by Stefano Caprio

Because of the war in Ukraine, the country is drifting into an era of denial and distancing from the "enemy", to assert spiritual, moral, political, and economic "orthodoxy". Today, new "global models" are being imposed, which are not easily digestible, not only in Russia or the East, but also in Europe and in English-speaking countries. The persona of the president now overlaps with that of the tsars of the past.

With Russia's war in Ukraine, we have entered the era of de-traction or de-clination, as the de-finition of the identity of peoples and nations seems to depend on the prefix rather than on the content.

Russia felt compelled to de-fend Ukraine from Western de-gradation in order to achieve its de-militarisation and de-Nazification; in response, Ukraine now feels the need for de-Russification and de-colonisation, showing the way to other ex-Soviet countries, who have already been engaged in de-Sovietisation for the past 30 years.

Denial and distancing oneself from the "enemy", the stranger, the "traitor", is the main path to assert one's spiritual, moral, political, and economic "orthodoxy".

The most dogmatic and decisive term in this tragic identity game that Russia denies is the neologism of de-westernisation, devesternizatsiya (девестернизация).

Russian propaganda, especially in the lead-up to Easter of liberation and the Victory of de-Nazification, insists on the concept that "Russia has never been part of the West", a demonic and Russophobic place that seeks to impose its global domination on the world, casting its shadow on all continents, yet making the light of Holy Eurasia shine far brighter.

De-Westernisation or "cleansing from Western influence" is the real content of the laws against "foreign agents", inoagenty (иноагенты), who can only be Western, since the influences of China, India or Turkey are to be considered "friendly".

For this reason, the Russians are putting pressure on Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and all the territories that have not yet been de-colonised to pass similar laws, even at the cost of provoking street riots like in Tbilisi.

The "turn to the East" is not specifically "pro" East, but is primarily "anti" and "de" Western.

Pro-Putin sociologists say that "more than half of Russians see no use in Western civilisation and culture, as it has always been alien to Russia and has a destructive character," this according to Medusa’s Signal newsletter.

Such statements are nothing new for Russia; on the contrary, they run through its entire history and reflect its wavering self-awareness.

In the 19th century, after the great victory over Napoleon and his Grande Armée and the whole of Western Europe, a great debate developed in Russia that lasted for decades between “Slavophiles” and “Westernisers”:

The former believed Russia had its own "idea" to express to the world, while for the latter there was nothing original about Russians, and that everything was owed to Western cultural influence.

In fact, history has proved the latter right, with Marxist communism imposed in the 20th century, albeit reinterpreted as "Leninism" and "Stalinism", the Russian variants of "real socialism" imposed on the whole world.

The 19th century debate was in turn the result of a previous phase pf westernisation that began with Peter the Great, who built his empire around the city of St Petersburg, “window on Europe", and ended with Catherine the Great with the partition of Eastern Europe with Austria and Prussia, and the mass deportation of Poles to the Siberian territories.

Peter himself sought to get rid of the excesses of murky internal conflicts generated by the raids on the "Ukrainian" border territories, but also by the fanaticism of the Orthodox "old believers" who did not want to accept the superiority of Greek rites and devotions, also seen as Western "foreign agents".

The Byzantine baptism, which gave rise to the ancient history of Rus', is in fact an import from the West, even if it is seen as a tradition of “Eastern Christianity” as opposed to Western Latin Christianity, sign that identity does not correspond to reality, not even geographical, when a de- is needed to affirm it.

The very 16th century ideology of "Moscow-as-the-Third Rome," the main definition of Russia's mission in history, is based on the elimination of the two previous Romes, and the prophecy that "there will not be a Fourth”.

The rhetoric of de-westernisation, beyond the contrasting archetypes of the Russian soul, requires a reflection that concerns the future not only of Russia. What is the “West," and what does it mean to be "under Western influence"?

The US Congress’s approval of a new aid package to Ukraine was hailed by President Biden as an "affirmation of American and Western supremacy in the world," but the model of this superiority is certainly not limited to weapons or assault drones.

The West means liberal democracy and a market economy, or at least the choice of a regime that is comprehensible and organised according to rules acceptable to Westerners.

The European colonial era has in fact imposed all over the world systems like those of the colonial empires and then democracy, in the relationship between social groups and bosses and workers, financial mechanisms and political and educational institutions, settling religious matters through the separation of Church and State.

Today, these aspects are accompanied by a frenetic process of modernisation and technological redefinition, which render obsolete many fundamental components such as political pluralism and parliamentary checks and balances, even the impartiality of the law and the judiciary, imposing new "global models" that are not easily digestible, not only in Russia and the East, but also in European and English-speaking countries, "Westerners" par excellence.

In this sense, countries like Japan and Saudi Arabia, with absolutist or even theocratic traditions, become more than Western, and the innovations conceived in China or Russia itself dominate the West, dissolving all borders through digital fragmentation.

There is no comprehensive or even a partial definition of the "collective West", not even in the areas attributed to the "masters of the world" of production and finance.

De-Westernisation does not lead to choosing one system over another, economically, politically, and culturally, or even religiously.

It is an anti-globalist identity-centred reaction, an attempt to avoid involvement in the processes of change and contamination, as in the ideology of de-growth and de-modernisation.

Yet, since economic and technological growth is irreversible, the difference with the "hostile world" can only occur in opposition and competition, which in fact entails an even closer and inevitable bond: the more one tries to de-westernise oneself, the more one westernises oneself.

This was true even at the time of the Cold War pitting "opposite" regimes, socialist versus liberal, which, in order to impose themselves, unleashed the race to conquer space and control countries, feeding armed conflicts in every corner of the world.

Russia’s de-westernisation makes no sense, although "leaps backwards" are likely in private property, as Vladimir Putin put it at the congress of entrepreneurs and investors, to "avoid damage to the state", in addition to a clear return to totalitarian control of minds.

The persona of the president now overlaps with that of the tsars of the past, and the laws themselves seem to regress to the level of the code, ulozhenya (уложение), 17th century decrees that tried to settle the "troubles" among Russia’s various groups, caught between present and future.

Diplomatic relations with Western states and all sorts of international agreements can be scrapped, the UN system can be undermined, the International Court in The Hague can be dismissed contemptuously, and the Orthodox schism between Moscow and Constantinople can be consummated, but all this appears more like a show than a real "redefinition" of the country's position in global relations.

If Russia intends to reject the whole world, the problem is not that it will become unacceptable to the West, but it will become incomprehensible to itself.

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• russia
• dewesternisation
• vladimir putin
• ukraine
• war
• slavophiles
• westernisers