[A bomb that killed a Russian military blogger echos across past
and future]
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A BOMB AS AN ARGUMENT  
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Boris Kagarlitsky
April 7, 2023
Russian Dissent
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_ A bomb that killed a Russian military blogger echos across past and
future _

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On April 2, 2023, there was an explosion on the University embankment
of Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg. The victim of the terrorist
act was the Russian military correspondent (or military commissar)
Maxim Fomin, here working under the name of Vladlen Tatarsky. The
authorities immediately declared feminist Daria Trepova the
perpetrator of the crime, and her arrest was reported the next day.

Tatarsky was one of those who over the past year glorified violence,
not just as a way to solve problems, but also as “what we love.”
Like many other military correspondents, Tatarsky constantly
criticized the Russian government for insufficient cruelty and an
unwillingness to carry out the genocide of the civilian population of
Ukraine, without which it was impossible to win the war or to
consolidate the occupied territories. It was his opinion that all
people of military age should be destroyed in Ukraine, though it would
eventually be necessary to deal not only with them but also with
immigrants from Asian countries who have been “flooding” Russia:
“when we finish with them, we will immediately deal with this
issue.”

Alas, once again the wave covered one of those who raised it himself.
History is merciless in this regard. Whether we consider it karma or
just a natural pattern, over and over again everything works in this
way.

For a Western reader who is not familiar with the reality of Putin's
Russia today, it is necessary to explain who the military
correspondents are. The war that broke out in Ukraine was not only
accompanied by a huge number of victims on both sides, but it gave
rise to the emergence of a whole group of people publicly, legally and
with the full support of the authorities, expressing ideas that two
years ago would have been perceived as extremist. It should be noted
that in Ukraine, too, many public figures cursed the Russians, which
is quite understandable given the unfolding bloodshed. But Russian
military correspondents are not just a group of embittered
nationalists calling for the destruction of everything foreign, and
especially Ukrainian. They act as a link between the official
propaganda machine (which also does not hesitate to speak about
Ukraine), “Wagner” mercenaries
[[link removed]], and ultra-right groups
inside Russia. Unfortunately for the right-wing forces, however, their
rapid growth over the past months has begun to cause serious concern
not only among the liberal and leftist opposition, but also among a
significant part of the bureaucracy, the military, and the
bourgeoisie. In an aggravated situation, when conflicts and the
struggle for power are growing more and more frequent at the very top,
the St. Petersburg explosion (regardless of who will be held
responsible) could well be a kind of thing that puts the extreme right
forces in government back in their true place.

However, yesterday's explosion has another, very specific feature that
puts it in a completely different context. If the pseudonym of the
deceased Mr. Fomen is clearly a reference to Vavilen Tatarsky, the
hero of Pelevin’s famous novel 
[[link removed]]_Generation P
[[link removed]]_, then the
name of Daria Trepova, the girl accused of the attempt, makes us
recall a most important historical episode that happened a century and
a half ago, all in the same Petersburg.

In 1878, the revolutionary populist Vera Zasulich shot the mayor
Fyodor Trepov. The official survived, and the jury, chaired by the
famous lawyer A.F. Koni, unanimously acquitted the girl. This event,
interpreted by some as a triumph of sedition, and by others as a
victory for justice, marked the beginning of the era of revolutionary
terror in Russia.

The mastermind of the St. Petersburg terrorist attack (if it was Daria
Trepova at all) is clearly not, unlike Vera Zasulich, a lone
revolutionary. This is too evident in the quality of workmanship;
there were clearly professionals involved here. The explosion was
strong enough to kill a war correspondent, but not so powerful as to
cause accidental casualties and unnecessary destruction. It is hard to
imagine that she could organize everything herself, make and conceal a
bomb, and escape from the scene without any problems. At the same
time, the suspect did not even try to escape from the city after the
explosion, and the authorities almost immediately announced that they
knew her name. All this looks at least strange. And it is not
surprising that many commentators have already begun to speculate
about the serious people or structures behind the murder of the
military correspondent. The feminist suspect is very suitable for the
image dictated by historical tradition, but does not correspond well
to the “technological” circumstances of what happened. But whoever
was responsible for the explosion on
the _Universitetskaya_ embankment of Vasilyevsky Island, there is a
feeling that we have before us a completely Petersburg story, which
will be analyzed and solved for a long time. One of two things is
going on: either the masterminds of the terrorist attack have a very
sophisticated historical and philological imagination, or we are
dealing with the mystical “irony of history.”

No matter how further events develop, one thing is clear. In modern
Russia, TNT is becoming the most convincing political argument.

_BORIS YULYEVICH KAGARLITSKY
[[link removed]] is a
Russian Marxist [[link removed]] theoretician
[[link removed]] and sociologist
[[link removed]] who has been a political
dissident [[link removed]] in
the Soviet Union [[link removed]]. He is
coordinator of the Transnational Institute
[[link removed]] Global Crisis
project and Director of the Institute of Globalization and Social
Movements
[[link removed]] (IGSO)
in Moscow [[link removed]]. Kagarlisky hosts
a YouTube [[link removed]] channel Rabkor,
associated with his online newspaper of the same name and with
IGSO. _

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* Russia
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* Ukraine
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* Terrorism
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* Vladimir Putin
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