ABSTRACT
The Conclusion discusses the vision of history inherent in Russian far-right doctrines and the impact of eschatology on Putinism. Disputing the notion that post-Soviet Russia is a reiteration of either fascism or the Soviet system, it defines Putinism as a repressive regime of a new type, which is spreading modern slavery and corruption throughout Russia’s everyday life. Disseminating the memory of the perpetrators and reconfiguring memories of state terror into mobmemory, Putinism replaces its lack of ideology with these new ways of legitimizing social inequalities and the escalation of repressions. The eschatological expectations that instruct Putin’s rhetoric of nuclear blackmail are also prominent among Russian writers, far-right activists, Orthodox clergy, and sectarians, whose “pragmatic eschatology” feeds into the crusade for rebuilding the Russian Empire – the Third Rome. Russia’s belief in the Apocalypse finds a parallel in the popularity of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic genres in Western secular culture and the conspicuous critique of humanism promoted by various political, religious, and philosophical teachings in the West. The contemporary fascination with the end of humanity – the ultimate hallmark of the neomedieval mindset and a manifestation of the crisis of the future – discloses a crucial dimension in the global crisis of democracy.
