The other day a friend of mine in Russia wrote to me with a heavy, bitter sigh exactly this:
- The West cannot understand what it is like to live in Russia

I was thinking...

Leaving aside a number of essential details, we can say that the West is a civilization whose main directions of development for several centuries have been the following:

1. Reduction of constant, daily Fear, which for hundreds, thousands of years, tens of thousands of years has been the main thing for people, for men, for human beings, for individuals – fear of punishment from God (or Gods), fear of the Ruler (leader, the despot, the emperor, the king).

2. Increase in the Price of human life. Man's life becomes the highest value and he, man has every right to strive to live in the way he wants to live and in such a way that he has the exclusive right to dispose of his life.
3. Refusal of not just the main, but the only Role of the Man, of the male being – to be cannon fodder to be sacrificed in the name of the Great, the High, the Superhuman – the Tribe, the State, the Monarchy, the Republic, the Socialist Country.
4. Refusal of not just the main, but the only Role of the Woman, of the female being – to be a child-bearing machine that provides more and more cannon fodder and more and more child-bearing machines for the Great, the High, the Superhuman – the Tribe, the State, the Monarchy, the Republic, the Socialist country.

Putin took Russia back a long way – instead of it striving for the Future, for the World of high communication, information, gene, medical, space technologies, for the era of Artificial Intelligence and quantum computers, Russia is anchored somewhere in time between the Pre-industrial and Industrial societies, between Premodern and Modern societies and its backwardness is not just quantitative, but qualitative.
Gradually, maliciously, brutally and psychopathically, Putin takes away Russia's proximity precisely to the above-mentioned four key, fundamental features that define the vector of development of the West, as the flagship of human civilization.

--- The overwhelming, paralyzing Fear of being crushed by the huge repressive machine of the state or rampant street crime is back in Russia. You are a feather, you are a broken leaf, you are a grain of sand, you are a speck of dust that can be trampled by the Power of Power, by the Right of Power, by the Arrogance of Power, by the Cruelty of Power – by the Power of those above, of those in power oligarchs, as well as the Power of those below, the criminal geeks.
--- In Russia, the Price of life for each individual and for the people as a whole is rapidly falling. This price is falling not because Russia wages the war in Ukraine with a disregard for human life and uses its only insurmountable superiority over the treacherously attacked country – its colossal human resources and literally litters the enemy with corpses. The relationship is the opposite – because Russia treats human life with disdain, that's why it also fights like this in Ukraine.
--- In Russia, again and with terrible force, it is imputed to the Man that his highest role is to be cannon fodder in the name of Putin and his schizophrenic geostrategic ambitions. The whole propaganda to the millions, drowning in drunkenness and narcotics, stiffened male beings is – instead of toiling without perspective and realization in this crappy life, give your life for something great – for the greatness of Russia. Only in this way, fighting for Russia, you will achieve recognition and earn a lot of money, which otherwise you would never earn.
--- In Russia, again and with terrible cynicism, it is imputed to the Woman that her highest role is to be a childbearing machine in the name of Putin and his cyclophrenic geopolitical goals. All the propaganda to the overworked, torn from work, from family cares, from lower wages and not just sexist, but full of lust and bullshit attitude towards them, female beings is – you must be childbearing machines for Russia, as soon as you leave from puberty to give birth to your first child and while you are of fertile age to give birth to at least 2-3 more children, who tomorrow will be cannon fodder or childbearing machines for Mother Russia. The rest – career, emotional life, family happiness, personal development – these are Western active measures aimed at bringing Russia to a demographic catastrophe and a shortage of ... cannon fodder and childbearing machines.

We, even in a country like Bulgaria, stuck on the periphery of the West, but still holding on to the western side of the dividing line between Europe and Eurasia, live in terms of the above four priorities in the development of Western civilization in a radically different world from Russia. Even we Bulgarians, a confused people with a washed-up consciousness, straddling between the socialism and the post-socialism, between pre-democracy and democracy, cannot imagine what Russia has become. Take at least the rashist servants from Vazrazhdane (Revival) – they almost all did not even go to Russia and do not have a single ruble in their wallets.
Even we Bulgarians cannot, just as my Russian friend sighs, understand what it is like to live in Russia, let alone the West, let alone Europe – they absolutely cannot understand what it is like to live in Russia. And even if they could understand it, they would rather not understand it. Otherwise, they would behave differently and act differently. And then probably the War against Ukraine would have already ended.
And now what happens still and now?
The West is watching and – still – more and more contemplating how Russia wants to turn Ukraine into Russia. To make it a country that we will also not be able to understand what it is like to live in it. And is this life in it at all...

10/24/2023