Somewhen in the 00s I had a probably friendship-breaking argument with a pal of mine about the whole ‘patriotism’ thing. Indeed, we lost any connection in the following years, and I suppose that was one of the reasons. Back then, we couldn’t formulate what patriotism is, and he stood on the ground of defending this ephemeral construct while I was all for ditching it.

In the coming years I repeatedly reevaluated what it is for me, and for others, and for the state. While the state’s position is obvious - patriotism is like an oath you take when you enter military service to unconditipnally follow what the state wants. For others it’s a mixed bag, greatly defined not only by the great achievements of the past, but by insecurity that they’d lose even more if their tsar lose support, and the state how it is, even openly criticized, guarantees our material conditions would decline slowly and for a right reason, while the other choice is a chaos that would turn everything upside down like it was in the 90s.

For me, personally, the patriotism started to be a thing after I had a conversation with a lot of people from different regions and backgrounds. We, after all, a family that lives in a large house. Some of the rentees are deeply consumed by the war and the state propaganda, some aren’t, but in the end we all share the same living space and would continue to do so whatever happens. What we all share though, and what led to such a degradation, is a decline in material and social conditions orchestrated by the kremlyads. And if there’s a patriotism in loving your country and your own contrymen, it goes against the current admin, them stealing everything and sending our men into a meatgrinder, them bankrupting our culture, them exchanging our future to get loans from the likes of Iran and China, them giving handshakes or handjobs to Talibs and Kim.

A russian patriot, if there’s one, gonna hate these phoney moves by the state instead of education, hate how it strips russian people bare and send them to die because it felt like it, hate how in a course of an endless VVP admin we turned from a promising country with a hope of establishing a democracy with living wages we turned into pariahs that can’t even leave that bestest vision of the Motherland if we aren’t rich like top propagandists do owning multiple properties in Europe. What I see the best for my country is not aligned with what ‘The collective West’ (as dumbfucks call it) wants us to do, it is to our own egoistic interest to return to the path of development and reinclusion into the world of less shitty states, because it would lead to us not having a second thought about buying okayish meat and bread instead of priced down garbage when we do groceries, and would make us raise kids without a fear that they’d be put down for some greater good.