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Good Tsar / Dobryy Tsar

Commenting on the June 2023 Rebellion by Wagner group, Masha Gessen noted that "Prigozhin was not challenging Putin. In fact, he was acting in accordance with the power structure and the mythology constructed by Putin, whereby Putin alone makes all the decisions and, if those decisions are bad, then it’s someone else’s fault—it means that he was misinformed. In a video released on June 23rd, Prigozhin said that war in Ukraine had been unleashed under false pretenses—because, he said, the Ministry of Defense had lied to Putin, making him think that Ukraine and NATO were about to attack Russia. Prigozhin was apparently marching to the capital not to depose Putin but to enlighten him."

The belief in a good tsar and bad boyars is known in Russian history as naïve monarchism. This myth was the backbone of the Tsarist regime, contributing to the regime’s persistence for many years. It portrayed the tsar as a just and benevolent intercessor of ordinary people, whereas all failures were ascribed to officials, who deliberately misrepresented and misinformed the country’s leader. The Good King is one of the names of the King of Heaven, the Creator of the Worlds and the Lord of Infinity. All responsibility is shifted to others according to the principle: good tsar, bad boyars.

A good tsar cares about his people and uses his power to fight evil. This myth was personally maintained by the tsar to secure his authority and existing order. Symbolic acts such as standing godfather to the child of a poor peasant or public instances of humiliating or executing arrogant nobles and officials were practiced by many Russian tsars, including Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great.

Peasants, in their turn, expressed reverence and devotion to the tsar and asked for his patronage and intervention in their disputes with local powerholders. Some of them truly believed in a good tsar and evil boyars. However, many people purposefully employed this myth in their grievances. Even the most idiotic decisions of the Leader are justified by the fact that he does not know anything at all about what is happening in his country.

The "tsar is good and the boyars are evil" is a political and protest concept that has been traced in the history of Russia for centuries. The concept of the Tsar is good and the boyars are evil expresses the observation that the Fuhrer ("Tsar") surrounds himself with stupid scoundrels ("boyars", "guardsmen"), even more cruel than himself. Such an environment, to some extent, contributes to the safety of the dictator: on the one hand, stupid boyars (advisers, ministers, politburos, dumaki ) cannot plan a conspiracy because of their stupidity, and on the other hand, they understand that without a tsar (general secretary, president , marshal, prime minister, generalissimo) they will face a quick and painful death: either a revolution will happen and the people will cut them, or they will kill each other; each will try to kill a competitor before the competitor has done the same to him.

The concept of the Tsar is good and the boyars are evil is also manifested in the demands for the absolutization of the power of the supreme ruler.

Bloody Sunday in 1905 is considered a classic example of the manifestation of the concept of the Tsar is good and the boyars are evil : crowds of workers and peasants turned to the sovereign emperor Romanov Nikolai Alexandrovich with a petition; and the emperor, instead of addressing the audience from the balcony of his palace with an impromptu speech of sympathy and a promise to sort it out, got scared and ordered the protesters to be shot to prevent them from entering the palace. Such an execution is called a bloody resurrection.

In the concept Tsar is good and boyars are evil , the execution of workers in 1905 is interpreted something like this: False advisers told the tsar that rebels had come for his soul; the good tsar ordered the visitors to be dealt with gently, and the evil boyars ordered the soldiers to shoot at the people.

The idea of a kind and wise general secretary and scoundrel-performers in the Central Committee can be traced back to the time of the USSR. Many citizens, repressed by Stalin's decrees, hoped that it was they who were repressed by mistake, and turned to the Secretary General with petitions and loyal complaints and requests to "sort it out." Judging by the number of those who were repressed, the Bolsheviks killed almost everyone.

The Leader is like the Big Brother of Orwell's 1984. No replacement of such a God is implied. The Leader's power vertical replaces all state institutions, these institutions are transformed from government bodies into "applause bodies", and the country can no longer exist without the Leader; with its destruction, the entire system of government is destroyed and society is expected to turn from a fascist organization into a herd of barbarians. In relation to Russia at the beginning of the 21st century, the concept of the Tsar is good and the boyars are evil can also be expressed by the slogan If there is Putin - there is Russia, if there is no Putin - there is no Russia.