What will I tell my children?

Today it may seem somewhat fantastic that the day of debriefing will come, when each citizen of Russia will ask himself how he hastened the fall of the prison of nations.

Someone, for example, will try to tell himself that he was a small person, that nothing depended on him, he could not do anything because of the dense wall of prohibitions on any manifestation of social activity, and attempts to break through them were severely punished by the authorities.

The category of our fellow citizens will not go anywhere, who will continue to say not only to themselves, but to everyone around them that our country was right in everything, but the situation became bad because of those who liked to rock the boat, who do not want to go the same ranks. Because of such internal enemies, we found ourselves in an unenviable position. And Russia was not the prison of nations. Everything was just good, if not great. Although, of course, the damned corrupt oligarchs interfered, they, the enemies, the first turned out to be traitors. But for some reason, the whole world turned away from us, and the “allies” at the difficult moment of the “struggle” decided to take their side, not ours.

And we were defeated. And the losses turned out to be unexpectedly considerable and hard to bear.

Now we have to somehow explain the decline in living standards, restrictions on consumption, and besides, the shameful, losing reputation of our country. The loss of its former authority, general disrespect in the global human community. How did it happen? Once they thundered all over the world, they were a role model and an object of envy. Many people envied the material might of our country. And people tried not to criticize the moral authority of the large country with rich resources, powerful industry and a strong army. Inside the country, television and official propaganda convinced the population of the correctness of the chosen path. All those who opposed were isolated, their voice was quiet and imperceptible. But was it really they, these few protestors, dissidents were right? They said that the country was going the wrong way, that it was time to stop the war that was not worth starting, that fair elections were needed, that it was time to put an end to the omnipotence of the special services, that the national republics should be given the freedom to choose their own fate – whether in a “renewed federation”, or in an independent nation-state …

“Then it was difficult to figure everything out,” many people will say. But answering the boring questions of their children from such a statement will hardly be easier. The available soothing options (for external use) will not console yourself. You cannot fool yourself.

The truth is that the fear instilled by the president of ending in the position of a small “Muscovy” without raw materials and industrial appendages in the form of national quasi-republics convinced many people. Nobody wanted to lose the greatness of the country. Or almost no one. Feeling confident was easier, calmer. So they all agreed.

Now outside the window one can see evidence of the loss of “greatness” – mostly material one. A renewed, but “shortened” country is being helped with the choice of a path, with transformations that promise to lead it to real democracy in the future, to the observance of constitutional rights. It is planned that all of us in our new country will be able to live according to universal human rules, build a normal economy that does not rely only on the trade in resources and weapons, the role of propaganda will be reduced, and war will forever cease to be a way to solve internal and external problems.

Perhaps we will succeed in living a normal life. But there is one unpleasant condition, and there is no way around it. It should be admitted that we have gone the wrong way before.

The wrong way. Without this, without a mass understanding of why we lost, what was wrong with our previous choice, we will not be able to move forward. We need a large group of people who recognize our common mistakes and are able to build a new society … a very large group …

It is very difficult to honestly answer painful questions, but it is generally impossible to build something new without realizing miscalculations and wrong decisions. One still has to give answers. And to children with grandchildren, and to himself.

“What have I done to hasten the disintegration of the prison of nations? Where was my place in the events that took place? How did I help the sprouts of new life to break through? What did I do yesterday to make my children and grandchildren happy today?”