A response to Thuletide’s article “Russia is Nigeria with Snow”

The Red “Thuletide” in the images means that those images were taken from his original post

On June 12, right wing internet political blogger “Thuletide” posted an article on Wordpress essentially repeating what many critics of the dissident right’s support of Russia have been saying, that Russia is in fact not “based” or “trad” but decadent and degenerate because of high abortion rates, low Church attendance, alcoholism, and so on. The aim of this response is not to portray Russia as a perfect Christian utopia, but to recognize her virtues and imperfections, and analyze them fairly. After calling Russians “Orthodox Larpers” and pro Russian Westerners “Imbeciles” Thuletide goes on to present several graphs and data tables that are supposed to prove Russia’s degeneracy. Let’s analyze them.

1. Religiosity

Here Thuletide presents a Pew survey which attempts to show that Russians are not religious in comparison to Americans. We must understand a few things, however. For starters, the question “how important is religion in your life?” can be interpreted in a variety of ways. How much does religion affect your life daily, how religious is your environment, etc. In the worst of cases, this could mean that several Russians are weak of faith, but this does not mean that they are not religious, just that they want to be. This weakness can be understood as a struggle of Christians after the Soviet repression of Christianity. The religious revival in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union is real, and even though Russia still has some religious issues, her struggle against them is what makes her a Christian nation, or at least a nation trying to return to her Christian roots.

Ironically, Thuletide’s graph shows an increase in Russian people who said religion is very important in their lives compared to 2015-2016, and a decrease for people in the U.S.

Finally, just saying that you’re religious means nothing if you don’t follow your religion’s teachings. For example, 90% of Americans support abortion in some way, so self reported religiosity doesn’t really mean anything if it’s not practiced.

2. Abortion

This would be a great point actually, and I would agree with him… if this wasn’t data from 2004. Now, I have talked about abortion rates in Russia extensively in this post (originally a Twitter thread), but the main point is that abortions have decreased drastically after the fall of the Soviet Union, rendering this argument obsolete.

3. Divorce

Divorce is indeed a critical problem in Russia, which stems from the destruction of the model of the traditional family in the XX century. The divorce rate has decreased from the early 2000’s, marriage rate has fluctuated reaching its peak in 2011, and the ratio of marriage to divorce has remained stagnant. However, it is disingenuous to use 2020 as a reference because of the low marriage numbers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This problem has been present for a long time and therefore is recognized as a long term problem which will require several years to solve. The Russian Orthodox Church and other religions are doing everything they can within their capabilities to reduce divorce rates.

4. AIDS

The “AIDS epidemic in Russia” is one of the most repeated myths, following alcoholism and abortion. AIDS is definitely a problem in Russia, it’s main (direct and indirect) cause being drug use. However, it is nowhere near the apocalyptic problem that critics of Russia claim it is. The data is analyzed extensively here, the main takeaway being that the AIDS predictions are exaggerated, the problem is being dealt with by authorities, and that the cases appear so high because Russia tests for AIDS much more than other countries.

5. Alcoholism

Alcoholism used to be a problem in Russia, but now it has essentially been solved. Due to the economic, political, and social crisis in the 1990’s, alcohol consumption increased. However, the alcohol consumption rate has been constantly decreasing these past years due to the Government’s anti alcoholism policies (including an almost complete ban on alcohol advertising, multiple increases in taxes on alcohol, and the gradual prohibition of alcohol in many public spaces). Even Thuletide’s own table shows that Russia has lower levels of alcohol consumption than several European countries. However, it would have been useful if he had included a chart like the one below which compares the rate of alcohol consumption in different years.

6. Opiate Addiction

Opiate Addiction, or Drug Addiction in general remains a problem in Russia. A remnant of the Soviet Union, this problem plagues Russia. Nevertheless, a positive trend has been observed, mainly that drug users in Russia have decreased as the Government fights against drug addiction. Still, the number of addicts remains high, and it will probably take several years for the problem to be resolved completely.

7. Health Index

I fail to see what a Health Index has to do with a country being “trad” and “based”, however, let’s continue. The image Thuletide shared comes from Statista, which in turn uses the anti-Russian “Legatum Institute” as a source. The Legatum Institute is a well known anti-Russian think thank based in London. This whole argument is just “Russophobes claim that Russia bad”.

But an actual analysis of the Russian Healthcare System shows that it is improving quite a lot. For example, new medical technology is being developed in Russia, and the production of vital medicine is also increasing. New medical institutions are also being opened. In addition, Russians have access to free medical care, and even private medical care is not as expensive as in the United States.

8. Quality of Life Index

As I stated before, these indexes rely on subjective and arbitrary criteria which in turn present inaccurate data. Is immigrant infested Sweden better than “Traditional” Poland or Hungary? What about Globalist America? I guess Thuletide’s critique of American globalism is invalid because of America’s “high quality of life”. Apparently high quality of life means demographic replacement, poverty, mental illness, and transgender children.

9. Life Expectancy

The average life expectancy in Russia was 73.4 years in 2019. According to a study published in The Lancet, Russia showed one of the best dynamics in increasing life expectancy. In the past years, life expectancy in Russia has been increasing. It still is low compared to other developed countries, but it is consistently improving.

10. Homicide Rate

The homicide rate in Russia was in fact 4.7 homicides per 100,000 people in 2020 (according to EMISS). Not only that, but it has been constantly decreasing since the 2000’s.

11. Number of Prisoners

The incarceration rate in Russia has decreased drastically over the last years.

Over the past 10 years, Russia moved from second to twentieth place in the world in terms of the number of prisoners per 100,000 people.

12. Public Sector Corruption

What is cited here is V-Dem’s “Public Sector Corruption Index” which is pretty similar to Transparency International’s “Corruption Perceptions Index”. This biased “Index” doesn’t measure corruption, it measures public perception of corruption. Data is manipulated to favor pro-Western countries. This “Index” is very misleading because it only measures the perception of corruption, not the levels of corruption themselves. For example, a survey found that 74% of Europeans believe that there is widespread corruption in their national public institutions. A Gallup poll found that 75% of Americans see widespread government corruption. Corruption is indeed present in Russia, but nowhere near the extent that these polls claim.

Conclusion

In the end, Thuletide’s criticism of Russia is based on outdated data and problems that have been solved or that are being solved. To conclude, I would like to offer my own thoughts on a couple of issues. The first would be the “trad” Russophobe. This refers to a dissident right winger who is anti Russian. Thuletide’s article served as a compilation of most Russophobic arguments, which is why I decided to respond. The second topic I would like to address is whether Russia is actually “based” or “trad”. I believe that in some sense, she is. Of course, in comparison to the Russian Empire, which is the epitome of Russian Traditional Christianity, modern Russia isn’t based or trad. But I don’t think of it that way. I see Russia as a country that in a spiritual way seeks to return to what was before, struggling against the demons that harmed her for so long. This struggle to return to her Christian roots, even if not achieved completely yet, is what makes Russia trad for me.