Russians in Russia: The State within the State

Igor Artemov

Translated by Roman Frolov

No one in the Russian National political movement—or just anyone for whom his Russian identity is not simply a matter of fact but a defining aspect of his life, beliefs, and actions—should harbor any illusions regarding the corrupt, grotesquely hypocritical, bureaucratic and police-state nature of the modern state authority and ideology existing in the Russian Federation. All this is true and doubtlessly affects our lives. And yet the single most important thing to understand is that this system is explicitly and purposefully anti-Russian.

Although we cannot exclude that Putin and his close circle dream about their ‘empire’, there won’t be any place in their ‘empire’ for the Russian spirit and Russian ideology, just as there was no place for Russianness in the late Soviet Union. Remember that the process of destroying the Russian nation and Russian worldview, unprecedented in its scale and consequences, was launched precisely in the Soviet Union and the current authorities of Russian Federation carry on this process more or less consistently. The Russian culture and the Church were being destroyed in the USSR. Internationalism and inter-racial marriages were promoted. The USSR has done everything possible to make people to identify themselves not as Russians or Tartars or Tuvans but as Soviet people. All the facts show that it is the USSR and not the old Russia that serves as a role model for the current Russian authorities. They are building a post-Soviet state and not in any way a Russian national state. I consider this statement essential because of the conclusions and actions that follow from it directly.

If the Russian Federation was just a red-tape bureaucratic or corrupt state, then these defects of the political system could be fought against and to a certain extent eliminated simply by dealing with the mistakes. Yet the problem is that both corruption and despotism in our country are consciously enforced from the very top of state power. Long ago I realized that the situation in our country does not result from the stupidity, greed or incompetence of the ruling circles. Only an idiot would have trouble understanding that it is better for the country to have its own competitive manufacturing instead of exporting raw materials or to have honest officials instead of bribe-takers. The Russian authorities understand this too. And yet they do everything the other way around, strengthening and hardening from above all the vices of the state system. “Why?,” you ask me. Well, because they have aims that are very different from those they publicly declare on television and through the mass-media.

Their goal is to create in place of Russia and Russian civilization a new supranational pseudo-empire within the framework of the New World Order. Under the guidance of a Jewish elite, the Russian majority will be gradually replaced by Asian migrants. Of course, they cannot acknowledge this openly as it will cause mass protests and they will be quickly swept away. So for the people’s consumption they have an official ideology of building a society of prosperity, social justice and interethnic peace. Yet they cannot hide the truth, especially from those who have access to objective information. As a result, the silence of the ruling circles is bought by enormous material benefits on one hand, and by intimidation on the other. In this light it is easy to understand the murders of generals Lebed and Rokhlin, ophthalmologist Fyodorov, Governor Evdokimov and many others who had ascended to the political Olympus in Russia but had not become completely loyal to those forces that control and deliberately destroy our country as the heart of Russian civilization. I think that the mysterious death of General Shebarshin, the last chief of the KGB, is in the same line of political murders.

The main supports for the Russian authorities in this enterprise are the security agencies. Their purpose is to suppress any popular protest and discontent by unlawful use of force — simply because it is impossible to do it by lawful methods. It is not a coincidence that today the members of the security agencies and not regular officials or manufacturers who get the most of benefits and opportunities. Not long ago I had a conversation with an old acquaintance of mine who sells real estate on the Black sea coast and in the Caucasus Mineralnye Vody region [translator’s note: popular resorts]. He claimed that 80% of the expensive property ($500,000 and up) in these areas is purchased today not by state officials or businessmen but by highly-placed officials of the Federal Security Service (FSS), Interior Ministry, Public Prosecutor Office, and other similar agencies from various regions of the country (sometimes such purchases are made using front persons). In this way these ‘people’s servants’ prepare for their retirement. Needless to say, such property acquisitions are far beyond the means of an honest official, even considering their large salaries.

Thus a conspiracy of silence emerges. Every member of this criminal system knows that he can keep his power and unlawfully acquired riches only if he remains silent and does everything his masters order him to do. If he doesn’t, however, and takes the liberty of excessive high-handedness or independency, he will face huge problems.

I would like to describe two examples from my personal experience which clearly show that highly-stationed Russian officials have a perfect understanding of what is going on in our country and of the direction it is leading into. In the beginning of the last decade when I was a Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Vladimir Oblast I had a conversation with one of the representatives of the President in that region. The conversation has stuck in my memory. There was high turnover at this position and I would like to avoid naming this person. The official sympathetically inquired about the Russian national movement and our ideology, and he demonstrated impressive knowledge of Bolshevism, Freemasonry and pretty good personal erudition. He told me that he reads our newspapers (the Internet was not as widespread then as it is now), and that some of his relatives voted for me in the elections to the Russian Parliament. I even felt some sympathy toward him because of his education and culture. In the end he talked about himself.  He said that he understands the rightness of our cause albeit there were not only Russians among his ancestors. He told me that in Soviet times he and other members of the Communist Party were shown special movies on the danger of world Zionism and Freemasonry, and he mentioned some facts which I was not aware of. At some point I even thought that he can provide a tacit support to our cause.

Yet it ended differently. My confidant finished our conversation with a parable. Let’s say, he told me, a gang of robbers attacks a woman and wants to rape her. She has a choice, to resist, get seriously beaten and injured and be raped anyway, or “to relax and try to get some pleasure”…. So this is what is being done with our country. We can’t fight against the whole world. So let’s relax and try to benefit from this situation as much as possible. I remember being quite shocked, both at his level of awareness and his conclusions.

As a second example, in 2003 I was one of the originators of the internal investigation of the Police Department of Vladimir Oblast by a special commission from Moscow. The commission was headed by an elderly Lieutenant-General Golubev, if I remember correctly. He expressed his wish to meet me personally. It was a long conversation. I told him all I knew about incidents of bribery, racketeering etc. He listened carefully and took notes. At the end we had turned to the Russian question again. Looking away, he asked me: “If things in Russia continue in the future as they are today, for how much longer will the Russian people survive?” I answered that I look forward to positive changes and aspire for the establishment of Russian national rule, but if the regime perseveres, the Russians as a nation will likely hold on for thirty or forty years more, and after that all sorts of irreversible changes are possible. “I also think so” — he replied.

We had parted amiably. A couple of weeks later I received a letter signed by this same General, in which he thanked me for my assistance and informed me that, based on my information, around fifteen police officers were subjected to disciplinary action, but not a single ‘brave’ officer was punished seriously, though they deserved it. The commission had returned to Moscow and things in Vladimir resumed their ‘natural’ course. I guess that our General retired soon after these events.

Make no mistake: both of the high state officials described here represent the best part of the establishment. They at least say that they are not against us. Others, however, are much, much worse: they are stupid, avaricious and cynical. Yet even these two wouldn’t openly side with us. They would stand aside and wait for something. This is why the Russian movement today should avoid internal dissent and squabble between parties. The regime hates us all, no matter who we are — backers of the empire or national democrats or Russian Orthodox nationalists or whoever else — it hates us just because we are Russian, because we don’t hide it and because we fight as best we can for our rights and ideals.

We interfere with their desire to destroy Russia quickly and quietly. It is time now to begin building a “state within a state” in our midst, a society closed to outsiders where we can resolve all internal questions within it. We have no friends among the authorities, but we have many friends and like-minded people among businessmen, scientists and military men, among virtually all strata of Russian society. I will return to this topic in subsequent articles.

Igor Artemov is a well-known Russian Nationalist. His organization, Russian All-National Union (RONS) was proscribed last year and Artemov himself is on the run as he is wanted by Federal Security Service for the ‘hate crime’ of writing that Russian Orthodoxy is the only true faith.