This War Demands a New Russia

Time to transcend the status quo

Alexander Dugin warns that Russia’s status quo has exhausted itself and must be transcended if it is to win the civilizational war.

It is worth giving serious thought to the structure of the Russian status quo, taking into account the recent processes unfolding in the West and beyond, and doing so with historical depth, both in Russia’s domestic past and in that of the West.

In the course of the Special Military Operation (SMO)—that is, in the confrontation with Western civilization—we have approached a critical line. As long as it was the Russian status quo fighting the West, this was a matter of securing partial sovereignty by technical means. Slightly more sovereignty than is granted to others, but still quite limited—limited by acceptance of the liberal globalist rules-based order. We violated its rules, reasonably noting that the West itself constantly violates them. But quod licet Jovi non licet bovi. From that moment, we have seriously set out on the path of building an alternative architecture of international relations. But this also meant that we intended to change our own status quo. That is what we declared, albeit rather cautiously: a state-civilization, multipolarity, traditional values, the Russian World. This is not what Russia (in its current status quo) actually is, but a declaration of what it wants to become.

So far, everything is logical. We started with a technical conflict that grew into a civilizational one, and then openly said so. However… it may be that we ourselves never fully believed what we declared.

What we have now:

• Growing escalation with the West, where the West is free to conduct it however it wishes (it erases any red lines whenever and however it wants);

• The declared horizon of a Russian ideology (the state-civilization);

• Russia as it exists in the status quo, with all its current wants and refusals, capabilities and limitations.

Importantly, what a country “wants” and what it “can” achieve is not just a balance between subjective will and objective possibilities. It is a single whole in which reality is born from the interplay of will and the resistance of matter. This is the phenomenology of power: power often produces what it lacks and politically creates being. This is always and everywhere the case. The discourse of power is not just a reflection of reality, but a tool for shaping it.

The status quo is a specific formula of political ontology. What we can and want depends on its construction and structure. Inside the status quo, the balance of desire and resources is one thing. But beyond the status quo, this balance can change significantly, theoretically in any direction. In other words, it is possible to want and to be capable of something different from what we have now.

To move into the future, we must go beyond the status quo. But the status quo itself does not want to change. Hence its two main desires: to win the war as quickly as possible and/or to stop the war as quickly as possible. Both solutions are purely technical, and both encounter fierce Western resistance. The West wants neither. It does not want the Russian status quo at all.

In other words, the status quo has reached a critical line. Postponing deep, qualitative reforms is no longer possible. Time is now measured in months.

The status quo has exhausted its potential. Now it stands like a wall, blocking the path to Russia’s future.

The President has indicated the direction to that future. The question now boils down to one rather difficult point: how to carry out a rotation of the elites? We have the elites of the status quo. We need the elites of Victory, the elites of the state-civilization. It is obvious that the current elites do not want to be rotated. They are resisting. They are clinging to the status quo with all their might. But time is running out.

The SMO has turned into a full-scale war. And yes, precisely because it has spilled over from a regional confrontation into a clash of civilizations. This is what gives the events their historical significance: between Russia as a state-civilization and Western civilization there exists a deep ontological and metaphysical antagonism. This is not a glitch or an accident. It is the expression of a profound geopolitical and historical pattern. Fate, destiny, Providence, mission. That is what this war is. It is more serious than the Great Patriotic War. And no less serious than the Civil War. It may well be the most important war of all.

Its nature above all demands deep understanding. If we do not break our disgusting habit of treating thought with contempt and reducing it to mere technology, we have no chance of winning this war. First and foremost, we must understand who we are and who our adversary is. We must understand this clearly and firmly. If we fail to grasp these fundamental things, it will be fatal. Correct knowledge determines correct action.

(Translated from the Russian)