The problem with the Russian elections is that the idea of representative democracy and especially party representative democracy is completely alien to Russian political culture and tradition. At the same time, Zemskaya democracy, the election of village elders, and before the schism and parish priests, has a long history in Russia. At the most critical moments – as, for example, at the end of the Time of Troubles – the people even chose a king, a new dynasty. And before that, it was the popular decision to form a militia – especially the second, which saved the country. But the Russians never really chose parties. They chose people – their own people, acquaintances, or those they believed. They were always chosen personally, not in bulk. The Russian tradition is personal. She wants to see a person as a political figure. He wants to understand him, know him, trust him. And sometimes hate him, despise him, punish him. But always it is a person. Our view of the world is deeply human. And about politics too.
Russian people do not understand parties. This is something alien, impersonal, abstract. And for this reason alone, something false, fake, vicious. Something that would not have been better.
The very word “party” does not sound in Russian and does not have a Russian meaning. This is the “part.” Russians want to see the whole in everything. Therefore, the choice of a party from other parties is already fragmented and dismembered. Party democracy for the Russian person is something like a maniac, ready to dismember society, people, country. And the parties themselves, as it were, confirm this: they split from within, split, fight for sole leadership. The party is disgusting. Including aesthetically. And no effort can make us give up our disgust.
It’s another matter when there is only one party. We like this much more. Choose one of them. Here’s a real Russian choice. Once and for all, they choose a faith, a fatherland, a spouse. Once and for all: one of the same, but one and only. Our ethic is this: beautiful is what is worth being faithful to all your life. The rest is temptation and fall. Therefore, in Russia, either there should be no parties at all – there is a state, there is a church, there is a people, and the Zemstvo should be added to this, or there should be one. But one party is no longer a party, not apart. This whole, this is the people themselves or the state itself. This model is sustainable and has a future. The rest is not.
The rule of the Communist Party during the Soviet period was not only imposed from above but also demanded from below. The people and society wanted unity and wholeness. The Slavophiles, above all Khomyakov, wrote about integrity as the highest Russian ideal. And at the head of the party and the state again one person – the leader-father. His face, his intonations, his gestures are known and felt by everyone.
Many parties participate in modern elections. This alone is disgusting. Where do they climb, why … It’s unpleasant. And everything becomes unpleasant, wants to cover all faces with medical masks. The Russian person has a feeling: all these active fussing figures are crushing the country. They are up to something bad.
Only two parties are exceptions – United Russia and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Both of them are important because in them one can recognize the very one single party that the people unconsciously await.
With the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, everything is clear: it is the ghost of the only old party – the CPSU. In the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, people see Soviet unity – powers, peoples, society, classes. Of course, today it is just a simulacrum, a museum piece, but it works. And if the CPRF were allowed to turn around, this nostalgia alone could have worked out a lot – up to the figures that the CPRF had in the 90s, when they were in the majority in the Duma. But they don’t. Because there is another united party. It is called United Russia. If it was just a name, then this is not enough. But United Russia is something else. This is the party of today’s state. And she has a face – this is the leader-father Vladimir Putin. No matter how he formulates his attitude towards United Russia, this is his party, since this is his state. He is the father of Russia, which means he is the father of everything.
In these elections, United Russia acted in the most direct way. Its list is headed by those who embody the best aspects of modern Russian statehood – the army, foreign policy, and doctors. This time there are no industrialists, no bankers, no monopolists, no oligarchs, no sportsmen. Rather, they are all there, but in the lower positions. In the shadow. And that’s all the same. The United Russia troika is addressing the people: vote not for the party and parties, vote for the state, for the power. We do not seduce or bribe you. Power is serious. And his best sides are the army (Shoigu), foreign policy sovereignty (Lavrov), doctors who, at the cost of their lives, save yours (Protsenko). And above this is the Russian Father. The State itself goes to the elections – more precisely, its best light side. The shadow side hides behind a beautiful three. And at the top of the pyramid is Putin. And here the name begins to work – “United Russia”, which reads as “United Party of United Russia”.
Critical voices will protest with indignation: this is a swindle, this is a pre-election trick … But what about “crooks and thieves”? What about the corrupt officials and the oligarchy that has merged with the authorities? What about life that we don’t like? What about the injustice and cynicism of the elites? This dark side, in fact, is. But … the state is a whole. Everything casts a shadow. You can, of course, measure who has a long shadow, someone blacker, but not in relation to the state. Not with regard to the Russian father. To consider the faults and miscalculations of the father as the sin of Ham in the ark. Noah got drunk and stumbled, but Ham did something more terrible: he tried to break up the family … Why did Ham call the brothers to look at his father, who was in a disadvantageous state? He wanted to create a party! All parties were created by boors. O Noah the ark was created. Shem and Japheth did the right thing: they chose a father, not a brother. They chose the Ark, not the idea of taking it apart into planks and then selling it. They chose the state, not the party. And they did the right thing. The land of the damned, “Canaan”, is named after Ham.
The path of party democracy in Russia is a puppet game not because “the authoritarian government seeks to rule everything.” But because in Russia no party has and cannot have real legitimacy. Parties in Russia are a boorish masquerade from the very beginning. Either all or all but one. But this one party must be the State itself. And if the state does not want to play democracy anymore, then it would be possible to start creating a real – zemstvo – democracy – without parties, but with full-fledged and meaningful elections, where there will be responsibility, observance of the scale elders), openness and honesty. Qualitative selection of the best has nothing to do with the liberal representative democracy of the Western type. It only gets in the way. In one-party China, the rotation of elites is larger, fuller, and more dynamic than in any Western country. And there is no parliament in China. And the party there is essentially a state. Father Xi Jianping. And it has a shadow, but it’s worth starting with yourself and purifying yourself. This is how a real communist patriotic Chinese democrat thinks. And he reasoned correctly because this (or approximately so) said, Confucius.