Thread by @sumlenny

THREAD I saw many skeptical comments about my take that Dugina's death could have esoteric dressing besides the FSB motive. It looks like too many people have no clue, to what extent Russian elites adopt the worst esoteric ideas. Well, let's dive into this nasty journey. 1/x

Ever heard about Daniil Andreyev? The man was born in Berlin in 1906, and died in Moscow in 1959. In 1947 he was arrested in Moscow, and put into jail, where he had hallucinations (Stalinist jails were terrible). He hallucinated a book about the "REAL" structures of the world 2/x

Andreyev's "Rose of the World" was the quintessence of esoteric texts. It is absolutely weird. He wrote, the true world is a metaworld run by monsters he called "uitsraors". Uitsraors mentally project the nations, and run them as tools, fighting each other with these tools. 3/x

When a nation's uitsraor gets old, the nation loses a war, gets consumed by another nation, making their uitsraor stronger. And other details inlc. eating uitsraor's heart. Now think about the fact: the Russian Academy of Science runs a 3 days conference on this text in 2016 4/x

Once again: two high-rank research institutions, dozens of researchers, incl. professors, full doctors (like a German Dr.Habil) met for 3 days in Moscow in 2016, visited Andreyev's grave to participate in a liturgy on his grave, and discussed ideas of how metamonsters fight 5/x

Andreyev's book really hit Russian nationalism's nerve. Think about this: written in 1958, it was officially published in 1991. Before it was printed and distributed underground. And it is still THE text for those Russians who want to think they "know how the real world works"6/x

Here we come to a very important part. A lot of people in Russia with a lot of influence and technical knowledge are strong supporters of all possible conspiracy theories or esoteric. Kamil Galeev brilliantly described this phenomenon in this thread: 7/x

https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1553513210652901378

Starting from the USSR, where the truth was always hidden, and knowledge about important events (WW2 to Chernobyl) was provided by rumors, people like to believe they are super informed and know the "hidden truth". The lack of good critical education helps this tendency 8/x

The tendency to believe in all possible esoteric things does not decline in the elites compared to the "low class". Quite the opposite: the elites who love to think they are special, are fans of all possible esoteric ideas which are "hidden from low class". But to this later 9/x

Let us first elaborate on the esoteric tendencies of Russian nationalism. Konstantin Krylov was one of the most vocal Russian nationalists. A fierce antisemite, Krylov wrote that Jews "have a special plug in the brain, connecting them with the meta-demon". Remember uitsnors? 10/x

Krylov even named this demon: "Iabaldoth", and believed, Jews stay in a love-hate relationship with him, obtaining extra social/economic powers, but suffering from a too intense link. Now the fun part: Krylov was a close ally of Yegor Kholmogorov, who was Dugina's collegue 11/x

Yegor Kholmogorov, a close ally and friend of Konstantin Krylov in 2000s, worked together with Daria Dugina at ultranationalist Tsargrad TV, funded by Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, who was a sponsor of Russian invasion to Ukraine in 2014. See the links? 12/x

Well, one can say, it is just nationalists, they are crazy. But the real decision-makers don't do this shit. Oh, they do. To believe in esoteric, mind-reading or alchemy is typical for Russian elites. 13/x

In 2006, the official newspaper of the Russian Govt interviewed FSB general Boris Ratnikov exclusively on paranormal units of FSB. Ratnikov said, the FSB runs a team of mind-readers who invade the minds of the Western politicians and find proofs of the latters' russophobia 14/x

Ratnikov said, the FSB read the mind of Madeleine Albright before the Kosovo war and saw their "unlimited hate towards the Slavic people", her wish "to conquer Russian resources" and her plans "to change the blood structure of the Sebrs". No, it was not the 1st April story 15/x

But maybe this is just one drunk FSB general talking to a journalist? Well, no. Have a look at the official Russian Army magazine, with its online version still available on the Russian MoD page. In Feb2019 issue they claim to continue research of the Hitler's Ahnenerbe 16/x

Here the Russian MoD official magazine, Feb2019. "A supersoldier for the future wars. Human psychic reserves are unlimited. One can use them for mind-reading and telepathy. There is a science parapsychology for that. In Germany in 1930-40 Ahnenerbe institute worked on that" 17/x

"One can hack computer programs by mind impulse. Destroy microchips, hack telecommunication. An experiment with telepathic reading of a secret paper which was put into a safe was a success - even when the document was written in a foreign language unknown to the psychist". 18/x

Well, you see this is what the official Russian MoD magazine publishes in 2019. They really believe in this shit. Of course, there are a lot of corruption interests behind that. If a General can buy "psycho-mental-para-reader-trainings" for Army from his niece, why not do it 19/x

In 2000s, Victor Petrik claimed to be a genius of Da Vinci scale and presented his "filters" which transform any liquid waste, incl.radioactive ones, into pure water. He named one of his filters "Shoigu", got financing via "United Russia" top Gryzlov, was invited to Skolkovo 20/x

Yes, it was a classical story of an alchemist, and Petrik failed soon - maybe because he was too present in media and too ambitious. Or maybe he was too technical in his claims. The wish for paranormal services exists in Kremlin anyway, according to many sources 21/x

Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, who wrote books about Kremlin based on interviews with insiders, describes the esoteric generals who influenced Boris Yeltsin in 1990s. They literally planned the war in Chechnya date based on horoscopes and did foreign policy by mindreading 22/x

A great detail: one of the insiders tells Zygar, that the FSB generals who started mind-reading and horoscope things, were inspired by "The Rose of the World" book by Andreyev. So we are back to field one. By the way, horoscopes. Horoscopes were typical for all circles in RU 23/x

The Russia's leading business media Kommersant published horoscopes for years, telling the businessmen if the day is good for a deal, date, or other activities. "How to deal with retrograde Venus?" "In the morning, the Lune will be in Capricorn, so take care of your legs" 24/x

You ask once again: how can a person who is a millionaire, a minister, or a leading politician, believe in this? Well, BECAUSE they are rich and influential, they know, how fragile is their position. That the risks cannot be mitigated. So why not search for additional power? 25/x

Of course, this love for paranormality is also a consequence of terrible Soviet education. Almost every top person in Russia is Soviet-educated, and most of them have got their positions because they were in Komsomol (i.e. no study, but Lenin). No wonder they have blind spots26/x

In later 1980s, Soviet TV non-stop broadcasted to great tricksters: Anatoly Kashpirovsky, who claimed to be able to heal people via TV screen, and Alan Chumak, who claimed, he "charges" water via screen and makes it into medicine. Millions believed. 27/x

In 1990s, as computers came to Russia, in every office and every household people put a cactus close to the computer - to "neutralize radiation". Even now google has about 1 million results for "cactus+computer" and puts high the comment "cactus absorb computer EMI radiation"28/x

I will stop here (maybe add more cases later), but the main idea is clear. Russian society is highly influenced by esoteric ideas and pseudo-science. Russian elites really believe in crazy esoteric things. They plan their actions, including the wars, based on this. Accept it./END