"return to the true self," to the true us

Philosophical Sobor "The Great Russian Rectification of Names"

Session 8 “Total mobilization. Part 2”

I was not a member of the militia myself. We started humanitarian work back in May 2014, and then two of my colleagues went to war. Alexey Markov, commander of the "Ghosts" battalion, was tragically killed in a car accident, and Pyotr (his code name "Arkadievich") resigned from his post as commander of the 4th brigade of the People's Militia of the LPR last year due to health issues. But we started together then and now, and for all the years that I have been in charge of the NACC, we started from the fact that our job was to convert people's money to the greatest detriment of the enemy. And based on this, we came up with how to do it with the highest efficiency, so that as few people's rubles as possible accounted for one enemy destroyed with our help. Throughout these years, we have been transforming our activities with a focus on different things. Once it was an organization of sniper schools where we gave people sights and taught them, in addition, of course, to supplying the "Ghost" and "Four" battalions with digital communications and many other things. And with the start of the SMO, the level of our activity was first back to, and then above, 2014 levels. And once again, the criterion of maximum damage to the enemy was the basis for our decision to use drones to a large extent. It's not just the distribution of cardboard boxes wrapped in polyethylene marked "MAVIC" to people who do not know how to use them, but also the supplement of all the things necessary, including training. In fact, we have been doing this since the beginning of the summer and have trained a lot of people.

And at some point, according to the principle of the greatest damage to the enemy with the help of humanitarian money, we decided to hold a "Dronnitsa" conference with our colleagues. We organized it in Veliky Novgorod as a gathering point for those who are fighting or would like to fight with a copter in their hands to exchange experience and take further steps in the industry.

In my opinion, a copter, of course, is not the main thing. Nikolai can confirm that I tried to support the philosophical sobors financially, because this is the main field where the main war should take place. Because copters, boots, etc. are all temporary. But the meanings we are fighting for are more important, even if they are important in the long run.

Let's take "Dronnitsa" as an example. We tried to toy not only with copters, but also with the stylistic design of our conference. We toyed with beautiful pictures in the Old Russian style. And since the governor of Novgorod gave us permission to fly and to build a camp on the Rurik's hill fort, we made good use of it.

Now let's talk a little bit about the interpretation of the war, because I want to refer to what Alexander Dugin and other colleagues have said.

I think this war is about monopolizing Russianness. It's no secret that most soldiers on the other side think and speak Russian. We are actually at war with ourselves. Of course, this is not the first civil war in Russia in the broadest sense, and it won't be the last, if we go by prognostic considerations. But now we are talking about a civil war between Russians and, if you like, Russians illuminated by the black light that Alexander Dugin spoke of. In terms of the geopolitical dimension, there are Russians who have recognized the superiority of the West over themselves on the other side. On our side, whatever we are, we still want to exist independently in every sense of the word, both geopolitically and ontologically.

When I was thinking my today's talk through, I did not use the word "awakening" as Alexander Gelievich just did. I used the term "return to the true self," to the true us. Because we are obviously fighting now, we are fighting in a way that we did not expect from ourselves. Why is this happening? The trauma of the Second World War, the enormous losses it caused, was reflected in the fact that a significant part of those who could be called pacifists in uniform, i.e. the bearers of the anti-war spirit, appeared in the Russian army. That is why we have to give ourselves back to ourselves. If the Russians sincerely consider themselves to be peaceful, friendly and carefree, in fact, in the historical context, this is absolutely wrong. Well, we have this idea of ourselves. One of history's most warlike nations considers itself peaceful. So it seems to me that we have to get to know ourselves, get to know the country we live in, and understand our history in order to understand who we are. And we are one of the most warlike nations in history. And in order to be victorious, we must have a return to ourselves, a transformation. Otherwise we will not win this war. The only way we can be victorious is through our return to our true self. This thesis is not uncontroversial, especially from a person who has devoted so much effort to helping those who fight. But I have a reasonable hope that we are changing, that we are going to change, and that we are going to win. And when we change and return to our true selves, we will not be afraid of them — the West. Then they will be afraid of us.

Translated by Daria Mochalova