Are Traditional Values Just Nonsense? Breaking Down Russia's Modern Ideology
In November 2022, Vladimir Putin signed Decree No. 809 "On Approving the Fundamentals of State Policy for the Preservation and Strengthening of Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values." Since then, Russia has officially adopted a list of 17 values, declared to be the "foundation of all-Russian civic identity."
But the question is: have these values "always existed"? Or is this simply a political construct invented in 2022 to justify war and mobilization?
In this video, I examine the five key pillars of Decree No. 809:
"High moral ideals"—what even are they? Why can this clause be used to label any objectionable views as "immoral"? And why has the "gaski" ritual—mass sexual encounters in villages, essentially a historical kink party—existed in Rus' for centuries?
"A strong family" – if 80% of marriages end in divorce, and Russia's "best rulers" (Catherine II and Peter the Great) had dozens of lovers, then how traditional is this value at all? Or are we simply pretending that monogamy is the norm?
"The Priority of the Spiritual over the Material" – why are the US and the West actually more religious than Russia? Why is Orthodoxy more often a "cultural tradition" than a faith in Russia? And where should we look to find real spirituality?
"Collectivism" and "Unity of the Peoples of Russia" – why are these terms purely Soviet constructs, which did not exist in the Russian Empire and do not exist anywhere else in the world? And why is the attempt to ascribe collectivism to Russia an attempt to make it part of Asia, even though Russians are a European people?
LGBT and Lenin – if traditional values prohibit LGBT, then why did Lenin (whose monuments stand throughout the country) legalize homosexuality in 1917? And how can traditionalism be reconciled with the Soviet past?