Lesson from flopped Russian coup: Angry patriots must channel anger more effectively

The most amazing feature of the Wagner Group rebellion in Russia was the speed with which it was extinguished. Essentially, one full day was enough to show the nation and the world that the rebellion has flopped in the most miserable way. To remind, the main problem was in an eccentric personality of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has been quarreling with dozens of people through all his life. True, he had been a creator of a powerful Wagner private military company, numbering up to 40,000 of perfectly equipped troops. That private army has performed well in the Ukrainian war. But, even so, Prigozhin’s eternal bickering with the Ministry of Defence, mostly for supplies, got on everyone’s nerve. So, the idea of getting Wagner under the state control took shape in several legislative initiatives in early June. Prigozhin learned about that, produced a fake video claiming that his troops had been attacked by the Russian army, and moved several armored columns to Moscow. But in a matter of hours, he got a call from the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, acting on behalf of Vladimir Putin, and accepted the offer to stop his troops and get shelter in Lukashenko’s country. We’ve had yet another good demonstration that the President Vladimir Putin is strong under duress and is firmly in control. But there is one striking feature of the flopped rebellion that may be of use beyond the circle of those who are interested in Russian affairs. That feature is in the field of ideology. Prigozhin has most certainly expected that he would get mass public support, and has capitulated to Putin on discovering that the support was not coming. So, who are these people who were supposed to be his audience and political base? I think I’ve mentioned once on this website, that the start of the Ukrainian war had shown that the liberals, or the Westerners, have lost all influence in the nation. Only two ideologies are of any importance in Russia now, and these are – just patriots and angry patriots. The second group is demanding on Moscow to strike harder in the war, and Prigozhin’s PR people were trying to make him a grand symbol of that idea. But if you look close at these angry patriots, you see the people for whom the war is only a pretext for a violent social revolution. We, the majority, may be fighting in a hybrid Third World War with the ensuing shifts of power among the biggest nations, who had attacked us with the hands and bodies of people of Ukraine. While the angry patriots are shouting that we won’t win that war without a “complete change of the elites, political, business and ideological”. We may safely assume that Prigozhin expected mass support to his march to Moscow, since that’s how these “complete changes” usually happen. There should have been that support, judging by previous internet activities of all kind of angry patriots. But we all know that Internet is a world of illusions. Every angry patriotic head has its own mix of ideas, though the basic ingredients are same. You may add to these ingredients a strange nostalgic popularity of the lifestyles in the Soviet Union, with its alleged “social justice”, as in “no rich people allowed”. But there is another common trait in all kind of angry patriots, and that’s hatred to culture. There is an endless Internet tribunal going on, indicting actors, or musicians, or writers who left Russia when the war began, or spoke against it. They may be a distinct minority in their own community, but they often are famous. And the typical accusation of an angry patriot against them is, “these people never had any talent”, they were just blocking the way to real talents from the midst of the people. Culture is not democratic. It’s being produced by unique people, who are often saying or doing the craziest things, and are far from being ideal in any way. But in any case their emigration is a loss for the nation, not the cause for glee. But if you have very basic tastes in culture, not learning in time to appreciate it, then of course you love that failure of the gods and you are glad for a chance to bring culture down to your level, calling it a part of the mentioned “complete change of all elites”. Our history shows us very well, what happens when such left radicals start to cleanse culture from all who are not leftist enough. You get, then, a sullen rebellion of all the artistic circles against the State, and that was one of the key reasons for the fall of the Soviet Union. The angriest patriots are completely taken aback now, after the ignominy of their hero Prigozhin. While the rest of us are wondering, how many of these folks are around? Not too many. That is the former potential electorate of Alexey Navalny, some sociologist are saying now, referring to a failed American project of organizing everyone in Russia who hates and envies the rich, and hence are susceptible to primitive slogans about “fighting corruption”. And Navalny’s electorate has never been more than 10 per cent of population. So, now the same people are being attracted by the vague ideas of resetting the society, using the war as a pretext. Ten per cent is not much, but then every society has such people and will always have. You have to be very leftist to expect all the people to think as you want them to. Besides, a lot of these angry patriots are real heroes, fighting in the war and sacrificing their lives. So, we’ll probably have just to accept them as a reality and show them some respect and compassion. I don’t know which Indian guru said these wise words: You’ll not be punished for your anger, you’ll be punished by your anger. Some people in Russia may be better off hearing these words today. The author is a columnist for the Russian State agency website ria.ru, as well as for other publications. Views exptressed are personal. Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.