Author: Robert Břešťan, HlídacíPes.org
COMMENTARY. History has a way of resurfacing, and in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, it’s strikingly evident. What we’re witnessing is a modern reincarnation of the Tsarist empire—complete with similar power structures, methods of societal control, and territorial ambitions. The ongoing war against Ukraine, now in its third-and-a-half year, is a glaring example. But it’s far from the only one.
Putin’s regime bears striking parallels to Tsarist Russia, the Bolshevik USSR, and the frustrations of post-Soviet decline. It leverages the past to justify its present goals and methods.
Tsarism in a New Guise
Putin draws inspiration from the likes of Peter the Great, who modernized Russia with an iron fist, and Alexander III, who bolstered autocracy and established the first secret police—a precursor to today’s FSB.
Then, as now, Russia’s intelligence services exist primarily to protect the regime and its leader, not the state or its citizens.Russia remains a centralized state where the president wields near-absolute power, issuing decrees and appointing key officials.
This mirrors the Tsarist model, where the Duma is a far cry from a genuine parliament.In contrast to the Bolshevik idea of a union of republics—now seen by Russia’s elites as a mistake that led to the USSR’s collapse—the Kremlin’s current ideal is clear: a heavily centralized Russia, reclaiming its “historical greatness” under the leadership of Putin, the modern tsar, and his loyal entourage.
Russia sees itself as a great power that must expand to survive, a mindset rooted in both Tsarist and Soviet traditions. This manifests in territorial claims—from the 2014 annexation of Crimea to the ongoing aggression in Ukraine, reminiscent of the USSR’s pre-World War II demands on Finland as “historically Russian” territory.
Putin has openly called the Soviet collapse a “geopolitical catastrophe,” and his policies are driven by resentment of the unipolar world of the 1990s, when the West held sway. His notion of “historical rights” to the territories of the former Tsarist empire or Soviet sphere of influence includes places like the Czech Republic.
Russia’s disinformation campaigns, propaganda, and hybrid operations targeting the Czech Republic clearly show that the Kremlin considers our region part of its sphere of interest. Public demands for a return to the pre-1997 international order—before NATO’s expansion to include the Czech Republic—are just one expression of this revanchism.
Old Methods, New Tools
Russia’s methods blend old tactics with modern tools. The physical elimination of opponents—from mysterious “falls from windows” to other dubious suicides—echoes the traditions of the Cheka and NKVD.
A prime example is Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group and a former Putin ally, whose plane exploded in August 2023, two years ago, after his rebellion against the Kremlin.Add to this Russia’s doctrine of “new-generation warfare,” which employs corruption, information wars, cyberattacks, and sabotage as precursors to potential military action.
This fusion of old-school “Russian terror” with modern hybrid tactics makes Russia an unpredictable and dangerous actor.Nor can we ignore the threat of nuclear weapons. Russia’s threshold for their potential use appears lower than the West’s, which, without the U.S., possesses only a fraction of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
Russia consistently positions itself against the West, touting “special Russian conservative values” to legitimize its opposition to the liberal world order.We now live in a multipolar world, where the lines between the West (including the U.S.), Russia, and China are growing sharper—and likely will continue to, even at the cost of hot conflicts like the one raging in Ukraine for over three years.
The danger lies not only in Russian aggression but also in our own reluctance to learn from history. When European politicians flirt with Russophilia, criticize necessary defense spending, or propose referendums on exiting the EU and NATO, they are playing directly into Putin’s imperial dreams.
