Mother Russia and her fascist child

Russia is on the way to becoming “russcist”

Growing up, people around me used the word “fascist” quite liberally — to label people, movements, nations. From “who are you, fascist?” to “wow, you’re such a fascist”, the F word found its way into our everyday vocabulary and stayed there as some sort of generalized insult that had little to do with the actuality of being a fascist.

Over time, the F word lost its significance. I no longer heard it thrown into conversations or disagreements. Now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has raised the dormant insult of my childhood from the dead. The “fascist” is once again in the spotlight and part of the philosophical discourse of who is who and who is what.

Russians have been throwing the F (actually, mostly the N(nazis)) word at Ukrainians. Ukrainians have also ridden the wave of mutual accusations by saying that, no, it's Russians who are fascists. They even coined a new term, “russcist” — the combination of Russian and fascist.

At first, I thought both were incorrect, populistic brawls that had little to do with the truth. Now, I’m thinking that one of them is troublingly correct.

It’s hard to argue that Ukrainians are fascists — half of their political elite are Jewish, including president Vladimir Zelensky. Most of them speak both Russian and Ukrainian interchangeably, without any signs of disrespect towards the Russian language. It’s a strange myth that Russian speakers are being discriminated against in Ukraine. I speak Russian, and I never felt discriminated against on the basis of that.

Less discrimination = less fascism.

When it comes to Russians, something wicked and terrifying is brewing inside the nation or, at least, inside their political elite — it’s like their political landscape has been taken over by crazy nationalistic ideas.

Putin’s increasing emphasis on the rightfulness, holiness, and unity of the Russian people. His denial of the existence of Ukraine and the Ukrainian nation. His constant search for a unified and primitively-looking evil enemy both inside Russia as “the fifth column” and in the West. His obsession with conspiracies about chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.