.
Back then, there was no internet.
Communication between citizens of two warring states was impossible.
So the only Germans Soviet citizens could see in 1942 were soldiers of Hitler’s army.
Which means, there could be no undesirable side effects from Ilya Erenburg’s article that inspired hatred towards Germans.
in 1945 however, the situation changed.
Now it was necessary to distinguish an armed enemy from peaceful German citizens.
This is why Pravda, the main newspaper of the Soviet Union, published another article.
It was called “Comrade Erenburg oversimplifies it”.
In 1973, almost three decades after the war,
KGB chairman Yuri Andropov watched the tv series “Seventeen moments of spring”.
Before the series could be aired, Andropov demanded for one ideologically motivated correction to it.
This is how the episode in which Soviet intelligence officer Stirlitz
says kind words about the German working class, came to be.
“Stiritz knew German people and had faith in its future” — the voiceover says.
Why do I tell you all this?
The extremely negative attitude of Ukrainian citizens towards Russians is very understandable,
but it is not a subject we need to talk about now.
Ukrainians will figure it all out eventually.
Besides, even without that annoying moralism,
many of them show almost supernatural humanism and find words of sympathy towards sensible Russians.
I can see that in the comments under my videos.
Having such wonderful people, Ukraine will do fine.
But the divide within the Russian society, the distrust between Russians
that sometimes turn into outright hatred — this is our problem.
And we will have to fix it.
Russians will have to live together both during the war and after it ends.
As Gleb Zhiglov truthfully stated, none of our citizens have a marking in their passports
that would show if they are good people or not.
There is no special passport for “Good Russians” yet.
The Russian Anti-War Committee, however, has recently gotten an idea
of creating that special “Good Russian” passport.
The idea is: a Russian who is against the attack on Ukraine, must have an option to sign an
anti-war declaration and in return get a paper that would clear all suspicion towards them
beyond the border and allow for some benefits.
This way a Russian citizen could always show his “Passport of a Good Russian” in a foreign country
and spare himself the sideways glances.
Plus, a foreign employer who is hiding Russians could always say “hey look,
i only hire Good Russians!”.
The Russian Anti-War Committee’s idea is a rather interesting tactical
move that would probably help someone.
But personally, I wouldn't want that passport, as it goes against the future that I want to see.
I have my passport already.
like this
Here it is, the Great Red Passport with a two-headed eagle.
My goal as a citizen is to see that this passport becomes the passport of a “Good Russian”.
This war has become possible due to the terrible atomisation and disunity
in the Russian society, among other things.
The disruption of social connections between people is a result of a deliberate policy of the Putin’s regime.
In August of 1991, when there were no social networks or cellphones,
and many did not even have a landline, people gathered in masses to rally against the SCSE coup.
On 20th of August, hundreds of thousands of Muscovites crowded the capital’s center.
That same day, about 400 000 people rallied against the coup on Dvortsovaya Square in Leningrad.
Among them, there was a middle-aged man whose name was Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
If you’re interested, you can read about those events in my book “History of the New Russia”, here it is.
We are waiting for a new print run to arrive, which should be soon,
the link is in the description, we are doing a presale now.
The last print run we sold in less than a day, this one is… well not all of it but a big portion was sold,
order it if you want.
Ok i got distracted with the book, let’s go on.
In eight years and a half after that rally on Dvortsovaya Square,
that man began working to ensure that the self-organization of citizens which he saw there never happens again.
For 22 years, Putin’s regime strived for Russian citizens to become isolated,
to not trust each other and not realize that they are citizens of one country, sailing on the same ship.
That internal policy manifested itself in persecution of even the most apolitical of civic activists.
Like those who help people with diabetes or AIDS.
One would think that such activities are no threat to Putin’s regime.
But they weaken the very foundation of Putin’s system.
A system which relies on Russians never lending a hand to each other, never unite or work together.
They are supposed to stay at home and watch tv behind tightly shut metal doors.
There should be a mandatory doorphone at the entrance,
and the house must be encircled in a mandatory metal fence.
The doorphone, the fence, and a doorman are the main spiritual staples
of this state in which everyone should be separated.
In those years when our informational autocracy was very young,
when the economy and incomes of Russians were growing,
the regime was quite careful in working on the disunity of citizens.
But as Putin’s system degraded, we began to see Stalin’s rhetorics coming back.
Like, our country is mired with national traitors and foreign agents you see.
It doesn’t matter that they have the same passports as the rest of us.
Like, you shouldn’t be treating them as your compatriots who have their own opinions.
You should be treating them as enemies!
Instead of unifying the nation we have the neverending internal struggle.
Years ago, a member of our editorial who worked on this script,
joined the Russian army, driven by highest patriotic feelings.
There, he was frustrated.
Why do sergeants need to always be putting soldiers against each other?
Why must senior officers constantly bully their subordinates?
Whatever happened to comradeship?
Don’t we all wear the same uniform, aren’t we all on the same side?
But after our colleague served his term and came home, he realized that
the Russian army is a caricature of the Russian state, with all its characteristics exaggerated.
Having unleashed the war against Ukraine, Vladimir Putin failed at every task he’s set for himself.
Still, his strategy of putting Russians against each other still works.
This is his only success.
Even if he didn’t put effort into it, the prolonged and failed war would still be cutting ties between people.
This is natural for this kind of war: people switch to the “besieged fortress” mode.
Germania Anno Zero is a good movie on the subject.
It takes place in Berlin in 1945.
The movie does a great job at showing how the most terrible thing is not the destruction of cities
(buildings, streets, bridges), but the destruction of society.
When nobody cares even for a starving child.
Because everyone is too concerned with their own survival.
Right now, the so-called “special operation” is physically destroying not Russian but Ukrainian cities.
But it is obvious that at the same time the Ukrainian nation is growing stronger than ever before.
Among the ruins, Ukraine is being born again as a united country,
in which people from Vinnitsa and Kharkiv, Lviv and Kramatorsk are all compatriots,
united by common pain and love for their country.
Ukrainians show wonders of self-organization when they help each other.
Here in Russia, the opposite process is taking place.
Russians, more than ever, are divided into opposing camps.
Personally I am very careful about any statement or action that brings more divide into the already atomised Russian society.
“Us vs them”.
“Good Russians vs the rest”.
By no means do I condemn the initiative of the Russian Anti-War Committee.
It would be humane to give certain people lifeboats.
But I believe that instead of jumping into lifeboats to save ourselves,
we should be working on keeping the ship afloat.
We must save all who have Russian passports, not just the ones who have "Good Russian" passports.
The responsibility for taking the ship off course must be equally shared, too.
War is not a gym class: like “hey my doctor says i need not attend today!”.
Exemptions like that don’t unite, but separate people.
The responsibility must be shared equally.
I’m talking about responsibility, not guilt.
Guilt is a judicial term, guilt will be determined by an open and independent trial against certain individuals.
And guilt will be determined individually, not collectively.
Political responsibility on the other hand, is shared by all of us.
Check my previous video named “We are not alone”.
There we talk about how collective responsibility isn’t something terrible really.
Moreover, the current war is the time for every Russian to become a citizen of their country and feel responsibility for it.
What should we do?
By “We” I don't mean just politicians, but all citizens of Russia.
We must talk to people.
Talk to them in such a way that they would listen.
To that end, we should avoid the "holier than thou" rhetoric.
And we should always be careful about what result our words may have.
Do they motivate opponents of war or demotivate them?
Do they turn the undecided to the dark or the light side of the Force?
You can check out the video “How can we stop the war?”.
There, I talked about various ways each of us can participate in improving the situation,
and about mechanisms and science behind it all.
This video had many references to cinema, and here’s another one.
There is one Soviet film director — Grigoriy Chukhray.
During the Great Patriotic War he was a paratrooper and went through terrible massacres.
Four times he was wounded, and was among the few survivors of the Dnepr landing.
After all the horrors of war, Chukhrai set himself the goal of raising humanity in the USSR through his films.
In some ways, it was easier for him than for other Sixtiers,
because after being at the front he didn’t fear censors, censors feared him.
In the conciliatory film Forty-First, Grigory Chukhrai made the White Guard and the Red Army woman hear,
understand and love each other.
In “Clear Sky” the director smashed Stalin's idea of separating people into ranks.
And “Ballad of a Soldier” has become a textbook on humanism
and received over 100 awards all over the world.
It was watched by tens of millions in the USSR.
You think the audience changed somehow, it no longer wants kindness, justice, and humanism?
Not at all.
Some time ago when I had Covid, I decided to download a modern Russian tv series “Sklifosovsky”,
by my mom’s advice.
It has been aired on state channel Russia-1 since 2012, and they’re filming the 10th season now.
TV series are not propaganda, they make them if they are commercially profitable and wanted by the audience.
So, the main protagonists of “Sklifosovsky” are kind and honest people, people of principle.
They face the injustices of the system, corrupt policemen and even bad guys from the military.
And they always stand for their principles in order to help others.
Sometimes they break the rules, sometimes they go against the system.
You look at the protagonists and expect them to take banners with libeal slogans and go on a rally at any moment.
The main idea of “Sklifosovsky” is that it is good to be good.
It is apparent from the fact that the series is still being aired after ten years
that these are the kind of protagonists that Russians want to see.
The only problem is that you have to see them along with Kiselev and Soloviev.
And they have been hammering people into mistrust, hatred and bestiality for years.
It is our responsibility to stand against propagandists
and never work for their benefit, even with the best of intentions.
If you call someone a pig a hundred times, they’ll eventually turn into a beast.
Corner him and force him into defense,
into having to prove his innocence — and he will start acting like a cornered animal.
Remember how different teachers educate children at school.
When a teacher pressures you and calls you a hooligan, you just want to accept that:
“yeah i am a hooligan, so what?”.
But if the teacher says “it’s not you, you are a good person” — such words touch your soul.
We just need to remind people that they are actually good.
In contrast to the abnormal, it is necessary to protect and affirm normality.
Kindness, trust, unity, and justice.
The captain of the ship called "Russia" turned out to be, to put it mildly,
a bad commander and sent our ship straight to the iceberg.
Nevertheless I believe the life of every passenger on this ship is invaluable
and I am not going to divide people into ranks.
Like, let first class follow to the lifeboats, and let the rest sink with the ship.
I’ll be bailing out water for as long as I have the strength.
Let’s do it together.
Everyone can do it.
Take as much risk as you are willing to take.
Not more… but not less.
It’s good if you even just talk to people around you.
A post on the internet?
Great.
Can do more?
Wonderful!
If you are from Russia and watched this video to the end,
you probably have that passport of a “Good Russian” already.
Just like this one.
It is now important to help others, remind them that they too have that passport.
See you tomorrow.