International Journal of Academic Research and Development 1698 International Journal of Academic Research and Development ISSN: 2455-4197 Impact Factor: RJIF 5.22 www.academicsjournal.com Volume 3; Issue 2; March 2018; Page No. 1698-1701 Russian ideological state apparatus Nancy Pathak Research Scholar, Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India Abstract Unlike the popular western belief that there is absence of legitimacy of the Russian state and the elites are ruling completely undemocratically, the ground reality reeks of heavy popularity enjoyed by the Russian Leaders. We cannot argue that all the policies of the Leadership is working in favor of a western styled liberal democracy, but the Russian masses have always wanted a strong leadership and elites in Kremlin are delivering stability and strong government. There are various ideological and political factors that are contributing to the legitimacy of these Elites. This paper tries to study many of such factors which have led to popularity of these Elites among Russian masses. Keywords: Russian elites, Russian democracy, ideological state apparatus, Russian leaders, propaganda Introduction Russian bureaucracy and Elites have been criticized time and again for managing the democracy and sabotaging it in their own interest. Bureaucracy as well as the political and economic elites worked together to sabotage the democratic functioning of the public institutions. They have used their privileges in more than one ways to loot the Public treasury and natural resources of Russia for their own benefits. But the debate goes much beyond the control exercised through the laws and the economic manipulation. The control of the state goes beyond these mechanisms. It goes on to claim the kind of legitimacy that Weber claims is a must for the modern day bureaucracies to survive. These mechanisms are the ideological state apparatuses that Louise Althuiser has so extensively studied and written upon. Even Rousseau has explicitly expressed that a state cannot enjoy legitimacy until the power is enjoined with rights and the obedience is accepted in the name of duty. So Russian Modern state also has its own ideological state apparatuses that keep the Russian state legitimate in the eyes of the citizens. If not all it has managed to convince some, and more than some population of the nation for sure. There are several opiums through which the Russian state today maintains its legitimacy. Russian Nationalism One of the foremost ideological tools that Russian state uses today is the idea of nationalism. The notion of Russian Nationalism emerged from the historical idea of Great Russia (Velikaia Rus). John B. Dunlop also claims that Soviet social and political system was based on national principles. It can also not be forgotten that in the end was only the feeling of ethnic nationalism which led to breakdown of Soviet state. One of these states was also Russia. Nationalism became the biggest ideology after the collapse of communism in Russia. This was assessed quickly by the Russian elites. Putin who was a face, handpicked from St. Petersburg bureaucracy became popular within some days. It was not a co-incident that he was portrayed as an ex-Soviet spy driven by Soviet nationalism. Natalia Gevorkyan, who was also part of the team commissioned with the job to write Putin’s biography also mentions in a biography that the people in Kremlin wanted to highlight his past in glorious lights. He was portrayed as an ex- KGB man who kept nation before people. With this, the Russian official propaganda became nationalist, militarist and authoritarian, just to prove that right people were in command. They could do anything possible to protect Russian interests. Soon Putin became popular and was successfully elected as the new President of Russia after Yeltsin. This became a possibility only with the help of another means of gaining popularity. Putin administration soon also developed an image of the protectors of the rights of the ethnic Russian. The Creation of ‘Other’ in Russian imagination of a Nation In Russia today the Russians are portrayed as the oppressed majority. The propaganda is that the Russians do not have their own ethnic republic like the Chechens, Udmurts or Tatars. Also the federalism in Russia does not adequately represent the majority. Neither has democracy represented the wishes of the majority as per the expectations they had from the new Russia. But if such a treatment was given to the ethnic Russians the “others” were also not getting the best treatment in the Russian federation either. History is replete with such examples. Certain events in late nineties ignited the hatred against the ethnic minorities in Russia. Earlier the concept of Russian world i.e Ruskii Mir had been created under the leadership of the Sergey Chernyshev, in 1990’s to re-emphasise the concept of the ancient shared civilisational space. This concept was taken forward in 1999