The latest news reported from Russia once again confirms an obvious conclusion:
the Moscow region of Russia has been and continues to be a country where bloody despots, dictators, and the customs of a savage medieval era are held in high regard.
First, let's discuss the initiative by the governor of Vologda to erect new monuments to Ivan the Terrible and Stalin.
We begin with the infamous tyrant and murderer of millions, Joseph Stalin. It turns out that in Russia, there are already 110 monuments dedicated to him, and interestingly, the vast majority of these, 95, were established during Putin's rule.
The narrative surrounding the reverence for Ivan the Terrible, about whom the renowned historian Nikolai Kostomarov wrote:
“His nickname ‘Terrible’ was primarily earned as a tyrant and despot,” has also gained popularity during the times of Putin and Kirill. The idea of erecting a 3-meter monument to this notorious despot in Oryol was wholeheartedly supported, God forgive us, by Patriarch Kirill, who called him an “outstanding statesman,” while the opening was joyfully welcomed by the rector of Moscow University, Sadovnichy, and blessed by Kirill's spiritual advisor.
Let me remind you that the previous Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexy II, was against glorifying Ivan the Terrible: “One cannot worship murderers.” For it is well known that Ivan was the creator of the infamous Oprichnina and terror not only against his own people but also against Orthodox ascetics.
Another piece of news involves the legalization of BLOOD VENGEANCE within the territory of Russia, as the authorities have not reacted in any way, thereby supporting the insane idea of Kadyrov. Such are the values that the Russian liberators wish to impose upon us.
Our state's history from Rus to modern Ukraine attests to the DIRECTLY OPPOSITE ideological principles of the Ukrainian people. The same Nikolai Kostomarov, in his study “Two Russian Nationalities,” which passed the censorship of the Russian Empire and was published in 1861, convincingly noted:
“All foreigners who visited Moscow in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries unanimously claimed that the Muscovites treated foreign faiths and nationalities with disdain… the tsars themselves, who were at the forefront of this attitude, washed their hands after touching the hands of foreign envoys of the Christian faith… The Latin, Lutheran, Armenian, and any other faith that differed even slightly from Orthodoxy were considered cursed by the Muscovites…”
“…There was nothing of the sort among the Ukrainian people. In ancient times, Kyiv, and later Volodymyr on Volyn, were centers of settlement for foreigners of various faiths and tribes. Ukrainians have long been accustomed to hearing foreign languages around them and do not shy away from people with different appearances and temperaments.”
By the way, blood vengeance was abolished during the times of Rus-Ukraine a thousand years ago. We read in the famous “Russian Truth”:
“After Yaroslav, his sons gathered: Izyaslav, Sviatopolk, Vsevolod, and their warlords… and abolished blood vengeance, establishing instead that for murder, one must pay off with kunas… If a prince's man is killed during a robbery, and the murderer is not sought, then the community (village or city) must pay 80 hryvnias to the community where the head of the slain lies, and if it is a commoner, then 40 hryvnias…”
(It is believed that for one hryvnia in ancient Kyiv, one could buy a horse).
Thus, it is quite clear that the Moscow region of Russia, in an ideological sense, has been and remains a country where both the authorities and the people hold dictators, despots, and tyrants in high esteem. It is no wonder that Putin considers them his spiritual mentors. For as Karl Marx astutely noted in 1857:
“The cradle of Moscow was the bloody swamp of Mongolian slavery…”
Based on this, the replication of the Russian propaganda thesis of a “united people” can only be described as mockery of history and ideological madness.