The Horror of Russia's "Nashi" Youth Cult, Revealed in English for the First Time Right Here on Publius Pundit

Filed under: Russia

Through the good offices of La Russophobe's translator we are able to open a window into neo-Soviet Russia that would otherwise be closed to the non-Russian speaking world. In our "Articles" blog, you will find extensive translated extracts from the unabridged Nashi manifesto direct from Nashi's website. You can see the unabridged version in Russian, the juicy bits from which are translated below, here, and the shortened, brochure-like screed in Russian is here (a comic book version of the manifesto has been published and distributed by Nashi as a propaganda leaflet; it was translated into English here, but then the translation was mysteriously withdrawn; the Nashi website itself, as we previously reported, was blocked for a time from Western browser access, but at least for now is available; our prior commentary about the leaflet version is here). Click here to read Nashi's propaganda in its full, horrifying glory in our Articles blog. Just for instance, Nashi claims that the USSR simply "decided" to give up the arms race because of its own enlightenment, and likewise "decided" to allow German reunification on the same basis (and note too its obsessive focus on the idea of counterrevolution, now styled as "colored revolution," and the demonization of the U.S., linking Russia's "liberals" to foreign spies looking to subvert Russian independence). It attempts to take sole credit for the defeat of Hitler for Russia, implying that Russia saved Europe, yet does not mention Stalin's secret deal with Hitler selling Europe down the river.

As you see Vladimir Putin channel the ideology of Vladimir "Lenin" Ulyanov, creating a brand-new "Komsomol" organization for youth indoctrination in ideology, you see the final nail struck into the Neo-Soviet coffin of Russia. Some have misled us, claiming that the new Russian dicatatorship lacks the ideological underpinnings of the old USSR. Nobody can read this translation and still think so. How long before this ideology makes its way into text books, how long before a "party" requires indoctrination in this ideology before assuming the mantle of power? How long before it becomes a crime, punishable by gulag, to publicly criticize this ideology or those who espouse it?

NOTE: If you are interested in reading translations straight from the pages of the Russian press, check out LR Translations, La Russophobe's translations library, which contains nearly two dozen articles from the Russian press that you will find nowhere else. If any Russian-speaking reader is aware of Russian material that is a good candidate for translation, please let us know.