Ruscism, also known as Rashism, Russism, or Russian fascism, is a term used by a number of scholars, politicians and publicists to describe the political ideology and the social practices of the Russian state in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, especially during the rule of Vladimir Putin. "Ruscism" and "Russism" are portmanteaus which combine the words 'Russian' and 'fascism'; "Rashism" is a rough transcription of the Russian and Ukrainian equivalents (also a portmanteau). It is also used in reference to the ideology of Russian military expansionism, and has been used as a label to describe an undemocratic system and nationality cult mixed with ultranationalism and a cult of personality. That transformation was described as based on the ideas of the "special civilizational mission" of the Russians, such as Moscow as the third Rome and expansionism, which manifests itself in anti-Westernism and supports regaining former lands by conquest. The term "Rashist" is also widely used by Ukrainian officials and media to more generally identify members of the Russian Armed Forces and supporters of Russian military aggression against Ukraine.
The modern use of the term can be traced back to 1995, when it was used in the context of the First Chechen War, but the use of it became more common after the Russo-Georgian and Russo-Ukrainian wars and most recently, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Etymology and terminology
Ruscism and Rashism are both attempts to transliterate the Ukrainian and Russian terms (rashizm, ), a multilingual portmanteau of "Russia" and "fascism." According to Timothy D. Snyder, the word is complex, reflecting and referencing pronunciations of words in English, Ukrainian and Russian.
History of the use of the term
Chechen wars
The term was, in the form Russism or Ruscism () popularized, described and extensively used in 1995 by President of the unrecognised Chechen state Ichkeria Dzhokhar Dudayev, who saw the military action by Russia in Chechnya as a manifestation of the rising far-right ideology. According to Dudayev, Ruscism is Dudayev is believed to have borrowed the term from either the works of the Russian revolutionary and philosopher Aleksandr Herzen or Russian philosopher and diplomat Konstantin Leontiev.
After Dudaev's death the term continued to be used by the leaders and ideologists of the Chechen rebels, most notably Aslan Maskhadov who as the serving president of Ichkeria named Ruscism the main enemy of Chechnya in a 2004 interview, while the Chechen news website Kavkaz Center featured a regular column titled "Russism", in which around 150 articles were published between 2003 and 2016.
Russo-Georgian and Russo-Ukrainian wars
The term Ruscism/Rashism (, ) became increasingly common in informal circles in 2008, during the Russo-Georgian War. It was used in Ukrainian media after the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula by the Russian Federation, the downing of a Boeing 777 near Donetsk on 17 July 2014, and the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014. It appears in the Russian-language song "That's, Baby, Ruscism! Orthodox Fascism!]" by Ukrainian composer and singer-songwriter .
The Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on Humanitarian and Information Policy supports the initiative of Ukrainian scientists, journalists, political scientists and all civil society to promote and recognize the term "Ruscism" at the national and international levels.
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
By 2022 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the terms Rashyzm and Rashyst had come into common usage among military and political elites of Ukraine, as well as by journalists, influencers, bloggers and others. For example, Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, actively advocates the use of the word in the meaning of Vladimir Putin's fascism to describe Russia's aggression against Ukraine. He also stated that Ruscism is much worse than fascism.
On 23 April 2022, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that a new concept called "Ruscism" will be in history books: