The Burden of the Dead. How the Russian People Were Reforged

I would like to drive away, like a spell, the insane, wild, most absurd thought that my Russian people could exit the historical stage, as a creator, as a giant, or even completely dissolve into the world, merge into other, stronger nations, stronger in character, will, loyalty to national ideals, and striving for a great goal. The exodus of the Russian people seems unreal, implausible, but this is only at first glance; as soon as one catches their breath and comes to their senses from the emotional shock, facts begin to press on the consciousness, not as a denial, no!, but as an affirmation, as a strengthening of the oppressive thought expressed by Ivan Alexandrovich Ilyin: "Characterless Russia will be bribed, deceived, decomposed, and conquered by other nations." In us, Russians, the instinct of national preservation, development, and increase has been disrupted. We, Russians, have lost our foundational, core national trait - the heightened sense of justice, and no longer oppose it, no, but accept it as a given, as an established and entrenched norm of life, perceiving the appalling, monstrous injustice prevailing in the country, when the natural riches, belonging to the entire people, have become the prey, the profit, the source of wildly growing capitals for a few thousand families amidst the poverty of the hundreds of millions of the Russian people. The Russian person lives in poverty, hunger, in a state of powerlessness, while the tele-magnates convince him otherwise and, most surprisingly, he believes them, rather, wants to believe, as it makes it easier for him to endure the burdensome weight of life when it is terrifying to fight for a better life. Here is the reason why people believe in authority or want to believe, or convince themselves that they believe, or believe in what they believe, because otherwise one must resist, one must fight, and that is terrifying. The fear in which the Russian people live today is all-encompassing, a fear that paralyzes the mind, soul, reason, will, even the instinct of self-preservation. Such fear, like a heavy illness, requires investigation, just like any other disease, from which one can only recover by understanding the nature of the illness.