“Power comes from a rifle!”

Then, in the 60s, Andy Warhol, an iconic American artist of Ukrainian origin, painted portraits of Chairman Mao in his famous manner, four portraits in two rows, colored with acidic shades… Remember his paintings, you all have seen them: cans of Campbell’s soup, Marilyn Monroe and Mao Zedong. An icon of style and revolutionary myths of the 60s of ХХ century. Mao with the face of a good-natured man in his shapeless cap with a star.

The Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, along with the Cuban Commander Che Guevara, occupied in those days the pinnacle of the Olympus of progressive humanity`s hopes – away from bourgeois hypocrisy, from the totalitarian Russian Stalin, forward and upward to the sincere cleansing fire of revolution and freedom. For French students in 1968, for example, Mao was the undisputed ideal of a revolutionary. Long live Fidel! Glory to Commander Che! We believe the Chinese proletarians and peasants with Mao at their head!

And do you know what aphorism from the Chairman the quotation book, obligatory for every Chinese of those times, began? This was a little red book printed on excellent rice paper. If you forgot, I will remind you, “Power comes from a rifle!”

Here on our Free Idel-Ural channel a small dispute arose, well, a showdown among close people… One of the associates expressed the following thought (the original grammar has been preserved):

“In the Baltics after the occupation, they began to create Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian brain centers, governments in exile abroad in England, Sweden, the USA, they were preparing. And when the empire left, the governments in exile came back with ready-made personnel, replaced all the Soviet staff, and only for this reason they created the successful Baltic states. And the rest of the post-Soviet nations did not train their elite, personnel abroad, therefore they remained with the former Soviet elite, vitally connected with Moscow (when the metropolis leaves, it always leaves elites dependent on it), only the signs in the offices were changed (the State Security Committee signs were changed for the Security Service of Ukraine, for example ), so all the other states remained unsuccessful. This is about the issue of national Turkic brain centers abroad, personnel training.”

A good version, but a little out of correlation with reality… From the stories of people who personally communicated with Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians, it is known that they simply had someone to choose from at the time of the USSR disintegration. All Balts were drawn to independence, denied Soviet identity, and ridiculed the hypocritical “friendship” with the invaders. They could talk to you correctly, observing the rules of decency, but when it came to independence, they firmly said “no” to attempts to decide for them, to write them down as “the Soviet nation – the builders of communism.” And they had enough specialists in all branches of industry and intellectuals who had knowledge in politics and management even without emigrants. Although, of course, there were some. Many dissidents from the Baltic countries preserved patriotism throughout generations, faith in the return of sovereignty, in gaining freedom! They were not afraid to come back to their countries and start working for the benefit of their nations.

It is funny to read about the lack of specialists in Belarus and Ukraine. The USSR usually took specialists from these republics to strengthen entire sectors of the national economy, “We have a heap of things to do here, send a Khokhol (Ukrainian) to the rescue!” In addition, the Ukrainians had their own government in exile, which transferred authorities along with symbols of power (kleinods) to President Kravchuk after the country gained independence in 1991.

And then one more thing… I, as a Tatar, could not resist my indignation! Do the Tatars have no specialists? Specialists who are ready to make balanced and wise political, managerial and economic decisions? Well, wow, buddy, you gave it away! And all my life I considered the Tatars to be the intellectual elite of the Turks… One can blame the Tatars for anything, but what cannot be taken away from them is the desire to educate their children in every possible way, to send them to university, institute, college. And also – to achieve well-being in the surrounding material space – at home, in the family, at work… Of course, the Republic of Tatarstan is full of opportunists, the clans of oligarchs are strong, the level of disbelief in the possibility of independent political existence is high, etc. But this can be changed! And there are people for this! There are courageous dissident politicians, there are free-thinking journalists who reject secret instructions or directives and custom-made articles, there are reputable scientists, there are business managers.

I suggest you look at least at the Government of Independent Tatarstan in exile –          R. Kashapov and A. Abdurakhmanova are already open today for cooperation and discussing the topic of the future of our nation and our Republic.

And the technical government can be formed in any country without much effort, as a last resort, we can invite foreign ones, as Pinochet did in Chile. The main condition for the success of such a government is the isolation of representatives of the previous authorities, preventing them from leading the country. This is the most difficult thing. Well, and one more thing – so that the revolutionaries who replaced the previous dictators do not quarrel among themselves.

Some of my associates reproach me for using the term “intellectual elite”, they say this is politically uncorrect. But I do not use it in a biological sense. I say “Intellectual elite” because the level of universities and other higher education institutions, as well as colleges, vocational schools and secondary schools in Tatarstan is high, the education system as a whole is fundamental, it was all created with Tatar money, by Tatar hands. And the Tatar nation has an inclination to acquire a profession, qualification, and master the sciences. Not all Turks managed to achieve what the Tatars have. What is there to be ashamed of?

You do not want to build Tommaso Campanella’s “City of the Sun,” do you? 

There, too, a similar leveling scheme is drawn. But in reality, if you beat others in a 1000 meter race and become the winner, what is wrong with that? This is the result of your efforts to realize your capabilities. If someone wants to challenge your place on the pedestal, let them try. But now, in this foreign stadium, among an unfriendly audience in the stands, with corrupt and biased referees – you are still the winner. Everything is fair!

So in what manner should we resolve the issue of personnel in the future Free Tatarstan? It seems that we have come to the conclusion that we have enough capable professionals, but are there enough brave ones who are ready to risk their names, positions, and authorities? Will there be those who can step on the throat of their own song and make such unpopular but necessary decisions? For example, to remove from positions and punish representatives of influential clans, henchmen of oligarchs? Who will gather strength and shoo away the blood-sucking parasites from the trough who have been sucking the blood of people’s and national funds and savings for decades? Who will agree to take the notorious rifle that generates power? The rifle is a symbol of the will to win and the firmness of principles: not to chicken out, not to sell himself out, not turn away halfway! Will there be such a Tatar or will we have to invite a passionate Bashkort?

The law of life is such that uprisings give rise to leaders, wars bring forward new talented commanders and generals, and the need for reforms raise talented politicians-managers and economists to government posts with their revolutionary theories of reorganizing the state, previously rejected by bureaucrats and conformists in their home country.

In our reasoning, we inevitably found ourselves two steps from the famous words of “grandfather Lenin”, “Any cook can govern the state”… But we will not take these two steps, we will try to find a worthy, well-educated professional manager who can firmly take that very rifle! And we will all be obliged to help him with this.