In April 2024, another political scandal broke in our country. Students at the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH) have publicly opposed the ‘educational and research centre’ named after the philosopher Ivan Ilyin, which had opened at the university.
This is the same man who lived for a long time in Hitler’s Germany, supported fascism and applauded the Nazi attack on our Motherland.
The students’ protest against Ilyin has been supported by certain deputies and activists of the CPRF and LKSM. The incident caused a great resonance in society, including the hysteria of reactionary, monarchist, right-wing groups and individuals, including the head of the ‘centre’, the far-right philosopher Dugin. The authorities, through their propagandists, stated that the disgruntled students were ‘puppets’ of Western intelligence services and compared the students to the terrorists from the Crocus. In other words, the government has openly sided with the ultra-right and is continuing to propagandise the ideological heritage of fascist Ilyin.
The incident is not an accident, not something out of the blue, but it is a stage in the logical process of the slide of Russian imperialism into fascism. Currently, the process of fascisation is going on all over the planet. The intensification of inter-imperialist contradictions has already led to multiple military conflicts, which some people see as the beginning or direct prelude into the Third World War. We have already written about this in the ‘Statement of the Central Committee of RKSM(b) on the eve of the possible outbreak of the Third World War’. This aggravation pushes all the world centres of capital to ‘tighten the screws’, to increase reaction, to reduce rights and freedoms, to use the methods of direct terrorist dictatorship more and more actively. Russia is not an exception.
Even back in the 2000s, anti-communist propaganda was sharply intensified, together with indirect whitewashing and justification of Nazism and collaborationism. In 2006, a monument to Nazi collaborator Ataman Krasnov was erected in the Rostov region. In 2008, a documentary film was made about the emigrant writer Shmelev, who enthusiastically supported the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union. Many memorial plaques have also been put up to this figure. In 2016, a memorial plaque to Finnish Field Marshal Mannerheim was opened in St Petersburg. He was an associate of Hitler, participated in the inhuman blockade of Leningrad. In 2018, a monument to the ‘vlasovets from literature’ Solzhenitsyn, who urged the USA to arrange a nuclear bombing of the USSR, was presented in Moscow. And this was not the first monument to this scoundrel; the works of this graphomaniac were imposed on young people in the school curriculum. Many examples can be cited: starting from calls on state television to erect monuments to Krasnov and ending with Kremlin propagandist Solovyov’s creation of a laudatory documentary about Mussolini… We have pointed out all of this many times.
After the start of the war in Ukraine, reactionary tendencies in the ideology and policy of the ruling class have significantly increased. Due to historical peculiarities, Russian capital is forced to mimic, to use Soviet patriotism, to pull on red cloths on the 9th of May (at the same time, every year Lenin’s Mausoleum, at the foot of which Soviet soldiers threw fascist banners, is shamefully covered with plywood). But the essence of Russian capital is exactly the same as that of its Ukrainian and overseas ‘colleagues’ — imperialism and anti-communism. Capital’s tendency to expand, to exploit more and more labour and natural resources, inevitably pushes the bourgeoisie towards an occupation policy outside, towards massacres and intimidation, to suppress progress inside the country. The end of this path is easy to trace: Black Hundreds, the attunement to pogroms, the triumph of the most reactionary ideas, the glorification of all enemies of the people, including collaborators and foreign puppets (from Kolchak to Ilyin and others). This is exactly what Ukraine has already experienced. This once again confirms a longstanding idea, which has been suffered through the experience of World War II: the Vlasovites are not better than the Banderites, and the most consistent anti-fascists are the Communists.
Thus, the imposing of the ‘radiant’ image of the fascist philosopher Ilyin on Russian society is a particular manifestation of a general trend. Therefore, any honest person who wants to prevent fascism in education and culture must clearly understand: in order to permanently eliminate Ilyin from our lives, it is necessary to fight the cause of fascisation – capitalism.
What is the significance of the confrontation around the ‘Ilyin Centre’ at RSUH? Despite all the inequality of forces, this conflict showed how negligible the support of the Black Hundreds in the country is. No matter how hard they try to puff up their cheeks, the fact cannot be hidden: all these Dugins, Malofeevs and other scoundrels only act as long as they are supported by financial and propaganda pumping from the state.
But it is not the key idea. This is the first time when such an incident as the one at the RSUH caused a relatively massive outrage and organised resistance in society. The imposing of Ilyin on the student community, unexpectedly for the ‘bosses’, provoked a response and spurred the formation of a student movement in Russia. Yes, this movement is very weak and fragmented. Activists of initiative groups make mistakes, they are pressurised, and some of them retreat in fear of repressions. However, it is a huge step forward.
From the first days of the protest, the Revolutionary Komsomol has been actively involved in the work of the initiative groups being formed. In view of the above, the CC RKSM(b) decides:
1. The RKSM(b) activists should continue to support the campaign against the ‘Ilyin Centre’ in every possible way, to participate in actions, to distribute general and Komsomol leaflets in accordance with security measures.
2. The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM(b) should be directly in charge of the Komsomol’s participation in the campaign.
3. To use the campaign as a way of strengthening the links between the RKSM(b) and the progressive student community and to explain to students both the political nature of the conflict and its root causes. Consider this the main objective of the RCSM(b)’s involvement in the campaign.
4. In the daily work of the campaign, activists of the RKSM(b) should follow the recommendations below:
- Be actively involved in the work of existing initiative groups of students and to promote the formation of new ones, to expand the list of universities involved. Emphasise Revkomsomol’s support of the campaign and readiness for any assistance. Consider the tasks set by the initiative group as the highest priority.
- Acting according to the situation, in general, do not hide your belonging to the RKSM(b), but do not brag about it either. Prove your professional suitability by deeds, not words. By personal example, contribute to the maintenance of fighting spirit among the activists, demonstrate fortitude and endurance.
- In day-to-day work, keep in mind that from the very beginning of the protest, representatives of various youth organisations are playing a major role in it, including those with a right-wing incline (inconsistency, tendency towards rotten compromises, possible refusal to protest) and leftist extremes (adventurist proposals, unjustified advancement, disregard of security measures). Both lines lead to political mistakes, weakening of the movement and separation of these organisations from it.
- We should co-operate with the representatives of these organisations to the extent that they will be consistent and principled in the anti-fascist struggle. At the same time, we consider it appropriate and right to publicly criticise and expose these organisations if they stop, retreat or side with the authorities. The weakness and indecision of various ‘leftists’ who claim to lead the movement should not be the cause of its defeat.
Today, every Komsomol activist leading agitation and political work among students becomes a fighter of the anti-fascist front. The political front differs from the military front in that a skillfully conducted battle does not reduce, but increases the numbers of the political army, not to mention increasing its fighting potential. And this means that, as long as every RKSM(b) member is proactive and courageous and takes coordinated and concerted actions, the vanguard of Russian youth has every chance to emerge from this struggle strengthened and fortified, ready for new, even more decisive class battles. This is what we need to achieve.
Fascism will not prevail! Victory will be ours!
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