Andrei Nekrasov: Vladislav Surkov and the Ideology of Russia’s New One-Party State
[We are pleased to feature this exclusive special guest column from the Russian filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov, the director and producer of “Rebellion, The Litvinenko Case” (which premiered at this year’s Cannes film festival), “Disbelief” (2004), and many other films. Here Nekrasov takes a look at the dialectic of Vladislav Surkov’s “sovereign democracy,” and a critique of the “institutions of latter-day ideological eclectics.” – Robert Amsterdam] The Ideology of the Sole Party (or «Not Our Ideology») By Andrei Nekrasov The fact that a one-party system is being re-established in one form or another in Russia can be seen with an unaided eye. But I am not in agreement with the idea that the party that has set its sights on the leading role in the new historical tragedy does not have a political face and an ideology from where the legs grow. The opposition, on the other hand, today does not have that comfort and leisure which, apparently, allow for Mr. Surkov’s flights into near-philosophical empyreans; his ideological texts now are worthy of attention not because one ought to respond to them – after all, he himself, it seems, is from that cohort which does not conduct either negotiations or discussions with those who are not with them. But now, when society again finds itself behind the bars of one-partiness, one can and should come to several interesting conclusions from the way this modern-day classicist-careerist implemented the theoretical preparation of this campaign.