That's why Russia is resurrecting awful Ivan.

AT LANTA ? While most of the world is busy destroying the monuments of their oppressors, Russians are moving in the opposite direction, erecting statues for medieval commanders who were known for their depositism. Understanding this resurrection may shed light on the direction Russia's policy is taking.

Last October, with the support of Russia's Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, the first monument this site has ever erected was discovered in the city of Orel. A month later, Vladimir Zyrinovski, head of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party (ultra-nationalist), called for the Flevard “Lenin” in Moscow to be named the Terrible Ivan Boulevard. And in July of this year, President Vladimir Putin baptized Moscow's own tribute to the tyrant, declaring that the most likely “Ivan did not kill anyone, not even His Son”.

Most historians agree that Ivan deserves the fame he has; not only did he kill his son and other relatives, but he also ordered Oparchina, state cleansing that terrorised Russia from 1565 to 1572. He also led Russia's defeat in the Livonian War, and his ill-governance contributed to the Time of Telash and the disastrous depopulation that happened to the state.

Joseph Stalin initiated the modern cult of terrible Ivan. But, since the mid 2000s, Russia's Eurasian Party ʹ a political movement led by pro-fascist mystic Alexander Dugin has moved to position Ivan as the best incarnation of a <x0-authentic” Russian tradition: authoritarian monarchy.

The mark of Dugin's “uresianism” supports a new “Messiania “, where what little remains of Russian democracy, is replaced by an absolute autism. In Dugin's ideal future, a medieval social order would be restored, the empire would be restored, and the Orthodox Church would take over culture and education.

Eurasianism, which was marginalized in the 1990s, has gained considerable popularity in recent years, contributing to the formation of the so-called Izborsky Club, which unites the far-right Russian. In some cases, Putin has referred to Eurasia as an important part of Russian ideology; he has called it one of the founding principles of “Eurasian Economic Union”, an area of trade, of former Soviet states.

Eurasianism has given ultra-nationalist groups the terrain around which to unite. He has also given the symbols of totalitarianism, such as the terrible Ivan and Stalin, new legions of supporters.

At the top of them are members of the Eurasian Party, who view political terror as the most efficient tool of governance and call for a new “Oprichnya” an Eurasian anti-Western revolution. According to Mikhail Yurievi, a member of the Eurasian Party's political council and author of the ottropic novel “the Third Empire”, the oprichnics must be the only political class, and must rule through fear.

The terrible Ivan is not the only medieval remnant to be resurrected in Russia. Cultural dictionary is also coming back. For example, the word kholop, meaning “servant”, is turning into everyday speech, a language devolution that coincides with a disturbing increase in modern slavery in Russia. Data from the Global Slave Index shows that more than a million Russians are currently trapped in the construction industry, army, agriculture and sex trade. Moreover, the “superiors” of slaves are gladly identifying themselves as grass in modern times.

Russian officials also speak appreciatively of modern slavery. Valeri Zorkin, who heads the Constitutional Court, wrote in Rossiya Gazeta, the government's official newspaper, that the servants and maids were long ago, a “sacre social quo for Russia. And another medieval term: lydi gosudarevy, translated into “Majesty servants of” It's back to the high-ranking bureaucratic term.

Nostalgia for slavery fills the desire for a return to autism. Renowned Russian Intellectual, including director Nikita Mikhalkov, journalist Maxim Sokolov and Vsevod Chaplin, a Russian Orthodox clergyman, are calling for Putin's crowning and petitions for support are gaining online supporters. Protests against Putin's regime in 2012, have been interpreted, not as against Putin himself, but against the social order that Eurazianism aspires to.

Putin's silent support for the Eurasian vision of a neomedean Russia reminds of Stalinism's historical memory. According to Dugin, “Stalin created the Soviet Empire” and, like Ivan the Terrible, expresses the “spirit of Soviet society and the Soviet people”. No wonder that the monuments to Stalin are also multiplying in Russian cities.

Neo-meditarianism is rooted in homesickness for a social order based on inequality, caston and clan, empowered by terror. The restoration of historical despots reflects embracing pre-modern values, radically anti-democratic and unfair. For Ivan's contemporary champions, the past is a prologue.

The world.. By authorization from Project Syndicate, 2017. The republic can only be made with permission from Project Syndicate Why is Russia restoring Ivan the Terry?