Natalia Davydova

psychoanalyst, candidate of historical sciences

CON TE N TS
02 Research summary

08 Putin’s Nazism: the structure of

the perverse psyche

20 Freedom to perpetrate violence as

the core of Putin’s Nazism

26 Nazism factory: the role of

propaganda

32 Why has Russia been seized by

the epidemic of Nazism? The role
of perverse ruling class, social
frustration, ressentiment and the
repressive apparatus

42 Conclusions

44 Author’s afterword
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis

Research
summary

2
Why should Ukraine and the world get to
understand the deep meaning of the “Russian
world”?
For more than three months the main topic around the world has been the war waged by Russia against Ukraine. It
was difficult to believe that in the XXI century’s Europe an attack on a peaceful nation was possible; it was yet more
difficult to realize that Nazism, long forgotten as a sick dream, had engulfed a vast country. What’s different: Russian
Nazis refer to themselves as “fighters against Nazism”, and they now have nuclear weapons.

It would seem that the lessons of WWII should help humanity unite and prevent Putin’s regime from continuing to
commit war crimes. However, far from all politicians and even intellectuals are aware of the need to fight Nazism.
How is it even possible after what happened in Bucha, Borodianka and Mariupol not to realize how dangerous “the
Russian world” is?

What prevents the whole civilized world from

fully opening its eyes to the essence of
Putin’s Nazism?
Besides such obvious reasons as obtaining personal and “geopolitical” benefits, there are also certain psychological
gains:

Firstly – the threat to narcissism, since admitting that Putin’s ideology is Nazi ideology would mean any country
could be nazified under certain conditions.

Secondly – the political correctness and cancel culture that make it a taboo to paint an entire country in a
negative light.

Thirdly – the trauma that Nazism is able to inflict even over distance. A person who is objectively safe can still
experience a whole range of reactions to trauma: denial, fear, lethargy, hebephrenic syndrome, etc.

Unless we symbolize the trauma, the point of the cut will be filled with delusions and illusions that hinder our
understanding of the essence, purpose and motivation of Putin’s regime. By taking advantage of the above Russian
authorities are able to influence the West. This becomes obvious when European and American politicians are
heeding and echoing (often unknowingly) Putin’s propaganda.

At the same time, mistakes and illusions are becoming more and more costly today. Every new day of hesitation
brings with it not only new deaths but also the risk of this Nazism outbreak becoming an epidemic, or
even a pandemic. That’s why it’s very important now to fill the gaps in our understanding of Nazism, and to study
this phenomenon as well as its supporters. Understanding “the Russian world” will give us tools for action.

3
 Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis

The approach to the analysis

This research is based on propaganda statements made by government officials and private individuals. Since it’s
propaganda, it won’t be very useful to try to extract information from the content itself. Much more interesting would be
to pay attention to slips of the tongue, mistakes, inconsistencies, illogicalities, emotional implications, etc. In the study,
Lacanian psychoanalysis has been applied.

This report outlines the results of our research into several aspects of Putin’s Nazism:

the psychological portrait of its adept;

the reasons / conditions for its emergence and rise;

the essence of “the Russian world” and its “freedom”;

the role of Putin’s propaganda in modern Russian, mechanisms and methods of its influence;

the interaction between propaganda and the repressive apparatus.

01 The perverse essence of Putin’s Nazism

The first thing that would help make sense of the new phenomenon and understand a Nazi is admitting that we’re fac-
ing a different psychic structure that is not intuitively comprehensible to us being completely different from our own.
The analysis of propagandist statements has shown that Putin’s Nazism is based on a perversion – namely, sadism.

The peculiarity of the perverse structure is the refusal to recognize the Law: a pervert’s thought and speech are
capable of containing mutually contradictory things such as: a “peaceful country” and a “country that attacked”, “shell-
ing residential buildings” and a “peaceful country”, even “I’ve shelled residential buildings” and “There’s no blood on
my hands”, etc. By adding an extra signifier a pervert is able to break the conventional Law without consequences for
their psyche. For instance, a pedophile pervert knows that he’s hurting a child (it’s nearly impossible to find an opposing
view) but rejects that knowledge by adding the additional condition “this depraved child has made me the tool of his
enjoyment” – and since the pedophile is but a tool of the child’s enjoyment, he’s not doing any harm. The sadist’s
desire is destruction and authority, the most complete authority is to kill.

Based on peculiarities of a perverse structure it’s possible to explain many incomprehensible manifestations of “the Rus-
sian world”, such as the inhuman brutality of the Nazis in the occupied territories. The pervert’s subjectivity isn’t formed
yet; he sees himself as the tool of desire (violence) of the Other.

He lacks guilt and empathy. Similarly, other people are non-actors and therefore their bodies or lives lack any value in
the Nazi’s eyes. Moreover, a lack of subjectivity may limit one’s capacity for analysis, profound learning, and reflection,
while a lack of understanding needs filling with delusions (e.g., conspiracy theories) and magical thinking. That explains
a superficial copying of things and processes (Alyosha the Robot, democracy).

His emotional sphere outside of his desire for violence is limited by pure self-interest. The pervert can neither perceive
nor understand love, grief, or compassion.

4
02 The freedom to perpetrate violence as the
core of Putin’s Nazism
A Nazi leads his struggle for violence even when it contradicts his interests and logic. A Nazi of the Putin
format struggles for his highest value – freedom; however, that freedom lies in his right to practice sadism wher-
ever his victim can permit it. The only guilt, the only sin for “the Russian world” is becoming a victim, dis-
playing weakness. Who could be a better enemy for a sadist than Europe, where thanks to political correctness
there’s a unique situation of violence deficit? The Nazi considers the West unfree because a strong person there is
bound by law and political correctness, while “the Russian world” is free, because one can freely practice violence to-
wards the vulnerable without any consequences. The dictatorship of the weak and the voluntary castration of the strong
is seen by the Nazi as a hideous violation of “traditions” – that’s why “the West is rotting.” The national idea of “the
Russian world” is sadism, the right to use violence against a victim, who is guilty by default. In this report
we’re going to focus in detail on what chaos Russia “exports” to the West, and who that collective Other is, whose tools
the supporters of Putin’s Nazism actually are.

03 Why has Russia been seized by the epidemic

of Nazism? The role of perverse ruling class,
social frustration, ressentiment and the
repressive apparatus
Naturally, not all 140 million Russians are subjects with perverse structure prone to sadism. However, the majority of
Russians have been infected with perversion, and their goal is to perpetrate violence everywhere their victim
can’t fight back.

What made it possible to nazify a giant country in only 30 years? The consumerist society's repressive “order
to enjoy” has brought about a lot of aggression because of the enormous social and economic inequality. There are
few productive ways of expressing that aggression, since there are few ways available of improving one’s social status.
The consolation was found in ressentiment, which later on was used by a bunch of perverts who obtained access to
power. By producing sadistic propaganda (as no other propaganda can be produced by sadists) and strengthening
the repressive apparatus perverts had kept seducing and destroying until they nazified their country. The
tools and methods will be studied in this report.

04 Nazism factory: propaganda and the

repressive system
Nazi propaganda isn’t creating any new meanings or captivating ideas at the moment. It doesn’t need that. It has
infiltrated the psyche of Putin’s Nazism supporters and is holding it. Without propaganda the “Russian world”
warrior, who’s bringing the light of traditional values to the rotten West from the great (but very peaceful) country, will
turn out to be an ordinary citizen of a temperate climate zone, of average looks, from a country that won the battle
against fascism decades back.

5
 Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis

The Nazification catalyst is the repressive system, which works in the following directions: it punishes and
intimidates, it separates friends from foes and it brings about the Stockholm syndrome.

The key method of Putin’s propaganda is its mass character, the area bombardment by messages. By en-
gaging a large number of agents of influence on numerous platforms it creates the effect of the message being su-
per-popular, obtaining not those who believe in the messages but those who believe in the believers of those messages
(interpassivity1). Since Nazis don’t experience guilt but only its ersatz – “what will others think?” – the belief in believers
becomes enough to believe that bombing residential buildings or murdering children is socially approved and even
worthy of praise.

05 Interacting with Nazis’ perverse psyche:

misconceptions and traps
By viewing a Nazi as a perverse sadist we’re able to answer a number of questions.

Question one: what absolutely infernal evil are we facing and what wicked plans is it still capable of implementing?
It turns out that there’s a diagnosis for this “evil” and science has already encountered this phenomenon, even though
it doesn’t lend itself well to therapy. The sadist will definitely be scheming, but as he does everything superficially, his
schemes are bound to be far from perfect.

Question two: why can’t we reach understanding with a pervert, achieving a mutually beneficial solution? Let’s imagine
the following situation. One side wants to avoid bloodshed and prevent a world war. To this end, it will appeal to kind-
ness and peace as the absolute value, conduct itself as if both sides are interested in peace and preserving lives. The
sadist, however, wishes to enjoy the psychological destruction of negotiators, the annihilation of the enemy’s country,
to see his grandiose reflection in the eyes of others and get the quickest possible reward. The first party projects their
own psychological apparatus – including its feeling of guilt – onto the Nazis, regarding them as similar neurotics, only
very angry and cynical. Therefore, it starts appealing to conscience and common sense, and threaten with dire conse-
quences for the country.

The sadist, however, views others through her own reflection where there’s no feeling of guilt, other people’s lives are
worthless, and war is as valuable for them as heroin is for a drug addict. Appeals to kindness appear to remain unheard.
The pervert fills the incomprehensible with fantasies and delusions, thinking that the opponent is merely a hypocrite who
wishes for peace only out of fear. And if he is scared then he has fewer soldiers, less military equipment, and fewer
nuclear warheads; hence, he’s a victim that needs to be destroyed. You can’t scare a sadist with dire consequences
for their country. When the opponent appeals to consciousness, it is seen as desperation - and therefore
it’s time to attack. Such negotiations are to no avail from the point of view of the declared subject matter. They can
have secondary goals, though: to feint the desire to reach an agreement, to exert psychological pressure, to maintain
the façade of “a peaceful country” etc.

By understanding the essence of Nazism we can get rid of dangerous illusions that Putin’s propaganda is using. For
example, would it have been possible to avoid the war had Zelensky not mentioned nuclear weapons? Or if there had
been more Ukrainian speakers? Or if Putin’s officials hadn’t lied to him about Ukrainians waiting for “the Russian world”
with open arms? Or if Zelensky had proven that Ukraine is not under the dictatorship of Nazism? Of course not. The
pervert first makes a decision and then looks for justifications. Surveys, the bomb, Nazis – their only purpose is keeping
the semblance of order in a perverse psyche. The desire to destroy is primary, all else exists only to torture
the victim a bit longer, and to take advantage of the Stockholm syndrome and witch hunts in the future.

6
It is a mistake to try to defend oneself against Nazis’ accusations. Perverts view everything through their
own reflection, glancing over the surface. Whatever is under water, they only see it through themselves, unable
to penetrate underwater. For example, “Nazi biolabs” mean that Russia already has such biolabs or is planning
to build them; “Ukraine is rapidly getting poor ” means that “Russia has big problems because of sanctions” etc.

The most dangerous of all the misconceptions is trying to “appease” the aggressor, wishing to save his face
by introducing tough limitations. Within the logic of a perverse structure the narcissist rage of castration is
not the most dreadful thing. The most dreadful thing is when a sadist doesn’t meet any obstacles and
immerses himself completely in jouissance, loses himself and pushes the nuclear button to rid the planet
of “Nazism”.

Ukraine quickly realized what’s going on when it faced sadism. The rest of the world though is still
under the illusion of negotiations, face-saving and appeasement. Some Western intellectuals have capitu-
lated in advance. They pronounced the new Nazism “a hurricane” that can’t be stopped – it’s therefore better to
simply hide and wait while looking for ways of forcing Ukraine’s capitulation. At the same time, some countries and
politicians don’t understand what they are facing and put the whole world and order under threat, as this war is
not being waged for Ukraine, it is waged for humanity itself, for human dignity. If we lose then everyone
will lose, and those who survive will find themselves in such a reality that hasn’t been yet described by any dystopia.

7
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis

Putin’s Nazism:
the structure of the perverse
psyche

8
 Contact
with another psyche
01 Contact 1. An aunt from Rostov has sent some
rays of kindness
Many of us had our first encounter with Putin’s military
propaganda when, during the first days of war, we,
shocked by initial missile strikes, picked up a call from
a relative (a friend, acquaintance , “that contact I met
at a conference”, “that guy I drank with in Egypt”) from
Russia. Some hypothetical “aunt from Rostov”, who just
last summer came to Odessa for a visit, is now shouting in
her phone that “Nazis have taken power in Ukraine, but
the Russian army is already on its way to attack “military
objects” with “high-precision strikes””. We just need to
have to be patient a bit and then “the miracle of denazi-
fication” will happen; until then – “I’m sending you rays of
kindness, and do try to think positively.” And then things
get from bad to worse. One careless move on a mes-
saging app - and your aunt is shoving information about
biolabs, infected birds, “the second army in the world”,
NATO’s aggression, military parades, nuclear warheads
and so on into your head. But you do feel: it’s not about
the warheads.
People, especially relatives, are used to helping and
empathizing with those who are in a vulnerable situa-
tion. Our aunt, however, replies to our story of bomb-
ings with: “we aren’t bombing anybody”, “its only military
objects we’re bombing”, “yes, Mother Russia does have
a lot of weapons – oh, what a parade we had in Mos-
cow”, “you just need to be patient for a bit”, “this is for
your own good, you’ll thank us later”, “you’re hardly be-
ing bombed, stop whining”, “and anyway – where have
you been these 8 years?” So first they question if you’re
actually telling the truth; then they question what you saw
with your own eyes; then they imply that there can be an
infinite amount of such shelling; then they depreciate your
well-justified anger, trying to force you into feeling unmo-
tivated gratitude, proclaiming this conversation irritating
9
All we need is some order,
to protect ourselves from chaos 2
Deleuze G., Guattari F.
and trying to induce guilt for the criminal actions of their
own aggressor country. It doesn’t look like support at all.
In fact, it doesn’t look like anything… human?
When trying to answer the question “What has hap-
pened to Russians?” people often try to give a simple an-
swer: it's the omnipotent propaganda that has deceived
Russians that is at fault, or Russians’ natural penchant for
obeying the dictator, including his propaganda. But the
natural penchant doesn’t explain, for example, the exist-
ence of pro-Putin supporters in other countries and why
not all ethnic Russians believe Putin’s propaganda. Prop-
aganda doesn’t seem that omnipotent: while an absolute
majority of Russians do support the war (according to
surveys from VCIOM, FOM, Russian Field, Menyailo,
Extremescan)3, an absolute majority of Belarusians don’t
(the war is unconditionally supported by only 3% of
them)4 – despite the fact that Belarus watches the same
Putin’s TV, most of its population speak Russian, and the
country is within Russia’s cultural field. Moreover, Rus-
sians’ support for the “special military operation” has only
increased since the war started, and now it is majority
even in Moscow5 .
The inferior quality of Putin’s propaganda in 2022, its
deliberate incompleteness and carelessness on all levels
is another reason for doubt. For example, the concept
of war has changed several times already: “we’re help-
ing the Ukrainians and fighting against Nazis”, “tears of
Donbass”, “NATO wanted to attack us from Ukraine’s
territory”, “biolabs”, “we’re fighting against America that
fights us with Ukrainian hands”. What on earth do the let-
ters Z and V mean? Finally, why hasn’t Putin’s propagan-
da ever produced a single fake without obvious signs of
it being a fake?
 Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
For example, how could they have used pieces of foot-
age published long before the war even started to de-
nounce the Bucha genocide as fake, or sign “a docu-
ment” with “signature unclear” (just like in their statement
of work)? Their country is at war; was it their laziness that
prevented them from asking a question about the state-
ment of work or double-checking the facts?
Perhaps, the incredible charisma of some propagandists
is the reason? But many of us have tried to watch the
shows of Solovyov, Kisilyov, Skabeyeva or Simonyan.
We’ve hardly felt any desire to find ourselves in “the Rus-
sian world” that they depict: it looks rather like madmen’s
protest against discontinuing an anti-psychotic medica-
tion. This bedlam cannot be enough to turn your aunt
from feeding her grandson watermelon on a beach in
Odessa to calling for carpet bombings.
Yet, propaganda does work, people are ready to lose
money and relatives for it, some are even ready to go
and die or send their children to die. So what on earth
makes it effective?
02 Contact 2: Negotiations
. During its first negotiations with Ukraine Russia put forward
an ultimatum that it was not going to discuss. The essence
of the ultimatum could be reduced to annihilation: at the
country level, Ukraine's subjectivity was to be destroyed,
and at the personal level, denazification was planned.
As we have already understood from the actions of
“denazifiers” this meant physical destruction. The fact that
no plan for denazification other than the destruction of
“the Nazis” was attached to the ultimatum or discussed in
the public space also speaks in favor of this implication.
Vladimir Zelensky and his team were specifically called
Nazis more than once. It follows that one of the points
of the ultimatum was to kill the negotiators from Ukraine.
03 Contact 3. “Liberated” cities and the
shelling of residential buildings
Each of us was left with a black hole in our worldview, in
a place where we learned about the crimes of Russian
soldiers in occupied territories. It was as if we gazed
into the abyss, at some creatures possessed by demons,
10
It is Putin’s Nazism. I want to stress that I think it’s
more correct to keep using not “Rushism” but “Putin’s
Nazism” until we have a better word. What Russians
are professing today is fully consistent with every criteri-
on for Nazism in its ideological part 6(as Yuliya Latynina
said about its essence: “Russians are the supreme na-
tion: if you don’t agree, you’re a Nazi.”). That’s why this
phenomenon is not unique enough to deserve a unique
name.
“Rushism” associates Nazism with a specific nation,
which is completely useless, since if that nation is the
cause, then to destroy Nazism you must destroy the na-
tion. If you think it is necessary to destroy a nation, then
you yourself has become a Nazi, thus refuting the thesis
that Nazism depends on a nation. This is how the fight
against Nazism reaches a dead-end. Moreover, it is
quite obvious that there are Nazis of other varieties and
from other nations. It's impossible to deny the key impor-
tance of Putin's propaganda for the Nazism of 2022, so
“Putin's Nazism” or simply Nazism seems more correct
to me.
Did negotiations actually start when Arahamia’s group
was told, “You must accept the fact that we will kill you”?
Was the Ukrainian team expected to participate in a
terrible performance, to play along, pretending that
Russian delegates were decent people, and that the
negotiations, whose outcome was to be the negotiators'
death, were something normal?
Human logic suggests that promising to kill the negotiators
if they accept the ultimatum does not increase the
likelihood of it being accepted. As a rule, people don't
want to die. What was that all about, then?
the apocalyptic ancient evil that slaughters people and
animals, destroys for fun, rapes women, men, children,
and old women; that mines unique historical monuments,
apartments, and home yards; that leaves ugly messages
on school walls and smears the walls of a neurology
clinic with excretions; that spares no money for shelling
peaceful homes.
It is impossible to find any rational explanation for such
systematic brutality. Intimidating the population? It makes
sense when the main hostilities are between guerilla
fighters and invaders: the more frightened the locals
are, the fewer guerilla fighters there are. Right now,
Russian military are mostly shot at by the Ukrainian army.
How are armed people supposed to be frightened by
shootings and torture of the unarmed population? On
the contrary, the thought of captivity will cause terror and
therefore surrender will not be considered. It would seem
more logical to show good attitude toward the locals
in order to win over the pro-Russian Ukrainians’ hearts,
rather than killing a loyal local MP who invited Russian
soldiers to his house and poured them some vodka.
Besides, isn't it obvious that massive Russian war crimes
will only increase support for Ukraine, which means
more weapons and more sanctions? So what could
have prompted these atrocities?
Going back to the aunt from Rostov situation: her “be
patient, be smart: this is for your own good, soon
everything will be over and the denazification will begin”
reminds me very much of something. It reminds of the
stories of pedophilia victims.
11
Pedophiles, in addition to destroying a child's body,
seek to break them mentally. Contradictory messages,
the denial of any knowledge that the victim received
from their own senses, the depreciation of emotions,
the demand that the victim tolerate, or rather receive
all the horror with gratitude, as some sort of help or
education, the order to enjoy what is happening – all
of that is expressed by your own relative, as if she
were not a pensioner from a bedroom community, but
a sophisticated libertine from the pages of Marquis de
Sade, perpetrating violence for violence's sake at every
opportunity while despising utilitarian rationality.
That weird feeling of contact with the inhuman, the alien,
which arises on contact with a supporter of Putin's Nazism,
gives us a clue to the essence of the phenomenon, as it
turns out that our psyche interacts with another cosmos,
another way of psychic organization – an inverted,
perverse, dangerous psyche, the psyche of a pervert.
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
How does a pervert think?
Since the world is on a delusional course, we must adopt
The perverse structure
When talking about a pervert, I don’t mean sexual per-
version. It can be present or not present (not every per-
vert acts out his perversion, not every pervert expresses
his perversion though sex, and not every sexual perver-
sion is performed by a pervert.) First of all, after Jacques
Lacan8 , that implies a special way of organizing a
psyche, a special way of handling the Law 9.
It should be stated at the outset that I do not believe that
all those who support Putin's Nazism are subjects with
a perverse structure or that there are 140 million sadis-
tic maniacs living in Russia. In that society, just like in
any other, all structures can be found. However, the dis-
course of Russian propaganda is blatantly perverse, and
the perversion, which is in all of us (but repressed to such
a degree that we are unaware of it) is awakened in a
Nazi of the Putin format: it is no longer repressed and is
partially or fully realized. The Russian society is infected
with sadism.
One peculiarity of the perverse structure is that the per-
vert is able to respond to the Law with “yes” and “no”
at the same time, he both accepts and rejects the Law
(Verleugnung). In his psychic reality two mutually exclu-
sive things can peacefully co-exist. For example, when
asked “Do you know that you are mortal?” the pervert
can answer “I know very well that I am mortal but still I’m
not.” This “I know that very well, but...” is the basis of the
pervert's psyche.
Meduza10 published a piece of research on what sup-
porters of Putin's war propaganda say. The journalist who
conducted the research pointed out that war sympathiz-
ers combine contradictory things in a striking manner:
“Americans wanted to take over Ukraine. No one needs
that useless country,” “Did Russia attack Ukraine? – No.
I mean yes, but we weren't the first ones”, “So you don't
like the war? Then why aren't you going to that war?” etc.
There is a strange pleasure and agitation in saying these
words, and the journalist compares it to a trance.
12
a delusional standpoint towards the world 7
J. Baudrillard
For comparison, a neurotic may answer “yes” to the
question of his mortality by acknowledging the fact that
human life is finite. A neurotic might answer “no” and pro-
test for the rest of his life, trying to invent a cure for death.
But in our psyche, it cannot be that you are both mortal
and not in the biological sense.
Believing in the existence of two mutually exclusive things
at the same time can drive one crazy (try, for example, to
imagine speech based on the principle that anything can
be said, anything, without any rules) and dissolve him in
psychosis, but the pervert does not want to be dissolved
into it (although he always hears its voice). He wants to
preserve his self-consciousness. To do this, the pervert
has to invent his own way: “I know pretty well but still...”
In order to break and preserve the Law, he introduces an
extra signifier, an extra condition. It plays the same role
as a fetish. An example: red shoes for the fetishist, without
which he cannot initiate sexual intercourse. In order to be
able to perform the sexual contact, the fetishist must have
his or her partner wear red shoes. The fetishist can put
the shoes on or he can take them away, he is the master
of the situation.
A pedophile is well aware that one must not rape chil-
dren. He understands that irreparable harm will be done
to the child: information about this is freely available, the
damage is not even to be questioned. But his desire is
stronger, and he already knows that he will break this
law. It is only a matter of preserving his psyche when he
goes beyond the limits of what is permissible. Then the
element of “I know very well that children must not be
raped, it will harm the child and is forbidden by law” is
preserved (while actually being violated) by introducing
the condition “the child himself seduced me, he is vicious
and has drawn me into his depraved acts: I know very
well that it is prohibited to rape children, but it is not me
who rapes, it is the depraved child: he wants it, he se-
duces me, and I am only an object, the tool of his lust in
his own hands.”
A perverse attitude towards the Law is demonstrated by
the following propaganda statement: “Russia has never
started a single war; war is unacceptable, our country
always stands for peace (more so than any other coun-
try - we’re an exceptionally peaceful country, the ex-
ample for everyone), it was for the sake of peace that
we started the war the special military operation against
the Nazis on the territory of Ukraine.” Like a pedophile,
a Putin-format Nazi knows full well that peaceful coun-
tries do not start wars, because war is unacceptable. This
position is supported by history, archives, memoirs, liter-
ature, films, journalism, and common sense. But on the
other side there is a dark desire, coming from the depths
of the psyche, to destroy homes, to kill and rape (even
if not with one's own hands). It is already clear that it
will not be possible to obey to the law, so the pervert
introduces a new signifier: “Nazis”. This is how they can
ensure a semblance of the Law: “We, the government of
the most peaceful country on the planet, know very well
that war is unjustifiable, but the Nazis in the Ukrainian
government forced us to denazify Ukraine / the people
of Ukraine asked us to denazify their country/ “The Im-
mortal Regiment” forced us...
That purpose (to preserve the semblance of the Law, thus
to protecting the psyche from chaos) is also served by
“NATO's aggression”, and “they were preparing an at-
tack against our territory...”, and the nuclear bomb that
Ukrainians were preparing to invent, and the biolabs. In
the aforementioned Meduza's study, someone replied
to the question “Did Russia attack Ukraine?” by saying:
“No. I mean yes, but we weren't the first to attack it.” Let
us reconstruct the perverse thought process: “I know very
well that it is not justifiable to attack another country (but
I really want to attack, which means that) it was NATO
(we can insert anything here) that was preparing an at-
tack, so therefore we were not the ones who attacked,
we were not the first ones”. The proofs that NATO etc.
are mere psychological tricks are as follows: NATO's
aggression or biolabs are actually not taken into ac-
count in Russia’s military plans in any way; there are no
roadmaps or scientific research into denazification (the
country is rather big, so mobile crematoria alone will not
help), and no one is working on a vaccine against the
“virus that infects only Russians”.
The Law is omitted here, but it is clear that it is implied
that “I am well aware that you mustn’t bomb civilians.”
The new signifier is “criminal indifference towards the
suffering of the Donbass,” which allows one to violate
the Law – “to bomb civilians.” Of course, “criminal in-
difference” is from the same realm as the child who has
seduced the pedophile, from the realm of the Imaginary.
What is the pervert's desire? To bomb peaceful homes.
Moreover, the introduction of the signifier is not caused
by moral hesitations: the law has already been broken –
it is only a matter of preserving the psyche.
It follows that if we remove the subterfuge and the Law
from a statement about the war (for example, such state-
ments as “NATO was preparing to attack” or “NATO
fights with the hands of Ukrainians”), then we are left
with the usual, well-known fascist desire, the well-
known perversion – the desire to carry out violence,
engage in sadism. Unfortunately, this is also confirmed
by the non-verbal messages of the Nazis: “the Russian
world” is no longer associated with anything but murder
and destruction.
The idea that sadism is the basis of Nazism/Fascism is
not something unexpected. It was thoroughly explored
by Erich Fromm and Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose Salò, or
the 120 Days of Sodom movie is physically impossi-
ble to watch, because it accurately shows the transgres-
sive, perverse, sadistic essence of fascism, alien to the
psyche of the ordinary person in ordinary times.

Thus, a perverse propaganda statement consists of 3 ba-

sic elements: The Law, the violation of the Law (behind
which is desire), and the introduced signifier (which we
can recognize because it is the performative (new) in the
statement). If you remove the Law and the performative,
you can understand what the desire of the pervert is. For
example: “Where have you been all these eight years?”

13
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
Consequences of
discarding the Law
The way the subject replies to the question about the
Law determines whether or not subjectivation will occur,
whether he will say “I” about himself. The neurotic (this is
what we call the “normal” person, compassionate and
guilt-ridden) accepts limitations, the Father's Law, he sep-
arates himself from his mother, from jouissance, and so he
becomes an actor, thinks himself an actor, acquires the
“I”. The psychotic remains immersed, unseparated. Say-
ing both “yes” and “no” to the Law, the pervert is stuck
in-between. He does not separate himself from jouis-
sance11 completely, but he does not go into a full fusion
with his mother, into psychosis.
Lacan thought that the perverse structure forms because
of the mother being too strong or the father, who was
supposed to represent the Law, the restrictions, being too
weak. Otto Kernberg divided perverts into two groups
(depending on the depth of their immersion into the per-
version) and believed that the milder form was caused by
a strong castration anxiety12 and the more severe form -
by separation anxiety13 .
As a consequence of not accepting castration, not being
separated from his mother, the pervert's way of dealing
with the Law has special consequences for his psyche.
The pervert has self-awareness, he is able to use speech,
but the pervert has no “I”, rather he thinks of “me” (moi),
being stuck at the narcissistic stage. At the narcissistic
stage only the quantitative characteristics of “more/less”
are understood, while the qualitative ones remain inac-
cessible, such as “possession/belonging”.
Since we can only understand the subjectivity of others
by analogy and in the presence of our own subjectiv-
ity, the pervert perceives those around him as objects.
The pervert does not completely detach himself from the
infantile unity with his mother, part of him stays in jouis-
sance, in psychosis. The pervert thinks of himself as the
tool of enjoyment of the Other, he serves the jouissance
of his mother (the psychic image of the mother, the moth-
er's voice in his head).
Since the pervert is an object, he has no sense of guilt
and will not regret his actions. Nor can he look for the
causes of his problems within himself, as he is the tool of
the Other's will; he will only look for them in the outside
world. Because of this, the pervert has no access to feel-
ings such as sadness, love, or empathy; his two strongest
feelings are rage and the desire to possess.
14
The pervert's “I” is fragile; he is in constant danger of slip-
ping into psychosis, he has a lot of anxiety, his picture of
the world is fragmented. The pervert projects his inner
crisis onto the outside world, his own ugliness onto the
ugliness of others; he judges everyone by his own stand-
ards, therefore, for example, he will never recognize
others' good intentions (because there are none in him),
rather, he will look for some hidden motives.
I will illustrate some points with an example from the
popular TV series Dexter. The protagonist, Dexter, knows
very well that it is forbidden to kill any people. But, unfor-
tunately, such a prohibition does not suit him: he craves to
kill, he cannot help killing. If you break the Law and sink
into a bloody feast (and you are drawn there), you may
not come back to yourself. Realizing that Dexter can-
not not break the existing Law, his stepfather introduces
an additional signifier that allows him to get away with
breaking the Law: “It’s forbidden to kill anyone, but it’s
forbidden to kill serial murderers a little less.” Instead of
a Law that cannot be followed, Dexter's father gives him
a new one. This new Law is a very strict one: to compen-
sate for the discarding of the old Law, Dexter must gather
evidence and think through the murder down to the last
detail before killing. As long as Dexter is following this
Law, he is fine with his psyche, his life, and the Dark Pas-
senger.
Dexter does not understand those around him; he has
to emulate his personality, create it by observing ordi-
nary people. He does not have any character traits that
haven’t been formed by his desire to kill. But if we try to
characterize Dexter the killer, it turns out that it is not he
who kills, but the Dark Passenger (the voice in his head,
prompting him to kill). What is Dexter himself? The ob-
ject of the Other's jouissance, which for the pervert is the
frightening, haunting Dark Passenger. Dexter does not
think of himself as an actor, he has no desires of his own,
and Dexter himself finds himself constantly captured in
the other character's field of desire.
Dexter's whole essence is that he thinks of himself as an
object. Dexter is not an actor with his own desire, he is
the object of the jouissance of the Other, the Dark Pas-
senger. Dexter hates the Dark Passenger and dreams of
getting rid of him. But what will be left then? This is gen-
erally true of any sadistic pervert: because of his fragile
identity, he needs other people, yet he tries to destroy
them, at least verbally.
Because the pervert remains in the narcissistic stage, he
is prone to paranoia and magical thinking. The pervert is
not inclined to analyze phenomena or things; he glides
over the surface. It is akin to Narcissus looking at his re-
flection in a lake: he sees no fish under the water, no
rocks, no underwater plants, only himself. Even if some-
thing appears in his field of vision, he sees it only through
his reflection.
If there is no reflection, analysis, study, then one patch-
es the holes in their understanding of the world with
fantasy, with delusion. For example, a person does not
understand why her acquaintance has died of COVID,
they are disturbed by it, but also too upset to search for
scientific materials, or simply have no habit of making a
cognitive effort.
Thus they get to an article about “the damned 5G towers”
and the golden billion conspiracy. Since the delusion
has no solid foundation – scientific, traditional, religious,
social, - it can neither be proved nor disproved, the gold-
en billion begins to evolve, to diverge, taking very intri-
cate forms, until the conspiracist starts being pursued by
Rothschild, Soros or Reptiloids.
Because of the constant patching of holes with the Imag-
inary in the psychic reality of the pervert, the principle of
reality has been lost.
Being confronted with Putin's propaganda it's often like
talking to children playing tea party with empty cups:
“Let's dress some random dude in a robot costume and
say it's a real robot,” “let's kill unarmed residents and then
say it wasn't us,” etc.
A loss of the reality principle leads to an inadequate as-
sessment of the situation. The constant use of the principle
“if things are not as we like, let's just pretend that things
are as we like” has already led to many negative conse-
quences for Putin's power.
Since the pervert is incapable of a true analysis, a quick
and easy way for him to explain something is to resort
to magical thinking. Numerology, shamans, kissing relics,
incantations and potions – all of those becomes part of
their psyche.
Magical thinking sometimes helps the fragile self of the
pervert to feel significant, which can even make him be-
lieve that he is fulfilling a certain mission, that he is not
a profane sadist, but a sacred one, such as Alexander
Dugin.
15
The pervert’s
speech: jouissance,
transgression and
foreclosure
The pervert's speech reflects the features of his mental
structure: jouissance, transgression, and non-rejection/
non-acceptance of the Law, all of which give the pervert
away.
Perverse speech, unlike psychotic speech, is linguistically
correct. However, it is still necessary to overcome several
discomforting perception effects at once. The first effect
is cringe. For example, when you’re watching speeches
of Putin-Lavrov-Simonyan-Skabeeva-Solovyov, occa-
sionally there’s something peeping out at you that makes
you ashamed, as if you’ve witnessed something obscene.
Indeed, something obscene has happened: the pervert
enjoys his speech, it is sexualized for him.
This exhibitionism can explain some illogical public
screw-ups. The latest is Russia’s foreign minister's state-
ment that Hitler was a Jew, that Jews are the most virulent
anti-Semites, and therefore that the Holocaust was or-
ganized by Jews themselves. Only an extremely igno-
rant person could have made an accidental slip of the
tongue about such a sensitive issue. So I suppose the
thing is that on the contrary, being aware of the sensitiv-
ity of the subject, the foreign minister could not resist try-
ing to destroy his interlocutors. The pervert cannot help
but proclaim his jouissance. He, like a park exhibitionist,
cannot reach the end of the alley without opening his
cloak to unsuspecting strangers. In the Meduza's article
already mentioned, the journalist who conducted the
survey noted that strange pleasure, the trance that ac-
companies propaganda talking points. This is what jou-
issance looks like. Talking about “the special operation”
is like talking about the first kiss: both embarrassing and
impossible to stop.
The second effect is affect, the inexplicably strong emo-
tions of a wide spectrum. Most people start to shake with
anger and hatred on hearing Putin's propaganda. They
are agitated both by the wording and the tone, as well
as the serious look with which the utter absurdities are
pronounced: “Russia attacked to help Ukraine, suffering
from the Nazis,” “Had we not attacked, they would have
attacked us,” “Where have you been all these 8 years?”
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis

The neurotic thinks of a pervert as a person just like him-
self, and then the question arises: how can one be so im-
moral, a cynic, an unscrupulous liar, to say such absurd,
insolent, untrue things? However, projecting one's own
psychic reality onto a pervert is wrong: we are not alike
at all, we’re each other’s opposites, we do not under-
stand them, nor do they understand us.
The goal of the pervert's statement is to destroy the psy-
che of the interlocutor. By producing delusional versions,
combining mutually exclusive positions, challenging the
obvious, the pervert wants to de-objectify, to make one
doubt the obvious, to depersonalize. It is not only the
interlocutor that he rapes, but also the language itself: he
wants to transgress it.
Fascist propaganda is catered to by the Newspeak. All
these seemingly meaningless and ridiculous “pops14”
“liberation”, “special operation”, “denazification” are, on
the one hand, the pervert’s attempts to rape language.
On the other hand, it’s his technique of teaching perverse
thinking to those around them, of infecting them with per-
version. Part of the desubjectivation strategy lies in the
pervert’s not listening to the replies. He is going to talk,
declare, give ultimatums, rape - and experience jouis-
sance.

Transgression
A pervert transgresses the Law, but in place of the old
Law he establishes his own one, which Baudrillard would
refer to as “a rule”. What kind of Law can a pervert es-
tablish? The pervert makes it his law to transgress, that is,
he makes transgression his law. Moreover, perverts start
using transgression left, right and center for their own
purposes.
The pervert invites the opponent either to admit the
impossibility to answer the claim, which would be the
destruction of the opponent, or to join him on the ride
from the Symbolic to the Imaginary, to learn to think like
a pervert. And since you have abandoned the old Law, it
is time to adopt the new order – Neuordnung.

It is common for perverts to violate the laws of logic. They

especially dislike the “Russell's teapot” or the principle of
Roman law that has become the basis for the presump-
tion of innocence: “The burden of proof lies on the per-
son making a claim, not on the one who disproves it.”

Putin's politicians demand: “prove that you don't have

something whose presence has never been observed,”
“prove that you weren’t going to attack if you weren’t go-
ing to and didn't attack,” “explain your absence where
you couldn't get to because we were there,” or “we in-
vented a ‘chaos management theory’ for you, published
it in our magazines, discussed it, actively use it ourselves,
and now you must prove that you do not rule the world
according to this theory.”

The attack against the principle of logic, the principle of

Roman law which became the basis for the presumption
of innocence is an attack against the principle of law
itself. Both court trials without the presumption of inno-
cence and discussions without “he who makes claims
must prove them” would lose solid ground, turn into ex-
changes of paranoid delusion.

16
Pervert and the Law, pervert and
the perverse Law
The law in Russia is undoubtedly perverse and is built on
the same principle of foreclosure. Take the Navalny case
as an example. When the authorities needed to impris-
on him, they chose violation of probation as the reason,
which was proven to be legally invalid.
It begs the question: when you have such a repressive
machine, why even bother to draw up charges, and
even look for a ridiculous, petty excuse? You could have
just put him in jail, and who would then be able to do
anything about it? Or you could charge him with major
financial fraud, attempted murder, and treason, to jail
him for sure and for a long time?
It wouldn’t work completely without some legal grounds.
The pervert perceives the world around him fragmentari-
ly and exclusively through the prism of his own psychic
reality. If, because of the partially collapsed subjectiva-
tion, the Other (as the principle of the existence of oth-
erness) is seen only as someone who persecutes, forces
to experience jouissance, then the pervert applies this
vision to relations with other people or countries (“no
one understands us,” “everyone wants to bring us to our
knees,” “there is Russophobia everywhere”).
The pervert knows that complete rejection of the Law
could make one fall into psychosis, which means that
society, too, by rejecting the Law, may drift into chaos.
Let us retrace the perverse chain of reasoning: the per-
vert knows full well that an innocent man should not be
imprisoned and Navalny has not broken any laws. How-
ever, there’s a strong desire to put him away (for prag-
matic reasons, and because Navalny is guilty of another
thing that is much more important for the Nazi).
This conflict is resolved by introducing the signifier “It was
Navalny himself who provoked the authorities to put him
in jail, brazenly violating probation in the case of Yves
Rocher.”
17
- Which law would you break,
if you were allowed to break any law for one day?
- I wouldn’t break any, since it would be legal.
A meme
The pettiness of the reason here is a clue for us. If the rea-
son is trivial and the punishment is not trivial, then it is not
about the trial, but about something else: it is about the
triumph of the pervert, who has succeeded in destroying
the enemy – and destroying in a perverse manner. The
pettiness of the reason is the ciphered evidence of the
jouissance that peeps at us, a kind of pervert’s signature
who cannot conceal his perverse transgressive nature. It
is a ciphered invitation to partake in jouissance, an invi-
tation to an orgy. It is an invitation received only by those
who hear the call of violence and know transgression by
sight. Just like de Sade's libertines, the pervert in pow-
er demands that everyone participate in his jouissance:
every henchman of Nazism must attend the transgressive
event with a serious face, pretending that there is no jou-
issance here, that all those present are servants of the
Law, and that Navalny's guilt is huge, undeniable, and
the sentence is just.
The perversion of law in Russia can also be illustrated
by its selective application. A law is a law only when it
is one for all, and the punishment for breaking it is inev-
itable, otherwise it is the pervert’s Law, a rule. Everyone
understands that the penalties for breaking the law in Pu-
tin's society are not uniformly applied, they depend on
many factors: loyalty, proximity to power, popularity, ma-
terial and social status, willingness to engage in corrupt
schemes, and so on. Thus, the only Law is the perversion
of the Law. Those who try to follow the Law in its original
sense are more likely to be punished, because the Law,
as we have already seen, is only needed for perverts to
break it.
Everyone knows the expression “The severity of Russian
laws is mitigated by the fact that obeying them is op-
tional.” It would seem that this is also a manifestation of
perversion: “sometimes I choose to follow the law, some-
times I choose to not follow it”. The sadistic pervert, how-
ever, will strictly follow the rule, and will also make sure
that others do the same.
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
The pervert as an object, as a tool of desire of the one
behind the Law becomes a perfect performer of criminal
orders or a soulless bureaucracy. He has no guilt: he was
simply following orders.
It is obvious that the subject will not have to agonize be-
tween following a criminal order and saving the life of a
civilian, whom he also does not view as an actor. How-
ever, even if his commanders don’t order him to commit
atrocities every time, the pervert will still imagine they
would want it – and will commit the atrocities.
The Collective Other
of the “Russian World”
If a pervert believes themselves to be the object of The
Other's jouissance, this makes us wonder how a Pu-
tin-style Nazi envisages the said Other.
The first key to understanding the secret of Putin's pow-
er's success was provided by Sergei Dorenko, a famous
Russian journalist and political consultant, in an interview
to Yuri Dud. In a notorious scene from “Cargo 200” the
main character - a girl, who embodies Russia, – is raped
next to her dead fiancee's body. According to Dorenko,
Putin is seen by the Russian collective conscience as a
little soldier protecting the girl from violence or taking
revenge for the violence already committed (the no-
tion reflected in the slogan “raising Russia back from its
knees”). The fact that the event appears to be lost in time
(is the soldier a protector or an avenger?) only stresses
its phantasmic nature, as noone has ever “raped” or in-
tended to “rape” Russia.
“to protect” - Russia; hence the image of Russia raped
The formation of the compromising perversion takes place
within the Oedipal framework, but the pervert's Father is
not the father that prohibits incest and insists on his entitle-
ment to Mother. Sooner, it is the one referred to by Lacan
as “a version of father” (“père-version”) - the one who
suggests that they should rape mother together.15
It's only logical, therefore, that in the absence of actual
rapists the only one who is willing and able to commit
rape is the protector. That is, “to protect” to a pervert
means “to rape” - and indeed, the perverse ruler will of-
ten treat its own country more viciously than the enemy
countries, neither having any pity of their own compatri-
ots, nor sparing his country's resources.
18
That is, where a very bad person, but not a sadist, would
be too lazy to do evil without need (for example, when
he’s tired or fed up with it), a sadist will not be too lazy
to do it.
Evading or refusing to follow the perverse Law may not
be a perversion, but a neurotic escape from a desire of
the Other. The neurotic doesn’t want to turn into a pervert,
i.e. to allow repressed urges to manifest. In such a case,
giving up the perverse Law is a way of preserving one's
neurotic psyche.
A pervert sees The Other through his own reflection:
he projects16 his desire to “rape” onto other countries,
the desire acquiring a certain erotomanic17 undertone:
everyone wants to rape Russia (“force Russia onto its
knees”). Later on, the phantasm of raping ( fantasme
de viol) is filled by The Imaginary. This gives rise to the
notion of “the treacherous West”, which had promised
Heaven, but took away Greatness. The same notion is
also the basis of another manifestation of the afore-
mentioned phantasm: “The Chaos Management Theo-
ry”, propagated by another, more intelligent, tier of Na-
zis. In a nutshell, the theory maintains that the Russian
Federation borders on the failed state of Ukraine, where
the USA use certain political technologies to stoke the
fire of “maidans” (revolutions), with the aim of spreading
chaos in order to harm Russia. That said, this “rape” still
appears to be a mere pervert's trick, which is supposed
to justify their own unstoppable desire to rape – that is,
in the past or intended to be raped in the future: “I am
well aware that rape is never justifiable; yet, since Russia
has been raped, or rape is intended upon it, I proclaim
myself the weapon of vengeance.”
According to K. Jung, the archetype of Wotan the God
of War woke up in the Nazi Germany. If we try to elab-
orate on the idea of the collective “voice” in the heads of
Nazis, what kind of voice could it be, bearing in mind
the frightening Other? As a rule, the archetype of the
Summoning Motherland appears in times of war. Its most
honest embodiment is the monument of Motherland in
Volgograd: the robust, ferocious woman, her mouth open,
shrieking, her right hand holding a sword raised high.
An open mouth, often with the tongue stuck out, is a uni-
versal symbol of aggression and even aggressive sexual
energy in such cultures as Ancient Hindu, Ancient Greeks,
or Maya. Such is the depiction of Gorgon the Medusa
and Kali, an Indian goddess, one of the manifestations of
Parvati, Shiva's wife. Parvati is a tender and caring wife,
while Kali is the goddess of infinite cosmic power, death
and destruction, depicted atop of enemies' corpses, with
her mouth open, wearing a necklace made of chopped
off heads,
Similarly to the two avatars of one deity, Kali and Pravati,
Russian archetypal mother has two manifestations: Rus-
sia the Mom – in times of peace, - and the blood-lust-
ing, children-sacrificing Mother Russia – in times of war.
However, Mother Russia represents an archetype of the
just war of liberation, making it necessary for the sadist
war of aggression and expansion to rely on another ar-
chetype.
The perversion inverted and contorted the archetype of
Mother Russia. A strong, young woman was replaced
by a feeble, senile one, unable to raise a sword, thus
holding the red banner instead. In place of Mother Rus-
sia, Putin's propagandists substituted a Ukrainian granny,
who came out to greet Ukrainian soldiers with a red flag
as she had mistaken them for the Russian army. She later
on rejected the ideological role ascribed to her altogeth-
er. Yet, the image went viral and began to symbolize Rus-
sian-Ukrainian war. What does it allude to?
The character that the Ukrainian granny alludes to is
easy to identify. In the collective conscience, there are
two characters of transgressive nature: the Death with
the Scythe and Baba Yaga (the Russian folklore witch).
Both archetypes ore on the border of Life and Death,
both impersonate the transition to a qualitatively different
state. Baba Yaha helps the Protagonist to undergo initi-
ation and enter the adulthood, while The Death with the
Scythe aids in transitioning from the living state to death.
It is only symbolic then that these people, who are not
ashamed of being labeled zombies, chose Baba Yaga
and Death with the Schythe to represent their Mother-
land (Mother Russia).
Thus, the granny with the red flag became the collective
Russian Wotan, her distant relative being the blood-lusty
Motherland, in turn, related to the goddesses of war
(Kali, Athena, Minerva etc), who are all the reflections
of the perverts' phallic mothers. It is their desires that the
sadists seek to satisfy by committing rape initially intend-
ed for their mothers.

The Red Banner is the flag of the country that ceased

to exist long ago. It is neither the flag of Russia, nor is
it the flag of Ukraine – but it belonged to both of them
over 30 years back. Communism cannot be considered
the ideology the Russian Federation is fighting for, either:
in no way is Putin's ideology connected to communism
or socialism. Therefore, the red flag is merely another
representation of the perversion, as it embodies the es-
sence of the pretext for the Russian attack as part of the
perverse understanding of Law: “The Russian Federation
is a peaceful country, but the Nazis attacked the Red
Banner – the symbol of our glorious past (the past we
had rejected in fact), therefore – we are to defend it”.

The Red Banner, which exists and is non-existent at the

same time, is the phallus, acknowledged and at the
same time denied by a pervert. It appears that among
all additional signifiers, the banner of a non-existent
country, bearing the ideology not shared by the aggres-
sor, is the clearest indicator of the imaginary character of
all perverse excuses for aggression.

19
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis

Freedom to commit
violence
as the core of Putin-style
Nazism
20
The great fight for the Russian World's
values: what on earth are they fighting for?
Putin's propaganda adherents will go on and on about
the clash of values, the collision of civilizations: the West
versus the so-called “Russian World”. It is Russia that they
claim to be the last refuge of freedom. We could dismiss
the claim as yet another instance of propagandist lies, and
question the existence of any set of values behind the said
clash: perhaps, while fighting for the “values” of the Rus-
sian world they are literally fighting for the valuables, and
that is simply an euphemism for marauding?
However, they are not alone in raising the issue. Accord-
ing to psychoanalyst S. Benvenutto, the humanity is now
faced with the war of values, whose outcome will deter-
mine the way we see freedom and politics. A liberal will
normally have difficulty understanding what for, and es-
pecially who with, the “Russian world” is fighting. To an
outside observer, it will appear that Putin's supporters are
fighting for a lack of freedom, as what liberty can there be
in a society where the freedom of speech is suppressed,
free elections are non-existent, anyone could be subject
to repressions and a common person has very few, if any,
possibilities to defend oneself in court. The conclusion is
thus often made that the “enigmatic Russian soul” seeks to
die for the right to remain enslaved.
Yet, once we manage to resist the temptation to project
our own values onto Putin's propaganda, it becomes clear
that on this particular occasion the propagandists did tell
the truth: there's a certain freedom in the “Russian world”.
Besides, and even more surprisingly, they have a point in
claiming that this freedom does not exist in the West: it,
indeed, is not one of the celebrated Western freedoms.
Generally speaking, the mindset of a westerner of today
is hard for a “Russian world” adherent to grasp. Quite
recently, political correctness has become the Other, the
Normality, the voice in the head – suggesting, soliciting
and punishing. For the sake of convenience, we will some-
times be using the term Normality instead of The Other (fol-
lowing S. Žižek's example).
Political correctness is based upon the following princi-
ple: “Violence is never justifiable. Violence towards the
vulnerable is absolutely unjustifiable; the weaker should
have the advantage; it is shameful to boast privileges.”
In a nutshell, “the weaker has the upper hand”. In order
not to come across as a rapist, a toxic person, a boom-
er, one has to take this maxima into consideration all the
time. You must obtain conscious agreement to have sex;
21
sex must not humiliate any of the partners; physical abuse
is puS. Žižeknishable (think Will Smith incident at the latest
Oscar ceremony); arguments are to be resolved in court
rather than by a fight or through bribery. On top of that,
one cannot get away with beating up a child, raping their
wife or a casual girl, paternally pinching their secretary's
buttock or battering a homosexual. The punishment will go
way beyond the friendly telling-off by the local precinct
(“You needn't have left those bruises, dude: she is to go
to work tomorrow after all”)... What's worse, one cannot
write homophobic or sexists posts or openly express such
views; even the innocent referring to someone as fat or
ugly is shamed.
Apparently, for the first time in the entire history of human-
kind a deficit of possibilities for destructive violence
has been created in a society. An average European
is drastically limited in their capacity to express violent, sa-
distic urges. While some time ago it used to be possible
to be verbally aggressive at least, in this day and age this
type of abuse is punishable, too, at three levels: legally
(by a court verdict), by the society (the cancel culture has
invented a way of penalizing deeds not yet punishable by
law), and at the personal level (remorse and guilt).
Until very recently, one could get away with an insult; even
if a fine was imposed, they still could enjoy the society's
approval; if the worst came to the worst, rejected by the
society and penalized by law, they could still see them-
selves as bravehearts... Nowadays, there are no back
doors. Even if you are not fined – you will not be welcome
among decent people. Even if noone knows about your
misdemeanor – your conscience will be eating you. One
can stand up against rule and society – but little could be
done about one's own conscience. One may now express
their sadistic urges in such a way as not to hurt anyone's
feelings, be it at work, at home or in creativity. A sadist's
only option to satisfy their lust is to attack Nazis, racists,
sexists, ageists, transphobes – you name it. against rule
and society – but little could be done about one's own
conscience. One may now express their sadistic urges in
such a way as not to hurt anyone's feelings, be it at work,
at home or in creativity. A sadist's only option to satisfy their
lust is to attack Nazis, racists, sexists, ageists, transphobes
– you name it. One indicator of the acute deficit of violent
manifestations is the way people are constantly looking for
new, insignificant pretexts that would allow to condemn
offenders without being “canceled”, as well as the dispro-
portionate amount of aggression directed at perpetrators.
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
Not only is the non-toxic person supposed to obey Law –
but also they are to be knowledgeable about the already
vast (and counting) number of rules. One is to know pre-
cisely how to address people of various gender identities,
to never engage in cultural expropriation, green-washing,
black-washing – the list goes on. That is, political correct-
ness has made sadists repress other sadists, thus narrowing
the already small window of opportunities for sadism.
It is widely believed that Russian soldiers are who they are
due to their narrow outlook: most have never traveled out-
side their region (oblast), have never seen either the Eiffel
Tower or even a washing machine. Yet, putin's keenest ad-
herents have not only been to Europe: they have owned
real estate there, they have been accepted in the society.
That said, there are no reasons to question the sincerity of
nazist convictions of Lavrov, Soloviov, or Simonian. It is
therefore unimportant whether a pro-Putin Nazi has ever
traveled to Europe or has learned about it from a TV show:
they have a clear reason to despise the West: white
males, the most phallic part of the western society,
have voluntarily waived their privilege to abuse
the vulnerable. This situation turned out very traumatic
for Russians as it increased their castration anxiety, which
can be seen in the popular, although clearly delusional,
phenomenon: Russian citizens try to “protect” western peo-
ple in Russian social networks, “fighting against” the can-
cellation culture in their own, patriarchal country, where
white men's privileges could potentially be attacked by
scarce feminists, rare leftists and LGBTK activists, and
where cancellation culture is simply non-existent, the said
activists focusing on other, more urgent, tasks.
For an adherent of the “Rissian World”, values of the West
are hard to understand, partcularly unfathomable being
western freedom, which does not allow the battery of vul-
nerable relatives (“rotting of family values”), taking away
a conscript's phone (the notorious hazing in the Russian
army), slapping or insulting a girl passing by, humiliating
people performing “emotional” duties – waiters and wait-
resses, flight attendants, salespeople. To them, a western
male is a castrate, tied up by rules and regulations, and
restricted by the cancellation culture on top of that. It is then
only natural that the constant subject of Putin's propagan-
dists' attacks is the western political correctness – its abso-
lute antipode. The way they attack the phenomenon that
has no relation to their own country, the way they stand
up for Joanne Rowling all clearly show that this culture is
seen as a personal insult. For an adherent of the “Rissian
World”, values of the West are hard to understand, part-
cularly unfathomable being western freedom, which does
not allow the battery of vulnerable relatives (“rotting of
family values”), taking away a conscript's phone (the no-
torious hazing in the Russian army), slapping or insulting a
22
girl passing by, humiliating people performing “emotional”
duties – waiters and waitresses, flight attendants, sales-
people. To them, a western male is a castrate, tied up by
rules and regulations, and restricted by the cancellation
culture on top of that. It is then only natural that the con-
stant subject of Putin's propagandists' attacks is the west-
ern political correctness – its absolute antipode. The way
they attack the phenomenon that has no relation to their
own country, the way they stand up for Joanne Rowling
all clearly show that this culture is seen as a personal insult.
In essence, political correctness is collective guilt, experi-
enced by the descendants of colonizers and plantators. A
pervert cannot experience personal guilt due to their half-
failed subjectivation; nor can they have the historical guilt,
as their ancestors never sold slaves or looted ancient stat-
ues from Africa and the Near East – they were peasants,
whipped in the stable, (an old Russian saying goes: “One
battered lad is worth two unbattered”. Or, it was their an-
cestors that whipped their servants; in this case, they were
executed in 1918 by a comrade commissar – one of those
whipped in the stable.
It is commonly stated by Europeans at international con-
ferences that noone is able to understand Putin's politicians.
While it is quite easy to realize that the clue here is re-
lated to perverse psyches, a neurotic will suppress such
an explanation as they would then have to recognize that
nations are different – which is not welcomed by political
correctness. The suppressed will later on transform into ru-
mors about pedophilia and a consensus about “the enig-
matic Russian soul”. However, there are no such enigmas
that would not be related to the processes taking place
in Europe.
A pro-Putin pervert, whose identity is unclear, will try to
stitch it up, like Frankenstein's monster, from bits copied
from other people and appropriated. Yet, as the depth of
a neurotic's psychic processes remains obscure to them,
and their conclusions are thus superficial, the elements
copied and appropriated are either superficious, or mir-
rored from the perverse sadist him/herself. The mirror will
reflect a fragmented, paranoid inner world, full of anxiety
and blood lust. Beholding their own reflection, a pervert
will see the “Theory of chaos management”: a constant
threat to be swallowed by the psychotic abyss, and The
Other, trying to pull them into the abyss; the perceived ag-
gression and “conspiracies” of other countries are in fact
his own aggression, their Russophobia is their own para-
noia. A pervert is unable to discern others' noble intentions
or winged sentiments: well, the terms seem familiar to them;
yet, having never experienced the feelings, they cannot
admit them in others. Any actions beyond their understand-
ing will therefore be attributed to self-interest or a conspir-
acy. It is now clear enough why such Other - the reflection
of the sadist themselves - deserves to be destroyed.
Based on the above, the identity of a pervert cannot have
any peculiar features. This identity consists of that of a
pervert-sadist, plus what they have copied. The
formula works pretty well with regard to the society as a
whole. The culture of the Russian Federation at the moment
consists of: 1. trends initiated a while ago and merely ex-
ploited since, 2. perversion, 3. certain elements a pervert
copied like a child would copy a complicated picture, 4.
elements passed through the prism of the pervert's under-
standing. The processes and products of the above are
often called cargo-cults.
For instance, the so-called democracy in the Russian
Federation manifests itself in the following performance:
elections are announced, the members of the counting
commissions are gathered on the voting premises, peo-
ple come and fill in the ballots, protocols are issued. To a
pervert, though, the possibility to elect power or the right
to representation are of no value, since they are not an
actor. All a pervert values is rule and control. Their psyche
does not even contain any desire for democracy, which
makes them assume that others don't need it either, the
whole world is hypocritical and all the nations need is to
show off, avoid becoming an outlaw, or escape the risk of
being sanctioned, etc. A pervert in power will thus come
to a conclusion that democracy means that the necessary
person is “elected”; that said, comissions, ballots, ballot
boxes and voting booths, as well as incessant talks about
democracy and free elections will somehow justify the
process.
To the West, such cargo-elections are the outright viola-
tion of human rights, accompanied by lies about freedom.
Through the prism of their psyche, a neurotic assumes that
Putin's civil servants are actors like themselves, cynically
defrauding their people and themselves. Putin's officials
appreciate that the West is outraged - yet they cannot
grasp the nature of this outrage (indeed, how can democ-
racy and human rights bear any value to anyone?) They
will then try to bridge the gaps of their understanding by
delusions and phantasms, which leads them to assume that
the only real reason for the said negative feedback is a
hatred of Russia and a desire to harm it. Putin's functionar-
ies even believe themselves to be aware of the ways this
harm will be caused: it's by rocking the boat (i.e., “manag-
ing chaos”) with the help of organizing orange revolutions.
The only similarity between the Western spicy political de-
bate show and the format adopted by the Russian TV is
the presence of many people on stage. Its core idea – that
23
speakers of all views must be given the floor – has not
been understood. A politician with the Putin-format nazist
mindset will be certain that western political shows are as
staged as they are in Russia, that their participants read
off the prepared scripts, and only pronounce what they
are allowed to, so the West's talks about the freedom of
speech and pluralism are mere hypocrisies intended to
downgrade Russia.
It might appear that a well thought-out, outrageously
cynical act of deception is taking place in the studios of
Soloviev, Kiseliov, Simonyan and their kind. The perverts,
however, see no deceit: they cannot imagine any other
course of events. They see no point in giving the floor to
the opposition on a state chanel. What is it for? “Don't you
mention pluralism: we had it in the 90-ies. Thanks, but no
thanks. You think watching a bunch of people reading off
the same lines is boring? Well – we'll make them behave
like madmen to entertain the audience”.
Perverts are only able to scratch the surface of things,
which is why they only manage to imitate the outer layer.
This can, for example, be seen in how Simonyan suggest-
ed expropriating IKEA's property in order to create a Rus-
sian domestic IKEA. The lady sincerely believes that ware-
houses and shops are what IKEA is all about. This principle
applies, in fact, to anything produced by Putin's regime:
politicians (there aren't any – they are all civil servants),
the Church, the secular society, the mass media, the social
policies – all are but hollow imitations of the facade, like
Alyosha the robot.
One of the most horrible examples of such perverse con-
structs is the army. While perverts are well aware of what
the army should be like and have seen other armies, the
whole idea comes down to parades. It is beyond a per-
vert how to work with the myth of the heroic soldier, why
raise and maintain the morale, why curb marauding and
discourage hazing, why show respect of the fallen...Once
such a soldier finds himself in settings legalizing perver-
sion and encouraging moral values of the Pol Pot's army,
it won't be long before he adopts the values as his own.
Perverts see no point in deterring looting as soldiers ben-
efit from it, which is to make them enthusiastic. To them,
patriotism or a desire to protect relatives are not sufficient
reasons to risk their lives, while illicit enrichment is. Since a
pervert is unable to assess personal qualities and doesn't
consider others to be actors, when selecting staff he never
takes any immanent characteristics, such as experience,
education, intelligence, talent etc, into consideration, re-
lying instead on security (that is, loyalty), the “friend or foe”
principle and whether the recruit can ensure any benefit
for the recruiter.
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
To them, a parade as the manifestation of the army's
strength: the more war machines take part in a parade –
the stronger the army is. The “Z”-stickers and state TV prop-
agandists should enhance this, too. Perversive Putin's rule
cannot understand any reasons behind one's actions other
than self interest, and sees no point in addressing moral
reasons as part of their ideology. This is exactly why the
regime had underestimated the international resonance
set up by the war as such and war crimes in particular.
A pervert presumes that noone is endowed with empathy,
and those demonstrating compassion do so merely out of
the desire to seem better than others or in pursuit of com-
mercial gain. The regime was more than certain that when
faced with the choice between gas and some unknown
killed Ukrainians, all nations will choose gas – as they
themselves would have.
A pervert's lack of understanding of the neurotic structure
can be seen in the exported propaganda, filled with
guilt-tripping. One example is the footage featuring a
pilgrim maintaining that the bombardment of Ukrainian
homes is the retribution for their sins. Another character
used to induce guilt is the wife of Medvedchuk, who fled
to the aggressor country having previously reaped the
fruits of each and every sin of the Ukrainian society. This is
as though German Nazi had used Eva Brown or Magda
Goebbels for agitation.
Interestingly, our neurotic reactions stand in the way of
getting the hints perverts themselves give us about their
perversions and desires. For instance, Putin's propaganda
keeps going on about their country's very “special path”,
incompatible with the Western values and practices; “we
are different”, they claim, “in that a pervert cannot accept
the path of neurosis; we cannot simply accept the Law: our
special path means both accepting the Law and rejecting
it”
Hence, there is no “enigmatic Russian soul”: this is simply
a sadistic perversion - an issue far from enigmatic, and a
well-researched one. The clue to the Russian Soul riddle
can be found in our own soul – guilt-ridden, and thus una-
ble to discern perversion.
The feeling of guilt, however, is not completely foreign to
a pervert – it's just that they understand it differently. To a
sadist, guilt equals inducing a sadistic desire, then
ending up in a sadist's hands. In a perverse society,
the deadliest sins are being castrated, weak, and even
a potential possibility of getting turned out – not to men-
tion the accomplished fact. In this sense, the Pilgrim's log-
ic becomes clear enough: Ukrainans are guilty of being
bombed because they allowed themselves to be bombed.
24
The adepts of Putin's propaganda sincerely believe that the
Russian Federation is the only free country, for it is the only
country that encourages sadism and abuse of the vulner-
able. Beat up a gay – and unless the gay is a deputy or
a celebrity, your deed will be approved of at all levels:
by the society, by individuals and even by law: it will incur
no punishment unless there are serious aggravating cir-
cumstances. The police, too, will try to sweep it under the
carpet, and your friends will back you up. In Putin's Russia
one is allowed to practice violence on condition that the
victim is weak and at least some legality is maintained. For
example, rape is not justifiable – well, not unless the victim
“was wearing a short skirt”, “was drunk”, “was asking for it”,
“actually liked it”... This is the attitude numerous victims of
sexual abuse encounter when faced with the Russian legal
system. Victim-blaming commentaries will prevail under
each and every post or article about sexual harassment
- even if it ended up in a murder.
At the core of the Normality of Putin's Nazism is
the following principle: “bashing the vulnerable
is your natural right; the victim is always guilty,
because he / she is weak”. The pervert is the object of
jouissance: it's not the pervert, but the one who induced the
desire, that is to blame. It is therefore clear that a European,
who willingly waived their right to abuse, looks like a sim-
pleton, or worse – a victim: weak, woman-like, worthy of
nothing but contempt. At the core of the Normality of
Putin's Nazism is the following principle: “bashing
the vulnerable is your natural right; the victim is
always guilty, because he / she is weak”. The per-
vert is the object of jouissance: it's not the pervert, but the
one who induced the desire, that is to blame. It is therefore
clear that a European, who willingly waived their right to
abuse, looks like a simpleton, or worse – a victim: weak,
woman-like, worthy of nothing but contempt.
According to V. Surkov, chaos is the main product ex-
ported by the Russian Federation. He was right up to a
point: indeed, this is something beyond order – however,
as a classic pervert, he couldn't but turn everything up-
side-down. Firstly, this is not chaos, as it is not yet a psy-
chosis (the perverse Law still sets some boundaries) – this
product is called sadism. Secondly, it is import rather than
export.
When the adherents of Putin's Nazism adherents discov-
ered a lack of the freedom of violence (something they in
fact lack themselves), their outrage was beyond belief. To
a Nazi, weakness is a sin, which means that the “weak”
West has been corrupted by the deadliest (as understood
by the Russian World adepts) of sins. It is reasonable to
assume that homosexuality as such does not stir hatred in
an openly homophobic pervert.
Let's not forget that a pervert couldn't care less about tra-
ditions or the salvation of the world. However, to a pervert
it has become the universal symbol of the guilt of weak-
ness, a pervert's trick that can justify hatred without a direct
reference to its cause. They will equally despise whoever
is endowed with weakness: the disabled, the senile, the
homeless, homosexuals, women, children, animals - the list
goes on; yet, since the Law prohibits to openly manifest this
attitude, sadism comes under a disguise of “traditional val-
ues” - while those are merely the traditional values
of a sadist.
With a naive narcissism of a pervert, the demiurgos and
seers of the Russian World wish to exert sadism for as long
as they are powerful, but once they become potential vic-
tims of abuse, they will emigrate to a place where senility
and malady are not subject to hatred and contempt. They
intend to seek medical aid, educate children and end their
earthly struggles in a country whose doctors have empa-
thy, rather than in the realm of “traditional values”.
Do perverts realize what forms the basis of their socie-
ty? In 2017, domestic violence was decriminalized. In
2020, within 10 days after the the #metoo campaign
was launched, amendments were adopted inflicting pun-
ishment for sexualised violence libel. The novelties were
backed up by the traditional values discourse. However,
perverts clearly realize what values are meant in fact: it's
the traditional right of the stronger one to exert sadism.
Do perverts realize what forms the basis of their socie-
ty? In 2017, domestic violence was decriminalized. In
2020, within 10 days after the the #metoo campaign
was launched, amendments were adopted inflicting pun-
ishment for sexualised violence libel. The novelties were
backed up by the traditional values discourse. However,
perverts clearly realize what values are meant in fact: it's
the traditional right of the stronger one to exert
sadism.
Going back to Surkov's proverbial “export of chaos”, it
is worth noting that the Russian Federation is the importer
rather than the exporter. Whatever Russia declares is part
of the Western train of thought. It strives to be outstanding,
but the issue is, the «Russian world» is unable to give rise to
any original ideas or novel concepts. On discovering the
deficit of freedom for violence, and seeing how sadistic
tendencies are repressed, the Russian World claimed all
violence its protectorate, providing it a refuge in a place
where violence feels at home. It turns out that whatever is
not welcomed in a civilized world is greeted with open
arms in the Russian World. Taliban, Yanukovitch, Tsariov,
Kiva, tax-evading celebrities, violence – all receives a
warm welcome. Apparently, in terms of chaos manage-
ment it is Russia that in fact helps the West to get rid of the
excess of violence, which the West cannot deal with due
to the principle of political correctness, since it encourages
aggressive tendencies.
Thus, one can clearly see what values the Russian world is
fighting for: it's the right to violence, the right of the stronger
one to torture the weaker one, in a society that will not
stand up for the victim. That said, it is not fighting against
Ukraine – rather, its enemies are strong and dangerous: it
is political correctness and the cancel culture, repressing
sadism and establishing the dictatorship of the victim. Not
being able to see the world beyond quantities and pos-
session, a perverse Nazist sees his struggle as expansion.
Unable to produce any contagious brilliant ideas, the Rus-
sian World fights for violence with the help of killings, tor-
tures, rape and shelling – to which all of us are witnesses.

In a perverse society psychological or physical abuse of

vulnerable groups is regarded as manly and phallic. To
beat your wife or to build a stand-up comedy around
humiliating gays is not disgrace, it is machismo. Domes-
tic abusers are never “canceled”, quite the opposite: they
are considered “real men”, attractive partners. This can
be clearly seen it the society's attitude to children. While
declaring the importance of their interests, sadists in fact
pass the notorious “Dima Yakovlev's law” and support the
abduction of children from temporarily occupied Ukrain-
ian territories. Even the victims of pedophile fathers do not
get enough compassion and support, like, for instance, the
Khachaturian sisters, who had to fight through 7 circles of
hell to prove themselves innocent.

25
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis

The factory of Nazism:

the role of propaganda

26
The role of propaganda in
the life of its adept
Putin's propaganda is attributed the supernatural ability of
complete enslaving, and its ideologists are thought of as
diabolically treacherous black magi.
I am proposing the opposite hypothesis: there was
no diabolical plot whatsoever; instead, the perverse
sadists remain sadists while working out their ideological
programs.
Sadism is inherently tempting to some extent, and a
random combination of this and some other factors lead
to the rise of violence.
Propaganda as a constituent part of identity
As has already been stated above, a pervert is stuck
midway to subjectivation. His “me” is related to the realm
of the Imaginary rather than the realm of the Symbolical.
He has remained at the narcissistic stage, the stage of
“me” (moi). A neurotic builds his identifications upon both
the Imaginary and the Symbolical, that is, he checks and
balances his self-image against The Other. For example:
“I am a good specialist, because I strive to be one,
because my skills and expertise meet the requirements of
the society, and also because I am told I am.” A pervert,
stuck at the narcissistic stage, will generate his identities
like a child: “I want to be a fire-fighter, an astronaut,
the Minister of Foreign Affairs...” One bright example
well worth your time is Dmitry Gordon's interview with
Lukashenko, who is clearly stuck at the narcissistic stage.
In the interview, he talks of himself as a border guard (
which might in fact be true), an accordionist, a hockey
player, an exemplary father, holding his eighteen-year-
old son on his lap – whatever identity he can think of is
accepted.
At the core of Putins's propaganda, like any other
propaganda, there are two images: that of its adepts
and that of its enemies. However, in a society infected
with perversion made up of subjects with a fragile “me”,
propaganda becomes an almost major source of identity.
27
Russian opposition mistakenly believe that the main
problem is Russian's lack of access to alternative
sources of information. “Once their eyes are opened,
they will immediately start making revolutions...” Yet, the
hypothesis doesn't seem viable as soon as we see the
results of opinion polls in the “liberal” and “well-educated”
Moscow, with its free access to the Internet: the majority
supports the War. The “true Russians” hypothesis, as it turns
out, is a mere romantic phantasm. The problem is not a
lack of awareness of Twitter or VPN. The problem is that
propaganda has ceased to be an outside phenomenon
for the adepts.
When a Nazi soldier, who rapes, kills and loots, watches
TV, where he is celebrated as a hero, a hero he starts
pretending to be. He doesn't need another source, as
this other source will condemn hims as a war criminal, his
“heroism” - as фекщсшен, and his trophy – as plunder.
Outside of the propaganda's realm, something
horrendous opens up to the inhabitant of the Russian
World. The “great” country is the most hated country in
the world, its president cosplays Hitler, its army commits
genocide, its conscripts are thrown into a vicious mincer,
each rocket strike diminishes the chances of a decent
pension, and looming ahead are the prospects of
becoming another North Korea, if not the nuclear winter.
In this coordinate plane, who is he (she)? He is no longer
a keen fighter for the Russian World. He is a less than
popular male whose main battle is the struggle with his
prostatitis, the battle he is losing so far. Or it's a school
principal, whose fight against her pupils' dyed hair and
pierced noses is no longer the fight against NATO and
Biden, but a sheer despotism of an ageing lady. Both of
them, as it turns out, are living in a Nazi country, rolling
towards complete isolation and poverty.
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
Signifying the reality
Another role, connected with the above-described one,
is the signifying of reality in a simple, clear and compli-
mentary way – a way convenient to a pervert, with his
fragmented perception and imability to penetrate into
the essence of things. When a Bryansk commoner opens
his youtube, Soloviov-Kiseliov-Simonian will show him a
world in which Russia is a great country, its army is the
second biggest in the world, defeating vastly superior
enemy forces, suffering no losses of war machines or
troops, if only “a negative growth of staff numbers and
military equipment”, and a downpour of social benefits
is expected soon.
Ptopaganda as past of the perverse mechanism
of handling Law
Let's imagine that a Russian, who believes himself to be
endowed with critical thinking, tries to read the opposi-
tional “Dozhd” or “Medusa” and comes across an article
describing the bloodbath made by his compatriots shar-
ing the same ideology. Such media tend to describe the
war as evil beyond any human understanding. What our
hero feels at this moment is unbearable excitement – it
seems he dreads losing his mind, engulfed by jouissance.
Marquis De Sade's crimes were not nearly as numerous
as those of an average Russian army soldier – in fact, he
merely succumbed to the wave of perverse sadistic fan-
tasies. However, he spent a good half of his life in mental
hospitals. Our hero closes his eyes tightly, not to look his
desire – the uncontrollable folly of violence – in the eye.
28
Difficulties are not silenced, however: the devious designs
of the USA, NATO, the West and their allies – Ukrainian
Nazi – are successfully being dealt with by the govern-
ment. Whatever is not yet dealt with, has been taken in
direct control by the President, and should anything not
work according to the plan, Russia has enough nuclear
missiles to incinerate the entire America. In this world, the
focus of attention is he, the “True Russian”, a representa-
tive of a great nation, the bearer of Christ's holy light, the
last fighter for traditional values, without whom the world
will fall into the abyss of Paganism and sodomy.
Unable to recognize own motives, he will make the only
conclusion available to him: the problem lies with “Me-
dusa”, “Dozhd” and all other “foreign agents”, the fifth
column. Enraged by mass media as such, he will close
the site forever and go back to Soloviev, Kiseliov and Si-
monyan, who will assure him that killings and shelling are
not justifiable... unless we are fighting with the Nazi, and
that wishing children death is unjustifiable.... unless the
stories about killed children are all fake. Now things are
back to normal: the Law has changed. Noone is to be
bombed but the Nazi, and taking pleasure in watching
fakes is not illegal.
Perverse propaganda as
the new Normality
Are all proponents of Putin's Nazism perverse
sadists? Contagious sadism
As perversion is a psychic structure, true perverts are rel-
atively few. If they were numerous, the humanity would
either have already ceased to exist, or turned into some-
thing completely different from the society we live in now.
Yet, the discourse of propaganda, supported by over a
half of the country's population, is overtly sadistic, creat-
ed by perverts for perverts. Such perverse, transgressive
rhetoric could not have been re-constructed by cynical
neurotics; this is a product of a pervert's psyche, not char-
acteristic even of a sociopath. What, then, made it possi-
ble to infect an entire country? And what is the root of the
evil - the pervert or the perverse propaganda?
It is not unreasonable to predict that a lot of future re-
search will be devoted to the phenomenon of nazifica-
tion. In a nutshell, this is how I see it for now. A pervert
comes to power and surrounds himself with a few other
perverts. In turn, those create a network of like-minded
people – that is, perverts, - which is only logical, as
a perverse general would not ally with a moralist that
would be outraged by war crimes – instead, he will part-
ner with a pervert, who will take pleasure in bloody en-
tertainment and before joining the commander in a sau-
na where he will be the first to suggest calling a prostitute.
Thus, the network of perverts is growing.
At the same time, certain ambitious people willing to
achieve success to that end do some research into the
way of thinking and actions of those in power. Later on,
unconcsciously, they come to mimic them - and end up
perverted.
“Nashi” (“Ours!”). As a rule, Russian imagemakers do not
Perversion, and sadism in particular, is seductive. Cer-
tain sadistic tendencies (J. Laсan does not separate sad-
ism from masochism, so it would be more correct to talk
about sado-masochistic tendencies) are characteristic of
most people to varying degrees – but those tendencies
will be vented in a society that provides access to edu-
cation, allows to choose an occupation and guarantees
social lifts.
29
Violence enchants and attracts: otherwise, the industry of
horror movies, shooters, violent computer games, BDSM
parties, sport would not exist – and, if we are to believe
Stanley Kubrick, the civilization as such would have
disappeared. Suppressing most of their sadistic tenden-
cies, neurotics are unaware of them. However, this hi-
bernating perversion may awaken, for example, when a
psychic regression takes place. Everyone, perhaps, has
an acquaintance, normally timid and quiet – that is, until
they get seriously drunk. All of a sudden, the shy type will
turn into an aggressive bully looking for trouble. This is
one example of psychic regression: under the influence
of alcohol the suppressed masochism surfaces. One sign
of Russia's deep psychic setback was its leadership in the
anti-vaccination campaign, which remained unnoticed
by most.
Hibernating perversion can be awoken by a pervert,
who can do what a neurotic dreads even thinking about.
A pervert enchants both male and female hysterics. Re-
member the hype around the “50 Shades of Grey”, a
book and a film of very mediocre literary or ideologi-
cal value. A great many histerics were seduced by the
promise to show a sadist as The Master (that is, aware
of their lust).
Quite unexpectedly, in early 2000s a new manifestation
of Putin's image emerged: a bare-torso macho riding a
horse. At the same time, a song called “Someone like Pu-
tin” was written, and a calendar was published featuring
half-naked activists from the pro-Putin political movement
go any further than exploiting the paternalist archetype
(considered to be the most suitable for Russians due to
their innate tendency to succumb to “the firm hand”),
and a system of images from Malkin and Souchkov. This
means that the image of a sadist, rapist, macho emerged
on its own, out of the very essence of sadism. Discovered
by political technologists, it was subsequently conscious-
ly inflated.
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
For women, especially for Russian women, who do not
hide their masochism, a sadist endowed with power is
an image from their sexual fantasies. Strange as it may
sound, Putin's perverse propaganda is, in the first
place, seductive.
It is seductive since it knows what the adept wants, and
promises to give them an opportunity to unleash their hi-
bernating (or already awoken) sadism and become its
weapon. Seduction, as a new type of bond in a world
transitioning to the narcissistic structure, was foreseen by
J. Baudrillard and G. Querzola18 .
The second, equally important aspect of sadistic seduc-
tion is an opportunity to get rid of subjectivity, becoming
an object, a gear in a machine, a tool of someone's de-
sire. Being an actor means bearing responsibility, having
wishes, suffering, striving for self-fullfillment, etc.
The freedom of the 90-ies overwhelmed former Soviet
people, who still remembered their life as nuts and bolts
of Soviet bureaucracy, being cared for by the State. One
never had own wishes or sufferings: the Party knew what
you wanted. It would, however, be a hypocrisy to as-
cribe this wish to be an object exclusively to soviet peo-
ple or Russians.
The same is true about ministers of religion, ascetics, reli-
gious mystics, willing to give their entire selves to religion
and never belong to themselves; some people are hap-
py when they fully ”lose themselves” in a lover; worka-
holics devote themselves wholly to work, charity, or a
cause – you name it...
Sure enough, when producing their propaganda sadists
were not aware of anything like that. Apparently, per-
verse propaganda formed upon a perverse core, and
it wasn't due to a devious plan – it happened because
all ideological positions had already been taken over
by sadists. Previously, perverts had tried to adjust to the
society, emulating empathy. Quite possibly, the first sign
of the prevalence of sadists among the representatives
of power was the notorious “It sank” as a reaction to a
tragedy showing no signs of empathy whatsoever.
How was perversion spread? Through language.
Speech affects thinking – and the opposite is true. When
comprehending perverse speech, responding to it, ad-
justing to it, a subject acquires the skill of perverse think-
ing: merging the opposites, de-subjectivating the inter-
locutor via devaluing, mixed messages and gas-lighting,
taking pleasure in abuse, etc.
30
One of the propagandist tools is the Newspeak. It plays
several roles at a time: signifies the Nazi discourse and
hegemonic (you are to select words from the approved
list), refers to a repressive machine (you remember that a
wrong choice is punishable), provides a perverse expe-
rience of simultaneous existence of two opposites (you
heard thundering explosions, you said “pops”), teaches
the skill of not-being the one who made a statement, the
speech master (you cannot choose your words, it's the
Nazi discourse that chooses them for you). By alienating
the actor from their speech, the Newspeak makes one
get caught by the pleasure of being an object.
In the hands of sadist propagandists seduction became
a way of pulling the sadistic desires of as many peo-
ple as possible to the surface. Propaganda has become
the reflection of their psyche: this includes ressentiment
(longing for the pleasure of being an object), transgres-
sion, perversion, delusion, creating own Law, paranoia,
hatred of the strong and contempt of the weak, and, of
course, uncontrollable violence.
Some people, naturally, did not yield to the temptation.
Some of them formed the opposition. Some of those en-
dowed with empathy were destroyed by perverts. Oth-
ers ended up suppressing the unthinkable and are now
trying to live as though nothing is wrong.
Some people were so traumatized that they joined in due
to the Stockholm syndrome. Traumatized people, unable
to channel their aggression towards the real culprit (who
is too frightening or too distant, or whom you cannot real-
ly conquer), resort to a primitive sort of defense by iden-
tifying with the aggressor. They make the aggressor part
of their psyche while channeling aggression towards vic-
tims like themselves. This holds true, for example, for the
inhabitants of the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk territo-
ries, who support the Russian Federation, which in fact
turned their lives and cities to hell, while treating the res-
idents of Mariupol and Ukraine as a whole as enemies.
In an interview to “Popular Politics”, a YouTube channel,
V. Shenderovitch referred to the Stockholm syndrome as
the main reason for becoming infected by propaganda.
When the majority had become perverted, the prop-
aganda's job became easier: the electorate now had
the same aspirations as the propagandists. Regression
makes psyche more predictable. A neurotic's psyche, in
contrast, contains a vast array of desires, that collide with
a variety of psychic phenomena, can be suppressed,
sublimated, rejected. A neurotic may prioritize someone
else's desires, etc.
It is next to impossible to figure out what this diverse
bunch of neurotics want so much they are ready to
vote. In contrast, psychic deviations from a convention-
al norm follow certain laws and tendencies and have
similar aspirations. If the perverse ideologist wants to
execute opposition, the perverse majority will not mind.
If those in power start pondering bringing the Crimea
back, the perverse majority will most likely welcome
the idea. This will significantly simplify the ideologist's
task as long as they are aware of this principle.
The perverse majority created the new Normality19.
The normality of a pervert is different from that of a
neurotic in that that it is not based on guilt – rather, on
“what the people might say”. It is not the Law based
on inner moral, ethical, religious, matrimonial convic-
tions – rather, it's a social reflex that helps, primarily,
to avoid punishment and escape being rejected. It is
not based on things like morale and ethics – it is a rule
rather than a permanent Law.
31 31
The Normality of a Putin's propaganda adept has little
to do with what we learned from books, films and even
Christian commandments. It is normal to wish death to
people who never hurt you; it's normal to feel no com-
passion for killed children, it is normal to want to de-
stroy hundreds of thousands of lives only in order for a
Nazi to be proud of his country's “greatness”; it's nor-
mal to mock relatives living in areas subject to constant
shelling... In the Russia of today whoever claims they
hate Ukrainian children, they will instantly get tons of
likes and supportive commentaries. This “normality” is
abnormal, it is the normality of sadists, created in such
a way that the Human Law will be violated; actually, it
is already being violated: they are simply waiting in
the wings. All they will then have to do is impose the
new, “revised” Law.
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis

Why is Russia
overtaken by the
pandemic of Nazism?

The role of perverse ruling classes,

social frustration, ressentiment and
repressions

32
Could propaganda brainwash?
Propaganda is powerful and terrifying, but it can’t
exaggerate something that doesn’t really exist. In order
to become the Master, the main narrative, by definition,
propaganda must know what its subject desires, that
which the subject himself is unaware of. A parliamentary
or presidential candidate, one whose aim it is to become
the Master, must determine what the majority want while
the majority themselves do not know what they want.
Should the candidate fail to do so, he does not win the
election.
Coerced into enjoyment
In part, Putin's Nazism succeeded because he came to
power in a perverse, enjoyment-focused time. For a long
time, the consumer society has had a single demand –
“to enjoy!”. Therefore, for the last twenty years or so,
consumption has become an over-the-top caricature. Fur
coats, luxury brands, absurdly extravagant houses and
cars, expensive plastic surgeries, snow-white veneers,
prestigious partners – this is the ideal reinforced by
officials, bloggers, actors, singers and athletes.
Consumerism has created a situation in which libido,
the enjoyment of consumption, has become nothing
more than added value: pleasure and profit now mean
basically the same thing (in this sense, selling bath water
is no more shameful than a handmade designer bag).
Of course, no one is literally forcing you to buy twenty
pairs of shoes or a new iPhone every year. Coercion
works through narcissism. Everywhere you turn, there
are successful, happy, rich, loved people saying: “To be
successful, you need a C-segment car”; “How can you
want to be loved and not have this underwear?”; "Every
woman must have a little black dress”... This way you
don’t simply buy a car, you buy success. You don’t buy
underwear, you buy love. You don’t buy a black dress,
you buy French chic. You are constantly told that modesty
is a sign of the mundane, and a striking personality will
find a way to stand out. Every day you come face-to-
face with perfect people and perfect happiness, and
every time you lack something you can buy.
Of course, neither ideal nor happiness can be achieved
this way. Firstly, it is technically impossible. Secondly, by
reducing oneself merely to an object of consumption and
enjoyment, one becomes one step closer to a complete
meltdown and loss of subjectification.
33
The same is true about propaganda, which reflected
the vision of its authors. It identified the awakened thirst
for violence which coincided with excessive sadistic
inclinations in society. Said inclinations had no way to
be properly expressed.
How could the inclination to violence be so strong that
it turned into Nazism? I see several factors to this issue.
However, a Russian who goes from devastation and
decay straight into the wild world of capitalism of the 90s,
a Russian who personally felt how difficult it is to make
money, hopelessly clings to the idea that happiness and
wealth are synonymous and you should strive for it and it
alone. According to him, the earned money needs to be
spent generously.
If you can afford the latest iPhone, a Louis Vuitton bag
or a Dior lipstick, there’s no need to hide it. Quite the
opposite actually: post it on Instagram, show it to
everyone. If you don't show how successful and rich
you are, no one will ever know it. Social networks that
appeared during this time have even made it possible
to record pleasure and compete with others. “My
enjoyment is worth a thousand likes, two thousand, and
this loser’s enjoyment is only worth a measly twenty likes.”
We should not forget that the majority of Russians can’t
treat themselves to whatever they want, so coercion to
consume becomes destructive when it demands: “Enjoy,
there can be no excuses if you don’t enjoy. You are a
nobody if you don’t enjoy!”. In a narcissistic society, you
are identified through what you have acquired, i.e. if you
can’t afford anything except the bare essentials, then
you are a nobody not worth the attention, none of your
personal characteristics are important in themselves, but
only in terms of their monetization.
Jean Querzola warned us about the dangers of being
coerced into enjoyment in his work “Le silicium fleur de
peau”, which was quoted by Jean Baudrillard in the
work “De la Séduction”20 Jean Querzola wrote about
the turn “from Oedipus to Narcissus”: a person’s mental
paradigm turning from a neurotic subject to a narcissistic
one. He also wrote about a new type of manipulation –
seduction.
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
Querzola suggested that such a turn would lead to the
destruction of the existing order in society and descent
into psychosis. I think that if it were not for ecological and
left-wing ideas that call for consumption to be limited
(especially not to be flaunted), Europe would have faced
the same spread of perverse mentality. In the Russian
Federation, however, ecological and left-wing ideas are
systematically marginalized21.
So, with little to no resistance (I assume the entire Russian
society gave up the feeling of guilt in favour of the
intelligentsia (intellectual class) back in 1905 (in Vekhi),
and the society was safely freed from guilt.
Ressentiment
Cours camarade , le vieux monde est derrière toi!
(“Run, comrade, the old world is behind you!”)
Putin’s system, which could not find any ideas of its own
to indicate delusion of grandeur, decided to play it safe
and borrow a good old ressentiment proven by the
Communist Party, one built on the myth that when Amer-
ica promised prosperity and abundance, it tricked peo-
ple into ruining a great country. Soviet people opened
their hearts and souls to capitalism, but ended up in the
gangster-driven 90s instead of a dream-like store with
97 types of sausage.
One day Russians are a part of a huge country that set
itself an ambitious goal of uniting proletarians of all coun-
tries, and the next they are faced with inflation, market
crashes, unemployment and a battle for survival. What
used to be a confrontation between the USSR and the
USA, arms race and other conflicts that touched every
individual is now a second or even third-world country.
“America” promised a world of abundance in exchange
for greatness, and while a naive Soviet man gave its
greatness away, it turned out that you had to pay to en-
ter this new world. What, then, was the point of giving up
your great country? Is it really for the sake of democracy
and free speech?
Putin’s supporters outside of the Russian Federation
have one thing in common – contempt for the country
of which they are citizens, and the desire to live in the
“Russian World”. Ask a few more questions and you can
conclude that they cannot forgive their countries’ “insig-
34
Thereafter, they got rid of intelligentsia as well and
welcomed the age of grotesque consumption and
coercion into enjoyment with open arms. A person
striving for pleasure, a narcissist 22 , cannot be controlled
by appealing to duty or authority, he must be seduced.
Putin's spin doctors found something to seduce this new
man with.
nificance”, “modesty”, lack of expansion plans or “the
second army of the world”, their “second-rate” status as
compared to the Russian Federation. If a pervert sees
himself as an object of the system (as, for example, a
cog in the bureaucratic machine of the USSR), then he
wants to be a cog in the most powerful machine. Since
he thinks in terms of numbers and in terms of belonging
/ possessing as well as being prone to paranoia, he
chooses the most frightening and biggest country, which,
unfortunately, is the northern neighbour. The more terri-
fying the neighbour becomes, the greater the desire to
be an object of the “Russian World”, to belong to it. The
idea that instead of the “Russian World” he belongs to
such un- frightening country as Ukraine or Belarus, caus-
es narcissistic fury, as it attacks the fragile identity of
the subject. “The country is weak, therefore there is no
reason to maintain the tremendous “I” – therefore, I'm
insignificant.” They understand the relationship between
citizens and country as that of slaves and their masters.
They want to boast about their masters instead of feel-
ing embarrassed. Look at what happens to Shariy when
he talks about Ukraine. He can’t contain his narcissistic
rage when he says that The Security Service of Ukraine
accused him of a series of crimes as this is a claim to be-
come Shariy’s master (submitting to the Security Service
of Ukraine is equal to becoming an object of its desire),
and yet the most shameful thing is to belong to a master
who isn’t the strongest.
Nostalgia for being an object of a great country has
erased real memories of what it really was like living
there, and replaced it with a fantasy. Rock-bottom prices
for ice cream, which is not really ice cream at all, but
a substitute for mother's milk (Remember milk rivers and
jelly shores in fairy tales?). Narcissistic anger caused by
lack of greatness and a desire to be rid of the burden
of subjectivity have created a ressentiment for the So-
viet Union. Putin’s government found that no one wants
the real USSR, everyone wants it to be as it is, only (“for
the country to flourish by the book”), therefore, it has not
introduced any systemic changes into the economy or
social policy. Populism and nationalism were more than
enough.
Looking for ressentiment in a failed attempt to join the
Nazis before World War II is the second idea prompted
by the surprising repetition23, even fixation, of both the
events and the accepted rhetoric.
Social organization of “The Russian World”
If you look for the closest analogy, then the society of the
Russian Federation is very similar to that of a prison (the
worst form of prison at that, a private one). The prison is run
by a warden, everyone obeys him. His power is carried
out by the guards – security officials and the military. The
prisoners are divided into the “high class” – crime bosses
(high officials, businessmen), the “middle class” – mugs
(medium and small businesses, state employees, office
workers), and the “lower class” – the castaways. In
addition to these well-known categories, there are also
others: honest journalists, political opposition, activists
and intellectuals, etc. The system tries to integrate them,
push them out or destroy them altogether. Neither
prisoners nor guards choose the warden.
Prison knows no law. However, there are rules, there
are many rules, and each rule has nuances that are
impossible not to violate. In fact, every prisoner has
broken at least one law. Punishment works selectively,
depending on various factors (some of which can be
taken into account, and some can be safely ignored):
loyalty of the prisoner, his social status, level of publicity
and financial situation, the right connections. This is not
certain, however, because, even having all this, you can,
for example, get in trouble with of a madman security
guard.
35
If it were not for Hitler's betrayal, the Red Army would
have marched across Europe toe to toe with the allies.
Instead, they were forced to defend their own country.
The slogan “We can repeat” probably does not even
refer to the victory over fascism, because why would you
repeat something that ended in victory? However, the
issue of conquering Europe under the banner of Nazism
still remains...
The idea of rising from one’s knees is still present no mat-
ter the pretence. However, it can be rightfully noted that
many countries have ressentiment (and every society has
sadistic inclinations), however, not everywhere it devel-
ops into fascism. So other factors need to be considered.
In addition, the severity of the crime and the severity of
the punishment may or may not be correlated.
“Social elevators” in the Russian Federation, just like in
prison, are exclusively open to the elite. A huge number
of people live in constant dire straits, with no prospects to
climb the social and financial ladder, or even of repaying
a loan. There is a huge gap between the poor and the
rich. Neither the government nor the oligarchs make
any attempts to relieve social tension. On the contrary,
wealth is flaunted around. It's good to be rich, the rest
are suckers. An over-exploitation of the periphery at its
best.
This primitive model is to demonstrate one important
feature of such a society, an incredible castration24
anxiety. When you are in prison, you must constantly
defend your position in order to not be humiliated. You
need to emphasize your inflated importance with all
your actions: having the most expensive car, the biggest
house, the most guards, the most prestigious entourage.
Communication with the poor, the ugly, the disabled, the
homeless, the disgraced, will be regarded as weakness.
You have to avoid being infected by the castaways at
any cost.
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
The initially not-quite-conscious fear of castration
gradually turns into a real one when the subject sees
what kind of hell the elderly, the poor, the disabled, the
women, and sexual minorities find themselves in. Then he
begins to avoid such people and instead supports the
system. The more examples of injustice towards the weak
he witnesses, the higher castration anxiety possesses him.
In turn, the more castration anxiety he experiences, the
more cruel he becomes towards the weak.
The phenomenon of soldiers' mothers
If we analyze the conversations with the soldiers' mothers
of the Russian Federation as well as between the soldiers'
mothers of the Russian Federation and their captured
sons, then one cannot help but wonder. What is wrong
with these women? Why don't they take their children
home? How can you, upon hearing of your son’s death,
worry about how to withdraw his salary from the card?
How can you scold your son for being captured?
On the other hand, mothers are not completely indiffer-
ent. We cannot say that they do not care at all. The logic
of their love fits into the logic of castration anxiety.
In a prison society, women don’t generally have a status,
especially those who have a weak financial standing.
Birth control sabotage teaches such women that they
need to forget about themselves and give birth to chil-
dren, that this way they will earn respect. However, hav-
ing given birth to a child (often left without the support of
a biological father), a woman is faced with the ugly truth.
Her life has not improved. Thereafter, she is left hoping
that her son will become a powerful anchor for her, and
achieve something that will improve her status and her
standard of living.
When her son is captured, he loses any power, becomes
castrated, humiliated. Such a son will not make his moth-
er's life better. Not only did her own life fail, but her son
is also humiliated.
Unconditional maternal love undergoes changes in a
perverse society due to the more difficult position women
and mothers have and, as a result, greater contagious-
ness of their Nazism. Firstly, Russian women are sensitive
to the call of sadism due to the fantasy of a sadistic lover,
widely exploited by Russian and world art.
36
Can there be no aggression and sadism in a society that
is extremely unequal in terms of financial stability and
one devoid of social justice? Of course not. The lack of
prospects and “social elevators” leads to the desire for
violence not being able to be reworked constructively.
Of course, you can always participate in a drunken knife
fight, but this road leads to a real prison, which is even
worse than a public one. Thus, all this accumulates and
waits for an opportunity and a prophet.
Secondly, in order to find a place in the world where
weakness is shameful, they have to show great tenacity
in following the doctrine in order to convince everyone
of their loyalty. Thirdly, women are forced to suppress
even conscious aggression because of social stereo-
types about gender roles, and because they cannot al-
ways physically protect themselves if their opponent runs
out of verbal arguments (as we remember, the victim will
be to blame because "she brought it on herself"). Such a
woman can take great pleasure in inflicting pain by say-
ing: “Where have you been for 8 years?”, “Think about
the tears of Donbas”, “No one is bombing you” ... At first,
spreading sadism gives pleasure and even an advan-
tage: a sadist is a wolf among the sheep, but retribution
(mental regression) is inevitable.
Mental regression is a return to narcissism, i.e. a person's
interest revolves around himself and his own practical in-
terests while interest in the surrounding world fades (as it
happens with a severely ill person). A narcissist cannot
adequately evaluate himself, i.e. “I am good here, but
in this situation, Vasya is stronger.” A narcissist is either
great and imposing or insignificant. His judgments be-
come more one-sided, he lacks and depth, fantasy often
replaces real achievements.
So, imagine that a narcissistic, i.e. not a very empath-
ic mother, is told that the son is in captivity, “humiliated”
(castrated). All hopes for grandiose identifications col-
lapse and castration anxiety (which is already strong)
skyrockets. It turns out that such a mother, of course, still
needs her son, but only with a wallet full of money, hon-
ours and a washing machine. However, she does not
need him without any of that. Yet another reason to lose
face in the eyes of her neighbours.
It is impossible to believe that propaganda can affect
love for one’s children unless you see it with your own
eyes. However, this war has seen too many cases of
Nazi parents refusing to be empathetic toward their chil-
dren to accept any case as an isolated one, or to turn
a blind eye. A son or daughter in Ukraine immediately
becomes castrated. (i.e the victim, instead of living in
Moscow and serving in the “second army of the world”).
Such cases cause castration anxiety which weakens
empathy and makes it impossible to experience uncon-
ditional love. Such a child seems undeserving of love.
Hence, the conflict between being identified as “a good
person and a good parent” (in other words, the law that
states “I must love my child”) and irritation or even de-
sire to annihilate the victim, which the Nazi parents ac-
tually feel. This leads to the term “Nazis” having a much
broader meaning than before. Since their child is a Nazi,
they can accuse American channels of “brainwashing”
instead of offering any sympathy.
Later, perverts started spreading hatred which was in
line with their paranoid worldview: terrible enemies be-
gan popping up all around the Soviet republics: terrorist
Chechens, Georgians, “Banderites”. Parades have be-
come more and more pompous, demonstrating the mili-
tary power of a great country; the myths of World War
II have developed to an absurd extent, terrorist attacks
are now announced in advance, fifth columnists, pressur-
ing the press, persecuting everyone able to resist, strict
censorship, shutdown of several channels of informa-
tion... They have crafted a new normal for a new society,
where sadism is now legal.

On the one hand, coercion into enjoyment and narcis-

sism, fear of becoming “humiliated” and dreaming of be-
longing to a great country, on the other hand, very few
opportunities for personal development, declining qual-
ity of education, limited access to “social elevators” and
a society of extreme financial inequality. Tremendous
aggression, anxiety, nonsensical rambling, the overly
excited media and third-rate cultural products, atten-
tion-grabbing consumption that has turned into a stand-
ard of living while the majority of the population can’t
afford to live in such a way, longing for the “paradise
lost.” There is no socially acceptable way of expressing
any of this. This is a recipe for disaster.

Putin's government got together, issued some kind of

document with an ideological strategy. That’s their whole
merit. They couldn’t build any other narrative except for a
sadistic one. This was exactly the narrative necessary at
that moment. On the other hand, is it a coincidence that
sadists came to power at the very moment when aggres-
sion overtook their society? Would a non-sadist have
guessed what the people wanted? There is no definite
answer. In any case, they abandoned pluralism and sim-
ple pleasures and began to “rise from their knees.” As
a “peaceful country”, of course, but if they are forced to
attack, then “we can repeat.”

New ideas were picked up so enthusiastically in fact

that the ideologists realized that they had found the right
path – one of aggression, sadism, and violence.

37
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
How sadism is being made
normal:
the technique of interpassivity
Prior to February 24, 2022, the whole world was bewil-
dered as to how such a cultured and educated nation
as the Germans could have turned into Nazis. It was im-
possible to believe that you could persecute, torture and
kill those who were your fellow neighbors, colleagues at
the university, your family’s doctors just a few days be-
fore. How could one reconcile with the idea of killing
children? How could one kill children, or ignore this fact?
Now, of course, it is clear that it is possible. However,
how does propaganda instill ideas that are far beyond
the concepts of good and evil? How can a person be
made to accept the existence of infected birds, Nazis,
and the need to bomb civilians?
At the moment, instilment of an idea, even the most insane
one, happens in several stages. Firstly, some controver-
sial politician, like the late Zhirinovsky or Medvedev,
throws it out there. Upon receiving feedback, gag orders
are spread among politicians, officials, spin doctors, ed-
itors, journalists, TV channel management, experts, loyal
businessmen, celebrities, bloggers, the Russian Ortho-
dox Church, embassies, influencers abroad, bots, etc.
This is how instilment works. Let’s say a bank employee
from Moscow with a higher education, Aleksey, who
is not interested in politics, comes home from work one
day, turns on the TV where Lavrov announces: “Ukrainian
Nazis are going to use biological weapons – infected
birds.” On the one hand, this is complete nonsense, Alek-
sey thinks, but on the other hand, the minister says so. This
way, the idea is not yet believed but it is not completely
dismissed either. A political show begins right after the
news. Aleksey hears about the birds again, this time
from the likes of solovyov-kiselyov-simonyan-skabeyeva.
Their existence is not even questioned: it is presented as
a fact, while discussing the dangers of their (the birds)
usage and ways of taking revenge on the Ukrainians.
Aleksey does not believe the idiot’s lantern. He picks up
his phone and goes to YouTube. Birds again, even here,
this time discussed by experts and bloggers, and again
shifting the focus to, for example, the history of biological
weapons or to whether birds can be recruited to infect
Ukrainians, etc.
38
Aleksey is still doubtful, so he decides to study the infor-
mation from the other, Ukrainian side. He does possess
critical thinking. So he types “birds bioweapons” and
YouTube finds a video of... Shariy. It turns out that ex-
perts, politicians, Kandelaki, and even the “independent
Ukrainian expert” Shariy are all absolutely sure of the ex-
istence of infected birds. Aleksey goes to bed, but before
falling asleep, he, as usual, logs into VK.
The first thing he comes across is a thread about infect-
ed birds, where, for example, 20 people are absolutely
sure of their existence (and of the genius of the president
and the greatness of the country, of course) while one
person writes that this is complete nonsense. He is, natu-
rally, hated on and cursed. Even if 19 out of 20 people
leaving patriotic comments have nothing in their feed ex-
cept congratulations on Apple Feast of the Saviour, there
are 20 of them at least.
So what happen next? It is possible that Aleksey doesn’t
believe it. In this case, he can listen to the limited number
of speakers who are allowed to slightly denounce Pu-
tin’s regime. They are perfect for the progressive, thinking
part of the population. These speakers look at the birds
critically, and weigh the pros and cons, giving Aleksey
the opportunity to make a decision for himself (in reality,
no).
If the person still retains reason and believes logic more
than he does massive nonsense, then there are other
techniques including “it’s not so clear-cut”, “we will never
know the truth”, “one side can’t be all wrong” – anything
to undermine strong beliefs to the contrary. In the most
difficult cases, Putin's propaganda can settle with agree-
ing to consider an “alternative point of view”, for exam-
ple, an “alternative point of view” on genocide.
Do you remember the Russian “Overton window” fake,
which describes gradual indoctrination of some taboo
idea? This is not the case in practice. The idea is intro-
duced in its final form followed by people being bom-
barded with the same messages wherever they turn. No
ingenious viral campaigns, no polished form, just a large
workforce.
Propaganda ensures that no one believes that the op-
posite opinion has supporters. It’s not the substance of
opposing ideas that is more often discredited, it’s the
authors (and they are spoken of as loners and outcasts).
One is the worst characteristic of anything. All good
things are plentiful, all bad things are few. The Russian
Federation has many friends, Nazis have few.
Large-scale involvement is both a method of influence
and one of the few characteristics that perverts under-
stand. They find other approaches difficult to use. We
have already mentioned that, stuck at the “moi” stage,
they do not understand qualitative characteristics. They
only understand “many”, “big”, “little”. For example, prop-
aganda speeches are filled with quantitative character-
istics: “we have more nuclear warheads than America”,
“we have the second army in the world”, a huge amount
of military equipment during the parade, “Russian cruiser
Moscow (Moskva) was a year older than me”, etc.
Putin's spin doctors see any blogger with 1 million sub-
scribers as better than any blogger with 300,000 sub-
scribers. Large-scale involvement is what they are afraid
of. They are more afraid of fifty students than one Akunin,
100 cobbled-together fakes are better than 1 high-qual-
ity one. For them, the worst thing is a lot of people on
the streets, so they do everything in their power to not let
this happen. For Putin's perverts, any person is replace-
able, unless they don’t consider someone their property
or master. The expression “no one is irreplaceable” does
not showcase administrative wisdom, but mental under-
subjectification.
It seems that at some point, without expecting any posi-
tive effect whatsoever (holding out hope for a repressive
system, retired people and state employees), Putin's ide-
ologists discovered something rather interesting. We can
speculate that the deadline was approaching, they were
reaching a dead end, and the project manager was so
scared that he didn’t steal the money, hiring a bunch of
foot soldiers instead, and suddenly quantitative changes
turned into qualitative ones, so this turned into a method.
Putin's propaganda managed to achieve the following:
they did not make people believe in nonsense, they
made them believe that there were people who be-
lieved in nonsense. This phenomenon was described by
S. Žižek, who called it interpassivity25 .
If you ask Nazis with “critical thinking” if they believe in
infected birds, the answer will be, “Of course, I don’t. I
am not an idiot. But many of us here do.” Believing in oth-
er people’s belief forces them to change their behaviour
to fall in line with that belief.
39
A person who believes that there are people believing in,
say, infected birds, will close the window so that others
who believe in birds feel comfortable; put up nets so that
the neighbors do not think that he is not being careful and
that he might get sick, etc. This behavior further convinces
people around that everyone believes in infected birds.
Religious people have been familiar with this rule for a
long time: a person who has lost faith is forced to be-
have as if he truly believes. By imitating faith, the subject
who considers it difficult to live in a split-up world will
eventually either accept the idea or refuse it completely.
Because of the repressive system and public opinion, re-
fusing comes at a higher price than agreeing. At the very
least it is much more energy-consuming.
On the one hand, interpassivity is a way to avoid be-
ing coerced into enjoyment (of which there is a lot in a
perverse society). It is the original way of protecting the
subject from jouissance (I give jouissance to Another. He
will experience it for me). For example, a guest of hon-
or at large celebrations can sometimes find it difficult to
have all eyes on him for a long time. It’s too much atten-
tion for him to take, so he finds a host to be the center
of attention instead. The host will then need to imitate
pleasure, allowing the hero of the day to enjoy the hol-
iday himself. He is the real subject of desire. After all,
attention is not directed at the host who is very often a
complete stranger for those gathered. When it comes to
propaganda, interpassivity allows you to get away from
the excess of coercion to join your faith and share your
beliefs. “Do you believe in infected birds?” someone
asks. The subject sees right through the strong desire for
propaganda to make him believe, but the passive posi-
tion of the object of desire affects his dignity, so he says:
“I don't. But many do.
Can a perverse society sustain any other way of believ-
ing than the “belief in what the other believes”? In a so-
ciety where you can’t appeal to moral values or a sense
of guilt, where this is not acceptable, the super value of
“what will people say?” takes priority. It’s a social reflex,
a compromise to replace the absent sense of guilt.
Large-scale information attacks send a clear message:
there is the opinion of the majority, the dominant narra-
tive. The opposite point of view is inconsequential. Thus,
their ”belief in believers” allowed Putin's propaganda to
avoid having to explain anything with any level of va-
lidity.
We have already discussed “infected birds”. This is
harmless nonsense. What about “carpet bombing” cam-
paigns?
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
It is easier to believe in carpet bombings than it is to be-
lieve in birds, because Putin’s Nazi sees profit here.
A sadist is full of aggression, hatred for the “Ukronazis”
(fueled for years and years), he wants blood and to live
in a “great” country (which will win). According to propa-
ganda, the “peaceful country” does not want shelling, the
“Nazis” want them. The “Nazis” are forcing the “peaceful
army” which is only carrying out its “righteous” duty. This
is enough for their perverse psyche. The only thing left
to do is to overcome the notion of killing children with
aerial bombs. In this case, the army of influencers and
bots replaces the voice of morality. “Yes, I feel bad for
the children, but this is war”, “Didn’t the Armed Forces of
Ukraine shell the children of Donbass?”, “There were no
children there, only Azov”, “Didn’t children die in Syria?”,
“This is Bucha of the brain " etc. It is not about making
the recipient of the message hate the dead children. It’s
about the idea of “It needs to be discussed”. It distorts the
transgressive into the mundane. A Nazi supporter starts
to believe that others consider it normal to bomb chil-
dren, that his secret desire for violence is not condemned.
“Discussions” by “reasonable” “experts” are mixed in with
shrieks of the obsessed proclaiming: “Everyone is a Nazi
there, they all need to be killed, and children too!”. Then
an average Russian can feel even more superior to oth-
ers. One can lament: “Well, you can’t kill children, it’s
unjustifiable. Except, of course, as a last resort. Oh, poor
children!” and consider himself a kind, maybe even too
gentle a person. He can choose to ignore everything.
Normality allows people to think that “it was Azov’s do-
ing” or that “we bombed Azov headquarters.” It’s not
about denial or repression that stems from the inability
to accept the deliberate murder of children, it’s simply
about saving mental energy, because who cares about
children, we want blood.
Sometimes non-Nazis also fall into the trap of large-
scale involvement. For example, we all believed in the
myth about “the second best army in the world.” No vio-
lence required. We believed it simply because everyone
around screamed about it. Often even the opposition,
who “do not believe a single word of propaganda”, are
unaware of how they fall into the trap of the Master's
narrative (discurs de Maître), and start broadcasting the
same messages. This is a very dangerous phenomenon
because what appears to be purely informative news
at first often sends a message along the lines of “Putin’s
power is strong, he cannot be defeated, and if you re-
sist, you will be crushed”. As a result, we have martyrs
doomed to fail from day one instead of revolutionaries.
40
Information that cannot be hidden or explained is
blurred or glossed over and people’s attention is quickly
distracted by something else, something more effective.
All to muddle absolute values, to make a person doubt-
ful. If you fail to convince a person that it is normal to kill
children, then you can at least suggest that “it’s not so
clear-cut”. This can help you in other situations even if this
one fails. Absolute moral priorities are the main enemy of
Putin’s Nazism. If you firmly refuse to discuss
Little by little, a supporter of Putin's Nazism replaces the
accepted moral laws with the new Normality. He under-
stands its tendencies, and self-censorship takes effect. It
is very convenient for a dictatorship when a person al-
ready knows how to react to any given news or what to
do in any given situation. At some point, propaganda
and a Nazi swap places, a person becomes an object,
an instrument of propaganda, and begins to make sure
that everyone else thinks and speaks correctly. He be-
comes an informant.
Thus, the main instrument of Nazi propaganda is the
large-scale involvement, which creates the new Nor-
mality and introduces nonsensical or anti-humanistic
ideas through interpassivity, “belief in those who believe.”
Don’t expect some brilliant Nazi ideas from sadists. They
are not capable of analysis, reflection or anything clev-
er due to the semi-failure of subjectification. In addition,
they do not comprehend the non-Nazi way of thinking.
We can, therefore, state that the success of Putin's propa-
ganda is largely contingent on a series of accidents: per-
verts got to the top, created Nazi propaganda, which
coincided with the spread of sadistic inclinations in so-
ciety and used the principle of “believing in believers”,
which replaced moral laws in perverse society. But one
cannot deny the intent and consistency of Putin's power
in the formation of a repressive system.
Repressive system
In our opinion, the spread of Putin's Nazi ideas is
influenced in the following three ways. Firstly, directly -
through supervision and punishment. Secondly, by
serving as a catalyst. Thirdly, by bringing about the
Stockholm syndrome.
The direct effect is clear. When a man with a club is
standing over you, you will confess to the biolaboratories,
recognize Russia as the most peaceful country in the
world or even sign up for a battle in Christ’s name.
The crazier the propaganda statement, the better.
Dictatorship needs all those who agree to actively pass
on the guidebook-based statements, while those who
disagree, who stand out from the system, to be quiet
(ideally, completely). The goal of a repressive system
is to identify and punish those who stand out from the
system. Nothing can prove that you’re one of the people
better than blindly accepting a crazy idea. It is one thing
to accept something reasonable, logical, something that
can be supported by arguments – this doesn’t require
loyalty. It's completely different when a person not only
does not laugh at the mention of biolaboratories, but
frantically rushes to pass it on. Fanatics are valuable to
a dictatorship. The guidebook has to be accepted in full.
You can’t only believe in laboratories, you also have to
believe in the second army, in the power of “conservative”
(sadistic) values, etc.
For example, it takes seconds to understand a person’s
stance on the special operation. If he talks about how the
child-free, feminists, the cancel culture and multiculturalism
are leading Europe to extinction, then at some point he/
she will inevitably say “If we hadn’t attacked, they would
have attacked us” and “Crimea is ours”.
Thus, you join the majority. You join Solovyov-Simonyan-
Kiselyov, the Internet community, “independent experts”,
you receive public approval, you are safe from being
punished by law enforcement agencies. If you disagree
with the perverse message, then, firstly, you deeply feel
your own loneliness and defenselessness surrounded
by propaganda soldiers shouting from every corner,
and secondly, the experience of other figures of
opposition suggests that you are now a target for the
law enforcement agencies.
41
Repression rears its ugly head even during verbal
confrontations between armchair activists. You express
an opinion that is different from the official one, you don’t
get likes, you get hate from bots and real people. Next
time you will think twice before expressing your opinion.
When a certain part of the population stops expressing
opinions that are different from the official guidebook,
then the guidebook becomes the majority. This was
exactly the plan.
Here’s another important role of the repressive system –
that of a catalyst for infection. Being under the
constant threat of violence, a person starts looking for
ways how it can be avoided. He studies society, tries
to find consistent patterns, to start thinking about how
perpetrators of violence try to act like its victims. All this,
as we remember, is enabled by perverse Law, perverse
governmental power and perverse propaganda
narrative. By studying, adopting and using the techniques
utilized by perverts, a person turns his thinking into
perverse thinking.
The third important moment is Stockholm syndrome.
Perverts are well aware of how to destroy the psyche.
Putin's Nazi government consciously hurts the population
to take advantage of loyalty through identification with
the aggressor. Stockholm syndrome helps to introduce
and strengthen Nazi ideas among vulnerable groups.
Remember the video of an openly gay former liberal A.
Krasovsky, full of hatred towards Ukrainians, although it
was his own government who messed him up, of course.
The first symptom of Stockholm syndrome in Ukrainian
society is the search for enemies (or traitors) among our
own. It is the first step toward the “Russian World”. The
search for enemies among one’s own is a stone’s throw
away from justifying and accepting the aggressor’s
game. This is how the psychology behind Stockholm
syndrome works.
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis

Conclusions

42
 Hence, in order to understand the essence of Putin's Nazism, it is important for us to identify the phenomenon: Putin's
Nazism is a perversion, sadism.

Then the following conclusions can be drawn:

01 Perversion is a mental structure founded on the possibility to simultaneously recognize and reject conflicting ideas by
introducing an additional condition: “It goes without saying that ..., but still...”. This allows you to break universal human
laws akin to the way a pedophile does it.

02 The better half of the society in the Russian Federation has turned into sadistic perverts. They want to commit acts of
violence. Propaganda only helps to maintain their self-image for as long as possible, before its imminent collapse.

03 Personality-wise, a sadist does not consider himself a subject; rather, he is a tool of someone else's drive to violence, a
paranoid individual with magical thinking, no empathy, ability to analyze or create, only to imitate the external. Apart
from violence, his sole interest is in himself. The only thing more important than being selfish is being violent. Abstract
moral categories are beyond his understanding. A sadist thinks in terms of quantity and in terms of “possessing/be-
longing”.

04 Nazification of the Russian Federation happened because of sadistic propaganda. Such propaganda was created
specifically by sadists and specifically for the Russian society full of sadistic inclinations at the time. Accumulation of
sadistic inclinations is driven by social and economic inequality, mental regression and a society of repressive con-
sumption.

05 Unlike a Westerner, Putin’s Nazis consider themselves free, since only in the Russian Federation can they freely practise
sadism toward the weak. Sadism is the national narrative of the Russian Nazis. It is what they call “traditional values”.
Victimization and weakness are the only sins followers of Putin's Nazism recognize. “The Russian World” is fighting
against political correctness and inclusiveness in favour of the freedom to rape wherever “The Russian World” has
more power.

06 The western society cannot understand Putin's Nazis because of a sense of guilt that represses the very fact of encoun-
tering a completely different mentality - that of a pervert. Understanding Putin's Nazis is easy. Just disregard everything
related to abstract moral categories, the Law, the performative (condition). The real desire is what’s left. A Nazi follows
such an algorithm: 1. Is the person before me a victim or a threat? If he is a victim – belittle him, and finish the communi-
cation. If he is a threat, then all the information received by the Nazi undergoes the process of mental regression (more/
less, possessing/belonging, beneficial/disadvantageous, “will I look great?”). Everything that is unclear is disregarded,
and holes are filled with paranoid nonsense.

07 At first propaganda became part of the Nazi identity, and then made the Nazis its object. Now Nazis are clinging to
his propaganda.

08 The main method of Putin's propaganda is its large-scale involvement. It makes people believe in the believers of their
messages rather than the messages themselves. Since guilt has been replaced with a social reflex of “what will people
say?”, “belief in believers” is enough to make inhuman cruel things normal, or at least subject to further discussion.

09 A repressive system helps propaganda. It threatens people with punishment, divides them into friends and foes, serves
as a catalyst for nazification, brings about the Stockholm syndrome.

10 The danger of sadism is in its seductive power. It seduces people with the freedom to fulfill their repressed desires and
enjoy being an object.

43
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis

,
Author s
afterword

44
To summarize, we must stress that the humanity is faced
with a unique phenomenon: the majority of he popula-
tion of a huge country ended up possessed with violence.
They are ready to withstand all types of the hardships:
from the absence of credit cards and the clothes brands
they are used to - to a lack of possibility to freely travel
around the world – all for the sake of being able to keep
humiliating the vulnerable, battering weaker relatives
and shelling maternity homes, while priding themselves
on the “great country” without having to bear respon-
sibility for their lives and actions. It didn't take long for
people, who used to read books about kindness and no-
bility, watch movies about helping the needy and share
the values of the rest of the world, to turn into monsters
approving of bombing children.
This tragedy unfolded before the eyes of the world as
the Russian Federation wasn't a country behind the iron
curtain. The world idly observed Putin's regime annex the
Crimea, wage war in Donbass, jail Navalny, proclaim
those mass media and people that dare to have a differ-
ent opinion “foreign agents” and push Russian and inter-
national NGOs outside of the country. In the meantime,
the construction of the Northern Stream went on.
It is due to the inaction in 2014 that brought Russia to
believe that noone will stand up for Ukraine and it in-
vaded the peaceful country. Notwithstanding the outra-
geous violation of the world legal system, threatening to
bring the existing order of things to a collapse, has not
convinced some western politicians of the necessity to
stop the aggressive country.
At the moment the world is aware of the imminent fam-
ine, some countries realize the threat of war, but there is
another hazard: Nazism is contagious. Judging by how
quickly Nazism engulfed the citizens of the Russian Fed-
eration, it spreads like a forest fire. Many will gladly stop
suppressing their sadistic inclinations and want to claim
their privileges back as soon as they see Russia take the
upper hand, while the world, whose leaders dread “dis-
pleasing the aggressor” and making him “lose his face”,
is reluctant to intervene.
Putin's Nazism is not exclusively characteristic of Rus-
sians: no country is immune to it. It is in fact the product
of “de-politization”, overconsumption, post-modernism,
social frustration, the policy of appeasement, moral rela-
tivism – the product that fell into the hands of sadists and
their perverse propaganda. Nazism is a reflection of all
problems of today and all past errors of the West.
45
Putin's Nazism has already been forcing people to do
something that is not their nature. For instance, tradition-
ally anti-fascistic European left-wing intellectuals backed
away from their fight with fascism once they faced the
real Nazi. As an example, N. Chomsky virtually ca-
pitulated, giving up part of his western identity (rational
thinking, analysis) when he referred to the Russian ex-
pansion as “a hurricane one cannot stop.” Rather than
conducting research into the Neo-Nazism, the philoso-
pher sees it as necessary to find arguments that would
make Ukraine surrender, which is consistent with the logic
of a sadist: the victim is to be punished. Chomsky's wish,
although unjustifiable, is explicable: it is tempting for
everyone (but the Nazi) to want things “back to normal”.
However, common logic and the logic of history tell us
that no amount of territories ceded to the aggressor will
bring back the order we are used to, quite the opposite:
this will only speed up the catastrophe.
According to J. Delaise and F. Guattari, one peculiarity
of fascism is that is implements nihilism, i.e., a fascist state
is predisposed to self-destruction: “If the war is lost, the
nation will also perish” (A. Hitler). Therefore, the collapse
of a fascist regime is unavoidable as long as it is allowed
to develop uncontrollably in the direction of its phantasm.
The only question is – how many people or entire nations
will it drag down into this abyss?
The answer depends on how much time it will take the
world to join forces to fight back. A pervert needs to
be reminded of The Law, of the principle of reality, so
as not to sink into psychosis. Since a sadist's identity is
fragmented, he cannot but respond to castration with a
narcissistic rage – yet, that is not so terrifying as a com-
plete loss of self-awareness and becoming engulfed in
an apocalyptic nuclear jouissance.
The more frequently a sadist is faced with the real state
of affairs, the more serious military defeats and econom-
ic hardships he suffers, the clearer his awareness of the
conventional reality. The opposite is also true: the fewer
barriers there are between the sadist and his psychosis,
the sooner the personality dissociation will take place.
Thus, the more successful Ukraine is in the battlefield,
the more adequate Putin's regime gets, and the further it
drifts from the “red button”.
While it is clear what to do in the battlefield, it is abso-
lutely unclear what to do about millions of people who
have abandoned normal human values, replacing them
with the enjoyment of violence.
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis
How can we bring them to a normal psychic paradigm,
which presupposes guilt and responsibility?
The shift of the psychic paradigm was foreseen by many
European philosophers (G. Querzola, J. Baudrillard,
G. Deleuze, F, Guattari. Truth be told, they expected
the world to end up in a chaos, disorder, the psychic
paradigm transforming into a psychotic one. In reality,
the world has come to a perverse order, the non-order,
perverse psyche. At the same time, Putin;s propaganda
has removed all restraints that used to stand in the way of
sadistic enjoyment, while creating a new Normality that
normalizes and legalizes experiencing jouissance when
children are bombed. If the world still aims to somehow
deal with millions of Russian sadists, in the first place
it must strive to return the new Normality, under which
killing children and shelling maternity homes are uncon-
ditionally evil. The more people adopt the new Norm,
the more adepts will join in.
Neurotics will suppress their sadistic tendencies, that is,
they will clean forget that until very recently they would
call for area bombardments, claiming that they were
completely unaware of massacres, violence and tortures
of civilians (which in a sense will be true).
However, this will mean abandoning moral relativism
and giving up speculating about the repressive normality
(which is interesting as a philosophical experiment, but
gets far less appealing when perverts are armed, unlike
yourself).
46
In order to bring some order into the non-order, cow-
ardice, selfishness, self-interest will probably need to be
abandoned.
It is hardly possible now for the world to take shelter and
wait until the new Nazism subsides. Hence, we need to
get ready to fight and ponder the ways of bringing the
perverts back to the normal values, bring back empathy,
guilt, responsibility and dignity. Many would like to put
a glass dome over Russia, isolating themselves from it.
This is meaningless and not viable. Nazism is seductive
for a person of any nation. It is therefore crucial now to
preserve our psyche, withstand the temptation of falling
for violence, withstand the fear, which leads to the Stock-
holm syndrome, and the despair, that makes one wish to
surrender to the powerful Master.
Sadism is tempting and traumatic. The only
vaccine against it is preserving one's own dignity
and supporting the dignity in others - a firm and
unshakable conviction of being the subject, as
subjects are those surrounding you, responsible
grown ups, a firm conviction that there exist absolute
values that are not to be questioned. There must be no
negotiations with either yourself or a sadist about the
shades of evil, for this time we are to cure the disease,
not alleviate the symptoms. We are to understand how
to avoid the evil raising its head in the future rather than
taking revenge at present. We are to defeat Nazism,
not the Nazi, and, gazing into the abyss, we are not to
let it possess us.
47
Putin's nazism: a glance through the prism of psychoanalysis

Links
1
Žižek, S. (1997) The plague of fantasies, London: Verso

2
Deleuze, G & Guattari F. (1996) What Is Philosophy? New York: Columbia University Press

3
https://wciom.ru/analytical-reviews/analiticheskii-obzor/specialnaja-voennaja-operacija-monitoring, https://
media.fom.ru/fom-bd/d82022.pdf, https://russianfield.com/metavernis, https://www.chronicles.report/, https://
extremescan.eu/russian-citizens-on-the-special-military-operation-in-ukraine-independent-opinion-poll/

4
https://press-club.by/events/chatham-house-chto-dumayut-belarusy-pro-voenny

5
https://wciom.ru/analytical-reviews/analiticheskii-obzor/specialnaja-voennaja-operacija-monitoring

6
https://gazeta.ua/ru/articles/world-life/_my-dolzhny-skazat-pryamo-chto-rossiya-fashistskaya-strana-istorik-
timoti-snajder/1089436

7
Baudrillard J. (1993) The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena, London: Verso

8
Lacan J. (1991) The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book 1, Freud's Papers on Technique, 1953-1954, New York: W.
W. Norton & Company

9
By the Law we mean the principle upon which any limit exist: legal limitations, the law of entropy, public limitations
and taboos, rules of language etc.

10
https://meduza.io/feature/2022/04/24/voyti-vo-mrak-i-naschupat-v-nem-lyudey

11
Jouissance is not pleasure, it is what happens beyond pleasure, when you no longer understand whether it still feels
good or already hurts. Jouissance is something forbidden and so strong that it leads if not to the death of the psyche
then certainly to some problems. For example, people with addictions on the one hand enjoy their addiction, but on
the other hand other spheres of their lives and their psyche are getting destroyed: “It feels so good that it’s as if I’m
dissolving, losing myself in the pleasure.” For instance, the pervert always stays the jouissance object of his mother.

12
Castration anxiety is in simple terms the anxiety which is the prototype of the anxiety of death, loss of a body part,
including castration, loss of money, power, respect, fear of being humiliated, etc.

13
Separation anxiety is the fear of being psychologically separated from one’s mother, of accepting one’s limits

14
“A pop” is Russian state media’s common euphemism for an explosion.

15
https://syg.ma/@nikita-archipov/tielo-izvrashchientsa-k-poniatiiu-pierviersii-u-dielioza

16
Проекция – не совсем корректное слово по отношению к первертам, у которых не произошла субъекти-
вация, перверты, скорее, смотрят на всех через собственное отражение, но слово «проекция» общеизвест-
но, поэтому его удобно использовать, а смысла предложения оно не меняет.

17
Эротоману кажется, что его/ее любит и преследует особа с более высоким социальным статусом, кото-
рая сообщает о своих чувствах тайными знаками, хотя та особа в большинстве случаев не подозревает о
существовании эротомана.

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18
Baudrillard, Jean. De la Seduction. 1979. / Бодрийяр, Жан. Соблазн. Перевод на русский язык: Алексей
Гараджа. — М., 2000. // Электронная публикация: Центр гуманитарных технологий. — 18.07.2008. URL:
https://gtmarket.ru/library/basis/3429

19
Following S. S. Žižek, we are going to refer to The Other as Normality, meaning – the voice of public opinion in
the head, a psychic reflection of the society's rules and regulations, the voice of consciousness, the voice of ethics
and morale – a benchmark one can use to verify one's motives and actions. For example, “Is it acceptable to make
jokes about traffic police in this environment?”, “Would it be appropriate to steal from this shop?”, “Is it normal to want
to kill?”

20
Baudrillard J. De la Séduction. Moscow: Ad marginem, 2000. P.286-287

21
Formally, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (КПРФ) is a popular left-wing party, but in fact the party
does not serve the left idea, but a ressentiment, and even that was subsequently taken away.

22
J. Querzola writes "Narcissus", but everything that he attributed to a narcissist can also be attributed to a pervert
in a sense that a pervert in its subjectification does not overcome the stage of narcissism. In many ways, there is no
clear distinction between the two and numerous researchers use either of the terms. For example, modern French
psychoanalysis studies narcissistic perverts. I use the term “narcissus” as a stage of subjectification, while "pervert" –
as a mental structure.

23
Repetition used by a single individual indicates pleasure. For example, the speech of a lover or of an injured
person.

24
Castration in this case is fear of losing an asset: money, health, youth, status, beauty, life, potency, penis, etc.

25
Žižek S.. Interpassivity. Desire: attraction. Multiculturalism. SPb.: Aletheia, 2005.

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