The Ideology and Practice of Rashism: Reconstruction of the Origins and Imperial Essence

Abstract

The current russian-Ukrainian war is a continuation of the systemic strategy of the russian empire to subjugate Ukraine and destroy its identity. The ideology of this policy is fed by traditional historical narratives of moscow, updated according to the realities of today. The essence and strategy of the existence of the russian empire (regardless of the name of this state) is the total usurpation and use of the resources of subordinate countries and peoples while appropriating their material, cultural, and intellectual heritage. The criminal mechanisms for achieving this goal are totalitarianism and autocracy, aimed at ensuring absolute power over people. The organising principle of such a policy is a certain ideology, that is, a system of defining norms and rules for the functioning of the state. Its structure includes both inherited models of behaviour and acquired strategies of action according to the situational requirements of the time. In muscovy, the principles of eastern despotism, with its features of unconditional autocracy as a form of government, imperial "spiritual bonds," European trends of Byzantism (theocracy), communism, and fascism, were combined. For the Russian state in all its historical political forms (ulus-khanate-kingdom-empire-union-federation), the ideological toolkit of influence has always been part of the strategic arsenal of its expansionist advances. At the same time, the content itself of the respective ideologues could be variable, depending on the situational circumstances. During the time of Genghis Khan, this function was performed by the prescriptions of "Yasa," in the Christianized uluses of the Golden Horde (in Muscovy), Orthodoxy, in the USSR – Marxism-Leninism, in the modern rf – an eclectic mixture of both in the form of "spiritual bonds," with the addition of personalized despotism. The corresponding functional structures of power instilled such matrices into the real life of society, using their violent and destructive means and approaches, thus implementing the policy of totalitarianism.