Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su

Whether Darya Dugina was a martyr in the religious meaning of the expression is not for us to decide. But in secular terms, the gruesome circumstances that claimed the life of this remarkable young woman, who was also a beautiful human being, undoubtedly do elevate her to the rank of martyr.

Etymologically, the martyr is a witness who boldly and at grave peril proclaims a transcendent truth or exalted reality. As an engaged intellectual of the first order in her own right, and a public figure recognisable independently of her father, Darya Dugina indeed bore witness to the truth in a perverse world that detests it and at every turn persecutes it intensely.

In her witness, she chose the right side to be on.

She was a committed Orthodox Christian, of course, which defined her vision of life and understanding of her duties.

Darya Dugina’s beastly murder, in August 2022, by means of a surreptitiously placed car bomb was plotted by operatives of Ukrainian intelligence and executed by a depraved female agent they selected for this gruesome task. It is a matter of conjecture whether she or her father, philosopher Alexander Dugin, was the intended target because on the fatal night they were attending together a cultural event and at the last moment switched cars unexpectedly. It is certain however that either or both would have been considered high value targets by the killers.

Darya’s tragic death was initially minimised and cruelly mocked (The Guardian’s dismissive comment is typical) and then completely black-holed by the public opinion masters of the collective West. That was natural conduct from people whose moral rages are always cheap and selective, who are destitute of conscience, and whose actions are governed by loathsome hypocrisy. The reasons for their discretion concerning the crimes of their protégés in Kiev are neatly encapsulated in the Russian saying: Ворон ворону глаз не выклюет (crows do not pick crow’s eyes).

It is comforting, however, that admiration for this brave young woman and desire to honour her memory continue undiminished in the hearts and minds of normal people. On 6 and 7 December of this year an homage to Darya Dugina is scheduled to take place in Belgrade, Serbia, as part of a scholarly gathering under the title “The theory of Europe: Darya Dugina’s multipolar vision.”

Multidisciplinary participants in the conference will include Darya’s father, Russian philosopher, sociologist, and geopolitical thinker Dr. Alexander Dugin, and distinguished lecturers from France, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Serbia.

The moral and symbolic significance of this tribute cannot be overstated. It is a resounding declaration on the part of the Serbian organisers of where their sympathies lie in the current geopolitical confrontation. All indicators of the public mood in Serbia, without exception, confirm that this position is shared by the overwhelming majority of the Serbian people.

That leads us to the obvious question: why did hundreds of thousands of men on both sides die and sustain horrible injuries in the conflict that for almost three years has been going on in Ukraine? Darya Dugina’s answers would be, amongst other things, to stop the Ukrainian Nazi regime’s armed forces’ shelling and killing of Russian civilians in the Donbas, to ensure full respect for the cultural identity of the majority ethnic Russian population throughout Ukraine, to finally eradicate all traces of Nazism in Ukraine almost eighty years after it was crushed in Germany, and to put an end to NATO’s aggressive expansion which threatens not just Russia but also world peace.

We have an essentially different answer to the same question that must urgently be publicised. Its author, a few days ago, was Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. That answer actually is not at all false from the standpoint of Graham and the like-minded cabal for which he speaks. In its crude sincerity and unspeakable vulgarity it ought to shock the conscience of every decent person. For the cabal in question, according to Sen. Graham, the colossal conflict which has so far destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions, and which, unless its escalatory trajectory is curtailed, could provoke a global catastrophe by sparking World War III, was all about – money.

For incredulous doubters, let Sen. Graham speak for himself, in his own words:

“This war is about money. People don’t talk much about it. But you know, the richest country in all of Europe for rare earth minerals is Ukraine. Two to seven trillion dollars’ worth of minerals that are rare earth minerals, very relevant to the 21st century … Ukraine’s ready to do a deal with us, not the Russians. So it’s in our interest to make sure that Russia doesn’t take over the place.”

Lindsay Graham is a complete and utter idiot in all matters pertaining to history, geography, international relations, and fundamental precepts of morality. But money is a topic that he and his good ole boys understand well. He should not therefore simply be dismissed for being the disgusting vulgarian that he is. He deserves credit, and even a measure of gratitude, for being – in his coarse style – a clownish, but in the core message he emits an unfailingly honest articulator of the true motives of the criminal political class that he represents. Whenever he is given a platform to speak, he does an enormous public service by letting the cat out of the bag.

To conclude, we have juxtaposed two contrasting cultural archetypes, personified by Darya Dugina and Lindsey Graham. Their respective responses to the unfathomable human tragedy of the conflict in Ukraine are the raw data for a far-reaching comparative socio-cultural and anthropological study.