(3/4) However, when the Russian Federation, after substantial | Russians With Attitude

(3/4)

However, when the Russian Federation, after substantial antagonization, finally invaded the Ukraine, many of these theories became useless. The clever idea that two nations with similar fast food joints would never go to war was burned to the ground. It made fools of very obnoxious people. I can only sympathize with the torrential flood of emails sent to Fukuyama mocking his idea. This must be vexing to Fukuyama, as he clearly writes out a potential future where the Russian Federation simply declines to join the ranks of Western cultures and forges their own future. Russia is, as Fukuyama writes, “stuck in history.” However, if you look at his theory as I do, as an incremental strategy of the West, you can still say he’s wrong. To justify my argument against the famed political thinker, I rely on the French writer Eugine Ionesco and the current, self proclaimed, Dissident Right.

My personal obsession with Russia came honestly to me from literature. I understood this culture from Dostoevsky, Gogol and Bulgakov, among many others. When I encountered the Dissident Right on social medias, I expected them to be more aligned with NATO sensibilities or apathetic to Russia at best. If they cared at all about Russia at all it would be because of Pyotr Wrangel enthusiasts or Dostoevsky’s work “Demons” mocking socialists or “The Idiot” extolling Christian values. Instead I saw immediate support for Russia against Ukraine and international opinion. I doubt whether these people would have felt the same way towards Iraq after 9/11, but perhaps a contrarian streak runs through the movement. Ukraine support became the cause celebre for all of the most reviled enemies of this blooming movement and it stands to reason some might support Russia out of a natural inclination to be against what is popular. Still, NAFO was immediately denounced as pathetic rather than adversarial. American volunteers were mocked rather than hated in a way that at least implies a sort of a respect. Gradually I began to realize that the support for Russia was not out of a support for Putin’s economic theory or the national disdain of LGBT; though I’m sure this was used as justification. Rather, that fascination bordering on obsession that I felt towards a country that seemed as real to me as Natasya from Maugham’s Christmas Holiday, was reverberated by this community. My theory some would come to embrace the Ukraine because the famed Azov battalion was dashed. It was a mystery to me.

Sure some could deduce that the fact the patron saint of the Dissident Right, champion of champions, BAP was Russian could contribute to this support. RWA was, for the most part, a beautiful flower about to bloom with the sudden attention, but importantly to my point, not the cause of it. The zeal for the Russian cause, composed of an amalgamation of anti-nato communists, western nationalists and the occasional bibliophile, had very little to do with established voices, and rather gave credence to many people. It’s possible that Russia unintentionally became the representative of the movement against the End of History. It’s war against that Western hegemony was a siren’s call to many who would also like to see it’s power splintered. Critically, people were unable to stomach the liberal manifest destiny that laid claim to every fiber of civilization and flocked to support whatever resistance sought to overcome it.