Fascists on the March

You may very well think so if you are a French or American citizen. Still, extremism is treated with caution over there, while any manifestations of neo-Nazism, anti-Semitism, and racism get an all-out rebuff from a civilized and affluent society. They also understand over there that the main guarantee against this kind of danger is not only democracy but also a well-developed economy. What about us?

The Russians also thought before August 17, 1998, that they lived in a society with a mobile and growing economy. They were mistaken. Who can guarantee that a society existing in the world of an illusory economy will see tomorrow that it also existed in an illusory democracy? It is obvious that the post-Soviet theater shows no outlines of economic success which are the main wall able to protect society from Barkashovites and Limonovites. And this is not only a problem for Russia or Belarus but also for Ukraine. It is easier to find supporters among the disenchanted, the more so when the tired authorities close their eyes on everything. What looks today like burlesque may appear a well-organized force whose ideas are accepted by the active part of society (whatever active part remains) tomorrow, on a new crest of the economic crisis, without encountering resistance on the part of those who are simply struggling for their own, not the state's, survival. What kind of ideas? We know it only too well. Russia for Russians! Ukraine for Ukrainians! Get the Blacks out of the market! Let's bring order! Let them go to their Israel! Need one go on?

Neither well-written laws nor law enforcement bodies will protect us from all this. Allergy to dirt only emerges in a clean society, a society where people do not rummage in garbage cans as a lost hope. Should we build such a country, let them march on the fringes. Should we fail to do so, they will be marching downtown.