May 09, 2023

Russia is Officially "Ruscist"


Russia is Officially "Ruscist"
A pro-Ukraine protest in London's Trafalgar Square Alisdare Hickson, Wikimedia Commons

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament, adopted a resolution "On the Use of the Ideology of Ruscism by the Political Regime of the Russian Federation, Condemning the Principles and Practices of Ruscism as Totalitarian and Misanthropic."

The resolution says the war "showed to the entire world the true essence of Vladimir Putin’s political regime as a neo-imperial, totalitarian dictatorship that imitates the worst practices of the past and embodies the ideas of fascism and national socialism in a modern version of Russian fascism (ruscism)."

In a statement, the Ukrainian parliament appealed to the UN, the European Parliament, the OSCE, and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, as well as to the governments and parliaments of other countries to "support the condemnation of the ideology, policy, and practice of ruscism."

"Ruscism" is a neologism consisting of the words fascism, and Russia. It seems to date clear back to 1995, and was employed by breakaway Chechen leader Dzhokar Dudayev to describe Russia's military invasion of Chechnya as an expression of far-right ideology. Ruscism, he said, is

a variety of hatred ideology which is based on Great Russian chauvinism, spiritlessness and immorality. It differs from other forms of fascism, racism, and nationalism by a more extreme cruelty, both to man and to nature. It is based on the destruction of everything and everyone, the tactics of scorched earth. Ruscism is a schizophrenic variety of the world domination complex. This is a distinct version of slave psychology, it grows like a parasite on the fabricated history, occupied territories and oppressed peoples.

In Ukraine, the term "ruscism" became entrenched in 2014, after the occupation of Crimea and the beginning of the Donbas conflict, but it became known worldwide after Russia began its War on Ukraine in 2022. After that, the Ukrainian Wikipedia article about ruscism was translated into more than 20 languages, the term began to appear in international media, and was voiced in the speeches of politicians.

In particular, in April 2022, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, said that the term would be used to describe Russia in history books. "Historically, their state will have a word in books and history that no one has invented and that everyone repeats both in Ukraine and in Europe: ruscism," Zelensky said.

 

You Might Also Like

Goodbye, Pushkin!
  • April 11, 2023

Goodbye, Pushkin!

The Ukrainian city of Poltava will remove statues of Pushkin and two Soviet generals following residents' protests.
400 Days
  • March 30, 2023

400 Days

On this, the 400th Day of Russia's War on Ukraine, we gather and share some telling data.
Renaming Russia?
  • March 15, 2023

Renaming Russia?

A Ukrainian petition calls for the renaming of Russia to Moscovia. 
A Ban on Russian
  • February 01, 2023

A Ban on Russian

Kyiv-Mohlya Academy has banned the Russian language inside the institution.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka
November 01, 2012

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.

Murder at the Dacha
July 01, 2013

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

Fish
February 01, 2010

Fish

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

Little Golden Calf
February 01, 2010

Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955