"From the epicenter of the explosion at a safe distance."

Alexander is 44 years old and works as a driver in Kaliningrad. In his letter, he discusses the subject of current fascism and his attitude toward it.

- This war is like a nuclear explosion if you look at it from the offensive side. You are at a safe distance from the center of the blast, with excellent optics to see and filters to protect your eyes. You see the blast wave obliterating cities and turning living people to ash, but you are not affected because you are safe.

Everything happens until the air currents bring to you the disastrous consequences of the explosion - radioactive fallout, and they begin to invisibly but inexorably kill you...

At the beginning of 2022, I hardly followed the foreign policy situation in the world, although I always tried to keep abreast of the latest developments. Business was going well at work, a good income allowed me to make plans for the future - in general, I was becoming an ordinary conformist, of which there are many in Russia.

I had heard about the concentration of troops near Ukraine's borders, but, unlike my acquaintances, I allowed for the possibility of an invasion by the Russian Federation. Then, it seems, the sanctions package was "unpacked," and it included an attempt on the "holy of holies" of the Putin clique - castles, yachts, and multi-billion-dollar accounts of Putin's inner circle. In general, this military aggression (as I see it) looks like an act of revenge (the "V" symbol may stand for "vendetta" to the initiated) on the rebellious Ukrainians who have not agreed to the occupation of their sovereign lands. The troops at Ukraine's borders looked like a closed fist, as if to say "if you touch ours, we will wipe out those responsible for these sanctions.)

The package was unpacked - the strike took place... I was not shocked by the day of February 24, I was not even surprised. The reason was not stiffness of character or philistine indifference, but I understood that the leadership of the country was headed by clinical psychopaths, from whom you can expect anything. Armed with "optics" in the form of the opposition media, I began to observe the development of the "nuclear explosion" of the Russian invasion. I have no history of standing in protest pickets or posting anti-war leaflets at night with like-minded people or people close to me.

I was suddenly all alone. A barrage of "radioactive" propaganda winds swept over society with the swiftness of a tropical tsunami and everyone suddenly became fascists.

Fortunately for me, I have had experience with insane subjects, and I did not rush to reason with the hysterical apologists for military aggression. There is nothing here of cowardice or indifference - practical experience, as I am no stranger to the fever of fascism.

Yes, yes - I am an ex-fascist (there are such people). No, I was not a member of an extremist group, I did not shave my head, and there was no portrait of Hitler above my desk, but morally I was like those around me now.

The concept of national superiority of Russian Slavs over other peoples, belief in a world conspiracy against Russia, xenophobia, and many other unpleasant and destructive symptoms of fascist fever. I'll tell you what: it's brave, but useless, to fight fascism with the help of solitary protests or leaflets. Only a knockout blow to the heated head of the patient, followed by a hangover-like recovery, can cure this fever.

I got my "stroke" once and was healed, gaining a lifelong immunity from this ailment. 

This fever also consumed my kindest, most merciful mother... It is truly bitter to hear from the dearest person in the world Dr. Goebbels-like rhetoric about the "non-existent" state of Ukraine, about the right of Russia to wage an invasion war to protect the interests of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine, the hostility of the Western world and other narratives of Kremlin heresy.

Everyone: my mother, my sister, my wife, my former and current work colleagues, almost all my acquaintances are in the so-called "war party"... Unfortunately and to my personal misunderstanding, Western countries have closed this spider-viper can (the warring part of Russia) along with the anti-fascist part of the population, dooming them to the most severe and life-threatening consequences.

I called my situation "life inside the Z Nation" (there is a TV series with the same name "Z Nation" about the adventures of a group of survivors of the zombie apocalypse)...

That's the story.