🇷🇺 “God and Stalin”: The Two Pillars Holding Up a Collapsing Empire

In 2007, Russian presidential advisor Elena Yampolskaya made a curious statement:

“Only two forces can hold Russia together: God and Stalin.”

She wasn’t joking.

Now in 2025, this same Yampolskaya — best known for her nostalgic affection for gulags and her belief that folk embroidery can substitute for ideology — has been tasked with redesigning the visual identity of Russian public spaces. The goal? Replace all that “degenerate Western influence” with “traditional Russian decorative art.” Because, as we all know, nothing revives a dying empire like a fresh coat of Gzhel on your police station.

But beneath the folk-patterned kitsch lies something far more disturbing.

“To Hold Together” — A Choice of Words with Barbed Wire Edges

Let’s pause on that phrase: “Hold Russia together.” Not “lead,” not “develop,” not even “govern.” Hold. Like one holds back a riot. Like one holds a screaming prisoner in a straitjacket. It’s a word that betrays the ruling class’s deepest conviction:

That Russia is not a country to be lived in, but a problem to be managed.

A problem so severe, in fact, that only two extremes — divine awe or brutal fear — can prevent it from imploding. Stalin, the avatar of terror; God, the heavenly warden. Together they form a metaphysical penal system.

Russia as a Mythical Barracks

This is not governance — it’s custodianship of an empire on the verge of psychological collapse. And instead of addressing the root causes — economic stagnation, imperial hangover, and cultural nihilism — the Kremlin commissions folklore aesthetics to wallpaper over the cracks.

“Look, we’re not repressing you — we’re redecorating! Would you like that gulag with birch bark or lacquered wood?”

The tragedy is that for many, this is not even parody. State TV anchors will solemnly praise “spiritual braces” while military recruiters hand out icons with conscription papers. In the Russian imaginary, to suffer is to be righteous, and to be governed is to be saved from yourself. It’s not democracy; it’s self-harming theocracy with a taser.

The Empire That Fears Its Own People

Let’s be clear: when a regime admits that it can only survive through faith or force, it is no longer a government — it is a hostage-taker. It fears its citizens more than it fears any foreign threat. And it has every reason to.

Because once Russians begin to believe they are not a curse to be “held together,” but a people worthy of freedom, creativity, and truth — God and Stalin both lose their grip.