MOSCOW (Realist English). Boris Yakemenko, Deputy director of the Center for Historical Expertise at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, in an interview with the Realist News Agency, spoke about the purpose of Russia, the importance of Kiev for Russian history, as well as the problem of denazification of the territory of the former Ukraine.
Every human being has his or her own mission. The same can be said about the people, which is a set of destinies. How do you see the destiny of Russia and the Russian people?
Boris Yakemenko: This is a very large-scale issue. I see it this way: the purpose of Russia and the Russian people is to determine global trends.
Nikolay Danilevsky spoke about the eternal confrontation of the Slavic and Germanic- Romanesque peoples. As of 2022, the Germanic-Romanesque world has united under the banners of NATO and the European Union. But the Slavic world remains fragmented. Moreover, some Slavic countries willingly follow the banners of the Germanic peoples. What is the reason for such discord among the Slavs? Why did the Germans manage to unite a part of the Slavs around themselves, but the rulers of Russia have not yet succeeded?
Boris Yakemenko: The Russian government has managed to do a lot: to unite not so much Slavs, but completely different peoples. And the Russian government has never had such a task.
The task is to present our own values to others, and it’s up to them to unite or not. Because the West acts by dictate, and we act by a simple sentence: “Do you want to join us? Join us. Everything is in your hands.”
It seems to me that there is no need to set such a task — to unite everyone in some way. People themselves see well what is good and what is evil. And they are drawn, of course, to the good. They need to be offered a way of life and thinking, and then everything will happen by itself.
Any unity is based on symbols. What, in your opinion, is the symbolic meaning of Kiev?
Boris Yakemenko: Kiev is the source of Russian history and the Russian state. There is a stone on the Vladimirskiya Hill, where the Russian land came from. The importance of this city cannot be overestimated. Like the root for the tree has a life-sustaining value, so does Kiev for Russia.
Russia has announced denazification in the Ukraine. This is a rather old concept that is difficult to perceive even in the Russian Federation itself. Maybe we should offer people a more understandable language?
Boris Yakemenko: I also think that over time, probably, these initial things will fade into the background, because denazification is a consequence. If we clear the Ukraine of all this puppet shusher, then Nazism and everything else will disappear by itself.
The entire Ukrainian people should not be recorded as accomplices of the Nazis. Millions of sane people live there. And today we are making a big mistake — we judge the people as a whole by a handful of marginals, who by and large do not represent their own people. Therefore, it is necessary to create conditions for denazification to occur by itself.
We know very well that you can treat a disease with pills, or you can strengthen the immune system, which will defeat the disease itself. Therefore, in this case, you need to rely on the second option. It is necessary to debug the immune system, and it will do everything by itself as it should.
What is denazification the Russian way?
Boris Yakemenko: There is no denazification the English, the French, the Russian, or any other way. It’s about whether denazification happens or not. As soon as we introduce some gradations, it looks strange and dangerous.
