Thread by @polidemitolog

I wanted to write about being a victim of political repression and what it means to Russians and what it means to those nations who suffered under Russian imperialism. A 🧵

There are two main problems for the people from the center of a former empire: a) to understand that their empire wasn't a force for good and prosperity and b) that people far away from the imperial center have a very different perspective on said empire than they do.

The Soviet empire had a very potent myth that consisted of two levels: 1) the USSR liberated Europe from Nazism and 2) it brought prosperity and modernization to all the nations it liberated. Basically, the red empire was portrayed as an angelic force for social equality.

These myths were generally accepted by people from the empire's center, that is to say the Russians. Nations outside of the empire's center felt quite different - they saw it as an occupation by an extremely violent regime, which came from Moscow and changed their lives.

Even when Russians were victims of their own empire, they felt the repression differently than non-Russians. They either believed that the red empire was a wrong kind of empire or they thought it was all Stalin's (or some bureaucrat's) fault.

The first group of Russians wanted to reform the empire, create a different one, the second group wanted the empire to change on its own, to become less violent and repressive. None of them wanted the empire to fall apart and cease to exist entirely (even if they were democrats).

Non-Russians didn't feel like they were victims of domestic violence (like the Russians did), they felt they were being oppressed by a foreign nation, by a foreign power, by a foreign political center (Moscow).

When a Russian peasant lost his land to collectivization and a Ukrainian peasant lost his land the same way, the Russian thought: "our masters are unjust and cruel", while the Ukrainian thought: "the Muscovites are taking my ancestral land".

The same unlawful act of the Stalinist regime, with the same material consequences (loss of land), produced entirely different experiences with regards to the national identity of the victim (Russian and non-Russian).

Most Russians up to this day don't understand the difference. They think: "my ancestors suffered, your ancestors suffered the same, why not just put the past behind us and build the 'Russian world' together". Because the evil came from Moscow, not Kyiv, Minsk or Tashkent.

Since the evil came from Moscow, to any non-Russian it is viewed as a Russian made and controlled evil. Not to mention that most (!) ordinary Russians feel pride over their lost empire and do not acknowledge its terrible mass crimes that go into millions of victims.

Even when a Russian acknowledges the evil of the Soviet regime, he most often doesn't feel connected to the crimes in any way, he doesn't acknowledge the burden of crimes committed by his ancestors, he feels no historical responsibility. We go back to "we all suffered" narrative.

Even today, while there's a war on, many Russians who do not support the war itself, still do not understand that they are in the center of an evil empire, they don't feel the responsibility. That's why they go to Georgia or Latvia and lecture them about nationalism.

It is a very difficult thing to view yourself from the perspective of others, to put yourself in their shoes. It's not enough to understand that this war will end badly for Russia, it's not enough to understand who is to blame for this (Putin's regime).

A person from the center of the former empire must confront the demons of imperialism and colonialism. This is an internal, spiritual and psychological struggle, not just an ideological one. It requires a metamorphosis of personal identity.

Not many can achieve this level of introspection. I do not belive in mass repention. Since it requires such great inner strength, it can only be achieved on an individual level. These individuals are most often intellectuals and artists, the creators.

These people are the spiritual avantgarde of a nation. Ordinary people will change their perspective not through inner advancement, but through changes in external conditions (discourse, institutions, laws, political structure). They will receive a kind of cheat sheet from above.

Horizontality can come only after the vertical has passed down all it can and created a democratic environment, then the vertical must collapse (because you need free individuals to democratically govern). The liberation process comes first though.

This is the only way for Russians to see themselves from a different perspective and, through it, free themselves from the need to control and judge those who surround them. This will be liberating as it will give Russians a chance to worry about their own future, to create it.